What Makes a Museum Academy Star Student?...A 1st Grade Digital Story

Before reading on...know that this is a COMPLETE work in progress and I have lots of work to be done on my digital story. So far, I have audio recorded my students reading their writing, placed a song in the background and played around with the volume a bit. So far...it's a little tricky.

I started this digital story hoping to remind my students what the four pillars of our school (respect, responsibility, kindness, and safety) stand for. They have been going through what I like to call the "Mopey March-es", that time of the school year where they forget some of the rules they need to follow and start bickering with each other over pretty much anything and everything.  As a teacher who spent a good majority of the first weeks of school laying the ground rules for the classroom I found myself getting frustrated when students were forgetting how to act towards one another. I think this project will be a good reminder to my students as to what they should and should not do in the school to act like a "Star Student". I can't wait to finish the video and play it for them!

Teaching Children the Importance of Communicating in Multimedia Environments

As Troy Hicks mentions in his book, "There is no question that students are influenced by a variety of variety of texts that they encounter in the world, and learning how to compose in multimedia environments is a critical skill, and not just because the curriculum says it is." (Hicks, 2009, p. 59) Students are constantly surrounded and often inundated with a vast array of helpful (and sometimes not so helpful) technologies.  In this new generation waiting for a dial up, looking through a dictionary, and call someone from a pay phone are all out of date activities. Kids have the world at their fingertips when they turn on their Smartphones, iPADs, laptops, and E-Readers. So it is only right that they learn how to compose themselves and express their thoughts in an appropriate manner. Something that I worry about is that many children do not have the notion to think about once they publish something on the internet it is there forever and can be seen by anyone and everyone. 

Who's responsibility is it to teach these students how to communicate in this growing technological world? Parents? Teachers? Peers?

Hicks suggests that students take their own photos for digital stories and recommends using photo sharing sites such as Flickr. I think these are wonderful suggestions...but I have some hesitations. With safety being a concern should children be posting their own photos in digital stories? Again, who should be the deciding factor in this? Parents, teachers, or maybe someone else?

Read Across America

I know it may be a few days late...but you can always celebrate reading...right?! There are so many amazing activities and resources to use when thinking of celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. A great resource I found was the Teacher's Net Gazette where they depicted how to incorporate Dr. Seuss not only in reading but across the curriculum (i.e., math, science, reading, etc.).

This year my school put on a little assembly for the students where Cat in the Hat himself made an appearance! He read Green Eggs and Ham to the students and they loved it! If you're looking for useful resources and ideas to celebrate next years Read Across America Day at your school check out this link. Judy compiles the best variety of resources from reading activities to fun apps to use on your iPAD, as well as gives you a short history on Read Across America and how it was started.

I have to admit I should have used more technology to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday...I went the old fashioned route and read a story to the kids. Did you do anything special to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday as well as Read Across America?