Video Thread Project

  This project was another new one for me, but it was very user-friendly and enjoyable.  It is a simple tool that can do so much.  I found it very interesting, and it really would not take too long to upload some photos and record you or someone else describing them.  The narratives add to the photographs, and I think that hearing someone talk about the situation would enhance the setting and the pictures more than simply reading a caption or looking through photos would.  I really liked Skip's idea about using a group photo to get each individual to comment on it.   That could be very interesting to hear the different perspectives, and it could be used for family pictures, class pictures, older pictures, etc.  

         I think that students could have a fun time playing with this and scrolling through pictures.  It would be simple for them to navigate through, and it could be helpful for the teacher to find out a little more about what the students know.  I think it would be slightly difficult to teach an actual lesson plan through this method, and it also costs money to continue using it though I believe it's relatively inexpensive, but it could be incorporated in other ways.  A teacher could use it for fun to get the students interested in the tool by posting random pictures and assigning certain people to view it and comment on what they get out of the photo.  The teacher could also post different significant historical pictures of people and have certain students take on that character and post a small voice comment discussing particular characteristics or happenings that relate.  These were just a couple ideas that came to me, but I am sure I would need to test out one or two before knowing for certain how well it would work in the classroom.  I really enjoyed the ease with which the comments could be recorded and edited.  If I was in the middle of recording and messed up, I could just cancel and start the comment over, which I did a few times. As with every other tool that I have learned and used this semester, it will be something I will keep in mind in case I find the right moment or lesson in which it could be used.  I will also remember most of these for myself or projects that I want to create; that way I will ensure that I will not forget how to use them and I have thought of many personal uses.  I have enjoyed learning everything that we have this semester, and I consider this class very important.  

Online Storybook

I found that this tool could have many applications.  I enjoyed becoming more familiar with it and playing around with different pictures and layouts.  There were only a couple of setbacks that I came across, but nothing was very difficult.  Most of the questions I had were only because I was unfamiliar with creating a storybook online.  I just had to mess with a few of the settings, and I ended up learning more.  I think those storybooks are the type of thing that gets easier the more you create.  I feel as if I would have no problem discussing with my students how to create one themselves. I was not able to collaborate with a partner on my project so I ended up just creating one on my own.  I think these books are wonderful to piece together a nice story about a trip or place that you've visited.  It could make great gifts for family members or friends.  A book could be created about a family or even as a gift to a mother if one was created about the life stages of her child.           The classroom setting opens up many opportunities.  I was thinking about how it would fit into the unit that I am creating for my other class.  If I had longer than two weeks for my unit, the students could partner up and compare the two different cultural settings. They could create a wonderful storybook that compares the Athabascan and Navajo cultures and their environments, and it could incorporate some beautiful pictures.  This could work for many different subjects or people that are being discussed.  Students could also create storybooks about their own backgrounds and share them with the class.  One of my concerns was about the option to purchase the books and whether students would accidentally purchase them or not be able to let the idea go.  If a student thinks that they have created their own masterpiece, they may continually ask about purchasing their book and other students could get caught up in it as well.  That would have to be handled by the teacher in the beginning and explained before the books are even created.  Besides that, I could see this being a helpful and exciting tool for students that they could easily use. 

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Creating a Unit

        Well, I guess it is that time in the semester.  I am at the critical point where I need to really demonstrate what I have learned in my classes through some rather intense assignments.  Recently in my ED 330 Assessment class, we have been discussing our Understanding by Design unit assignment.  I knew this would be an involved task, but I was kind of looking forward to going through all the steps that were necessary to create a two-week unit in a classroom.  There is definitely so much to think about and analyze.  Sometimes I have a tendency to over-think.. but in the end I decided that my topic would compare the environments of Athabascans to that of the Navajo Indians with my understanding goal stating, "Students will understand that the natural environments of the Athabascans and the Navajos impact their ways of life."  One of my essential questions for the topic is "What can we learn from the way the Athabascans live as compared to the Navajo?"  I thought this topic would be interesting to students in Alaska to compare the lifestyles of such different environments because both groups have such strong cultural beliefs.  I know that while teaching this unit I need to ensure that the students feel a relevance to the topic, and I need to be prepared to answer "Why do we need to know this?".  This can be more difficult to specifically address than it sounds.

For my performance task at the end of the semester, I thought it would be interesting for the students to create a journal describing their life using their role in one of the two environments that we discussed.  They will describe their homes, clothing, food, as well as how their food was acquired.  I am still developing this more specifically, but I wanted to be able to give students other options to complete the task that would still connect with my goal.  Because I am taking ED 329 this semester, I was thinking of ways that technology could be incorporated in my unit.  I thought it might be appealing for students to have the option of creating a blog if they were not drawn to the handwritten journal.  

I am excited to see the end of this unit and the final product that I will create. I am learning much more about the people as I am preparing for this assignment. I have some really good ideas for activities that can be done in the classroom during the unit as well.