Kidsperation

What:

This week we learned about kidsperation. Kidsperation is a software program that is a lot of fun for creating a number of educational things.

So What?:

We actually didn't have an assignment this week. We played around with with kidsperation in the class. It was a lot of fun. This is a program that I am seriously considering buying. In class I only checked out the picture view part of the program. I did a couple of different lessons with it. I did one on substance abuse. I put substance abuse in the middle then had a web that went out to the different substance. I gave up on that one when I couldn't find any pictures to go with it. I have since learned that you can copy pictures from the web on to your document. After that I did a lesson on healthy eating. I put" making good choice" in the middle then had a web that went out with to different pictures and their names to choose from an orange or ice cream, soda pop or water. I really liked Jeremy's idea of making a " family tree" for the Greek Gods.

I went to the kidsperation web site and watched the introductory video. I can't believe how much more there is to learn about this product. I think I will down load the free 30 day trial so I can play around with it some more and let my kids use it.

Now What?:

There are so many different ways to use kidsperation in the classroom. I Googled " Lesson plans using kidsperation and found tons of ideas and came up with a few of my own. First I was thinking that using picture view I could have the students make a replica of our solar system, labeling each of the planets and their moons. Then they could go into the writing part of the program and add more detail about the different planets. This could be a science lesson that then connects to writers workshop. I love the idea of using the math section. I have never been very strong with math but seeing it done with the blocks could help me see it visually. Back in picture view you could have a lesson were your put in a question like " Ways to make 100". Then have four different bubbles, one for adding, one for subtraction, one for multiplication and one for division ( each with an example). Then they would need to come up with their own math problems. This could also be done with roots, fractions ( with a picture of a pizza) or any other math concepts. Another fun one would be the life cycle of a plant, the water cycle, weather cycle or animal feeding cycle. There are so many ideas to explore.

Video:

We didn't have a video for this week since some of us blogged about the kidsperation video last week, but I really like to do the video section. So I went to teacher tube and looked up the most viewed videos and found one I really liked. It is called "Pay Attention". It went through Gardner's nine ways of learning and asked what ways do your students learn, then suggested that they learn in all the ways but we need to add a new way of learning, digital. The video gave a lot of statistics on how much time our students spend on computer and so why don't we use theses options to teach our students. It's true but I disagreed with a lot of what the video said. It suggested that we need to use google and a whole bunch of other sites and apps. Yes we need to use technology but we also need to be safe. Teachers don't have time to screen every signal site out there so I think I will stick to UEN. The site also said we should use cell phones and ipods in the classroom. It gave a suggestion to tell the students they had ten minutes to receive a text from some one that wasn't in the the school. That person had to answer the questions what did they eat for breakfast that morning, were where they, what was the weather like were they are and what was the last thing they purchased. The student would then get extra points if the text was from some one in another country. How would a teacher monitor this? Would that teacher then read every text at that time and what about the students that don't have cell phones, would they just get a zero for the day or would the teacher give them a different activate. And what about parent rules of not talking, texting, chatting with people they don't know? This just seems like a risky activity to me.

I do plan on using technology in my classroom but I will be smart about it. Yes students are very good at it and it is a wonderful way to learn, but what about the art of handwriting and sending a good old fashioned, hand written letter to grandma. And what about the feel of a new, crisp book in your hands, one that has never been opened and you get to be the one to feel the crack of the spine. Or even better yet the soft, possibly yellowing pages of a beloved book that has been read by many. I love technology but I also love some of " the old ways". We need to incorporate as many ways of learning as we can to keep all of our students engaged.