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 *  Welcome to Mrs. Riedy's 4th Grade Classroom ** 

Our class worked on three projects using photos and images to inspire our writing. Thanks to a generous gift from the Gridley Family Foundation, our class was able to work with a technology specialist to integrate new media and technology into our schoolwork. Our finished projects can be accessed by clicking on the links to the left. These projects are all short videos and might take a few seconds to load. Please be patient and you won't be sorry. We hope you enjoy our work! We had a blast creating the projects.

Prairie Poems
We took photos on a recent field trip to the prairie. We worked in pairs to write [|Cinquain] poems. We used images, words, music, and our recorded voices to create a visual Cinquain.

Rocket Day
We documented a recent visit from the Kansas Cosmosphere by taking photos of the day's events. We worked in pairs to choose photos and caption them to re-tell our adventure.

Poetry
We worked in pairs to write poems and then searched on the Internet for copyright free images that would enhance our words to create visual poems. This was our first project so we also spent time learning how to use the PhotoStory software, microphones to record our voices, and how to manage image files.

Technology
For each project we used a FREE program from Microsoft called [|PhotoStory]. We used digital cameras to take our own photos and we used images from [|Flickr] that had been tagged with a [|Creative Commons license] to share. After we finished our movies we uploaded them to the Internet using [|TeacherTube]. TeacherTube is a [|safe video-sharing site] for schools. Finally, we embedded the video into this [|wiki site] so that they would be easy to view.

Digital Citizenship
 Integrating technology tools into education is extremely important for preparing our students for the 21st Century. The communication, collaboration, and information opportunities available online are too rich to ignore. It is important, however, to stay informed and current with online tools in order to stay safe and keep your family safe. Kids are growing up in a digital world that is very different from the world we grew up in. We don’t have parenting models to fall back on. We are setting new rules and model behavior each day as we work, learn, and play with our digital kids. We don’t let kids drive without a license and we shouldn’t let them get online without our supervision and support. Read more for parents on the Digital Citizenship Wiki.

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