Blog Problems

I decided last night to create a blog for my classroom. After creating a beautiful blog, I was told today that I cannot use it at my school. The administration does not like the idea of students having access to e-mail accounts. So, does anyone have any suggestions for how I could use the blog without my students having to have e-mail to make comments. I think it would be okay if they didn't have to have e-mail. Anyway, Just wondering?

Where do I go from here?

As I stated in previous blogs, I hope to implement many of the new technologies in my classroom. Each technology introduced can be integrated into all aspects of the classroom.

I will definitely use a Blog in my classroom this year. I hope to create a blog that both my parents and students will be able to use. I would like to have a blog where I could update my parents about things that are occurring in the classroom. Parents might also want to use the blog to contact me if they are having difficulty understanding a topic/subject. I would like my students to possibly blog about books they are reading and maybe even to post their writing. I guess I am now wondering if I would need to create two separate blogs in order to carry this out.

The technology I am most excited to use is digital text and video. As I made my e-book I constantly thought about what a great motivator it would be for writing. My 4th graders get very bogged down in the formula writing that we are told to use in the 4th grade. Creating an E-book would allow my students to work on writing, reading, speaking, and technology skills. I hope to partner with a 1st grade teacher that my students could create books for. I also hope to use E-Books to create a digital yearbook for my classroom. Students could easily take pictures of important class events and incorporate them into a digital text/movie.

Moreover, I am also excited about using the gaggle e-mail site. Over the past few years I have been told that my students cannot have e-mail addresses. After viewing gaggle and its features, I do believe that my principal/central office will allow my students to have e-mail. The ability of the teacher to have access to all mail sent and received will be wonderful.
Finally, I had a lot of fun using Yak Pak, Skype, and Gabcast in our class. Although it was fun, I do not foresee using this technology as much in my own classroom. Much explanation would need to be given before implementing any of these technologies. If I have time I may use Skype as a way to conference with students about books.

In conclusion, I have gained a lot of knowledge from this class. I came into this class thinking that I was pretty competent with computers and technology. I left knowing a ton more than I started with. Super Class!

Movie Maker

Bonnie and I created a movie about my dog Rusty's trip to the vet. Bonnie will use the movie to show her Kindergartners the steps a dog must go through on a vet visit. I will show the movie to my 4th graders to prove to them that you can take ordinary events and create a movie from them. I can definitely see using this type of technology in my classroom. I feel that my students are old enough that they could actually make movies on their own. It would be fun to allow older students to create movie books for younger students. The biggest problem would be obtaining all of the resources you would need in order to complete the project: video cameras, software, cables, etc.
Creating the movie was a great experience.