Many…..many ideas to use digital cameras in the classroom…

Digital cameras can be used more than one way in classrooms….if you start thinking in some of them….you can count them with the fingers of your hands….but have you considered these ideas?
Usually we have these general ideas to use digital cameras, for: PowerPoint Presentations, Open House, Web pages, Bulletin boards, Journal writing, School Newspapers, Document Classroom Projects, etc.

But to not get students boring we have always to go beyonfd that so here I present you a different kind of interesting activities for kids and teenagers:

Yearbook snapshots:
- It is really interesting to post pictures around the school of students who receive special awards.
- Photograph examples of superior student projects to give other students ideas.
- To make calendars for the administration and staff.

Student of the Week posters for each class. Post them outside the classroom for all to see.
Take pictures the Set-Up for various projects and use pictures as a review for a quiz, or a quiz itself.

Take pictures of each childs' eyes only. Have children try to match up their classmates by only their eyes. It demonstrates how distinctive and unique we really are. Oral discussion can then follow.

"A Typical Day In The Life Of A Student At ."

- The students kept the camera for a day, take as many pictures as they wanted, and as a group created a booklet of that day.
- You can gain great insight into their thought processes doing a project like this.
- Publish photos for many projects.

And also here are some different ideas for different subjects…

Social Studies

- Take pictures of each student's face and incorporate that image into a computerized "Wanted" poster for the westward movement unit. Kids could add in (via text) the varmint's favorite book, etc. They could also be fancy and add in handlebar mustaches, black hats, etc. to make themselves look more sinister.
- Social studies students can use digital photos to design front covers for their reports. Photo essay projects of the old buildings and historic sights in your town.

Science

- Students can research more about leaves, rocks, or something from your garden. Those who study the ecosystems can use the camera to relate to nature. For example, in the fall, students take pictures to reflect different themes (color in nature, changing seasons, etc).
- Document growth of a classroom plant or pet. Use lab pictures with a question/answer session before the lab featuring the question "What will we do next?"
- Use digital photo for leaf identification and lab equipment identification. Take a picture of each lab group. Then print the pictures onto floppy labels with the names of the students, the period and their group number.

Language Arts

- Journal Writing. Classroom newspapers. Autobiographies. Students can insert photos in a biographical poem. A great way to start off the year and get to know your students.
- Demonstrate vocabulary, emotions, compare/contrast. Use a photo as a prompt for narrative or descriptive writing. Students take pictures of each other and write biographies of their friends

Elementary Ideas

- Have students insert their photo into a paint document and make themselves a character from a book or cartoon. They erase all but their face and paint the rest of the body with appropriate background and props for this person. Kids love this. Take pictures of students in various activities. The students dictate appropriate text for the picture then create books that they can "read".
- Use student pictures as gifts at Christmas, and Mother's day. Pictures made on the 1st day can be given to each student on the last day of school with a letter from you about how much they have grown and how much you enjoyed having them in your class. Make picture frames out of jar tops hot glue magnets to the back for the refrigerator. When you grow plants you can document the growth with snapshots. If you have different races you can do graphs. How many have ___color hair, how many wear glasses etc.

Have you ever implemented videos in your classes?

By Hugo Velasco
Guayaquil , Ecuador

What is the most interesting about using videos in the classrooms is the different kind of tasks we can give our students however, we as teachers must be aware of the difficulties we could have.
Have you ever implemented videos in your classes? Well, if you haven´t done it yet, it´s time for you to try and see the variety of activities and tasks that you could do and take advantage of. It’s been proven by experts that a high average of students are visual learners in these times due to the advance in technology that the world has reached.
You have the opportunity to discuss critical thinking topics through Video clips by using real life issues in different areas, practicing listening comprehension and writing skills as well. Who doesn´t like to watch a movie, documental or a cartoon? They are easy to connect to daily life issues. For example , you can make your students identify main characters , settings , main problem , cause and effect analyses and others.
When using videos you could face some problems such as : Low T.V. volume , poor video quality , language in movies could be difficult to understand for students, time availability may be short, etc ; but the important point is to have everything all set and be ready with extra activities.
In conclusion, Don´t be afraid of implementing videos in your classes, personally since I tried them, I have not stopped using them.

To give or not to give my cell phone number to students...That’s the point!

By: Samantha Quintana M.
Advantages:


+ Students can call to ask for homework if they were absent in your class.
+ If students did not understand an instruction can call to be sure .
+ Very useful at the moment of making Thesis.


Disadvantages :

+ Students can call just to ask silly questions.
+ Parents can start calling to know about their children performance at classes.

