Jane's Reflection of the Monster Blog

I enjoyed working on this project. I have done something similar in class where the kids draw an item and then describe it. I read it aloud to everyone and we see how many students drew what was described. We get into fits of laughter at some on our interpretations. The monster and blog sharing ideas is very clever and allows for more description and storytelling to take place.

The editing portion- I edited my own. The platform could also be used to editing each other's work and then show rewrites. I used a color scheme, with explanations on what they are intended. Having that tool available and a suggestion requirement, allow the students to become the editors. Paying attention to the toolbar and what limitations it may have, and then creating an universal editing explanation tool will allow the class to see and know what the intended change suggestions should be. 

Sara's Monster Blog

The thoughts of what Samantha’s brother told her earlier kept running through her head as she approached the door, “It will tear your eyes out, poke holes in your feet, and if the slime gets on you…it will keep on eating whatever it touches!!!” The image of the sand dunes in the background and the fire in front of her ablaze, it made every part of her jumpy.

The tapping on the door persisted, as did the sound of a low gurgle, a huffing sound, and small pops. Samantha reached for the doorknob and turned it slowly. At the last click of the knob the door swung open and there it was!

Samantha’s eyes moved from the floor up to the four bulbous eyes looking at her. The eyes were on antennas like a snail’s, but glowed lime green. It was huge! There were four black peg legs like a spider has. “Keep your feet away from those,” Samantha thought.

It’s body was bright red and ellipse shaped like a crab! There were two pairs of claws, one on each side of it. Samantha took one step back and repeated, “It will tear your eyes out,” in her head. The clicking of them made Samantha even more frightened of what was to happen next.

She focused onto the four holes in the center of what seemed to be its face. There was bright green slime coming out of each one with a popping and gurgling sound. Below the holes was a light blue line going left to right and it began to move. It was its mouth! Opening up to the shape of a banana and Samantha remained tense. The monsters mouth had four teeth, but the teeth were not scary. They were square like Chiclets chewing gum; two on the top and two on the bottom surrounding those.

The monster huffed in a breath, clicked its claws, and slime splashed onto Samantha when it opened its mouth. She screamed in terror! The smell of its breath was a bit unbearable, but then the monster spoke. “I am so sorry, I did not mean to frighten you! You see, I have a cold and was looking for something to wipe my nose with and did not want to ruin your clothes.”

Samantha was stunned. She replied, “So, the slime is not going to eat through me.”

The monster said, “No, it is unpleasant and I did not mean to get it on you.”

She slowly moved towards her bedside and grabbed a few tissues to get the slime off of her shirt. She ran into the bathroom and grabbed a towel. Upon her return, the monster had remained where it was. She handed it the towel. It replied, “Thank you so very much,” blew its nose, “what a relief!”

The monster did sound better and said, “My name is Crustforth, thank you so much for your kindness and not running away when I was in such need. I will go now and let you get back to sleep so you do not end up all slimy faced like me!”

Samantha replied, “You’re welcome Crustforth, my name is Samantha. The next time you need anything please knock and I will know it is you!”

Crustforth disappeared quietly into the darkness of the back of the closet and Samantha returned to her bed. As she settled herself and drifted off to sleep she thought, “I guess you shouldn’t always jump to conclusions and believe rumors you hear.”

Sara's Monster

I should have read "two-pairs of claws" more carefully! Also my lips are blue-- just hard to see! ~ Jane  

ECOMP 5004- Monster Blog

              Thump, Evan heard the noise again. It was definitely coming from his closet. Taking a deep breathe, Evan threw back the covers and landed quietly on the plush carpet. He quietly let out the air trapped in his lungs, stood tall, and walked deliberately over to his closed closet door. He knew that there was nothing to fear. There had never been anything under his bed or in his closet every time he had his parents check when he was a little boy. It must be his old football helmet rolling off the top shelf. Evan would just open the door and put it back up. The problem though was at night, a boy’s imagination could come to so many conclusions. Evan became determined to straighten out the situation so he could go back to bed.
             He wrapped his hand over the cool metal knob and turned it slowly to the left. When he heard the click of the dead latch, he flung open the door. The light from the hallway reflected on the creature the minute the door was ajar. Evan screamed as did the monster.
                The Closet Monster appeared to be over six feet and has to stoop down in order to fit on top of the hanging clothes. Its eyes were large and round and had a green glow to them, every time the monster swung its head around as it sounded its surprise. The head was round with two large tear drop shaped ears protruding from the top. The inner folds of the ears appeared to be blood red. The body reminded Evan of a large egg. The pink nose stuck out on the end of a large triangular snout and twitch to smell Evan’s scent.  Its arms protruded from its shoulders and rested claws upon its hips as if to show impatience at being interrupted. The long tail was wrapped in front of its body holding some prized possession. The gray-blue body rocked in indignation upon its hoofed-shape feet.
                Evan blinked his eyes and realized that this monster was …

          Jane's Drawing                              Sara's Drawing

This was my attempt of Jane's Monster...I am so curious to see what it actually is supposed to look like... :)- Sara

Editing:

Green- added word

Orange- look for a word or look up in a thesaurus.

