Week 5: Creating Material

MICROSOFT PHOTO STORY


In class this week we learned a lot of new things that could be applied in daily life as well as transitioning it into the classroom. The professor first introduced us to Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows XP--Where you can easily put music and text and even create your own a birthday or wedding albums. This can be used in the class because if we go on a fieldtrip or have photos from a concert they can be posted on there for everyone to see at thier leisure.


D-FILM MOVIE MAKER http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html


The professor then moved on to introduce us to the D-Film Movie Maker 2 now known as D-volver where you can create you very own, exciting digital films. However the characters suupplied can be a little inapppropriate to bring in the classroom, he still recommened this program but only for adults.
The program was very simple to use and the instructions where the following: select background, (next) sceen, (next) characters (next) type in text and select music (16 types of music to choose from) and then finally, send the finished film to your email.
D-flim movie makeker is great for the following 5 reasons there is context, there is dialogue and text, music, backgroud, sceens, which are all great for children however, again as mentioned above for this particular website the content and characters are not appropriate for primary schools because we do not want to re-inforce sterotypes, and in particular the sterotypes of women.


Here is my film check it out:


It about two cowboys in the desert    <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="285" width="381" align="middle"




BUILD YOU WILD SELF  http://www.buildyourwildself.com/


I really enjoyed being introduced to this website because it is centered around imagination. You can select youself or build a character. You can select they type of body, hair, mouth you/they have. You can also select different backgrounds, make up a name and a story about the character. .It is so great because a teacher can use this in order to get the students to create fairytale characters and use thier imagination.
Once completed children can send them to each other via email. The teacher can use this in English to write about a character and bring thier character to life. The children can print them out and create their storybook. This can also be utilized for health and human relations and to demonstate a good body image for the children.
Within this website the teacher can be as explicit or implicit as they wish. For example you can specific about the characters, the characters are different but the background is the same.


Here is my wild self:

ZIMMERTWINS http://www.zimmertwins.com/


With this website students can watch a previously created movie or make a movie from scratch. They can be creative by setting up scenarios.  They determine what happens next and can choose the music and the characters. The website is very easy to use and students can learn to re-tell their story. When you create the movie however, do not forget click speech bubbles to type words in.
I think this website ideally suites children and can be a creative way to address classroom issues like bullying because students can come up with scenarios to act against the issue and then share with the class.


This is what my video looked like:

THE MINI-MIZER http://www.reasonablyclever.com/


With this website students can create a maple leave world with lego. It can be used in English or Technology class to create a class story about anything and any subject. It was very straightforward to use and as the teacher you must be clear with your instructions to make sure they do not veer off to any other websites. The instructions are as follows: go to the website and click classic kid-sake mini-mizer and create your mini-mizer, choose the theme and build up the character with a background, what it wears, etc...


Here is my mini-mizer:

SKETCH SWAP http://www.sketchswap.com/ 


This program is similar to Microsoft paint where you can draw a picture using your mouse. Students can be very creative and this program can be used in Art, English or Technology class.It gives students a chance to be creative and then swap thier pictures with someone else. You simply just draw your picture and then press the swap button at the bottom right of the screen. I really enjoyed this website and I think my students would as well, however, the professor mentioned that this can be on the dangerous side because the teachers can't control what pictures are swapped. An incriminating picture could come back to the students and as the teacher you may not want to take that risk.


This is my picture:

This is the picture that was swapped with mine:

MICROSOFT WORD/ZIPTALES http://www.ziptales.com/ 


Microsoft Word: Practice listening skills by dictating a paragraph and students have to type the paragraph with the screen off to utilize their listening skills and strengthen their typing skills as well. Get the students to turn on their screens and then go through the paragraph again to make sure the spelling and punctuation was correct! Students should also highlight their mistakes and try and correct what they did wrong.
This is effective because the English language is a difficult language and many words sound the same but are spelled differently and through listening and typing these distinctions can be more easily made. This activity can also be extended by using ZIPTALES where students can read over 100 books online. Once they have read the book, students can participate by doing activities and tests! 
The school must have a subscription but it is great because students can change and write their own stories. The teacher can give them a time limit  to write and then they have to rotate around with each other and the next student continues the story that was written from their classmate. This activity can capture the interests of the students that are reluctant readers. Students will start to increase their vocabulary because they will have to research what kind of words they want to use. This program uses the how and why's to help improve students reading and interpretation skills.




REFLECTION


When I first started blogging, only a month ago, I had no idea where to start. But through the professor's guidance and my persistence this became quite easy and fun to do. Now that the blogging has come to a close and our practicum fastly approaching I am excited to start to use what I have learned in this class. I am excited to show my students what can be done using a computer. To show them that we can be creative in all sorts of ways, including on the computer. This course has  taught me many things and I am excited to use them all. Thank you so much!!!