1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox?
Among my favorite tools are wordle, google doc, animoto, delicious, flickr, and photostory.
Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.
I will use photostory to present my lessons for Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Stephen F. Austin. For Language Arts, I will create stories with simple lines of text to teach sight words. And my students can publish their books, or they can add text to pictures already stored for them, or they can search for their pictures. In science, I will use it for all the units of study.
I will use photostory to allow my students to publish their books from writer's workshop.
2. How have you transfomed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom?
I see endless opportunities to implement technology throughout every content area. Yet, as a kinder teacher, I feel that I have all of this knowledge, and I want to be innovative just as before, but I lack resources that allow students to take full advantage of the new techonologies. For example, it has been a challenge to present powerpoints, internet searches, etc. in a way that is highly visible to ALL my students, since I do not have a smartboard.
3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
After much pondering about this question, I have to be honest and say that I really did not have any unexpected outcomes. I was aware of much of this technology, but I had not had the opportunity to go more in depth.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Tool 11: Digital Citizenship
I'll surely need to discuss online safety with my kindergartners, since, not all but some have Internet access at home, and their parents may not be aware of all the dangers that are out there if they do not know how to safely navigate the Internet. Students need to know that they should not identify themselves or share any information with anyone. But first of all, they need to ask for their parents permission to get online. Digital Literacy is another topic that I need to cover. Students need to realize that they need to approach the online world with critical analysis. They cannot trust every source they come in contact with. And finally, students need to be aware of digital communication. The internet allows the people in the world to stay connected and to exchange ideas and information.
In order to teach about digital citizenship, as a teacher I need to take my students through the process. Kindergartners need concrete experiences. Therefore, I will have google open and demonstrate how to access an application to practice and learn their alphabet, colors, shapes, and numbers. While I'm taking them through the steps, I will be discussing key points about what digital citizenship is and the implications for our classroom.
Tool 10: Exploring Mobile Technology And Apps
These are some free useful applications.
MathTappers: Find sums
is a game that helps students make sense of addition.
pop math lite:
a way for students to practice basic math.
I can read Lite
for students learning to read and write.
Applications such as these provide opportunities for students to practice their cognitive skills using technology.
MathTappers: Find sums
is a game that helps students make sense of addition.
pop math lite:
a way for students to practice basic math.
I can read Lite
for students learning to read and write.
Applications such as these provide opportunities for students to practice their cognitive skills using technology.
Tool 9: Sharing Information Through Jing & Skype
Again, doing screencasts using Jing.2 is another versatile way to present information in a very appealing manner to our students. This tool allows the teacher to reach even more styles of learning by differentiating the mode of content presentation.
Skype takes the students out of the classroom to connect them with other students (or virtually the world) without ever leaving the classroom. Students could share their expertise knowledge with as a way of publishing their work.
Tool 8: Video Resources
The pilgrims
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=A700B04A-CA21-4387-BB91-F44BEC469BD0&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US
U.S. symbols
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=3E36C918-48AD-4B18-89BE-07EEBA3DE78C&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US
It is great for students to get the benefit of a multi media visual in addition to the books.
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=A700B04A-CA21-4387-BB91-F44BEC469BD0&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US
U.S. symbols
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=3E36C918-48AD-4B18-89BE-07EEBA3DE78C&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US
It is great for students to get the benefit of a multi media visual in addition to the books.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tool 7: Digital Storytelling
I am in love with digital storytelling. There are endless opportunities to implement this tool in the classroom. As a teacher, I can create numerous visual presentations for any content area. As students, they can write the text on paper, revise it and look for pictures to publish as a digital story.
Tool 6: Wikis
Wikis are a useful tool for getting students more involved in their learning process. They help to get the students engaged in a purposeful manner.
For my Kindergarteners, I am going to explore the idea of creating digital interactive books on a wiki. One website where you can create a digital picture book is www.mixbook.com.
One idea of using wikis in our team is for collaboration of teaching ideas.
For my Kindergarteners, I am going to explore the idea of creating digital interactive books on a wiki. One website where you can create a digital picture book is www.mixbook.com.
One idea of using wikis in our team is for collaboration of teaching ideas.
Tool 5: Tagging and Social Bookmarking
The tags that I used to find the following sites were: teaching and
education. I am always on the web looking for resources and when I come accross something that I want to go back to I bookmark it, so I can see myself using social bookmarking as a way to organize it all.
http://www.readwritethink.org/
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/
education. I am always on the web looking for resources and when I come accross something that I want to go back to I bookmark it, so I can see myself using social bookmarking as a way to organize it all.
http://www.readwritethink.org/
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/
Tool 4
I love google doc. It makes life so much easier. As teachers, we can really work as a team more efficiently without sending a document over and over again many times just to come up with a final copy. We can share the same document and everyone can add to it without the necessity of cutting and pasting. Now, we can concentrate on contributing on getting things done at one time rather, than sending emails back and forth and making revisions. The possibilities of using this tool range from working together to prepare materials, roadmaps, etc. to parents presentations for open house, math/Literacy night. etc.
Google reader is also a great time saver tool. It does the search work for you to keep you updated. It allows you to get the latest posted information on particular subject areas, or to keep you in touch with a network of interest.
I love google doc. It makes life so much easier. As teachers, we can really work as a team more efficiently without sending a document over and over again many times just to come up with a final copy. We can share the same document and everyone can add to it without the necessity of cutting and pasting. Now, we can concentrate on contributing on getting things done at one time rather, than sending emails back and forth and making revisions. The possibilities of using this tool range from working together to prepare materials, roadmaps, etc. to parents presentations for open house, math/Literacy night. etc.
Google reader is also a great time saver tool. It does the search work for you to keep you updated. It allows you to get the latest posted information on particular subject areas, or to keep you in touch with a network of interest.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
tool 3
Briefly explain how these samples would be used and how they might add to the learning process in your classroom.
I created a brief movie using Animoto, which I can foresee using this tool in my kindergarten classroom as a way to incorporate visual information throughout the subject areas, specially in math, science and social studies, where my students need lots of visual support. I also created a word cloud using Wordle. This tool will certainly allow me to present vocabulary in a more innovative way. As kindergartners, my students need exposure to various types of text and fonts, and yet realize that regardless of how the text is presented, the letters needed to make up words are still the same even though they have a different color, size or slightly different shape.
Briefly explain how these samples would be used and how they might add to the learning process in your classroom.
I created a brief movie using Animoto, which I can foresee using this tool in my kindergarten classroom as a way to incorporate visual information throughout the subject areas, specially in math, science and social studies, where my students need lots of visual support. I also created a word cloud using Wordle. This tool will certainly allow me to present vocabulary in a more innovative way. As kindergartners, my students need exposure to various types of text and fonts, and yet realize that regardless of how the text is presented, the letters needed to make up words are still the same even though they have a different color, size or slightly different shape.
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