Wednesday, March 30, 2011
ABC Measurement Books Are Here!
Our books came today. I was a little concerned about how they would look since we used Publisher, converted the file to a PDF and then uploaded to the publishing company's website, but no reason to worry. They are GREAT! I'm very happy with them.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Custom Google Search
We used a custom Google search when working on the fact/opinion games earlier in the year and again when we worked on the Kansas search stories. I like the custom searches as only the sites I put in the custom search are searched by the students. Ads still show up and guidance still has to be provided, but it narrows the search for the students.
The fact/opinion games focused on animals so the search included children friendly animal sites. I also included sites allowing use of their pictures.
Here's a link to the animal search.
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=009232587918217185025:z9yuz3jkzvm
Here's a link to the Kansas search. (We had to do some Google searching outside of the custom search. I need to work on this particular custom search.)
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=009232587918217185025:36be2zeduau&hl=en
Here's how you can make your own custom search. Go to Google.com.
Click on more, then even more.
Click on custom search. I make sure I bookmark the search site into my delicious account for easy access later. You can edit the search at a later time if needed.
The fact/opinion games focused on animals so the search included children friendly animal sites. I also included sites allowing use of their pictures.
Here's a link to the animal search.
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=009232587918217185025:z9yuz3jkzvm
Here's a link to the Kansas search. (We had to do some Google searching outside of the custom search. I need to work on this particular custom search.)
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=009232587918217185025:36be2zeduau&hl=en
Here's how you can make your own custom search. Go to Google.com.
Click on more, then even more.
Click on custom search. I make sure I bookmark the search site into my delicious account for easy access later. You can edit the search at a later time if needed.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
ABC Measurement Books
The books are done and ready to be submitted for publishing. As posted before, the students created the books using Publisher. All pages had two letters except the last two pages which had three. (The publisher lets us have 12 pages of content per book.) We brainstormed measurement words for each letter. Some letters were tough. We finally settled on number line for n and students were tying it to a ruler or thermometer.
We are getting the books published at StudentPublishing.com. We had books published there earlier this year and loved them. The software on the company's website is slow although it created a wonderful book. We have to use the company's site to create the cover page, the title page, the dedication page and author page. We uploaded our PDF file for the other pages. I like this method much better.
The last time I created a chart to keep track of each student's pages as they were reviewed by an adult. It was a long process checking each page of each book for each student and the software was slow. I'm not checking them as closely this time as I told the students THEY should have pride in their work and THEY should make sure everything is the way they want it. (We did do some editing with the Publisher file before converting the file to a PDF.)
The students uploaded the PDF file into their book at the publishing company's website. We should get the books in about 4 weeks.
We are getting the books published at StudentPublishing.com. We had books published there earlier this year and loved them. The software on the company's website is slow although it created a wonderful book. We have to use the company's site to create the cover page, the title page, the dedication page and author page. We uploaded our PDF file for the other pages. I like this method much better.
The last time I created a chart to keep track of each student's pages as they were reviewed by an adult. It was a long process checking each page of each book for each student and the software was slow. I'm not checking them as closely this time as I told the students THEY should have pride in their work and THEY should make sure everything is the way they want it. (We did do some editing with the Publisher file before converting the file to a PDF.)
The students uploaded the PDF file into their book at the publishing company's website. We should get the books in about 4 weeks.
Conference preparation
Because of snow days, our conferences have been rescheduled and shortened. I really want students to have the opportunity to show their parents their technology knowledge and projects.
We have four days until spring break and we are going to use the time to create a PhotoStory3 video about the school year. Friday we spent some time going through our electronic folders. We created a conference folder, deleted some files and converted some files to jpeg images. The jpeg files were placed in the conference folder.
We have had some trouble using PhotoStory3 with the netbooks because of the screen size. We've learned to go into the advance settings and change the screen resolution.
When I say we, I mean we. With adult guidance, they change the resolution. They create folders, delete files, and save files as the intended kind in the proper folder. (Their ABC books were created with Publisher and then saved as a PDF file.)
Back to the conference folder, students have some choice in the files for their video. Some files are not a choice. Each student will have a personalized video when we are done.
Monday we will work again in the electronic folder determining what can be trashed and what should be saved as a jpeg. During the rest of the week the students will write the script to go with their pictures, pull the pictures into PhotoStory3 and create their video. They are looking forward to it. I am, too.
We have four days until spring break and we are going to use the time to create a PhotoStory3 video about the school year. Friday we spent some time going through our electronic folders. We created a conference folder, deleted some files and converted some files to jpeg images. The jpeg files were placed in the conference folder.
We have had some trouble using PhotoStory3 with the netbooks because of the screen size. We've learned to go into the advance settings and change the screen resolution.
When I say we, I mean we. With adult guidance, they change the resolution. They create folders, delete files, and save files as the intended kind in the proper folder. (Their ABC books were created with Publisher and then saved as a PDF file.)
Back to the conference folder, students have some choice in the files for their video. Some files are not a choice. Each student will have a personalized video when we are done.
Monday we will work again in the electronic folder determining what can be trashed and what should be saved as a jpeg. During the rest of the week the students will write the script to go with their pictures, pull the pictures into PhotoStory3 and create their video. They are looking forward to it. I am, too.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Another cool site
Too much fun! After rendering the words save the image as a picture on your computer.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Newsletter
I usually write a newsletter to send home each week. This week the students are going to write it. I picked a format from the templates Publisher offers. They'll title it and the content will be information about state testing tips. I hope this helps them remember what to do and I hope they share it with their parents since it will be authored by them.
Update: We had a lot of disruptions to our day and I was concerned we wouldn't have time to get the newsletter done so I created some text boxes in Publisher containing reminders of tested concepts. The students picked one of their pictures or a picture from one of the projects to put in the newsletter and wrote an article about test taking strategies. The students enjoyed creating the newsletter and seemed excited to show them to their parents.
Update: We had a lot of disruptions to our day and I was concerned we wouldn't have time to get the newsletter done so I created some text boxes in Publisher containing reminders of tested concepts. The students picked one of their pictures or a picture from one of the projects to put in the newsletter and wrote an article about test taking strategies. The students enjoyed creating the newsletter and seemed excited to show them to their parents.
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