All+About+Us

 We have come from many DIFFERENT places making each of us unique. But in school we are all STUDENTS, learning together, making us kind of the SAME!

 "All About Us "

In October and November we studied the 7 continents of the world. This was the perfect opportunity to get to know each other and to create our first multi-media computer project. //**Some of us had never used a computer before**// but we learned quickly how the mouse works and what "click here" means, how to log into and out of our personal computer spaces and where to save, find, and open our work. Learning how to navigate the computer was easy, we followed Mrs. K.'s directions and after a couple of times we just knew where to click. //**For the project we used**// a computer program called KidPix to create drawings, to type our words, and for map and flag graphics. When we finished our pictures we learned how to organize them into the KidPix slide show. **//We had fun//** discovering the perfect KidPix music, sounds, and transitions (the special effects in-between the slides) for our slides but the best part of our first computer project was saved for the end, recording (and hearing) our voices!

(We all started different projects and we ran out of time so Mrs. K. finished this part)
 * //Things we learned about ourselves and each other when we created "All About Us"//**
 * **Ahmed** learned that the "s" at the end of a word means that there are more than 1. He really like listening to his own voice!
 * **Edvard** loves maps and really liked working with that part of his slide show. He has a lot of stories to tell and is a good writer - his narrations came very natural to him.
 * **Anyarra** tried and tried again to make her recording just the way she liked it. Because her home country is so small she came up with the idea to point an arrow to its location - oh, and to color it pink, one of her favorite colors.
 * **Fatima** is a great artist and loved the drawing part of her first slide show presentation.
 * **Mary's** drawings show her talent. Sadly, Mary moved to another school so we did not have a chance to record her voice.
 * **Melissa** enjoyed the drawing and it shows! Setting up the transitions and sound, as well as the recording part were fun.
 * **Mohammad** loved finding his home country on the maps and really liked setting up the transitions and sounds for his show. As you can tell, he loves to talk!
 * **Mrs. K.** learned how to put the KidPix pictures everyone made into an "All About Us" presentation (using VoiceThread) and how to put the "All About Us" VoiceThread presentation into ELL-evate ELL, our new Newcomer Wiki blog.

**So, are you ready to watch our show?** Click on the arrow in the center of the VoiceThread presentation window below to watch a sampling (or part) of what we created in KidPix. **Make sure you turn on your computer sound**. Our voices do not all sound the same - this was our first recording experience so some of our voices are not so, some are a little loud er , and some are just the loud est , but that is another project. Enjoy!

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This is a protected blog but we invite you to send an e-mail message to Mrs. K. (kerkhj@portlandschools.org) to share any thoughts, comments, questions, or suggestions you may have. Thank you.