I spent most of this afternoon designing a slideshow of my family using the Slide site. It took awhile to upload photos, but there are others things to do while you wait. In designing your slideshow you can add special features like backgound colors, themes and music. I was also able to add captions as each picture loaded.
I love this for personal use, but it also has endless possiblities for use in the classroom. Some ideas that come to mind for slideshows are open house, first day, field trips, getting to know you, family unit, field day and digital memory books. These can be shown throughout the year, so that parents can have an insight into the classroom happeninings. Of course you would have to have a right to photo permission slip prior to publishing for public view. If you could save the photos to the slide site students could create their own memory pages–How exciting would that be!
Connecting students home and school lives is extremely important to their success. Providing students with cameras and allowing them to take photos of them outside the classroom and then designing an About Me slideshow would be fascinating for everyone! I could use this idea in conjuction with my Student of the Week. I most likely would use this in some form or fashion once I return to the classroom, but until then, I will enjoy making family slides!
