Reflection

I can't believe I made it through this! It was a definite learning experience and I did have a great time exploring all technology that is out there. I really liked using the word mosaic at imagechef.com I think this tool could easily be used with my students. At the beginning of the year we could make a mosaic of all the students names and then laminate and put it in a learning center. The students could use wiki stix to circle each others names or even use dry erase markers to circle them. Later in the year, we could make mosaics to go along with letter sounds that we are studying. Students could brainstorm words that start with a particular sound and we could input them into the computer in the shape of that letter.

This was a great experience and I am glad to have these new tools under my belt so that I can become a 21st century teacher and I can help students become 21st century learners.

Tool #11

Becoming a digital citizen and teaching our young students the safety and responsibility that comes along with using technology is important for teachers to remember. Students need to be taught that not all websites are safe and they need to know that they are not allowed to go to any websites that I do not approve in the classroom. They also need to be told that there are strangers on computers that may try to talk to them and they are not allowed to talk to anyone on the computer in my classroom. As students get older, they need to understand that not all information on the internet is true. We need to teach students to have good judgement and teach them how to make responsible choices with the information they are reading and sharing with others.

Tool #10

I do have an iphone and absolutely love it! But, my 8 year old loves it even more! I have put games on there for him such as Hangman and wordhunt. He also plays with other games that aren't so educational. He attends a school in SBISD and their librarian had a few itouches for the kids to use last year. He loved it and came home to ask me to put those apps on my phone. They used Traffic attack (great for visual tracking) and Waterslide (also for visual tracking and hand/eye coordination). My son has also watched some educational videos (sesame street, Dora) and I am telling you, having an itouch available in the classroom will be a great learning resource for the students.

Great Tool!

Tool #9

Skype and Jing are both new to me and I enjoyed researching them to find out how they can be useful in the classroom. Jing seems like it would be great for reteaching topics for student review. It also seems like something students could use from home to review for tests or homework assignments. Skype could be used for students to communicate with each other about current topics of study. Wouldn't it be cool if students could connect with students abroad and ask questions to each other about their community. It would be a great first hand learning experience about different cultures. I remember when I was in elementary school and we would get a pen pal from a different country. We would communicate via snail mail to learn about each other. Skype would allow students to do this in real time and even see visuals of what another country looks and sounds like. Technology is such a great classroom learning tool!

Tool #8

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=187308&title=Alphabet_Song

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=171857&title=Alphabet_with_Animals

I am sad to say that I have never visited Teacher Tube until today. This is a great website with lots of great resources for teachers and parents. I found two great videos on the alphabet. The students would love watching these videos and they could be used as great teaching tools as well. We could recreate the videos into classroom books or even make posters with the same pictures from the videos and then dramatize the video as a whole group activity. What a great extension of the movie maker tool we just did. Students could create their own alphabet movies and we could even share them with our class next door.

Here is the video for one of my alphabet videos off of teacher tube....check it out!


What an excellent tool!!

Tool #7

This is my first time using movie maker software. I really enjoyed working on this tool. Working with movie maker was very easy....I made a photo story! All it takes is a little clicking and dragging and you instantly have a cool movie! I made a movie using pictures from my classroom when we had a petting zoo come visit. My students are always asking to see the pictures we take and I think this would be a great way to share these things with them. I also think parents would love seeing their children in these cute, short films. I could play these movies during open house events or during end of the year graduations. I could also send these movies out through email to parents throughout the year. They would love sharing them with other family members.

What a great tool! Thanks for letting us do this project!

Tool #6

Here is a link to Wikis on Wikipedia
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Technology_in_the_classroom

I made a group Wiki in during my online masters courses at SHSU. It was a great way for us to gather information and put it together to make a complete learning unit. I think students could do the same thing. By working together in cooperative groups my students could research a topic and we could create a classroom wiki. Students could then share this with their families at home and would feel such a great sense of accomplishment to share with their families what they did at school.