What have we sewn?

photo courtesy of trekkyandy

Were you with me on that one? We've been studying homophones, and I'm suffering from acute appundicitis...so I had to, ahem, follow the thread (as it were).

Glad that's over?
Me too.

I think that, beneath the sarcasm and penchant for blaspheming against good Mr. Beach, I'm a pretty shy and private person. For this reason, I felt that the personal Voicethread laid me bare. Did this stop me from reading sad homemade poems and slapping up pictures of my daughter? Nooo, but I was pretty uncomfortable throughout the process. (Lucky for me, I've only got two followers...)

As I weeded through our infinite cyberstacks of photos, a few things occurred to me: 1) What good are all these unprinted images if I only look at them on random Tuesday nights?, 2) It's probably incredibly beneficial to go into a project like this with either an exact image or text idea, if not both (sooooo many slideshows...), and 3) That Candance is wicked slick. Now that I have a firm grasp of all of my available images, I am in a constant state of mentally storyboarding my final project.

Both of my Voicethreads were solidly text driven. Perhaps this was a byproduct of the dizzying array of images I have available. It was simply easier for me to concentrate on the writing. As a teacher using Voicethread in the classroom, I will likely have students' first experiences involve choosing or creating images to accompany their writing. As a class, we are chipping away at our own Where I'm From poems (from which I envision a tapestry of culminating threads). With these poems, in particular, I think the visual nature of the software will reinforce students' understanding of the dynamic nature of writing.

Paternal Voicethread

What better way to follow a lovestruck Voicethread, than to smack people down with depression. If four pictures of cherubic glory and an unfinished poem by Neruda didn't sit well with you, you might want to check out my second effort.

First Voicethread, con queso...

Sometimes, the mind reaches...aaaaall the way back to high school angst, and manages to twist old anthems into new cheese. Here is my voicethread.

Sneaky Cora

lurking frog courtesy of dendroica cerulea

It's in me. I have the sickness...some sort of LOST-type illness, but (hopefully) less communicable. No, I'm not referring to InfluenzaA-H1N1-SwineFlu. Noooo, I mean the icky lurksabout illness that I cannot seem to shake.

Honestly, I trust my Ningmates absolutely, but cyber-social anxiety disorder is hard to shake. I can honestly say that I read every forum (up until 5 minutes ago), every article that someone mentioned, and even peoples' posts on each others' pages. However, when it came time to engage in a meaningful, no...um...confrontational way, well...I just couldn't. I wish I were as bold as Zax Outback and Ursula Trustworthy who went toe-to-toe in the equal access forum. (Zach and Kelsey (Is that you?), you're my solid-spined heroes.)

Instead, I cordially added to discussions, and ended each post with "Cheers", which is *sadly* something I learned from my endless hours transcribing microtapes for Bill Drayton, neo-luddite founder of Ashoka. (Hah! If he could see me now!)

Sooooo, if I had it all to do over again (insert dreamy montage here), I'd channel my inner biznatch and go for broke. I'd repeat the forum perusal, and read all of the articles (People found some really interesting stuff!), except this time I'd be more of a factor in the discussions.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda....didna.

Do you role your own?

photo courtesy of avlxyz

I scoured my brain and then, convinced that I must have missed evidence of creative role play in my classroom, I scoured last year's plan book...

no dice.

Um...does Reader's Theater count? What about cooperative group work with specifically-designated roles that adheres to the tenets of PIGS face?

No?
Didn't think so.

Right.

I do, however, understand the depth of learning that occurs when we dynamically contextualize experiences in the first person, as opposed to statically judging and observing them in the third. The trouble is, I am still at a loss as to how I can use online role play fluidly with my second graders. I'm wide open for suggestions, if anyone's in a mentally-gifty mood.

Shaq and Awe

Anxious about your digital future?
Come on over and visit Dr. Shaq.

cyber shout-out

I heart Leelou!