Literacy Project

Several of my Kindergarten students have been working on creating their own stories for some time now. When I decided to use iMovie for my digital story I knew I would need some practice with the program so I decided to start small by having my students illustrate and then record their stories and after I was able to put it all into iMovie. It was also a great opportunity for the students to see their work in a whole new light. Once this was complete I showed it to my students and since then they have not stopped asking when they can make another one. I also showed it to this student’s mother and she was stunned what he done. I can't wait to create more!

Final Thoughts on EDU584

 

The diagram above was created by using Dabbleboard - a collaborative white board

I have gained so much from this class in just eight short weeks! The amount of resources and tools I am now familiar with and have already begun using with my students is wonderful. I truly had no idea how much was out there. I'm exciting to work with other teachers on integrating these resources into our classrooms. Overall, I think the biggest thing for me is having a better understanding of how others have taken technology and integrated it into their classrooms. There are some schools that are lucky enough to have technology available to them each day, but there are others that (like me) have to be creative in how we go about using it due to lack of equipment and support, but knowing the benefits and seeing the positive outcomes makes you want figure out a way.

Below is a word cloud created by using WordItOut - another resource for creating word clouds

Digital Story Final Draft

Digital Citizenship

Teaching Digital Citizenship has become a very important part of working with technology. Many students have all kinds of access to technology and they need to be taught how to use it appropriately Students also need to be held accountable for their actions when it comes to using these means of communication. Brain Pop has a great mini video on cyberbullying that might be useful for the upper elementary grades (4th) and higher. The video goes through a scenario where cyberbullying takes place and walks the listener though why it was wrong and what they can do if it happens to them.  Once the students watch the video there are additional resources that you can use like a quiz, questions and answers, as well as a real life example.

Another great resource for materials and ideas on how to go about teaching Digital Citizenship is the Cyberbullying Toolkit put out by Commonsensemedia.org 

Here you will find videos and lesson plans for all grades from Elementary school right up through high school. Click on the link below to see a great example of a video for use in the elementary classroom:

| Common Sense Media

There are so many great resources out there to help you teach this difficult topic....you just have to know what your looking for.

Digital Story - on it's way to being complete!

Here is my digital story on Money. There are a few minor things that need to be done to it, but it's almost there! Let me know what you think.

Digital Story: Money

For my digital story I have decided to concentrate on Money. My initial thought was to introduce each coin and it's value then use money poems with the touch math points to reinforce. As I began collecting pictures for the project I got a bit carried away and decided to start off with the question: What do we need money for? I have pictures of a grocery store, toy store, restaurant etc. (with captions on each page) to encourage responses from students.  Then the pictures move into each coin. It's still very much a rough draft and I have not added audio to it, but I'm looking for some feedback. Is it okay that I am looking for the students to respond during the digital story? Am I covering too much or too little? My hope is to use this with both first and second grade students who struggle with identifying coins accurately.

Early childhood literary and digital storytelling resources

 

Starfall is a great resource for early elementary students including those who need additional practice in beginning reading skills. I have had great success with using this website with many of my students.The website is highly engaging and has many activities that allow students to build upon their skill base, which allows them to build their independence with reading.

In the past I have used the PBS Kids website, but to be honest I had forgotten about it. This is another great website that is highly engaging especially due to the familiarity the students have to the characters. There are a ton of activities to choose from that include both literacy as well as math skills. This is a site I will be putting back into use. 

KinderSite is a web site that I was not familiar with until now. When you enter the website and click on their directory it lists many of the games that are available. What I appreciated most was how they categorized them by age. It certainly seems as thought there is a lot of information on this site and I look forward to becoming more familiar with it.

Technology in the Pre-K Classroom

At what age can online/digital literacy activities be integrated into the classroom?

As we all already know technology is becoming of great importance in the classroom all over the world. From my own personal experiences many students are coming into school with quite a bit of experience using computers or smaller hand held devises. With this being said I think it's important that technology begin to be integrated into the classroom starting in preschool.

Having collaborated in the past with some of the districts preschool teachers I know that they have a small amount of iPads and iPods to use with their students. They use these devices for a number of reasons including reinforcing concepts, building vocabulary using digital pictures, communication devices and so on.

Through some searching on the internet I came across a site pre-kpages.com which has an abundance of resources including ways to integrate technology into the classroom for early childhood teachers.

I have been trying out Kidspiration with some of my students and thought I would share one of their retells using this program. This one was done by a group of first graders.

