Other Virtual Tours...

After viewing others' Google Earth virtual tours, I feel like there is a world of ideas and lessons that I can implicate within my classroom to involve technology, geography, and much more. Mine seems small and insignificant compared to some of the ones I viewed. I also learned that there are so many ways to present the same information in a virtual tour, depending on the media used to enhance it. I saw a few different ways to present a tour on exploring the continents and oceans, as well as a tour on some of the major wonders of the world. I hope to make another soon!

My Google Earth Tour...

My virtual tour on google earth was created with the kindergarten grade level in mind. I created a tour for students to learn about the different locations of many different kinds of bears around the world. Students can view many areas around the world and see pictres, measure distances, jump to links, and learn fun facts about the many different kinds of bears that live around the globe. I would use this to help introduce animals to the students, and how there are so many kinds, and they live in so many different places. From there we could look into other kinds of animals and locate where they live around the world. In this way children are learning not only about an animal and facts about it, but also about how spread out they are throughout the world.

7th Week Reflections on Google Earth!

Here is a link to the kmz file that I had to locate. It is on the locations of polar bears, that can be tracked and seen through google earth.
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/what_we_do/arctic/polar_bear/about/tracking/googleearth_pbt/index.cfm
There are many ways that this can be used in teaching, but I particularly want to use this kmz file in helping me to create my google earth tour for next week's class. I plan on having the tour be for kindergartners, where they can observe and compare the different locations of a type of animal (bears) around the world. In this way I can still meet the core standards for Kindergartners, and find ways to implement google earth within the classroom.
This week I also learned a great deal about google earth. I've never used it before, so everything is new to me!!! I learned how to "fly to" any location, and even tried going to my home in Washington state. I leaned how to navigate around google earth, and to use different labels and tools to enhance the experience, like having photos, links, national geographic articles and pictures, and even making the buildings 3-D. It was so awesome!!!I love it!

Week 6 Reflections...

After viewing three other different digital storytelling videos, I feel that there is so much more that I could have done! I didn't even realize the other resources that I could have used to create my digital storybook. There was an ABC rap, a story about being a lion, and even a nursery rhyme illustrated with pictures! It is fun to see also how creative we all can be within this one assignment. I would like to create another storybook, but maybe use different media... like videos, pictures that I have actually taken, and especially music. I also liked the way that many people used their voices to narrate and illustrate what was happening. I felt that mine was a little monotone when narrating my story.
As for different adaptations within the classroom, there are many that I could do in order to teach a kindergarten or first grade class. I could first of all, show the video a few times, so that the grade level would get used to it, and maybe sing or say the words along with the video. I could also make a digital storytelling book with the words written accross the bottom of the screen as they are being said so that the students can get used to reading and hearing these words said. Since this is a much younger age group, I would also find digital storybooks or create ones that have more visuals with words, and even ryhmes, so that I can increase phonemic awareness within this age group and help encourage them to read and understand more.

My New Video!!!

This is my new video, "At History I'm Hopeless" a narrated poem by Kenn Nesbitt. It was so much fun to make, although I don't necessarily like to hear my voice narrating the poem :)

Week 5 Reflection

This reflection is late, but I do have a lot to say about what I have learned about making a storyboard... There is so much involved, but I feel that there is much that I can do in my classrooms by making these... I did find some great websites with information and pictures where I can use these later on, for other things. Some of these include clipart and music. The biggest problem that I had was in finding out what I was supposed to do... There were exampes from Moodle, but I could not access them on my computer... It kept shutting down on me for some reason. So, here it is, and I now understand a lot more, and can't wait to make my movie!!! :)

My Storyboard for "At History I'm Hopeless"

Here is my Storyboard for the poem "At History I'm Hopeless" by Kenn Nesbit. It is late due to so many problems and troubles with understanding and trying to figure out what I am supposed to do... But, here it is! :)