Brad's+HammaHTime

Welcome to Brad's HammaHTime Wiki! //BIO// My name is Brad Hammer. I teach third grade at the Ward School in Newton. I've been at Ward for 24 years. That does not include the seven years I went there (K-6) as a student! I enjoy using technology in my classroom and am always looking for ways to integrate it into the curriculum. That is a major reason why I'm taking this course.

I have two children - Jon is 11 and Laura is 13. My wife Linda is the photographer. My favorite activities with my children are playing baseball and softball. The more I get to do with my kids, the happier I am. We go to lots of sporting events, and hang out a lot.

I am always looking for newly found treasures, or those that have been around that people are using in exciting ways in their classrooms. I have one iMac in my third grade classroom that is relatively current. My teacher laptop is on the old side, and won't be replaced for three more years. We have iBooks - Mac laptops that we check out of the library.

I like finding websites that we can all use together in class. I also like to find interactive sites that are great for providing challenge that has some form of record keeping. I'm looking forward to finding and sharing lots of ideas with my collegues in this class. I've included a picture of my kids and me so you have an idea with whom you are communicating.

I am taking this course for credit.

Peace.

Brad



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Assignment 2
===I found it very helpful to look at Christine’s wiki. Thanks, Christine! I used to teach fourth grade and we did a rocks and minerals unit. Students always wanted to see more examples. The use of Google Squared seems like an effective solution. Not only do you get to see different minerals, you can see the results of tests that students actually perform. For example, you can see luster, streak, etc. I love how you get so much useful data that correlates with curriculum.=== ===I went through a number of searches before I found something with which I was happy. I looked at frogs, as we receive tadpoles and study the life cycle of these little critters. I was excited when I saw choices to add data, such as habitat, but it came back with very little information. I thought about trees and identifying them by their leaves, but again I came up with very few results. The word “trees” brought me some good data, but the vocabulary used was not what I was looking for. I deleted a few columns. Students need to describe the shape of the tree. I also want students to be able to identify trees, and one way is to identify the shape of its leaf. I used //leaves//, //leaf shape//, and //leaf// as search terms. I then had to go and select the best choice, if one was presented. Time consuming and my level of confidence goes down… I then added //bark//, //fruit// and //flower//. The last two actually presented some terms without me having to choose. I’m excited to work further on my saved //Trees// Google Square!===

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===We do a unit on structures – buildings and bridges. To kick off the unit, a gentleman who runs a program called //Techsplorations// (paid for by //Creative Arts//) comes to our school and puts on a fabulous performance. The kids then get to build their own bridges and towers, using materials that he brings to the classroom. We look at a few different bridges and actually build some. It’s terrific. It’s also great to be able to see real bridges in the world that use the same building fundamentals. He shows us slides, but he goes through them pretty quickly.=== ===I typed the word “bridges” in Google Squared and I was very happy with the results. In many of the descriptions next to the images, children can find out the type of bridge. I added my own column called “Type.” I did not get many results. I was able to manually input the type, but didn’t see many good suggestions. One of these cells may say //3 possible values//. I can’t seem to figure out how to add my own //value// that works. I’ve tried a few different html examples to no avail. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m not sure that it’s possible! I wish that the user could click and drag rows. For instance if I want a student to drag three arch bridges together and then three suspension bridges to look at their differences. I know that I can do this in other ways, but clicking and dragging is the most efficient.===

@http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=bridges
Hi Brad, I don't know why that was happening. I did insert a horizontal line and then saved and went back in and could type here. Technology can be tricky :) Erin (you can erase this I just wanted to make sure I could type here.)  //Thank you so much, Erin! I could not get the wiki page to continue. I was unable to type. The insertion of a horizontal line allowed the page to continue. Great problem solving, Erin! :-)//

Here is a link to a form I'd like to send to parents at the beginning of the year. My colleague and I sent this in paper form. I then type every form I got back into a database, as I like to keep as much info on my kids in one place that can stay with me when I'm not in school. This year it looks like I can do the very same thing online. Please share any feedback! You may decide you'd like to use it in your own classroom! My Child as a Learner Brad, This is a great parent form. It is so much easier for parents to fill things out like this before school starts and not be bombarded with papers at the beginning of school. Erin

I've set up this Google Map to show where I enjoy going when I visit Martha's Vineyard. I love taking the car onto the beach. We load it up with fishing gear, boogie boards, barbecue, food and cold drinks, etc. Once at the beach, we drop the tire pressure to 15 psi and we can drive all over the sand. Then we're set for a magnificent day! media type="custom" key="10048497"

Here is a link to a Google Earth project called //Zoom from Ward//. It is a kmz file that will open in Google Earth. The idea of this project is to give children an idea of where in the world they are located - from a birds-eye view of the globe. I love how G.E. opens in a zoomed out view to see the world. With a double click of the mouse, the world closes in as the view races to the John Ward Elementary School in Newton, MA. Once you download the file, make sure that all of the checkboxes are UNchecked, except for the 1st - Ward School. Double click on #1, Ward School and you will zoom to the school. Click on checkbox 2 to get the next highlighted boundary, and then double click on the heading. Continue in this fashion. I can automate this, but I like to use it slowly so the third graders and teacher have time to talk about all of these places. Connections are always encouraged. Please let me know if you are able to use the file! Here goes!

This is a Wordle on the Water Cycle. I entered the words "water" and "cycle" more than other words to make them larger. I then made a new and improved Wordle. I didn't realize you couldn't search your Wordles, so now I've bookmarked the page. media type="custom" key="10121651" align="center"

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Here is a VoiceThread file. Here is a link that makes the file public if you are unable to view it. media type="custom" key="10131425"

Three Classroom Tools Time for Time http://www.time-for-time.com/swf/myclox.swf I like the tool //Time for Time//. The user is presented with an analog clock and is given the choice to see the same time on a digital clock. The user can then manipulate the time in segments of one minute, 15 minutes, 30 minutes or one hour at a time. Many third grade students benefit from using //Judy Clock -// a clock whose hands can be moved. I would like to put //Time for Time// on my website so that if children are doing homework, but benefit from using a //Judy Clock// in class, they will be able to manipulate a clock's hands to aide in understanding. Voice Thread www.voicethread.com I have had some experience using Voice Thread in the past, but not to its full capacity. Voice Thread is a great application for digital story telling. In the past I've used a scanner to bring in artwork, but this year I will have students take photos of their artwork. Even third graders have experience with digital cameras and see them in use, whereas scanners are not so much part of their daily lives. I used Voice Thread to put together a science project on the water cycle, but I'd like to have kids do some of their own digital storytelling. My third grade students were able to work with the application easily. There are not many buttons to choose from, which keeps the program simple to use. I did a poor job at putting the word out to our classroom community, and one of the great strengths of Voice Thread is in the ability to leave written or verbal feedback. Students love writing to live audiences! Google Docs www.docs.google.com I must admit that I wonder what it would be like using Google Docs in my third grade classroom. I"m very excited about using a Google Doc form to send to all parents to get information about their children. All of the information will come back in a spreadsheet. In the past, I've sent home a letter. I then take all of the returned letters and type the info into one document that I can keep with me on the computer. I will no longer need to do this since the form will put everything into a spreadsheet. I'm also interested in trying to use it with my students. They would all need gmail accounts in order to do this, and I don't know if this makes any sense. There may be some parents who do not want this for their children. I've also taken a look at TypeWithMe (http://typewith.me/) and the other applications that are extremely similar. In order to do any type of collaborative projects, students will need an email account. There doesn't seem to be any way around the email account. I will have to look into this further.