Like my exploration of youtube, I think I got a bit carried away by all the fun you can have viewing videos and playing games. I am a vocabulary nerd and got lost a while in vocabulary.com. I had to wake up and say, "Wait, I need to finish my homework!" Most of my teaching journey has been in the high school English classroom. I could do so much with so many tools on this blog; my problem would be not overwhelming myself or my students with projects. Here are the highlights of my tour through the blog:
Drawing Applications for Smart Boards: I am a bit old school when it comes to teaching grammar. I like diagramming sentences. These apps are interactive. I could have students diagram sentences or contribute their ideas of how the sentences could be diagrammed. I also like adding color and pictures to vocabulary words to help students remember definitions. Drawing apps mean I could have students working in pairs on drawing various vocabulary words then sharing their drawings with the whole class.
Make a comic sites: On the Byrne blog, I found several great sites where students can create their own cartoons. I think creating a comic strip recapping the major events.in a book would make an great book report option for students, particularly the artistic types. I could use this tool to create a fun visual add to teach plot development in short story. That's just a couple ideas.
Vocabulary.com: I think this might rival my solitaire app as my new electronic addiction. I moonlight as a freelance writer so I am a word nerd. This site is great vocabulary practice for the ACT or SAT test. I could see myself blogging about this in a classroom blog or sending out to parents in a email as a suggestion. You can log into this application using your facebook page. You could also have vocabulary.com linked to a classroom facebook page. Great site!
Video Creations for the Classroom: This post features a slideshow outlining all the ways you can make classroom videos online. Of course, these sites would offer me options to create videos that fit into the lessons in my curriculum . In addition, students studying a play or novel could create documentaries about various aspects of a novel or play. Another idea would be to have students create biographies of authors in a unit. These projects would give the English teacher an opportunity to teach students about copyright, fair use, and creative commons. English teachers should lead the way in helping to prevent online plagiarism
A class blog would be obviously very valuable in the English classroom. I would use it to publish the best of my students writing. Students would pick the best of their writing from perhaps a quarter. They would need to polish that piece making sure grammar and spelling were perfect. Parents and other family members would have access to the blog so that they could see what their kids have been writing. Over the four quarters, parents could see how their children are progressing in writing. Students would be provided with an audience for their writing that is meaningful to them and an audience that would motivate them to do their best work!
Excellent post. It is evident you spend quite a bit of time exploring the resources on this. I like your ideas for blogging in the English classroom. Students could have their own blogs and be published authors! Love it!
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