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Thisi is the message on the student wiki for interviews over the holidays -
Interview questions were due today - if you were absent please make sure to practice, practice, practice before you begin your interviews. [|National Day of Listening]is November 26, 2010... you can visit their website to learn more about the project or to listen to some stories. We listened to the door man at the plaza, Miss Divine and the mother in the service. There is also a list of good questions - even though they aren't specific to the holidays there are some great questions that can be altered a little to make them usable for our project. Have a great holiday - Mrs. Sears

October 29, 2010
We spent the morning listening to recordings the students made of their short stories inspired by The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Visit the Mystery Stories page to learn more.

October 24, 2010
Photos from our walk on Friday. Mrs. Kingsbury's class and Mr. Sears' class were able to join us. We had a great morning. media type="custom" key="7294239"

October 13, 2008
Yesterday the students had some fun (I hope) learning about Glogs. I created a glog (a digital poster program) to share some of our technology. What is so great about a glog? The poster can include external links, music, images, videos and attachmnets. You can't do that with a tri-fold board -

October 13, 2010
Here it is! Our '3 Words' project - it was a challenge to convert several different formats and combine. We still have a few to work on and they will be in a second video - media type="custom" key="7179591"

September 23, 2010
Today your students are learning about edVoiceThread - I love VoiceThreads - and I think your students will too. What is a VoiceThread?

VoiceThread With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds[|images, documents, and videos] and allows people to navigate pages and leave [|comments in 5 ways] - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). [|Share] a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too. Users can [|doodle] while commenting, use multiple [|identities], and pick which comments are shown through [|moderation]. VoiceThreads can even be [|embedded] to show and receive comments on other websites and [|exported] to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

Watch the VoiceThread video to see what it is - and all the neat things you can do on it - media type="custom" key="6988295"

September 16, 2010
I have posted some new activities on the blog. On the student wiki - Today the classes are in the lab reading stories that have been posted about a shared image. One of the nice things about a wiki is that members can discuss pages ‘behind the scenes.’ If you have ever explored Wikipedia you will notice that there are tabs along the top of the page – just like our wiki page. Page, discussion, history... and in our case notifications – I can monitor discussions for specific examples from writings and constructive comments from students. Students can read and join the established discussions – every voice can be heard. I have added a student response to the image along with student comments. You can find them at This PaintingTells a Story.

September 8, 2010
Did you know that several medical schools have created programs that take med students into art museums to practice reading clues in paintings? Dr. Joel Katz's class of Harvard Medical School students meets on Friday afternoons at the Museum of Fine Arts, where they discuss the Seated Bodhisattva, a towering figure carved in ancient China, Joseph Mallord William Turner's Slave Ship, and other artworks Katz believes will make them better doctors.

=** [|Monet? Gauguin? Using art to make better doctors] ** =

We have been using narrative paintings to practice reading clues in images. It is easy to reveal sections of paintings using the Smartboard - we can focus on smaller details and make connections to previous knowledge.

Did you have a chance to look at What's in my bag? Look at what is behind the objects in the photo - What's in my bag - did you get it right?

September 3, 2010
I know the students are looking at artifacts in Social Studies, so we are taking a look at some too. Flickr (an online photo sharing site) has a pool called "What's in my bag". I pulled a few images and asked the students to tell me about the person that owns the bag. Here are some of their guesses - "What's in my bag" this is due by Tuesday at 9:00 pm, after that the page will be locked. A fun activity - but they are also learning how to use the wiki. Add some guesses of your own to the page (edit button, add name and entry to the bottom, save). Visit again on Wednesday to learn more about this one - interesting.... Ellen

van Gogh and Anchorage Trail
We started working with our field notes by looking at van Gogh's sketches- the Metropolitan has a wonderful [|interactive resource]that we used with the Smartboard.

August 30, 2010
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August 27, 2010
Interesting article - Class of 2014...eMail's for old people

August 2010
Welcome to our companion wiki page for 7th grade parents - this is a private site.. 'invitation only'. I will post new information at the top of the page.

We also have a companion blog: literacythroughart.blogspot.com

The blog highlights activities and is mainly a journal of what we are doing in class... one-way communication. The wiki offers the opportunity for participation in some of our activities.

Thank you for your interest - so - what is a wiki? On area for online collaboration which means it is a community for sharing, posting and dialogue. We use the student wiki to post links, videos, podcasts and more. Because this is a locked and private area I can share more of the student projects from class. I welcome participation and comments on what you read - let me know if you have any questions. Ellen media type="custom" key="6781783"