 

NETS for Teacher 1, 2, 3

NETS for Students 1, 2, 3

iMovie

Well here is my first attempt at using iMovie. Some of my kindergartners are working on choosing 2 specific characters and one event to write a story about. This student dictated the story to me and I wrote out each page and left certain words blank for him to fill in, then he illustrated each page. Once the story was written we recorded it on the iPad and I was able to put it all into iMovie. The best part was when the student played back what he had recorded he was able to pick up on errors with out me saying anything.

I look forward to giving this a try with more students and being able to stretch my creativity as well as theirs with this.

NETS for Students 1, 2
NETS for Teachers 1, 2

Tagxedo

It's taken some time, but I finally had a chance to try out Tagxedo all thanks to Judy's suggestion after seeing my wordle. At first I was having some difficulty using the tool and did a search on youtube and came across this video that was just enough to get me started.



 Once I got myself going it was quite easy. I created a word cloud on Earth Day.

NETS for Teachers: 1, 2, 3
NETS for Students: 1, 2, 3

Empowering Students With Technology Chapter 4 and 5

Empowering Students With Technology

Chapter 4:

The amount of information on the Internet can be overwhelming to us as adults trying to find specific information on a relevant topic. When setting your students free in search of information it is likely that they will come across materials that may not be of a reliable source. Even when looking through primary sources students need to use critical thinking and be able to have an understanding of what they are looking for and how to make connections between sources they find.

Some questions that Alan November provided for using Primary Sources with students include:

·      Do students understand the definition of a primary source?

·      Do students have the ability to make meaning from the primary sources that they found?

·      Do different students have different strategies?

·      Are they using their imagination (e.g., asking “what if” questions)? (November, p.69)

Check out this resource I found on Primary Sources to use in the classroom.

Empowering Students With Technology

Chapter 5:

On-line learning is definitely a teaching tool that has increased in popularity over the years and now is utilized is so many ways for K-12 students and beyond. These programs were built up from scratch so they were tailored to the needs and interest of those involved.

On-line learning can mean more confidence for those who have insecurities in a larger group, it can be the push some ahead for some in order to graduate early, or utilized for younger students who want to participate in more challenging learning experiences (November, p. 90).

 Of course on-line learning must be held to specific standards and must also be just as rigorous as classes that would be taught in the more traditional sense. It also takes a certain person to excel in such programs; it might not be the best fit for every student. Below is small list of traits that are helpful in the success of going through such a program:

·      Motivation to take the class

·      Self-discipline and responsibility

·      The ability to work independently

·      Parental support (November, p. 91)

In order to make on-line learning successful it takes devoted teachers and students. When such programs are done right they can be a great learning experience for some who might not have been able to do so in the traditional sense of learning.

Google Reader

Google Reader is another great tool to have when following multiple blogs. It is a quick and easy way to locate updates on each of the blogs and to get a quick synopsis on the posts. Google Reader also has a feature "Recommended Items" which is interesting to look through. As I begin to play with Google Reader more I think I will find even more featchers that are useful. Google reader is easy to navigate and makes searching through blogs much easier. Check out Google Reader by clicking on the image below.

Wordle

Wordle is a website where you can create your own word clouds. This is something that I have seen before, but totally forgot about. I created one quickly using words that make me think of summer...(I'm dreaming already!) It's a lot of fun and I'm sure students would enjoy creating them as well.

Possible uses with students:

• Describe themselves
• Describe characters or events in books
• Topics covered in science and social studies

 What would you use if for?

 

NETS for Teachers 1, 2, 3

NETS for Students 1, 2, 3

Diigo

What a help Diigo has been! Between my personal computer, work computer, and IPad I have tons of websites I have labeled as "favorites" and now I can get to any of these by logging into my Diigo account.

Diigo, which stands for Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff is a cloud based social bookmarking site. It can help you to bookmark and organize the many important websites that you may use in your day-to-day Internet searches.

There are also other elements of Diigo that I look forward to putting to use down the road which include being able to highlight important information I come across on web pages as well as adding "sticky notes" where useful. Once used both of these elements will be superimposed onto the web pages the next time you access the original page.

For more information about Diigo visit the About Diigo page.

Click here to go to My Diigo Library. 

