BP#9_2009122_Flickr_in_the_Music_Room

I think this will be very, very helpful for me, if what I want to do for my Action Research is approved.  I am frustrated that every month we are working towards something that we haven't been told is good enough for a project!  I would really like to know I am working on the right thing and not the wrong thing.  That aside, if what I am doing is right, this will be good for it.  The article is great.  I bookmarked it right now and when I don't have  a deadline I will go back and put it in my reader.
      It is telling me ways that are public uses of flickr and that is one of the things I wondered about.  Children have such funny ideas about things and don't think the way people with more experience do.   Therefore, vocabulary can be helped with pictures and video to show people things.  By finding photos to help with vocabulary (or movie clips), it can help a child to understand the vocabulary of a song better.  There is a list of classroom things that can be done with Flickr (Flickr in the Classroom).
  There are many websites with ideas, many ideas listed.  Many of them will not go with my classroom.  We will not be doing projects that classrooms would normally do, as my classroom has almost 1,000 students.  I make plans that cover what they can all do.  I will share some of these wonderful ideas with the classroom teachers as there are many projects that will fit them better.
     I will need to take the time to sift through all the ideas to find what else will work in my classroom, but I see the vocabulary as the biggest and best idea for me.  These children need to be exposed to what things mean.  What is a rampart, when learning the National Anthem?  To show them one will make it better understood.

Here is an example of using the info from the reference below.  I can use public photos and films.

Last year, as we sang "Old Dan Tucker" in first grade, we were on the third verse:

Old Dan Tucker came to town, Swinging the ladies all around

Circle to the right, Circle to the left,

Kiss the girl that you love best so,  (Chorus)

A boy began swinging his arm round and round, over his head, like a cowboy swinging his hat.

I asked him what he was doing.  I learned from him that he was pretending to hold a girl by her ponytail on top of her head, and was swinging it all around, over him, swinging the girl all around.   Poor girl.  I have very bad knees from 2 school accidents.  I need the children to understand they are square dancing when it says Swinging the ladies all around.

By using the public pictures and film, I can show square dancing and let them see what Dan Tucker meant by his words.    In showing them a square dance, they can then learn to make a grand promenade or at least, to swing a girl around, with an elbow swing.

It will make a difference.

References

Retrieved Dec. 5, 2009,  from Using Flickr in the Classroom;,  Illinoise Education and Technology Conference, http://www.jakesonline.org/flickrinclassroom.pdf.