Blog Post # 7- How Do We All Become Learners?

The video Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten is a discussion between Dr. Strange, Michele Bennett and Elizabeth Davis about the use of iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL). Mrs. Bennett tells us about the use of iMovie in the Kindergarten classroom. She talks about how she could not believe that Kindergartners had already started using iMovie trailer. I have to agree with her, it is very impressive that they have already accomplished this. She also talks about how much the kids enjoy making book trailers and getting to edit them. Elizabeth Davis talks about the Alabama Virtual Library. This resource if free to anyone in the state of Alabama. AVL teaches children basic research skills. She says that to practice using AVL they give the students a list of animals and let them look them up and research them.

In the video We All Become Learners Dr. Strange, Michele Bennett, and Elizabeth Davis discussing how the learning dynamics have changed since schools have started using devices (iPads, MacBooks, etc). Mrs. Bennett says that it is not only teachers teaching students, but also students teaching students and students teaching the teachers. I love how Dr. Strange summed this up by saying, "Everyone becomes a learner and a teacher." I think these learning dynamics are great, we should all be able to learn from each other and help each other. She also talks about an app called Padlet. Padlet allows you to post a question on a URL and anyone can answer it and all of their answer show up simultaneously. Also, she says that they (the teachers/librarians) can show the students the mechanics of a program, which saves the teachers a lot of time in the classroom. Mrs. Bennett says that teachers are not really worried about knowing the mechanics of a program, that they can just get their students to show them, which is so great.

I chose the Kirby "I Can" Statements video. These Kindergartners are so very smart. They showed me how they can count to 100 by 10's; read Kindergarten books with purpose and understanding; identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book; identify the main topic and retell main details of a book. This is a great video to encourage other students to use "I Can" statements, plus it was just adorable!

I also chose the video Boosterthon Update!. This is a video of the students telling parents and friends about how much they have raised in their classroom. I think this is such a great way to relay information versus sending it home on a piece of paper or an email. Making an iMovie lets the students be involved and lets their parents see just how excited they are to have raised some money and reach their goals.

I would absolutely love to do an iMovie trailer like the one in Sawyer's Story for each of my students towards the end of the year. This video simply shows some of Sawyer's experiences throughout the year. It tells you that he is happily learning at school with all of his friends, and you can tell how happy he is by all of the pictures. Now the fact that Sawyer made this trailer by himself, that is the amazing part! This would have been so fun to do when I was in elementary school! Allowing students to do projects like this broadens their capabilities in technology and is so amazing.

My final video that I chose was A Conversation with 2nd Graders on Doing Research and Creating Presentations. In this video Dr. Strange asks these two 2nd grade girls to tell him about their presentation and how they made it. The girls said that they used keynote to create their presentation. They said that they like doing these presentations because they learn a lot of information that they did not know. Dr. Strange then asks them how they went about doing their research. The little girl starts listing all of the steps on how to get on Safari or Alabama Virtual Library on their iPad and find pictures and information. These kids are so intelligent, I could not even keep up with all of those steps! They said that they enjoy these types of projects because they get to use their iPads.