Empowering Students Through Technology - Alan November Chapters 1-3

Technology is such a huge part of most peoples day-to-day that children are naturally comfortable with it because they are surrounded by it on such a regular basis. There have been plenty of times where a student of mine has asked me if I have used or seen a game/app/youtube video or have shown me how to do something on the iPad or computer with little to no effort. Their minds are engrossed in technology and I think it's important that our teaching begins to recognize this more and more.
In the book Empowering Students Through Technology Allan November begins by going into detail about how we need to educate our students on uses of the internet. There is so much out there for them to explore and learn, but they need to have an understanding of how to go about this using a critical thinkers mind. I thought one of the great elements of the first chapter was teaching the students about "mapping" the internet.

Meta-web information-understanding the structure of information on the internet.
Author-anyone can post information on the internet-look for creditability
Purpose-why is the information there, what is it's intended for?

It's with tools and ideas like these that we can teach our students how to use the internet efficiently and effectively. I think the earlier teachers start with these strategies the better off the students will be no matter where they when accessing technology.

November continued to discuss the importance of building relationship with people through technology. These relationships begin in the classroom where students can work in collaborative groups while completing certain activities and continue into the importance of expanding relationships continue between school and home as well as school to world connections. There are endless possibilities with technology and I'm finding with the proper instruction and direction you can certainly do a lot of this on your own - your students will thank you for it!

It is interesting to think of the different roles you can take when using technology with students. Some of the ideas that were discussed are those that have been brought up in the past, but are crucial to the continuing development of technology in our schools. One idea for instance was increasing communication between teachers and parents through use of technology. Being able to utilize technology to share student work as well as activities and events that are going on in the classroom and school are really important in keeping that line of communication open.

As we know technology will forever been evolving and developing into bigger and better things, I thought one idea that Alan November discuss in chapter 3 was a great idea of how to go through the learning process with some of your students.  Building your own classroom website might be quite the undertaking for many, however if you allow your students to begin the process and you work along side of them as an “publisher/editor in chief” you will probably learn just as much from your students as they are learning from you (November, P.49).

I felt as thought November summed it up well in figure 3.2 on page 56 of his book:

Technology can provide a means for:

·      Simplifying calculation-calculators and spreadsheets

·      Accessing information-the internet and e-mail correspondence with experts

·      Production data logs-probes and personal digital assistances (PDA’s)

·      Making long-distance people-to-people connections-telephone, fax, e-mail, videoconferencing, voice over IP

The above is a basic list of ways we can use technology for ourselves as well as with our students. 

Wikis

As I went through some of the Wiki sites provided I came across several lists for iPad apps. Here are some of the ones I took a peek at:
PeKay's Little Author: Thought this App might be good for the younger students to use. I love how you can print the story out at the end! It costs $6.99



Here is another list of apps that was put together specifically for special educators. There is a section dedicated to Writing and Story Telling Apps.

I also liked the idea of the Word Wall Wiki. It allowed students to have access to their classroom word walls in the computer lab or at home as well as building their own word walls depending on their interests.

NETS for Teachers: 1, 2, 3
NETS for Students: 1, 2

So many tools for Digital Story Telling!

50+ web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story 
This was such a great resource to see how digital stories can be created using numerous tools. It breaks the process down into three steps:
1) Outline a story
2) Find Media
3) Pick the tool to build your story with
This wiki was what I needed to see how it all comes together. The most interesting part was looking at all the different tools that are available depending on what you are looking for in a digital story.
There were a couple tools that I came across that I has immediate ideas as to how I could use them at school. I really enjoyed exploring VoiceThread.com where I came across this voice thread on bullying.



I love the idea of students taking part in role playing events like these. I know my principal has discussed having an assembly on bullying and this might be a great way to get students involved and to help get the point across.

One other idea I had for Voice Threads were incorporating it into our whole school behavior program where the students can describe what it means to follow the 5 Bees (cooperative, kind, peaceful, respectful, and safe) and perhaps role play such characteristics.

How would you use voice thread in your school/classroom?

One other resource that I found that was most helpful to me in my exploration was Apps for Digital Storytelling.  I have one iPad that I use regularly with my students and I would love to seem them create digital stories using it. I will be looking into the apps to see what might work best.

NETS for teachers: 1 supporting and encouraging students creativity
NETS for students: 1 allowing students to apply background knowledge when using digital tools as well as

Animoto

At first I was having some trouble coming up with ideas as to what to use Animoto for. As I started to think about it some more and continued to view other creations using Animoto I came up with the idea of concentrating on the months of the year. I do calendar each day with several students and we have concentrated on learning the days of the week, which they have mastered! I think it's time to give the months of the year a try. As I was creating the Animoto I came up with other things that I could use it for like discussing seasons, helping students make connections to the pictures and having them describe what kinds of things they enjoy doing during different seasons/months of the year. Well here is what I came up with....hope you like it!