Light Blue- using a word too many times, omit or find another

Pink- punctuation change or correction needed

Yellow- Awkward word structure change or rewrite.

           Thump, Evan heard the noise again. It was definitely coming from his closet. Taking a deep breathe, Evan threw back the covers and landed quietly on the plush carpet. He quietly let out the air trapped in his lungs, stood tall, and walked deliberately over to his closed closet door. He knew that there was nothing to fear. There had never been anything under his bed or in his closet every time he had his parents check when he was a little boy. It must be his old football helmet rolling off the top shelf. Evan would just open the door and put it back up. The problem though was at night, a boy’s imagination could come to so many conclusions. Evan became determined to straighten out the situation so he could go back to bed. 

             He wrapped his hand over the cool metal knob and turned it slowly to the left. When he heard the click of the dead latch, he flung open the door. The light from the hallway reflected on the creature the minute the door was ajar. Evan screamed as did the monster.

                The Closet Monster appeared to be over six feet and has to stoop down in order to fit on top of the hanging clothes. Its eyes were large and round and had a green glow to them every time the monster swung its head around as it sounded its surprise. The head was round with two large tear drop shaped ears protruding from the top. The inner folds of the ears appeared to be blood red. The body reminded Evan of a large egg. The pink nose stuck out on the end of a large triangular snout and twitch to smell Evan’s scent.  Its arms protruded from its shoulders and rested its claws upon its hips as if to show impatience at being interrupted. The long tail was wrapped in front of its body holding some prized possession. The gray-blue body rocked in indignation upon its hoofed-shape feet.

                Evan blinked his eyes and realized that this monster was …

ECOMP6008 The Last Week

This class has wound down with our final project being a class website. We were to incorporate some of the places and ideas we have explored this term. I used the original site I have at school but added  some additions from Google as well as Wikispaces and have a few other plans in the works. Winter break will be busy.

One project I plan to use is to create a teacher page of technology sites and ideas. I plan to take ones we have explored and offer them to the staff. I can also make it a password protected site so only staff members may access. Ideas to create a Wikispace  for us to communicate better (we are one school in two buildings) and to work on new initiatives, at the same time. Delicious is also a site not many use so I hope to create some new converts.

So I plan to be busy and really appreciate the comments and suggestions from my professor and classmates. Another worthwhile class!

ECOMP 6008- Week 7

Week 7- a look back….

Wikis that appears to be a platform that I was not completely comfortable to explore with my students. But now that I know more about them and what platforms have more safety nets to help my students along and to protect their use, I am seeing many different collaborative projects. At this time I have begun a wiki and hope to get my students on board next after the holidays. I will use winter vacation to plan it and complete it. (Who said teachers had too many vacation days???) I am planning on getting permission slips to go along with the assignment, since the children will have an email address (though temporarily) through the site.

Chapter 7- The reference sources in this chapter are helpful. They are a good exercise to use before we set the students on a WWW exploration. Students tend to take what they read on the web as fact and do not analyze the different sources. This chapter is a good reference and guide to get the children to explore different sites and see what works and what does not.

ECOMP6008 Week 6

Week 6- Time sure does fly by quickly. During week 6, we have looked at Wikis place and their place in the classroom. I have been able to find one that is as secure as a Wiki can be, but I still want to examine it carefully before I invite the students to work on projects through a Wiki. Hopefully by January, that will be a possibility. I added more bookmarks to delicious and found some really interesting sites to examine later. Some may be very useful in the classroom.

The Text- Chapter 3 How To Validate Information On the Web

The text introduces the acronym REAL to use to remind students to validate the websites the visit. It also has a very good activity to help take students through the process. Students need to be taught how to pick and choose the correct site. Too many times we hear them talking about something new they have seen on the web and on further investigation we find out that the event, or information was a hoax. The chapter gives many good activities that can be easily adapted to allow students to become better web consumers.

Chapter 4- Look At The Links

The last step in the REAL acronym is the L or Looking at the links. The chapter examines how to breakdown the parts of the links. It also hits upon something I do sometimes, but not with full concentration. That would be looking at the links from the viewed webpage. Where do they take you? Are they related to the content of the original page? What do these added links have to say about the original intent of the webpage? Can you navigate away and get back or are you lead astray to a sight you can never seem to get out. Some very good ideas and concepts to bring up with students for the next time we are browsing.

ECOMP 6008 Presentation

I am also submitting a copy of my project on Telecommunications in the Classroom