ComicLife-my new favorite program

I used ComicLife for the first time to create a comic strip to use with my students. The topic I chose to teach with my comic strip is simple machines. I had a great time creating my comic strip, and I am confident that my students would absolutely love using this program. This experience opened my eyes to the countless ways this program can be used, across subject areas and grade levels. It can be used in virtually any classroom, with so many benefits! Students get engaged in their learning on a deeper level and are enthusiastic about it. They improve their writing skills and their technology skills.There are so many learning opportunities with this program, I can't list them all. Now if I can just find a way to get this program on our school computers....anyone have any suggestions? Because now that I know about it, I want to use it!!

Here is a link to my project, if you would like to check it out! I'd love to hear your comments about it or about using comics with students.

http://katieadams.wikispaces.com/Comic+Life+project

Problem Based Learning + Technology = A Dream Come True, if I can do it!

While I truly feel that problem based learning techniques, coupled with Web 2.0 tools and other technology, sadly, I do not use these as much as I would like to in my classroom. Because of time and materials constraints, it is a struggle to fit it in with the rest of the curriculum. I am always interested in how my colleagues are able to balance all of the expectations on teachers including this one. I am really enjoying hearing about how everyone in my graduate program uses these techniques in their classrooms. It is truly inspiring to read about the creativity and incredible teaching going on. It has made me more determined to include more of these great ideas with my own students this year. It seems that the results are worth the time and effort put into the PBL/Technology package.

As Egbert puts it, in Supporting Learning with Technology, "with effective PBL, students can become more engaged in their learning empowered to become more autonomous in classroom work....Students can gain a deeper understanding of concepts, acquire skills necessary in the real world, and transfer skills to become independent and self-directed learners and thinkers outside of school". Isn't this what we all hope for? I can't think of a better outcome!

So far, so good...

Reflecting on this blogging experience thus far, I have learned that I have a great deal of work to do to make my blog what I want it to be. Viewing my classmates' blogs and reading their comments on others was invaluable. Their thoughts made me think about my own blog and how I can improve it. I realize now that I need to change it to make it look more professional and more user-friendly. Most of all, I realize that I am guilty of not having very conversation-provoking posts. My posts are more journalistic and do not prompt readers to reply. I will definitely have to work on this in future posts. While I still have some changes to make, I feel proud of myself for creating a blog at all, and I am excited about what else I will learn about blogs and how mine will evolve throughout this course. I know that this experience will prepare me to use blogging effectively with my students this year.