Reflection

I’ve followed different kinds of blogs for several years now and have been inspired (one too many times) to do something a blogger has shared, like read a new book or redecorate my kitchen. I love the concept of being able to share and interact with others through a blog, but I never really thought of myself as a blogger. 

Creating Screencasts

A screencast is a digital recording of a computer screen and is usually narrated. It is used to explain a process as it is being done on a computer. These can be used for a variety of uses, especially in education. As with podcast, these add a visual of the process or topic being taught. You can use them to explain a concept, a process, as a tutorial. Students can also create their own screencast as a form of assessment. Screencasting is simple and fun, they can last a few minutes or longer.

Videos & QR Codes in the Library

So it’s mid-July and we’re just one month shy from returning to our classrooms.  As I’m preparing for this new and exciting school year I started working on book trailers for some of the books we’ll be reading in class this year. Last year my students read Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. I could not believe how much students wanted to read the book; every day they begged to read it. I plan to start off the year with this novel and created a trailer using Animoto.com. I will let my students access the trailer through QR Codes. I love QR Codes and use them religiously for instructions, questions, photos, quizzes, etc. I swear that my students get so excited to scan the code and find out what the will be doing that day.