More acquiring but less learning

By Viviana Velasco

A couple of years ago I was asked to teach language to sixth graders. The language book I worked with called “Amazed” was based on the traditional syllabus, student’s priority was to learn grammar and vocabulary trough different short texts types. The standards set by my institution regarding to providing language instruction was not just focus on building a solid based for language learning but also including communication in the process. Based on that, my coordinator wanted me to develop activities that increased such communications; soon I started developing speaking activities which demands oral interaction. My critical moment showed up when I noticed that my students were not able use language accurately and fluently when doing oral interaction. I was confused with the idea on how could possible a student can perform well on grammar activities and tests but can not perform accuracy in conversations.
To develop a performance in grammar activities ,focusing on the traditional syllabus that the book offered me, my plan for the activities were the following :students first listen to and read the dialog or conversation, reread and paying attention to the pronunciation and intonation, look at the example of the grammar structure, read or give the respective grammar explanation , then practice the new structure in control context ( drills or substitution exercises ) and practice the conversation individually and then in Chorus, memorizing the dialog and finally practicing these with a classmate. After that and because of my communication goal, I wanted my students to interact without using their visual or text aid, for that reason I asked my students to extend the questions in order to have real conversation, using the structure they just being taught and also putting in practice their previous knowledge on it. As a result I observed my students trying harder asking and answering question and having difficulties to be understood by the other. They could not follow natural conversation (fluently and accurately) without consulting and asking me questions on how to say something. I was shocked I thought they have already learned.
As a conclusion, planning every lesson with small conversations, short dialogs or texts, present to a student a grammar structure and putting that in practice doing the grammar exercises do not help ensure students are acquiring a language at all. Thanks to the hypotheses and principles now I know that being taught all the time about how to write in correct way (focusing on form), make students learn language rules but not acquiring language in order to make them feel free of communicating.

Inviting Youtube in our classroom

Guayaqui, Ecuador

Lorena Baquerizo G.

Created in February 2005 by three PayPal employees, its main purpose is to upload, view and share videos. It is definitely a great tool to include technology in our classroom.

With only about four years old, youtube has become in an incredible tool which is used by people from different countries, ages, cultures, etc. It is more than just a site to share videos, it has become in a great tool to let the rest of the world see what you want. At the same time this has also become into a great tool for educators to incorporate technology in our classrooms. Different types of videos have been always within our curricula and weekly planning, so what does youtube have that can make our classroom even more interesting and up to date?, here some hints:
1. Home videos: Believe me, it will not matter what your topic is, you will find a video in youtube. It can go from National Geographic short videos to kids in US, Argentina, or Iran singing carols in their English classrooms.
2. Features: There are no long time videos in youtube, which makes it easier to use it in class since it can fit in our classroom periods.
3. Dynamic: With your own account, leave and receive messages will be part of your classes feedback; you will receive comments from all over the world and do the same to other people.
4. Easy-to-use: You only need to create your account, record your video, download it to your computer and then upload it as in any other social site (facebook, hi5, tagged in, sonic, etc). Then, once in the web automatically you will receive comments and posts.

I am conscious of the high cost of investment (not waste) of money, so we need to be realistic and try to use as much “cheap” technology as we can help our students to develop skills that are necessary in our times.

Sending cool homework through T.V.

Guayaquil-Ecuador

By Hugo Velasco

How many times have you had problems with your kids and the T.V.? . According to a research done by experts in 2006 in the U.S. , kids spend forty percent of their time watching T.V. at their homes ; specially when parents are working .
Most of parents are in a constant fight with their kids and it is usual to hear things like: do your homework!!!!, turn off the T.V. !!!!, You‘ve been the whole day in front of that !!!!!!! , You will not watch T.V. the entire week!!!!!.

What could we do as teachers?? Well, there are some things we could do in order to take advantage of technology; in this case the T.V. might be a good tool to engage our students with interesting topics that might be discussed in our classrooms.

For example, sending our students to watch channels such as Discovery Channel, Travel and Living, History Channel, Animal Planet and others, selecting specific topics or focusing on a specific task might be really useful for our Science, Social Studies, Marketing, Debate, and even our Language classes. If you stop and think what skills are your students developing or reinforcing ; you might come up with the conclusion that through television students might practice their listening comprehension , acquire new vocabulary , write a summary , listen and compare different viewpoints, start a debate based on a specific topic, formulate discussion questions , give opinions , and so on .

Now that you’ve heard some tips and advantages for using T.V. as a learning via in stead of a problem- maker; why not implement it!!!!!. Don’t let the T.V. take over your life, use it wisely!!!!!