Audio Apps & Tools

   Part of this week's activities is to explore a few different webtools. I visited each link our instructor posted and these are the ones I plan on using:

1. Vocaroo - this webtool allows me to record my voice and save the link to share elsewhere. There is no signup required. It reminded me of Screencast-o-matic from yesterday without the visual. Here is the one I easily made and an idea I have for it.

My first Vocaroo

Other ideas I have for this tool include the following:

• Having kids record their voices about something they learned in class, after finishing a story, researching, or verbally giving a summary and emailing it to me to grade instead of always handwriting it. (I know my kids will love that option!)
• I can record explanations for a student who is home bound or absent for a longer period of time. 
• One of my classes next year will have ELL students and this will be a great tool for them.
• Practice speeches to hear their tone, pacing, and pronunciation.

A special thank you to teachersfirst.com for some great ideas!

2. Fotobabble - create a login, upload a photo, record audio, save/share, and you're done! This tool was user friendly and simple to use. I would link my first fotobabble, but it's a picture of my students. Since I am not sure if I should post their pictures online, I will refrain from my first one. Here is a link to my second. 

My second Fotobabble

Some ideas I have for this tool include: 

• Kids can use this tool to practice for speeches in front of the class when there is a visual involved. They can hear their pacing, tone, overall delivery.
• Book talks
• Teaching inferencing with photos.
• Find a picture of a well-known person we are reading about (Harriet Tubman, Robert Frost, Abraham Lincoln) and have the kids create a short bio for their subject.
• I can create a mini bio to use on my teacher webpage.
• I could also take photos of my students working on something and post the photo along with an explanation of what they are doing. Although this idea sounds a little like elementary school, I think my middle school parents would appreciate it. 

I got some of those great ideas here: https://edst615su11.wikispaces.com/Fotobabble+Ideas

I also took some time to play around with Little Bird Tales. This site could be really neat for kids to make stories using pictures or their own creation. I was even thinking of uploading pictures from our family vacation and letting my four-year-olds narrate it to share with family. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of playing around, creating a login, uploading pictures, I couldn't get it to work the way I was hoping. Maybe I will revisit this site again other time.