February 3rd Class Activity Summary

One of our class activities included a presentation by Arna Lewis, who shared her classroom website. It was evident that she and her fifth graders use the website for much more than posting or checking homework assignments! Arna showed how her students used VoiceThreads to comment about Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. She noted that each student chose an avatar and typed in a comment. Other VoiceThread links posted on Arna's website include book reviews from a 4th grade class in Richmond, Virginia and Arna's own students' reviews of their favorite books. Arna showed the class wiki where her students can share their writing and classmates can comment and offer peer reviews. Arna discussed how networking has impacted her teaching in a positive way. She recommended the Ning site Sparkle that had been suggested to her by Dennis. She said, "People have great ideas and share them. It keeps you engaged in what's going on...You start to meet people...You can email and they'll respond. It's amazing!" During the discussion, Dennis noted that bitbybitseedlings.ning is a good place for educators to start on Ning. One will find many podcasts on topics of interest. Arna also shared that Classroom 2.0 is another social network that she likes. Great job, Arna!