Ms. Abraham's Classroom Blog

                       Sharpe Elementary School

                                   Where Eagles Soar!

Sharpe will continue as a professional learning community where all teachers seek innovative strategies to prepare students for the next stage of their educational journey.  Sharpe’s stakeholders will continue to collaboratively motivate children to become confident and creative builders of their future as well as becoming future leaders of the community.

We at Sharpe Elementary School believe:

All stakeholders are equally responsible for treating each other with respect and dignity.

Teachers use strategies, data, and research based information to ensure that each student experiences success every day.

Students are responsible to work to the best of their ability and think creatively.

Students should be provided with opportunities to apply technology as a tool to enhance learning.

Administrators  and faculty collaborate with parents, and community members to reinforce student learning.

Our mission is to meet the individual needs of students with a research based curriculum.  Our teachers use best practices to promote student learning.  Students are provided with a educational experiences that encourages technology integration. Our school fosters a caring, creative enviroment enphasizing social, emotional, physical and intellectual development of each student.

A wiki is a way people can work together to build knowledge, collaborate on ideas, and create a community that uses the collected knowledge. Wikis allow online collaboration by adding and editing content on documents and projects. Wikis are a great way to collaborate in grade level meetings.

Scott Holcomb did a great job teaching us about podcasting. Podcasting is recording your voice and sending it out to the world for free. It is a recorded audio on demand. You need a mac, with OSX.xx, garage band, a microphone either a XLR, USB, or 1/4 or 1/8 input. At least two microphones will be needed. Optional items would be a microphone stand and a mixer. Two types of mics that work well is the snowball mic and the snowflake mic. There are several types of podcasting such as informational, educational, motivational and community involvement. Video podcasting (Vodcastiing ) is another way to podcast via video. Using podcasting and vodcasting in your classroom is an exciting way to motivate and interact with your class.

RSS means really simple syndication. Really simple syndication is a tool that can help web surfers avoid information overload in the information age. You are in the center of your own personal network. You can get news site, blogs, Wikis, and social media. All of this is done with XML files that can be read on your computer. There are three ways to read. They are web based, personal start page, and desktop programs. Education professionals can use RSS for blog assignments, calendar events, social bookmarking, current events, and other educational reasources.

Teacher Tube is a great way for teachers to connect. Teacher Tube allows teachers can upload, tag and share videos worldwide. Teachers can attach educational actvities, assessments, lesson plans, notes, and files to your video. Teachers are able to browse hundreds of videos uploaded by professionals. Teachers can join and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests.

IPhoto allows you to store, share photos by email, create amazing web pages, cards and calendars. iPhoto automatically organizes your photo library and makes editing as easy as clicking your mouse — so you can get the most out of even the biggest collection. With iPhoto, your home printer can do a lot more than just print plain photos one at a time. Use iPhoto themes to bring photos to life in colorful layouts, with borders, textured mattes, and text , and get instant gratification by printing on the spot.

Picasa is a way to import, organize, and show photos.  It’s free, easy, and graphically looks great.  You can decrease  or increase the size of the thumbnails.  It will also organize by date. You can edit photos using effects, or undo crops at any time. You can always have the original picture.  You can make a slide show with your picture or send it by email.  It allows you to make a gift CD to send to family and friends.

VCASMO is a multimedia presentation solution for personal photo, video slide show, training, academic teaching, and, live event.  You can upload individual powerpoint, and music. You can synchronize video and slides.