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.