Back From Kilgo Kountry

Earlier in November, Mrs. Goss, Mrs. Shelton, Ms. Jocab, Mrs. Pinkston, took a trip to see the Testing Guru, Margaret Kilgo of Kilgo Consulting, Inc. The ladies enjoyed themselves so much that it behooved them to share their "Aha!" moments with the staff in their own unique manner.





Blabberize is a tool that can be easily implemented in your classroom instruction. This Web2.0 tool is simple to use and loads of fun to work with. In the beginning of the school year, Mrs. Whittington's class had a chance to use Blabberize to talk about what a scientist looks like. Smittie's K.I.D.S. used blabberize to conduct a podcast interview with European explorers where students worked in pairs and researched a specific explorer. From the research, each group developed a minimum of 7 questions that used to interview the explorer. One student was the interviewer, while the other student took an image of the European Explorer and blabberized the answer to each question.

Students were completed engaged in both classes as they learned invaluable information mostly on their own and had the opportunity to have an audience to share their knowledge with. That's what it's all about.

How can you use Blabberize in your classroom? Leave a comment.

Gaze At The Skype With No Roof to Your Classroom

Classroom collaboration is a must this year and we continue to encourage students to communicate their knowledge in creative ways. We all know that many times, the students learn better from each other then from us as adults. I have witnessed collaborative groupings all over the campus and in other schools throughout our district this year. So, how about we take collaboration a step further? I know, let's use Skype! Woohoo! Some of you know that I have used Skype in the classroom for some time now. Last year we were able to communicate with a classroom in Kansas City, Missouri while discussing our novel study on Rick Riordan's "The Lightning Thief" and the students were super thrilled.

Skype is a free download that you can actually put on your teacher and student computers in your classroom. The steps are easy to take and you can be up and running in less than 10 minutes. Once you are ready, you will be able to tear down the 4 walls of your classroom and expose your students to the world. Imagine doing projects on Skype with another class in the building or on another campus. Maybe a collaborative writing project with a classroom outside of our state using Storybird. What about being able to do problem solving in math with a group of students in Canada. The possibilities are endless. Check out some additional ideas for using Skype that Smittie's K.I.D.S. came up with.

• Vertical tutoring
• Parent/teacher conferencing
• Online Reader's Theatre
• Global collaboration
• Interviewing Authors, community leaders, occupations, etc.
• Staff developments
• After-school  help
• broadcast a class performance to parents, grandparents...etc.

Using Skype will definitely flatten your classroom out, blowing the roof off collaboration limitations.
How can you use Skype in your class? Leave a comment below. Also, check out Skype in the Clasroom beta.