All of the calendars used in the Animoto were from Anything but Perfect Digital Art and Printables

Model Educator Blogs

There are so many resources out there that allow you to expand your knowledge of technology in the classroom. A great example of a well rounded blog that cover quite a bit in the world of K-12 education is Between the By-Road and the Main Road. This blog concentrates mainly on literacy topics including reading and writing and one thing that caught my attention right away was the number of book lists that she has compiled. These lists includes a number of picture books that concentrate on special needs, inspiring girls and women, as well as a large list of new children books that have been published in the past couple years.

Another interesting blog that I cam across was iPads in 3C. What I liked most about this site is she is concentrating on the integration of the iPad2 into her classroom. She includes multiple examples of using this technology across the curriculum and the benefits she has seen with them so far.

Finally, as a special ed teacher I am constantly looking for off grade level materials to help supplement the classroom curriculum and for this reason I have fallen in love with some blogs that I have come across this school year. Here are a few that I have discovered and have found to be extremely useful. Chalk Talk: A Kindergarten Blog, Little Warriors, and Tales from a K-1 Classroom all full of wonderfully creative ideas.

Internet Projects and WebQuests

The amount of high quality instructional resources available to teachers on the Internet is overwhelming. However, there are resources that make the daunting task of searching the Internet and utilizing information a bit easier. In the reading Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times you will find ideas that help to enrich your curriculum with internet resource. Some ideas that came up in the reading were Internet projects and WebQuests, two ways of using the internet that I was not overly familiar with. All of which make perfect sense in the means of organizing resources on specific topics for teachers to use as instructional tools to help students explore and discuss different topics. Here are a couple of examples:

Internet Project: Surfing for ABC's 

Not all the links work in the above example, but I liked the idea especially for a kindergarten Internet project. 

WebQuest: Designing Hermit's New Home - basing a WebQuest on literature read in class

Puppet Pals iPad App

New Literacies

When you stop to think about it the impact the Internet has had on every day life is incredible. The Internet allows us to do, learn, and become involved with things that were never possible in the past. One of the greatest things is seeing this technology move into the classroom more and more. When technology is used properly and is made available it can be such a wonderful means of motivating, engaging, and assisting our students in their day-to-day lives. 

New Literacies encompass a whole host of materials and opportunities on the Internet. It involves creating opportunities to navigate through, search for, read about, and create projects on anything you can think of. These new literacies have already had such an impact around the world on people’s lives it’s time that it be seen as a crucial part of every classroom.

I wish I can say that I have incorporated all kinds of technology into the work that I do with my students, but to be completely honest I haven’t. I think we get so wrapped up in our day-to-day assignments that certain things get pushed to the side. Although I do use a Smart Board, IPad, and IPods I know I’m not using them to their potential however, I look forward to giving some new ideas a try like creating digital storybooks and finding new apps to use on the I devices like Puppet Pals, which I came across when I was watching this youtube video:

NETS

Due to the ever-growing need for individuals to be “Internet savvy” there must be a means of determining proficiency with technology. There is an organization International Society for Technology in Education that puts out The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for students, teachers, and administrators.  No longer will student’s just “use” the Internet we now need them to be critical learns through use of the Internet. The six areas that are concentrated on for students are: communication and collaboration, research and information, critical thinking, creativity and innovation, technology operations, and digital citizenship.

I think it’s just as critical that teachers are held accountable to be up to date on new and exciting technology and for this reason the NETS have standards for teachers that include the following areas: digital age work, digital age learning, student learning, professional growth, and digital citizenship. This allows teachers to stay up to date on new and exciting technology and provides them with further resources to use with their students.  

Helpful Websites

While searching the internet this weekend for some much needed inspiration I came across two websites that turned out to be quite helpful. The first is One Place For Special Needs where they have a comprehensive list of apps that are conveniently categorized by skills set. The second website I came across was Studdy Ladder. At this site you can find tons of resources from K-2 in multiple subject areas. Hopefully you will these sites just as helpful as I did.

My First Blog!

Here at my first night of class and trying to absorb as much of this technology as possible. I'm excited to see what I can take back and use with my students!