Want to add a bit more interactivity with your Blog? Maybe get some feedback on an interesting topic. Why not add a POLL! We have added the WP-Poll plugin for all SD41 Blog users, and its very easy to use. Please email me at Lucky.Saini@sd41.bc.ca to have it activated. I have created a tutorial…
Category: Learning Teams & Series
Kurzweil 3000 – Session 3 Writing on the Calendar
This third session of Kurzweil 3000, which deals with writing supports has been rescheduled on the Staff Development Calendar to Wednesday February 23 (3:30-5:30) at Schou – TLC. Questions such as “How can Kurzweil support students who find written output challenging? What about the writers workshop process of braining, organizing, and drafting?” For more…
Digital Writing – Digital Teaching – Session 1
Digital Writing is… Session One (February 9, 2011): “If we engage students in real writing tasks and we use technology in such a way that it complements their innate need to find purposes and audiences for their work, we can have them engaged in a digital writing process that focuses first on the writer, then…
Powerful Messages Come Alive with Stop Motion Animation
Everyone has a story. The challenge is choosing how to bring it to life and who to share it with. Our Learning Series on Stop Motion Animation started today. Besides the technical “how to’s”, we discussed how to create voice, mood and motion. For example, what role does background music play in setting the tone,…
Words Their Way – Shedding Light on Process
Words Their Way is a program that offers a developmental curriculum for phonics/spelling instruction, reading fluency and vocabulary development. The hands-on activities engage students as they actively categorize their ‘word sorts’ and the assessment inventory provides a clear indicator of where each student is in the process of word development. We’ve been working with a…
Words Their Way – Making Connections…Session1
Today we started our first of 4 learning sessions on Words Their Way, by Invernizzi, Bear, Templeton and Johnston. In a nutshell, the program provides a developmental curriculum for phonics/spelling instruction, while also promoting reading fluency and vocabulary development. Its hands-on approach marries well with what we know about how the brain uses categories to…
Writers Workshop Learning Series #3 – Mini Lessons
Once again we gathered as a group to explore the writing process. Some things we tackled this time: how to create colour coded folders and move our google documents into those folders (AAAhh, you can just feel the sigh of relief with this organizational structure) how to use the revision history as a way to…
Writer's Workshop Learning Series – Session 2
This second session took us deeper into using Writer’s Workshop process with Google.Docs. Judi Mathot emphasized that it is important to keep the mini lesson specific and allow time for students to share their samples to the class. This teacher community is now using Google.Docs to develop their plans and give feedback to each other. Google.docs has its nuances…
Kurzweil #2: Annotating – Making Thinking Visible
When you read anything, many things happen in your head that nobody notices. But good readers know and can identify these things. Sometimes we call them “movies in our head, thinking abouts, connections, questions or just plain wonders…”. The Study Skills toolbar in Kurzweil 3000 allows great flexibility in making this thinking visible so we…
Graphical Novel Planning Form
Here is a simple document to help you get started with the graphica unit. Graphic Novel Planning Form
Writers Workshop Learning Series – Session 1
This first session reviewed some of the basic tenets of Writers Workshop process. Much of the details came from Nancy Atwell’s work. We looked at the importance of setting purpose and identifying what is important to write about. We all have stories to tell. Consider the following: What I write about (topic) Who I write…
Avatars
Avatar is a computer user’s representation of himself/herself or alter ego whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games or a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other Blog communities. Here are some Kid Friendly sites that students can use to create avatars that may be displayed in your…
Blogs – "So What…?"
Faye Brownlie’s quote from “Learning For All” presentation… “Literacy is about more than reading or writing – it is about how we communicate in society. It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language, and culture”. ‘Those who use literacy take it for granted – but those who cannot use it are excluded from…
Graphica ~ Deconstructing Visual Elements
The following files represent a variety of panels and bubble used in different graphic novels. These may be used to project on the screen to deconstruct visual elements of a graphic novel. Graphica Mixed Panels – 2 Page Layout Graphica Wide Gutter Panels Sample Graphica Sequence Panels Deconstruction Teaching…
SCIT Year 1 – Image Challenge Activity
Homework Challenge Activity for November 18, 2010 Your SCIT challenge will be to take an aspect or program feature from the Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This may include ONE of the following topics: How to export files from one format to another How to rename a batch load of pictures How to crop pictures How to compress pictures You may…
Graphica – Learning Series – Challenge Activity 1
Homework for October 25, 2010 Please read one graphica novel and be prepared to book talk next session. Complete a Comic Life page. Show what a typical day looks like for you? Use only “Onomatapoeia”. View Francine’s example for hints.
Kurzweil – Take Next Steps Session – Tues. Oct. 25
These are the handouts for the Kurzweil 3000 Refresher session. Writing Support Writing Support Practice/Play From Previous Sessions: Implementation Process Reference basics v11
Teach-nology Camp
How was it?!! The Learning Technologies Team would like to thank you all for participating in the camp. Our example of using stop motion animation to create a message could be applicable to developing any type of story. We hope that you have increased your comfort level in using cameras, movie maker, and file management techniques in developing the …
Blogs – Learning Series – Challenge #2
Here is your homework for Oct 20th: Challenge Activity #2: To get a feel for how your blog will act in posts, please create a few posts and create categories (logical words meaningful to you) to organize them. (Some examples may be homework, events, news of the day, questions to ponder, questions to launch a…