Digital Memoirs

As part of the Personal Narrative writing in 8th grade, the students completed Digital Memoirs in Mrs. MacLean's Language Arts class. Each student had to write about an experience in their life that was special to them and bring in a picture from the day or event. Using Power Point, they created slides which had both the text and the pictures on them. The memoirs were written and edited in language arts classes and then they worked in the technology labs to create the power point presentations. Lastly, students digitally recorded their voice overs in iMovie to accompany their presentation. Here is a sample
of their work.

Italian Class Photo Album on the Web

Mrs. Strippoli-Zimmerman photographed the highlights from the EISE AWARDS held in her Italian class.   After taking pictures she created an online gallery using Picasa and then posted a link to the gallery on her Eisenhower teacher website.  Take a look at  the pictures from the event here>  PHOTO GALLERY LINK

Easy Photo Editing Online

Picnik
This is an online photo editing website that is simple and easy to use. If you want to make some quick edits to a digital photo just click on the link to picnik. You can upload your photo to the website, use their free editing tools and then save the enhanced photo to your computer. There is a free version with more than enough options to enhance a photo. You can upgrade to a premium version for $25/year.

TeacherTube and Math Songs

TeacherTube is an education version of YouTube. Teachers and students have posted educational videos on TeacherTube and some of the videos can be very helpful.

There are several math videos on the site. Mrs. Burk's perimeter rap explains the concepts of area and perimeter in a fun and easy to understand way.


Mr. Hunt is known for his great math songs. Many students find it easy to learn and remember math concepts by learning the lyrics to one of Mr. Hunt's songs. We are about to begin a project with Mr. Hunt's and Ms. Perrotta's classes that will give students the opportunity to create their own math songs and music videos. The goal of this project is to produce a CD and DVD with math songs and videos that will help students learn and remember key math concepts. The videos will also be posted on TeacherTube and the Eisenhower website.

Online Photo Galleries

Great things happen here at Eisenhower everyday. One way for a teacher to share some of the wonderful lessons happening in their classroom is by taking pictures and posting them to their Eisenhower Teacher website. In the past months many teachers have asked how they can upload a photo gallery (easily) to their site. I have worked together with Mr. Olejarz to establish a way to easily upload photo galleries. By working with Picasa, a free service from Google, digital photos can easily be uploaded to an online gallery. A teacher can simply insert a link that makes a connection from their website to their gallery online. I have put together a downloadable set of instructions for teachers to us to create their own photo galleries. Here is a link to my online Digital Video Class Gallery.
PHOTO GALLERY LINK

STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS -PDF FILE

Wiki Vocabulary Lists and more

I had students in my 6th grade Internet class create a class list of technology terms. Each student was assigned a different word and their assignment was to use Internet resources discussed in class to find a user friendly definition. Each student posted their word and it's definition on the table in the Wiki...and the result was a complete list of technology terminology.

Check out our Tech Terms Wiki generated by the Internet cycle students.

Other suggestions for wiki uses: have students create a vocabulary list when reading a book as a class, have students create a table of facts about a specific topic - characteristics of the planets, living and non-living things, the role of specific countries in WWII, etc. Each student would enter one piece of information resulting in one complete table.

Eisehhower MS Weather Station

The Weather Station at Eisenhower MS was upgraded through a transition from a Mac based environment to a Windows based system. A new Windows based computer was installed and updated with new software and hardware. The Windows based system is more reliable and includes more software updates and support. The weather station was initially purchased by the PTO. The weather station is used by the 8th grade science classes as part of their Meteorology unit as well as other classes. The students have access to archived data collected by our weather station in the form of graphs and spreadsheets in Weather Achieve. The weather station can be accessed through the Internet from school or home. Check it out here ! There is also a direct link to the weather information on the Eisenhower website.

Photo Essays in Power Point

The 6th graders in Mrs White's Language Arts class and the French students in Mrs. Rickettson's classes produced photo essays using Power Point. The students brought in photos from home that had personal meaning. The Language Art's students chose vacation photos, while the French students focused on family pictures. Each student created one slide combining their photo and a written piece. I combined all of the individual slides into one Power Point presentation. Mr. Bonovitacola worked with the classes on the option of including voice overs with students reading their written work. The options of producing DVDs or posting the final class projects to the internet are also possibilities.

Check out this sample Power Point slide and student directions for a photo essay project.

Language Arts Literacy Book Review Blogs

Earlier this year Mr. Raimo and I discussed the possibility of setting up a site that would give Language Arts Literacy teachers an opportunity to share book reviews. After some discussion we decided to try the blog format for this project. After exploring several options we decided to go with EduBlogs. I set up three blogs, one for each grade level, and invited teachers to participate. After some initial problems with setting up accounts for the teachers we managed to get the teachers logged in. The three Blogs are Grade Six Book Reviews, Grade Seven Book Reviews and Grade Eight Book Reviews. Reviews of books have already been posted on all three blogs.

Wireless Keyboards

SmartBoards are a great tool but there is another way to bring interactivity to the classroom when using a LCD projector. Wireless keyboards offer students the opportunity to participate in a teacher's lesson and/or presentation from their very own seat. Using a wireless keyboard classroom teachers can pass the keyboard and mouse around the room enabling students to take part in the lesson in a whole new way. Students in Mrs. White's class were able to create a group writing sample when the keyboard was shared by students. When a student got the keyboard they were able to type their response to a class prompt in real time. The students enjoyed seeing their work projected onto the screen.

During the November faculty meeting this new technology was demonstrated to Eisenhower staff. Many teachers were very excited about the possibilities of this technology. Several teachers have tried one of the two wireless keyboards we are testing and found that their students were very engaged by the technology. We plan to make more of the keyboards available to teachers. BTW - this a very cost effective way to add interactivity to lessons. The wireless keyboard and mouse we purchased cost under $70 each! Click here for more information about a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Remote Video Interviews

Mr. Bonavitacola and Mr. Olejarz presented at the 2007 NJ School Board Association Conference. Their presentation on remote live interviews using Skype introduced the possibilities of using internet telephony into the classroom. This technology gives teachers and students the opportunty to communicate with people from around the world. In the 2006/07 school year Mr. Bonavitacola and Mr. Olejarz did several interviews using Skype. The interviews were broadcast on ETV. To learn more about this project go to ETV Remote Interviews.