Best of the Bayou
Valerie R. Burton
Jefferson Parish Schools
West Jefferson High School
Harvey, LA
and answering a Frequently Asked Question
Question: What can you do in a classroom with 33 ninth graders and computers?
Answer: PowerPoint Presentation, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Digital Stories
Faux Facebook
WJ Scholars create Facebook pages for famous Americans (Nonfiction Unit.) My Scholars….
Read an article about a famous American
Summarized this information and created a Faux Facebook page for their American
Uploaded the PowerPoints onto Slideshare and then embedded them into their blogs
Student Work
http://www.slideshare.net/buccaneers/toni-morrisonfaux-facebook-byeva
http://www.slideshare.net/buccaneers/facebook-sample-page-jfk-christine
http://www.slideshare.net/buccaneers/jaymalisa-facebook
Create Podcasts for New Orleans Museum of Art
Summarized this information and created a wikipage containing research results
Created a podcast describing an artifact
Uploaded the to SoundCloud to be shared
Student Work
http://soundcloud.com/221podcasts/sets/noma-1
Create Blog Posts from Journal Topics
WJ Scholars create blog posts about being stranded, famous people to meet and resources if stranded
Composed blog post for personal blog
Added response to class blog
Student Work
http://msvrburton.edublogs.org/2010/12/09/super-powers-which-ones-do-you-want/
http://msvrburton.edublogs.org/2010/12/09/famous-person/
http://msvrburton.edublogs.org/2010/12/09/desert-island-dilemma/
Digital Stories
WJ Scholars study technology integration (MiniResearch Project.) My Scholars….
Read and summarized articles from eSchool about Technology Integration
Summarized research results and created a PowerPoint Presentation with at least 20 slides (slides with text and pictures)
Saved PowerPoints slides as jpegs
Created a Digital Story using PhotoPeach
Student Work
Destiny((: http://photopeach.com/album/14bi0n2
Klark's High Techno... http://photopeach.com/album/101jpoq
jingle techno http://photopeach.com/album/9xspnc
Wikipages for “Up From Slavery”
WJ Scholars read and respond to Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” (NonFiction Unit.) My Scholars….
Completed a PreReading Webquest about Slavery in America
Created a wikipage with those results
Read and blogged about the book
Created glogs with their “Up From Slavery” responses
Student Work:
http://scholarlysubmissions1011.pbworks.com/w/page/31331862/ayla-undergroundrailroad
http://scholarlysubmissions1011.pbworks.com/w/page/31232492/Eva-Underground-Railroad
http://scholarlysubmissions1011.pbworks.com/w/page/31245207/diamond-underground-railroad-
Talking about Ted Talks
WJ Scholars watched and responded to a Ted Talk (NonFiction Unit.) My Scholars….
Watched a Ted Talk by Chimamanda Adichie
Created a blog post in response
Student Work:
http://kidblog.org/ScholarsstudyUpFromSlavery/anthoneshea/a-single-story-5/
http://kidblog.org/ScholarsstudyUpFromSlavery/boudreauxmyranda/my-chimamanda-essay/
My philosophy of education is to provide my students with an inquiry-based atmosphere that fosters their individualized interests and talents. In my English I class, I use project based learning and technology to make learning enjoyable for all. Because my students have a variety of strengths, weakness and learning styles, I design each lesson so that it is diversified enough so that all students are able to succeed.