Wednesday, July 28, 2010

TOOL # 11: Reflections

1. My favorite tool that I now have on my toolbox is tool #3: Image Generators & Mashups because I have the most fun working on it and I think that this would be something that my kinder class can actually use. I think that I would use this to teach them sight-words and new vocabulary. This can also serve as a "prize" for the students who learned the words or vocab. that was required.
2. My thinking has been transformed majorly- I never knew that there were so many different online resources that teacher could use to communicate with each other and to teach the students new objectives. This especially hit home with me when we came to tool #4. I never knew that Google had a program where I could upload my lesson plans or new ideas so that my peers could edit it.
3. I think that the most unexpected item that surprised me was the way that the children could learn through games. This was demonstrated through tool # 10- when I saw the video of the little girl "playing" with her ipod, it really hit home how technology can really serve our purpose. :)

TOOL # 11: Digital Citizenship

I think that everything from the digiteen website is important to teach our students. However, the following three are the ones that I consider the most important for the students to learn...
1. Digital Security and Safety: It is important that the students learn that everything that is put into the internet is "up for grabs" for anyone to use.
2. Digital Etiquette: It is equally as importnat for the students to understand that there is a certain way to behave when they are using a classroom computer.
3. Digital Law: This, to me, is the most important for the students to understand because it involves government rights on copy right infringments. The kids need to understand that certain images and music is protected by the law and there can't be any type of duplication- even for educational purposes.

TOOL # 10

In the second video the student is "playing" with an app. that lets them slide in a geometric figure into a bigger figure that needs many shapes to be filled. I think that this is a great way for students to learn through play how to identify geometric shapes and perfect their fine motor skills. I think that my kinder class would benifit so much from these type of apps. especially because it seems like they are just playing but in reality they are learning- to me this was the WOW moment. :)

TOOL # 9

I think that the kids could use Jing to show each other what they mean and you can have snap shots to show the children what you mean through photos as you teach them new objectives. Also, a more obvious way to use this is for video conferencing with parents. Sometimes parents have a hectic work schedule and they don't have time to come in person and this could be a way to communicate with parents.

TOOL # 8

For this tool I chose the following video resources because I thought that they would be really helpfull in the classroom. Both videos come from YouTube
1. Title: Family of the Sun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzj6UEbIvKA
2. Title: "The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss" - "Clean Up Song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrayvR3CknA&feature=related

I think that I would use the first song to inform my kinder kids about the solar system and a few fun facts about each planet- with a reminder that Pluto is no longer a planet. The second song I would use to teach the kids the importance of cleaning up. I could also use this song as a transition from stations :) I really liked using this tool- especially because it is something that everyone has access to and it's fairly easy to use.

Friday, July 2, 2010

TOOL # 6

I have actually used wiki before- wikipedia. I think that it is one of the most easiest ways of obtaining information. All you do is type in what you are looking for and if there is an entry about it on wikipedia it will pull it up and show it to you. The only downfall to this is that it is created and edited by people who are not proffesionals- so sometimes the information may not be accurate. I think that a way to use this in my classroom would be just to get more information on vocabulary and usefull information that can be passed down to the students. The reason for this is because my students are young- they are in kinder, so this is kind of difficult for my kids to use. Another way that I could use a wiki is in collaborative teaching- if I want to creat a thematic unit and I wanted to share this with my team mates I could use a wiki so that everyone can help ceate the thematic unit.

TOOL # 5

I found this to be the hardest thing to accomplish- and I don't even know if I did it right. However I did find two websites that I find interesting, they are as follows; http://www.teachers.net/ and http://www.reading.org/general/publications/journals/rt.aspx
I'm not sure how I would use this in my kinder class. I don't really think that my students would be able to manage this. I DO think that this would be beneficial to teacher and older students if it was explained a little further. I'm still not sure if I did it right.

TOOL # 4

I can see the use for Google docs. especially in older grade levels. However, for teachers this is also a great online source for communication or for collaborative learning ideas. Through the use of Google docs. teachers can just upload a document that they think is usefull and give access to whoever they are working with- that way updates can be made without having to send emails with attachments back and forth. It's always there available 24/7 on any computer.

Google reader is also just as helpfull as Google docs. I think that this is another way to link your fellow collegues to your interests or thingst that you find important- in this case academically. The way that 11 Tools is asking us to do it makes it easier for teachers to communicate with each other- also is helps with keeping up with your blog- especially since you know that there will be people subscribing to it.

TOOL # 3


This is a website were you can create a "bulletin-board-like" image. I decided to use this image as an award template, but it can essentially be used for many things. I really like the versatility that Kid-Friendly Image Generators offers teachers. I can also see children using this as a way to practice their writing, creativity, etc.
Wordle: palabras de alta frequencia
This is a word cloud created in Wordle. I really enjoyed working with this website as well. Again I could see the different ways that children could use this tool. I used this tool for making a word cloud about high-frequency spanish words. Overall a fun experience, and I can't wait to implement it with my students.

TOOL #2

I think that completing Tool #2 was a little easy, but that's only because I had to write my opinion down as a comment. However, I think that this is one of those tools that will be the most important because you get instant feedback on your own thoughts or actions. I think that this tool will also help with parent involvement. This way parent will be able to take an active part in their child's learning. They will have a up-to-date view of my actions and thoughts and the suggestions that other proffesionals leave :).