Blogging in the Classroom

The following infographic by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano will be helpful when I incorporated blogging into my classroom.

27 Ways To Be An Effective Classroom Teacher

In the following infographic, Mia MacMeekin provides some great ideas to take into consideration for the "new" school year.

Hollywood, Here I Come!

I developed this introduction video to the Divergent Booktrailer made by HarperTeen using Movie Maker. I used this video to show students how they can use Movie Maker for their video project.



I developed the above video using Power Point. The media used is similar to the ones used in the Movie Maker video; however, the transitions are different.


My Introduction to the Booktrailer Divergent using VoiceThread.

Tech Tools of the Month

Custom Calendar.pdf

It's Greek to Me

As I was talking with an English teacher, I discovered that she would soon teach a unit on the Odyssey. I quickly remembered that there is an Odyssey Google Lit Trip. Google Lit Trips are designed "to help students gain a better understanding of the stories they read through mapping." Students become travel companions of the characters in the story. Teacher can design Lit Trips as a teaching tool to  include "pop-up" windows of pictures, additional information, assignments, assessments, and links. A great assignment would be for students to develop an Lit Trip independently or collaboratively with other students and teacher. Before mentioning this wonderful program to the English teacher, I wanted to make sure I knew how to properly use Google Earth, which powers Google Lit Trips.
The words that came to mind during my first time at the controls of Google Earth were "How do you fly this thing?"  "It's Greek to Me," said Homer. That's Homer Simpson, mind you, not Homer the author of the Odyssey. I shook my head because my imagination had gone into overdrive. Needless to say,  I could possibly make the travelers air sick. Like any good pilot, I took flying lessons. With YouTube as my flight instructor and simulator, I got the hang of  navigating a "trip," and I created one of my own.

(Note: Embedding a Google Tour is a beast of another color. See this Youtube video for instructions.)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0958sW2mT4

Lit Trip: Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers


Here is a video on how to create a Lit Trip using Google Earth.


GLT Overview: Animation Demo from GoogleLitTrips on Vimeo.



If you are not motivated to try your hand at Google Lit Trip, perhaps this video will do the trick.


Frankenstein from GoogleLitTrips on Vimeo.

I am a Super Star and You Can Be One Too!

I can make you famous. Well...not really, but I know a video program that can. Come on now. Everyone wants to be a superstar, right? That's the reason we have so many reality shows.   Seriously, goAnimate will elevate you from just a "classroom teacher" to Superstar Teacher with the bright red cape. More importantly, this video animation program encourages student engagement, creativity, personalized learning and critical thinking. It is ranked at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy Digital Tools list. Here are ways goAminate can be used in the classroom according to the Teacher Tools to Unleash Creativity website:

1. Teachers can use this as a way to present instructions for a lesson or a unit.
2. Have your students re-create a scene from the text or rewrite and ending of a story.
3. The students can reflect on a personal experience, personal narrative, or belief statement.
4. Use it as a way to remind students of homework and upcoming assignments at the end of the class period.
5. Characters can be created to persuade the class to do the right thing, such as to eat healthy and exercise.
6. Students can create a television commercial for a product.
7. This tool can be used to create a news broadcast for current events or historical events in a social studies class.
8. This tool can be used to teach dialogue between two people.
9. It could be used to teach movie making skills in a video productions or digital communications class.

These videos can be embedded in Powerpoint, Blogs, Websites, etc. To learn more about this fantastic program, you may visit this website:http://goanimate4schools.com/public_index. Remember you are a superstar in your own right because you are an educator, one of the most selfless and caring profession in the world. Take a bow!

Below is my goAnimate on Professional Learning Networks.
Intro. PLN by elllingtonr on GoAnimate

Can it get any easier?

The Padagogy Wheel created by Allan Carrington depicts Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and technology integration. The model can be used to help integrate technology into classroom lessons. Here is a link to an introduction video of the Padagogy Wheel:  http://youtu.be/RAYVQlUVpK4.