NKES Animoto Videos

Many of you might be aware of a great web-based video production tool called Animoto.  Animoto offers free accounts for educators to use with students - students can easily create dynamic videos and soundtracks that can be much more engaging than the usual slideshows.  The link above will take you to the Animoto for Educators site, or you can visit the Animoto homepage.

Below are links to some Animoto videos created by students at New Kent Elementary School.  Thanks to Michelle Prough and NKES 5th grade teachers Jennifer Gardner, Jessica Stewart, and Carmen Marais for sharing!  Please use the links below to see what some of our elementary students have to share about their favorite authors -

Jerry Pinkney

Jan Brett

Tedd Arnold

Lane Smith

Marla Frazee

Chris Van Allsburg

Blogging with Students

Recently, a teacher asked for my opinion of the student blogging site, Kidblog.  This request also coincided with the opening of the Edublog Awards voting, so I felt this would be a great time to discuss blog services available and their uses in the classroom.  Blogging is a great way to get students to write about what they are learning and process that information.  It also allows the students to discuss their thoughts, encourage each other, and challenge each other to see things from different perspectives.

Kidblog is a good service for providing a blogging platform that is free, safe, and easily manageable by the teacher.  The way Kidblog works is the teacher creates a login and class.  Then the teacher can input student names or allow the students to use a site provided access code to create their own blogs under the teacher’s site.  The teacher has complete moderation rights to approve/deny posts and comments.  The student blogs are private by default as well so the teacher can maintain all discussions within the classroom if that is desired.

As Gmail users, each teacher also has access to a school Blogger account.  This can be used to communicate with your students, parents, or just write about what your students are learning in class.  Another way of using this is to set up a class blog where students can write about their learning and the teacher reviews the posts and adds them.

If you are interested in seeing other ways that teachers are using blogs to engage their students, I encourage you to review some of the nominees for this year’s Edublog Best Class Blog.  You may also wish to review this wiki created by the winner of best class blog 2012 that she uses to post resources about blogging with students.  

Also, before blogging with your students make sure to review the county AUP and discuss with your class appropriate security precautions that students should take prior to posting information online.

New Digital Media Source!

     I receive many requests from teachers for more digital media sources that they can use to enhance their lessons and engage their students better.  There are many sources for pictures and video clips on the internet that are applicable to the curriculum and appropriate for use in the classroom.  However, many sites, like Youtube, must be blocked by schools to prevent access to the inappropriate content that is also on those sites.

     Recently it was announced that in partnership with WHRO, the local PBS affiliate, the Virginia Department of Education has provided free access to eMediaVA for all Virginia educators.   eMediaVA is a library of videos, animations,  and pictures that have been correlated with the Virginia SOLs.  The library may be searched via SOL or keyword and then filtered using several filtering options.  Users have the ability to upload videos to the library so that these resources may be shared with other teachers.  The system also allows teachers to create playlists for their students to view and quizzes to respond to the information.  All New Kent teachers will be receiving an email in the next several days with a welcome message and login information to be able to access and begin using eMediaVA.

      There are tutorial guides that are available once you log in and you can also access one here.  We hope that this source proves to be a valuable addition to your sources of digital media.