final blog post... for now :)

Hi Everyone! Here is my final blog post for the course. I am hoping this will not be the last time you see me on here-I have high hopes that I will continue to blog and I hope that you will continue to follow :) I created this short video on goanimate.com. Since I used a free account, I was limited in the amount of info that I could input (and I think it actually cut off my last line!) however I loved using the tool and could see this as being something that I use with my students. I think that they would love it too! 

literacy project

Hi Everyone! Lauren and I created the final project on voicethread (thanks to Mari Beth's recommendations!) and we loved using this program! Our students had been working on creating a class research book on sharks, to share with students at an upcoming Author's Breakfast. The students have been very excited to learn about sharks, and we thought that this would be a great opportunity for a literacy/technology project! Once the students had created their writing, we took photographs of their work and input them in voicethread. It was SO easy to use. After that, we showed the students the program and told them that we were going to record their voice reading their work, and make it into a real movie. They loved using the microphone, and one student even thought it was "magic." Given the fact that our students (even at 5 and 6 years old) are so tech-savvy, it was exciting to see them learn about a new piece of technology available to them. Many of them even said they were going to make their own videos at home, and we are planning on sharing the program (and video) with parents at parent/teacher conferences next week. I will definitely be using voicethread again in the future, and recommend that you try it as well! 

ta daaaaa!

Lauren and I worked together to create our digital story. Since we teach so many lessons around character education, we decided that this would be the focus for our digital story. We read The Peace Book by Todd Parr. As a class, we brainstormed different ideas of what peace means to us. Then, the students wrote and illustrated their ideas. After much frustration with iMovie, we were able to finish our digital story with student narration. What an experience this has been! We struggled with using iMovie on the iPad, as it does not allow for as many editing options as on a computer, and we were frustrated that the movie did not show the entire student work. However, we eventually decided that we liked it just the way that it was, and so here it is! Enjoy!

Tweeting Teachers Tap Technology

I came across this article- Tweeting Teachers Tap Technology article on the Hartford Courant website this afternoon, and thought I'd share. I have previously expressed reservations about using twitter, but am very interested in it. This article tells about a West Hartford kindergarten teacher using twitter in her classroom. It is very inspiring- and gives many reasons why this is a great tool to bridge the home-school connection!

my diigo

(image from google images)

Well...here it is! My diigo account. I have to admit- I was very resistant to using diigo at first.  It took me awhile to realize why it was necessary, and if I really needed it (couldn't I just use my favorites bar in internet explorer?!). However, as I got more familiar with it I realized that it is VERY helpful for organizing websites, and bookmarking places on the world wide web that I would like to return back to. I think that the tagging feature is very useful, as it allows you to view all of your bookmarks as they relate to a specific topic. As a TEAM mentor in my school, I am always looking for websites and articles that I can provide my mentees with. Now with diigo, I can organize those sites under the same TEAM tag for easy access during our TEAM meetings. 

I think that as I continue to push myself to use diigo, I will realize many more possibilities for it in the future. 

my animoto

Hi everyone! Here is my first animoto. I created this animoto for an upcoming Science unit that our Kindergarten and First Grade students will be beginning next week. I chose this particular unit because I feel as though it has a lot of vocabulary that can be difficult for students to understand. I thought that by using animoto, I will be able to show students photographs to  give them a visual representation of each vocabulary word. I did not use all of the vocabulary terms from the entire unit, as I thought it would be too much for them to handle at one time. I also chose to repeat the words and photographs twice, so that we will be able to watch once, and then the second time around I am planning on stopping the video to discuss the words and definitions with my students. I will be showing it to my students next week, so I will let you know how it goes! 

pep talk...

Thought this was cute and wanted to share- enjoy!

twitter for teachers

Throughout this course, I've been reflecting upon which (of the many) technological advances I can realistically implement in my classroom in the near future. Although I love the idea of having my own teacher blog, I don't know if it is realistic for me yet because of the time commitment it takes. This thought led me to twitter. Prior to this course, I've despised twitter (and still may). However, I am trying to be open to its potential in my classroom. I did some research, and found this resource The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook. It gives excellent background knowledge about twitter, as well as many potential classroom opportunities. Check it out if you are interested in twitter in the classroom!

help!

While exploring Matt Gomez's blog My Hullabaloo through the list of blogs provided to us in class, I came across the Just Dance webmix- videos just like this one below to "get our sillies out." Eager to try it in my class, I bookmarked the site and told my students all about it. When we got to a point in our day for a much needed movement break, I loaded it up and- it was blocked by our internet! Does anyone have any tricks/suggestions to work around this? I've heard of teachertube, but am not sure how that works. Any help would be so appreciated!

