What strategy did you hear that you are going to try with students?

I am going to use the flicker storm and i photo to create slide shows to promote writing and reading. I would like to create class books with my kiddos too.

My a-ha was that boys need to see the whole product first, need immediate feedback, and respond well to rehearsing with the teacher. In addition, all students respond well to movement, visuals, and hands on activities.

What was the a-ha?

1) The strategy that I will be implementing in my classroom is asking my students (especially male writers) to focus on sketching pictures before writing and then asking them to write the middle or the end of the story. I will also focus on using more visual images when teaching writing so that I can engage the male students...even when they are in the "rest state" of mind.


2)My "A-ha" moment was when I realized I can have great parent communication with families using technology to communicate on a daily basis.I will use student writing and pictures to tell stories every single day!-The picture of the day book

What strategy did you hear about that you'd like to try?

I will absolutely have the kids draw more as a pre-writing activity. It was great to hear this strategy validated. I like the notion of having the kids draw at home and return with their ideas on paper.

My ah-ha....WOW! Flickershop is so much fun and seems easy enough to use. I can using this for many content areas. The pictures available are engaging and appropriate.

Thanks for a great day. There was SO much information -- I need time to process and practice. Wonderful presentation!

An "a- ha" moment for me was when I realized that the fn/F11 key makes all of the windows disappear and reappear. I am going to try the strategy of engaging my struggling writers with a Flickr storm slide show. Hopefully my boy writers will come up with detailed pieces after seeing all of those visual images!%Pr

Strategy: I will use different pieces of technolgy to help my students stimulate ideas for writing to help stimulate writing, especially my boy writers. Eventually, it will be fun putting pictures on Kidspiration and letting them write about them. I will also develop slide shows and i-photo books to get them excited.

Wow: Flickrstorm will change my classroom. Combined with iphoto and ibook I will have fun. I wasn't convinced about kids drawing pictures before writing but I am excited now after reading the chapter from Ralph Fletcher's book.

The strategy that I will implement from this class is using more pictures to produce student writing. I will use pictures that I find as well as having students draw or create their own to help them brainstorm the words. The slide shows were great to spark ideas and easy to create. My A-ha moment was exploring flickrstorm and seeing the mass amounts of photos available to usePr

I will spend much time setting up pictures to use with my
units. Flickr storm is Awesome! I want to present the kids with these pictures as a hook to engage them in learning. IPhoto is really fun too, as I had not used it before. I
learned a lot from the articles on boys and girls minds.

I really enjoyed the whole day. I look forward to using the flickr slides that my teammate and I made. I think the ah-ha came from learning about boys and how they learn differently from girls. I also enjoyed having the time to work with our tech coach- Paul- and setting up quality tech lessons for the classroom.

This was a great day of learning for me. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this approach to writing especially concerning boys. I will walk away with some great ideas to apply in my classroom. The day was fruitful and I enjoyed getting a better understanding of how Apple PCs work and all of the amazing things I can do. I hope to bring my boy students to their true writing potential. I am thrilled to have been able to attend this workshop!!!

This was a very enjoyable day of learning for me. I can't believe that I was able make slideshows and books from FlickrShow and I-Photo. I already have plans to use that in my classroom immediately. I plan to implement the pumpkin activities in my class in the next few weeks!

I really enjoyed everything today. I hope to be more intentional about my modeling and showing the boys(and rest of the class) the big picture before I jump into the specifics. I love working on the computer. It gives me the creative outlet that I miss. My ah-ha is that kids need more creative outlets as well, I bet.

I will be using iphoto to create class books I will also use flickrstorm in a variety of ways and to help incorporate more visuals which will help my visual learners and students who are learning English. I really learned a lot about how boys think, learn and write differently than girls. I learned a lot toady!

I love i-photo! I want to continue this learning process immediately with my students. I am planning on doing the pumpkin activity and adding a bats unit along with extending my Russia unit with the slide show option. Thank you for all of the great ideas. I look forward to planning with my coach. I look forward to making stronger connections with my 14 boys too!

Excited about using flickr to create slide shows to motivate writing. I knew about it but couldn't create a slide show on my own. I will continue to allow students (especially boys)
the chance to draw before writing but will also do a lot more inquiring about those pictures. I plan on doing a descriptive writing activity with our Owls, Bats and Spiders unit in October using a slide show.

I feel very motivated and more equipped to use technology in my classroom. I like the ideas given for using the action pictures to help boys with writing. I will also use the pumpkin patch idea. I was surprised to learn how easy it is to find pictures and put a slide show together.

Awesome ! I enjoyed the day. I wish it could be more than one day so I could absorb the information better. I am going to try to do the slide show, book, and the draw write program on kidspiration. I think the slide shows are the best. I want to be a slide show expert that other teachers want to come to me to learn what to do. :)

I learned so much that I don't know where to start!I enjoyed the iphoto, Flickr, and how boys learn differently research. I look forward to using the picture tray and making a slide show. Thanks Ann, for all your help!

Choosing pictures was so easy. Also, this was my first time to use I Movie. (It was easy too! These will be great resources to inspire my first graders to write. I'm anxious to see if some of the photos help to inspire my hesitant writers. All the individual help was great, thanks!

