Paper Slide or Pantomine Videos

January 2013? We are more than half way through the month and I think I have been writing 2012 still. Well I hope my dear reader that you are more focused than I am. I am gearing up for 2 conferences, TCEA (Texas Computer Educators) and TMEA (Texas Music Educators). TCEA will be in Austin, Texas and I have the pleasure of presenting 3 sessions with my good friend Carol Mayo. They are all 3 hour hands on sessions and we are very excited. Monday, February 4, we will be presenting Weebly, Tuesday the 5th will be Animoto and then finally on Thursday will be Paper Slide videos. Which brings me to my post today.

I knew I had written about Paper Slide videos once before so I went back to look at the post. Not much to say was there? I was disappointed that the video from our teacher tech camp would not play and I have tried fixing it to no avail. Recently, however, I used PSV (Paper Slide Videos) with one of my music classes. I introduced the concept to an 8th grade class, gave them the song they were going to use and let them at it. The song, by the way, was chosen because I knew they had just finished studying this in their science class. I gave them one class period to complete the pictures and to film.
The next week I had them take the same song and they had to pantomime the words. Lots of fun and they did a great job. They were very willing and I enjoyed watching them come up with their ideas. This link will take you to my classroom page where you can view both the PSV and the pantomime version.

An idea like PSV or pantomime really is quite easy to do with students. I did very little prep with them other than showing them an example of other students' work. I supplied them with paper and markers and their section of the song. I do think that any PSV should be relatively short in length, a few minutes at most.

So I reccommend to you to not be afraid and try it with your kids. There are many examples out on youtube so no matter what subject you teach you should be able to find an example. It does not have to be song like I did but have your students explain a concept they have just learned. Diagram a sentence, do a math problem, create a "how to" video, so many things you can do!

Here is quick (and kind of lame) PSV about PSV!

Paper Slide Video about Paper Slide Videos! from MKuterbach on Vimeo.

2012 to 2013

December is always a crazy month for me. If you have read my profile, you will notice that I am a music teacher so December naturally has a holiday program. It definitely consumes most of my energy! I haven't been totally absent from my tech world so I had to get in one last post before the year ends. This post does not come necessarily from an educational search but it does have classroom applications also.

I was looking for a way to send a video message that my elderly mother could open and see without actually downloading a video. I also wanted it to be private and most of all FREE. I did a little looking around and of course one of my first searches for great web tools is with Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers. I am always forever grateful to people like him who take the time and energy to do extensive research on web tools. I trust the sites he recommends and his thoughts on classroom applications.

My search led me to Kincast. Yeah, his post was over a year ago, but I didn't need something like this a year ago! And yes, like most web 2.0 tools, I believe they have changed since Mr. Byrne first wrote about them. However, Kincast offers a way to upload or record directly videos of any size that you can share privately. For my purposes, which is to share videos with family, this is perfect. The free version gives you unlimited sharing and 30 minutes of cloud storage. There are paid versions, monthly and yearly,  that offer more storage and other options. People that you share with do not need an account or password to view your videos (again I needed EASY for my mother) and only need to click on a link in their email.

File size for uploading is 4GB per video. In the free version, once you hit the 30 min limit, they will ask you if you want to upgrade. If you choose to stay on the free version, they will delete your oldest videos to make room for your new one. You can also delete videos whenever you want. Kincast has a great HELP page with FAQs.

For the classroom, Kincast could be an easy way for teachers to share student videos privately with their parents. Even though the site is private, please note that the site is not intended for use by anyone under age 13 and their privacy policy states that you must be 18 to create an account. This is an important factor for teachers and I remind you to always check the privacy policies of websites if you intend to use them with your students. You should also be aware of your school district's internet policies.

Happy New Year!

Missing November and Differentiantor, Respondo! and Byrdseed

Oops- looks like I missed November all together. Well my new job has been slightly demanding. I had a performance with third and fourth graders on November 16th, which went quite well I might add, and I have another coming up for Christmas on the 11th of December. Needless to say I have been extra busy and it seems to be consuming a lot of my time. I know, excuses, excuses. What can I say? I'm really not a slacker ☺

So I had created a Google site to help my new staff find some easy ways to integrate technology and to learn some tech tips. They haven't had much at this school although there are some teachers who are all over it and want more and more. I was looking for sites for integrating technology in the literature classroom and came across an interesting site called the Differentiator. The initial site I got this link from was Web English Teacher, a site I will need to return to on my quest for literature and technology links. Moving on-

Differentiator comes from a site call Byrdseed. Differntiator helps you re-evaluate and re-design assessments. It is a great tool and you really need to see it and try it to fully understand how it works. When you first go to the site you will see an example that once you click on it you will be given option to edit with the categories of Thinking Skill, Content, Resources and Product. Playing around I came up with this one:
Students will define the rules of composition using a website and create a chart in groups of two.
Not really the best example but I just wanted to see what I could do.

And since we are on a site linked from Byrdseed, we ought to look at Respondo! while we are at it.
With a similar looking front page, users click to edit and give your students a creative literature response question. Again, I think it is a nice tool that will get you thinking about some fresh ways of looking at things.

Byrdseed, by the way, is a "place dedicated to differentiating instruction for high level learners". Many of the ideas are not necessarily technology integrated but hands-on activities. There are some wonderful ideas that are worth your time exploring if you are looking for new ways to engage your students.

WatchKnowLearn and Reading Bear

Avoiding what I should be doing, I was looking through my reader and Larry Ferlazzo's post about phonics caught my eye. He happens to mention a site called Reading Bear.  I went to view the Reading Bear site and was quite impressed. This is a great resource for teaching phonics. Their site says they have over "1200 vocabulary items and 50 presentations". If you read the About Us section of Reading Bear you will find that this site is completely free and funds are provided by a Memphis area donor who wishes to remain anonymous. I am amazed and truly grateful as a teacher that something like this is out there for teachers and free. You do not have to create an account to use the site. If you choose to do so, you will be able to save scores and progress. Teachers can also make accounts for their students. Excellent site. Do, do, do take a look!

And to top it off.....as I scrolled to the bottom of the page to find out more I saw that it comes from WatchKnowLearn.org. Another WOW for my day! WatchKnowLearn is free educational videos in a very nicely organized way. Music alone has 889 videos. Over 7,000 in the History category. You may have found many of the videos they have listed but to have everything organized all in one place is pretty cool. The videos come from all different sources but are considered kid safe for ages 1 - 18.

Again, this site is done by some very generous people. Generous with time and money and the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to learn. Thank you to these folks and others like them that have made educating others their mission in life. And thank you Larry Ferlazzo who leads me to so many wonderful sites.