Creating Positive Digital Footprints through Class Blogging Challenge
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Our second challenge in the Edublogs Student Challenge is about creating online identities and leaving quality comments on other blogs.
Avatars and comments go together because when the avatar is uploaded to the user's name, it shows when the making comments.
Activity 1: Create our Class Avatar Slideshow
Part 1: Make an Avatar
Each individual will create an avatar using the options I have listed below. Avatars are digital representations of yourself. Decide what you like the best, and what represents your personality or traits.
This one is based off of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Again, no log in is needed. It gives you a link to what you've created. However, I still used the print screen to save it.
This one is quick to make. If my daughter made it her way, my eyes would be hearts.
This one was like creating my Wii avatar. When I was done, I chose the "export" option. I remembered to resize it as smaller, and zoomed it to fit, then saved it as a jpeg to my computer.
If you like Harry Potter, then now's your chance to create your own variation of a Harry Potter character. After creating my "Harry Potter" avatar, I saved it as a GIF image. I then had to reformat to a jpeg.
Management of this task:
If our students want to save anything they create, it must be in "the cloud" (Google Apps). Therefore, this takes a little more time. I gave the kids 5 - 10 minutes of free time to explore which avatar they wanted to create.
By the end of 10 minutes, we saved their avatar by clicking print screen, then we reshaped it and saved it as a jpeg. We emailed it to me to save. If there was extra time, the student also saved it in Google Apps.
Part 2: Class Avatar Slideshow
After we create our avatars, we'll create a slideshow. Based on student recommendations from Mrs. Martinez's class, you should view this example from Global SPUDS placed in Animoto.
Management Tip:
Throughout the day, I'd grab the jpegs from my email, resize when needed, and save it to my hard drive. Then, I'd upload them into the Animoto.
Tracy, Nice blog! My classes are doing the blogging challenge now too. I like how you put their avatars into an Animoto. I may consider that, since we can't seem to get student avatars loaded properly as their blog comment avatars.
Thanks Denise! I got the idea from Global SPUDS blog. I love your blog and went to your Diigo site as well. Thanks for all you do. I look forward to learning with you! Kind regards, Tracy
Thank you for such a great list of resources! I've been blogging with my students for almost 5 years, now - but this will be the first year I have them create their own avatar, and their own blogs!
You've gotten me off to a great start :)
Check out our blog! http://blogs.falmouth.k12.ma.us/simplysuzy/
Thanks for commenting! I've only blogged with one group of students, but they were a rather large and diverse group. One of their favorite things was creating their avatars. So glad to hear you will give it a try, in addition to their own blogs!
Your blog looks fabulous! I'll have to get some of the third grades in our district to visit your blog.
1) Choose "Comment As" first. If you don't have a Google/Blogger account, you can choose Name/URL and type in your name, then place the web site that best describes you in the URL (i.e. www.ajusd.org). Or, you can choose "Anonymous".
2) You may need to press "Post Comment" more than one time.
It is always wise to copy your comment before pressing "Post Comment" just in case something happens.
3) Type in the word verification.
4) If you did everything correctly, it will state, "Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval." If you do not get that message, please try again.
Silvia Tolisano (@langwitches) challenges us in a meme to audit blogs and comments to raise awareness of quality blogging. I'm honored that both Kathleen Morris and Sheri Edwards tagged me in this meme. Here is Silvia's meme challenge : Select a blog post or blog comment to audit (Professional or Student) Take a screenshot or copy and paste the post or comment into your blog post (be sensitive whether you want to reveal any names or references) Include or link to the rubric you use to assess the quality of post or comment Audit the post or comment by describing your train of thought regarding the level of quality you would assess your chosen post or comment Suggest how you would coach the author of audited post or comment to improve Tag (at least) three educators and challenge them to audit a post or comment Leave a comment with the link to your audit post on Langwitches Quality blog posts I created a few variations of checklists as guides for qu
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What type of thinking does the Common Core ask of students when it comes to Craft and Structure? Analysis. Analyzing the author's craft and structure is a shift for students to do, and a shift for teachers to design tasks and questions that require analysis. This is the critical thinking we want students to engage in. Shifts The big shift in this is the analysis. What does that look like at the elementary level? How do you teach Craft and Structure? There are many ways to teach craft and structure . Make sure students are analyzing the text , not just identifying the answers . Craft structure close read questions from tracywatanabe Every spring, our school district uses Title IIa funds to pay teachers to attend training. This year, our Spring Academy focuses on various aspects of Common Core... and teaching Craft and Structure is one of the sessions. I was charged with creating a training module for the K-6 sessions. Training Document:
Tracy,
ReplyDeleteNice blog! My classes are doing the blogging challenge now too. I like how you put their avatars into an Animoto. I may consider that, since we can't seem to get student avatars loaded properly as their blog comment avatars.
Nice job and thanks for the Twitter follow, too.
Regards,
Denise
Thanks Denise!
ReplyDeleteI got the idea from Global SPUDS blog.
I love your blog and went to your Diigo site as well. Thanks for all you do. I look forward to learning with you!
Kind regards,
Tracy
Thank you for such a great list of resources! I've been blogging with my students for almost 5 years, now - but this will be the first year I have them create their own avatar, and their own blogs!
ReplyDeleteYou've gotten me off to a great start :)
Check out our blog!
http://blogs.falmouth.k12.ma.us/simplysuzy/
Hi Suzy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! I've only blogged with one group of students, but they were a rather large and diverse group. One of their favorite things was creating their avatars. So glad to hear you will give it a try, in addition to their own blogs!
Your blog looks fabulous! I'll have to get some of the third grades in our district to visit your blog.
Kind regards,
Tracy