Blogging Step by Step

In Chapter 3 of Will Richardson's text Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, he provides a step-by-step guide to blogging. As a beginning blogger, this is exactly what I need! In reading this, the "blogger for word" explanation was very helpful, along with the various settings and how to change templates. Through the template description, I was able to go in and begin to customize my blog and really make it my own.

Chapter 4 discussed wikis- this is where I am really feeling uncomfortable! From the info given in session one, I have a general understanding of a wiki. However, until we really dive in and create our class wiki I feel as though the idea will still be very abstract to me. In doing some of my own research on wikis, I stumbled upon this website that gives a list of Early Childhood Classroom Wikis. It was great to see some examples of wikis being used in the early childhood years. I can see how this can be an extremely useful tool in informing parents and the school community about what is going on in the classroom/school. 

Inspiration!

In reading through our class blog, I found the presentation titled 64 Interesting Ideas for Classroom Blogs, and thought, "What a great source of inspiration for my blog!" In watching the presentation, I found many ideas but one I particularly liked; #2 Publish Children's Work. I like how it pointed out that you should publish a variety of work, not only exemplars. I will definitely be trying this in the near future!

I LOVE THIS!

When doing some research for high-quality educational iPad apps for Kindergarten and First grade, I found this amazing visual. It gives educators examples of apps organized by content in relation to Bloom's Taxonomy. I think this is a great resource for educators to vary the types of apps they are using in working with their students. Coming from someone who currently has a total of three apps I use in my classroom, I find this to be very helpful. Hope you will too!

Chapters 1 & 2

Reading Response to Chapters 1 & 2 in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson

When reading these two chapters, there were two things that really resonated with me as an educator. The first, on page 8, was the subtitle "Learners as Teachers." It was very comforting to see the author write that, "not every teacher needs to start a blog or create a wiki or a podcast." However, as educators we do have a responsibility to understand that these tools can be very powerful in learning. The thought of creating a blog, wiki, podcast, etc. is very overwhelming. This chapter helped me to realize that we are learners, just as our students are, and it we take it one step at a time we will see what these tools can do for the students in our classroom. This makes it seem much more manageable and much less overwhelming!

Secondly, when reading page 23, E-Portfolio, I thought about the implementation of E-Portfolios in my classroom. Our current portfolio system (binder and paper EVERYTHING) can be very frustrating, time consuming, and difficult to manage. I never seem to have time to file anything, and it's always so stressful at the end of the year to get the portfolios organized and passed on to the next teacher. I would love to learn more about using weblogs and E-Portfolios to document and keep track of student work in the classroom. I can see many benefits to doing this- not only to keep myself more organized but to also have a portfolio that can be shared via the internet so that parents can be viewing their child's portfolio on a regular basis.

In exploring some of the links mentioned in chapter one, I thought that the Weather Recipe Book created on Flickr by Richardson's daughter was another example of the many ways technology can be used as a tool to make learning more interactive for students. In the one week that we've been in this class, my eyes have been opened to just a few of the many ways technology can be used as a learning tool, and I am amazed! Between this and the blog post of First Graders Using iPads, I am beginning to learn about the variety of ways technology can be used in the classroom, even with very young students. 

New Literacies/NETS

New Literaces

The term "new literacies" refers to the various new types of literacy available in our world today. One category of new literacy is made possible through various digital technologies now available, including the internet, text messaging, blogging, etc.

National Educational Technology Standards

The National Educational Technology Standards can be found on the NETS website. It is a great resource for educators, parents, and students. As an educator, I will use the NETS standards for both teachers and students to guide the use of technology in the classroom. 

The NETS for students are standards that students need to meet to be successful, productive members of a digital world. These standards include: digital citizenship; creativity and innovation; communication and collaboration; research and information fluency; critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making; and technology operations and concepts.

The NETS for teachers are standards that teachers need to meet to be productive teachers in a digital age. This can include being proficient in current technology, and using such technology throughout teaching. These standards include: digital age work; digital age learning; student learning; professional growth; and digital citizenship. 

As I was exploring the NETS website, and reflecting on the standards, I was struck by how thorough they are. Prior to reviewing the standards, I expected them to include standards on knowing how to use technology, as well as knowledge surrounding digital citizenship. However, I gained a great deal of new information reading through other standards such as creativity and innovation and communication and collaboration. It really opened my eyes to how much of a responsibility we have as educators make sure that our students are well informed and prepared in all of these areas.

 In my classroom, I am planning on beginning to develop these new literacies with my students by teaching them that the internet can be used as a research tool. We are beginning a research project for writer's workshop on animals, and I would like to show them that we can find information about our specific animals on the internet. I don't think that I will have them complete research independently yet, as I am realizing (through reading the NETS standards) that I have much to teach them about digital citizenship and responsibility. However, I think that exposing them to the internet as a research tool will begin to open their eyes to the possibility of finding important information on the internet.