I'm going to leave the following sites for the participants to look at until we're all accounted for:
http://www.bartbonte.com/factoryballs/ - this is a great activity to challenge your students to carry out problem-solving. If you Google 'factory bals', you will find many links to various versions of this activity. Try the link provided and see if you can solve the problems!
http://www.abcya.com/ - if you need elementary interactive activities, this site will provide a lot in the various disciplines.
Try out these two simulations - they are really neat activities which require time to follow through to end with them:
Wallwisher (http://www.wallwisher.com/) - we look at this yesterday so I want to go over it one more time as well
We'll see how things go - if their is time, we'll look at GoAnimate (http://goanimate.com/). GoAnimate is yet another tool that teachers and students can use to present information but in a animated cartoon setting.
Still another neat tool that is somewhat similar to GoAnimate is Voki (http://voki.com/) - teachers will create an avatar that will verbally share a message.
We'll end the day by taking the time to reflect in your blog the different tools we looked today.
I'm hoping the Ferdy and Patrick got Java loaded onto the computers (pending admin password) so we can have a look at Wordle (word cloud) www.wordle.net. This tool is great for summaries notes, creating a title page and providing a means to see what is the possible underlying message to a piece of work.
Instructions for the Wordpress.com Blog:
The following instructions hopefully will guide you through setting up and modifying your wordpress blog -
Boot up Internet Explorer (web browser program)
Inthe URL bar, type in “ wordpress.com“
The web browser will then bring up the home page for wordpress.com
Since we have already registered on wordpress.com, we just need to log in
At the top left of the page, you will find the username and password boxes. It is here that you will enter the appropriate information so that you can work with your blogs.
After entering your username and password, select/click on the Log In button or just simply press your “enter”key on the keyboard.
You will know when you are in your working area for wordpress.com when the two ‘buttons’– My Accounts and My Blogs are visible just below the menu bars.
We are going to create a whole new blog! Iwant to start from scratch so that I can walk you ‘slowly’ through the process. For those of you who feel that you have a strong handle on the workings of wordpress.com blogs, I would like for you to visit the link in my wiki. TheURL for the wiki is (http://2011dominicaproject.wikispaces.com/). Once there, select the Sites of Interest! Links and critique the different tools that I have listed there in your blog. Include the URL’s for the tools and describe how you would use that tool in a classroom situation.
To continue – we are going to create a whole new blog (and still keep the one we’vebeen working on). So to create a whole new blog, click on 'My Blogs' and at the bottom of the menu is 'Register a New Blog'
The next window should look familiar to you. It is the same window that is requiring information for creating a new blog. So you will have to:
Create the blog address– make it unique and such that you will also remember it!
Wordpress will tell you if someone else has already taken the name that you wanted in which case, you will have to change the name. Hopefully this won’t happen!
You then have to create a blog name – it could be identical to your blog address or you have the option of calling it something different.
Check the other information and then at the bottom click on Create Blog
If successful, you will get a similar window as shown below:
From this window we can click on ‘Visit your dashboard’.
Remember that the ‘dashboard’ is your control center. From here, you can do whatever needs to be done within your blog. If you are ever in doubt – go to your dashboard. Just remember though that youc an’t go to the dashboard unless you are logged into Wordpress.com.
From the dashboard, I want you to become familiar with the following options:
Posts
Pages
Comments
Appearance
Themes
Widgets
Posts – if you click on this hyperlinked word,you will be able to see all of the posts you have created. It is here that you could go to in order to create an Add New post. As well, you can edit previous posts and also delete previous posts.
Pages - by clicking this hyperlinked word, you can add new pages, edit any existing pages and/or delete them from your blog.
Comments– this is the area that you might want to become familiar with. When you post your blog entries, viewers around the world can not only read them, but they may also comment on your blog. What is nice about the blog and the comments people submit, is that you must first approve of the comments before they are visible within your blog. So if something bad comes up, no one will ever see it – unless you approve of it.
To approve a comment, just ‘hover’ over the information area for the comment and options will appear from which you would select ‘approve’.
Appearance– in this area, you can:
Change theThemes– themes are the backgrounds for the blog. There are over one hundred themes. Be watchful for some themes come with a cost. The majority are free. When you find a theme that you like, simply click on the ‘Activate’ button and that theme instantly becomes part of your blog. These can be changed whenever you like.
Widgets – these are little add-ons to jazz up your blog. One that I like to include in mine is the ‘Calendar’. It is always nice to have one handy. I’ll go over how to incorporate a calendar widget. From there, you can experiment with others.
So that is the basics of the blog. Knowing these few features should allow you to maintain a blog. So, how do you see blogs being used in your situation?
http://www.bartbonte.com/factoryballs/ - this is a great activity to challenge your students to carry out problem-solving. If you Google 'factory bals', you will find many links to various versions of this activity. Try the link provided and see if you can solve the problems!
http://www.abcya.com/ - if you need elementary interactive activities, this site will provide a lot in the various disciplines.
Try out these two simulations - they are really neat activities which require time to follow through to end with them:
As I promised, we are going to review:
I'm hoping the Ferdy and Patrick got Java loaded onto the computers (pending admin password) so we can have a look at Wordle (word cloud) www.wordle.net. This tool is great for summaries notes, creating a title page and providing a means to see what is the possible underlying message to a piece of work.
Instructions for the Wordpress.com Blog:
The following instructions hopefully will guide you through setting up and modifying your wordpress blog -