Tool #7

Photostory is an amazing tool to use. It let me use my creativity. I will be able to create this with my students as a whole class by creating stories and making thematic units. They will be using their imagination and story telling. I'm having trouble downloading my photostory. I did mine on the "Ugly Duckling".

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.

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.