Spreadsheets are a good learning tool; it not only has visuals but it also incorporates math concepts. In order for me to establish the wedding budget I need to add cost and also get the average mean, median and mode. So for the upper grade levels I do believe in this great tool. But as a future kinder teacher I do acknowledge that I am still trying to figure out how i can incorporate it to my everyday lesson. But i do believe that it is a great way to get kids involved with graphs and research projects. I do believe that it even gives the structure to not only make budgets but also time lines and schedules. As a tool spreadsheets can be used in so many different ways and for any occasions. Which leads up to my questions...

How can you see yourself using spreed sheets in your future career?
How can spreadsheets help you improve a project?
How can spreadsheets be helpful in your everyday lifestyle?

As a teacher I would love for them to see that spreadsheets can be used to establish a payroll or to make time cards. It will also help them present projects and add a professionalism to the project. And for an everyday lifestyle spreadsheets can be used as schedules for chorus around the house or for a grocery list and budget. Overall their is an infinite amount of ways to use spreadsheets the questions is to encourage the students to apply it to their everyday life and not forget the tool altogether.

for an example here is my spreadsheet....

for another great blog on spreadsheets visit....Brittany Hawes:Spreadsheet

DSmovie through Movie Maker

I had quite an experience with the making of my digital story telling movie; don’t get me wrong it was fun but it seemed everything that could go wrong did! But I was able to get through it and now I have my finished product. I was going to use video footage of myself for this project but of course my video camera had to stop working when I really needed it. So I choose to do a video slide of my own pictures and with a voice thread of myself.

So all the material was already in my computer all that I acquired was the audio clip in which is from my own CD. The song is by a mariachi named Mariachi Vargas de Tecatitlan and the song name is called El sol de la negra. I choose to project my video as if I were doing the Show and Tell like my students only that I would try to interact with them and show them a good amount of pictures for them to understand.

The tools that I used were Windows Movie Maker in which I imported all my pictures, voice threads and songs to complete the project. In the movie maker I was able to manipulate the effects on the pictures and the slide transitions so that I could keep the attention of my audience (the students). I did also use Window Photo Gallery in which I was able to change the brightness and contrast of all my pictures I tried to make them as visible as possible. I especially paid attention to the pictures of the Mexican flag and mariachi cut-outs because there is poor lighting in my apartment and it was difficult for me to take the picture. As for my voice thread I also utilized my camera which has an option to record voice only kind of like a tape recorder. Once I was done recording I was able to import it into movie maker and add to the video slide. What I found interesting is that I could blend in my song and my voice thread so that the transition of the two was smooth; I really enjoyed doing that.

I had some trouble uploading the video because it seemed like an eternity until my video was uploaded on to teacher tube! But now its up and the title is Culture and Traditions ….well here it is I hope you enjoy it too….

This is my video....

For another great video visit Samantha's blog.

7 elements of digital storytelling

Well to start of at first I had no clue as to what or how I was going to incorporate; digital storytelling in a kinder class lesson. I could envisioned it through an upper level class but in kinder most of the time the children don't give you much of their attention for long periods at a time. So I came up with the idea of having a Show and Tell with the children and having myself as the teacher show them through my own digital story; in which it is still being implemented and it's easy for the kids to follow along.
So for my digital storytelling the point of view will be mine as the teachers in which I will make a my story about my own culture and traditions opposite of the children because they will be participating in a Show and Tell.
My dramatic question will be my unit question which is "What is culture?"; I will define it to them trough my digital storytelling and then demonstrate what it means to me.
My emotional content will obviously be my own personal pictures and life experiences that pertain to my culture.
The gift of voice will be again my own personal touch in my digital storytelling in which I will share with my students personal pictures and family activities so that they can get to know me lot better and also so that I can help them become more comfortable with their culture.
The power of soundtrack: I will try to share many of my personal songs that I listened and grew up with when I was their age.
For Economy and Pacing, I will take them into consideration so that I can create a short and easy story that the students can follow and still engage their attention.

This is my GoogleDoc that contains a roughly draft of the lesson I plan to integrate digital storytelling.

for another great article visit samantha's blog....

Digital Story Telling

"Photographs discover the talkies, and the stories told assemble in the ether as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a gaggle of invisible histories which, when viewed together, tell the bigger story of our time, the story that defines who we are."Daniel Meadows(British photographer, educator and digital storyteller)

Digital storytelling is a story told by showing digital media tools, such as pictures in a slide show or sections of movies with still pictures also. With powerpoint there are an enormous amount of things that you can create. As a future teacher i will be using digital storytelling in as many lesson i can incorporate it!!

here is my storyboard for my digital story telling

Unique

Unit Plan 2

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