We can work IT out

This post was written for a PD Session

Here are a collection of blogs that you might find interesting. Spend 30 minutes browsing through some of them.

Note that most blog posts aren’t too long – educational bloggers understand that teachers are time poor but do want to do professional reading.

If you find one you like, add a comment below, name the blog and say what you like about it.

Teacher / Subject Blogs

Maths With Mr B link ………. Langwitches link ……….Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day link

Hey Jude link ……….Teacher Lab (Science) link ……….Alison Hall’s Blog (Music) link

Tom Barrett link ……….The Whiteboard Blog link ……….Teaching Challenges link

Professional Blogs

Stories From School link ……….Joanne Jacobs link ……….Classroom 2.0 link

GoogleDocs Blog link ……….The Principal’s Page link ……….The Tempered Radical link

Classroom Blogs

Miller’s English 10 Classroom Blog link ……….Technology In Our Classroom link

Mrs Hossack’s First Graders link ……….Mrs Trefz’s Fifth Grade Blog link ……….The Tillis Tribune link

Look What’s Happening in Room 102 link ……….Piazza Mannino, 23 link

2km Leopold Primary School link ……….Grade 2 link ……….Room 5 At Work link ……….6KF link

Long List of Primary Blogs link ……….English Teaching blogs list link ……….Miss T’s Talented Texans link

Student Blogs

Jamie’s Blog link

Emily’s Blog link

Alexei’s Blog link

Image: Source

During last year there were many times that I wished I had recorded my maths lesson for students to refer to later. Not that they were great lessons, just because it would make for an easy reference for students.

I was also dabbling with ActivStudio (IWB software) and made a few flipcharts for the class. But not having daily access to a classroom with an IWB, I didn’t get that far.

This year it is looking likely that I can access a room with a class set of computers and an IWB for most of my maths lessons. So, time to get going with the video snippets.

Rather than have a camcorder recording me in front of an IWB or whiteboard, I thought I would use the video function in ActivStudio3 to record the teaching point.

It took me a few goes to get it how I wanted, then I discovered a neat trick. Instead of re-doing the flipchart to record it, I used the undo tool in ActivStudio, then when I got to the right bit, I just kept pressing redo and my objects would instantly appear in the correct place.

Step 1: Create the flipchart, undo some steps and then record the actions you want to teach about, using the video tool. The file is saved as a .mov file (on a mac). Note 2.5 minutes of video = 3.4Gig file.

Step 2: Import the saved movie into iMovie. Use the voiceover to record the audio as the movie is playing. Export as an avi file. File size is now 27.5MB.

Step 3: Use iSquint (freeware) to reduce the file to be suitable for iPod. File is now 3.2MB and can now be uploaded fairly quickly to blog.

If you would like any further details, just ask, or maybe you have a better method you could share?

Photo: source Some rights reserved