I actually was engaged and excited throughout the whole day. There wasn't any particular part that I enjoyed most. I enjoyed all of it!!! FlickrStorm is a wonderful site(sight)!!! I plan on continuing to use and implement 21st Century Standards and Benchmarks when planning all activities and including a culturally responsive approach when teaching.

This was a productive workshop - I have tools, resources, and a thousand ideas! I plan on using my photo links to introduce Asia (slide show) to my students. I will also print a picture book from the same source. In addition, I hope to access pimpampum.net in an effort to continue book publishing with my students. Thank you for sharing your expertise and taking us on a 'trip' to the pumpkin patch.

What a fantastic workshop! I love leaving a class and being excited about getting back in my own classroom to share my new found activities. Thank you for letting us share our photo trays with everyone. Thanks Jane and Karen. You guys are amazing. Thanks for making an ol' teacher excited again!

I created a slide show of pumpkins. I can't wait until I get back in my room to try it with my first graders.

My ahha is that boys work better in brighter light and girls work better in dimmer light - definitely will adjust my teacher style and watch the different effects on the boys and the girls.

I am excited about the photo trays in FlickrStorm. I have been using FlickrStorm to create slide shows and that will make the process so much faster. In addition to learning so many ideas to use in my classroom, I have some that I plan to use with my kids at home too. I'm going to try the pumpkin activity in the weeks to come before fall break! Thank you for such great ideas about how to incorporate technology in my classroom! :)

My aha was how cool was it to drag attachments into an e-mail.
My class is going to the dentist on a field trip tomorrow and then I am going to try a writing activity like the pumpkins we did first without a visual and then adding a visual. Loved it ladies, great job.

I learned so much today and found it very beneficial to me, which will carry over to my students. I had no idea all the things you can do and having access to find and utilize all these pictures in different ways is great!

I appreciated the updated research and information regarding boys and writing. I am very excited to use the slide show in class next week. I have so many ideas that I think I can implement very easily and very soon with my kiddos. Thank you!

Thank you for the day. I love to play and produce items. I am anxious to try these things in my classroom. I also appreciate the time to think about the needs of my kids, especially boys. I am frustrated though because my laptop does not have the opertating systems to support some of these ideas.

I had a fantastic day! This was a wonderful workshop. I will use FlickrStrom often. I cannot wait to show my team and share the things we learned. We will use the slide shows to to create background knowledge. Thank you very much for sharing your photo's and allowing us to share photo's with each other. I will also make classroom books in IPhoto. I look forward to our class in January!

Thanks for a really great day. Pacing and content were great...gave us an opportunity to play with the technology and incorporate the content with it, leaving with ideas and something I can use. Also like the menu of ideas that others have created as well.

I was engaged the entire time today! :) I am going do the pumpkin writing activity with my students. I have already begun putting a photo album together for a polar regions unit I am currently working on. I have a ton of ideas for how to use my new found knowledge.

This was a wonderful day. I learned so many new techniques and tools to use in my classroom right away. I am very excited to start using slide shows to help my students use their background knowledge when they write. It was good for me to hear that many boys need to sketch what they are going to write before they start writing. I am going to remember to allow all of my students the time to draw their stories before I expect them to write.

It was fun and exciting to find pictures and create slide shows and books. Throughout the day, I had a lot of ideas for using this process. It is so helpful to be visual in kindergarten. Now, I just need to make sure I go back and actually use what I have learned so it sticks. I look forward to the support I will have in this process. Thank you!

I made a wordless picture book about the life cycle of a pumpkin..."From Vine to Jack-o-lantern". I can't wait to have the kids write the story for this book.
I also LOVE the idea of just putting up a photo from Flickr as a writing prompt.
My "ah ha" today was the fact that girls' brains are literally wired for more success with writing, and I've gotten great ideas about how to set boys up for success.

What a great day! I can't think of the best part-I was engaged all day. I love the sharing of pictures! I plan on downloading a few of them to use in my classroom.

Thank you for such a wonderful day. I learned so many wonderful ideas to get all students engaged in writing using fun and exciting technology tools! I am excited to show my students two slide shows tomorrow!!

Awesome workshop. It was a great refresher for me on FlickerStorm, iPhoto, etc. I hadn't realized that I could create books on iPhoto and print them out without buying them thru Apple. I can't wait to get my reluctant writers in the mode of writing and creating cool books.

This workshop was very informative. Using FlickrStorm to make a slide tray was so easy and fun. I can't wait to get back to my classroom and make a class book using iphoto. Thanks you so much for all of your help.

Wow! I didn't realize how easy it was to find and create slide shows. I love being able to take new ideas away and be able to put them into practice the next day.
Thanks! I am excited to show my scarecrow slides tomorrow. I also found great resources for upcoming concepts.

I am going to use flickr to create slide shows to motivate writing...especially from my boys who are reluctant to write! I'm going to try using the pumpkin activity with my first graders. I will also be sure to allow all students, especially boys, the time to draw before writing. This workshop was very useful. Thanks :)

I always learn so much! Even if I am familiar with a concept or program, it gives me a chance to go deeper in my thinking and create some usable materials for the classroom. I created a pumpkin slide show that I will incorporate into our class tomorrow. I also redid an ABC project and created a slide show to use with my older students about emotions.