Tool # 9

1. I feel it's extremely important to tie technology to an educational objective. Regardless of age, we all deal, engage in, and interact with a variety of forms of technology everyday in our society. It's imperative that as educators we tie in technology into objectives in order for students to build their knowledge and skills in our technology dependent society. Students are excited to use various forms of technology and acquire new skills in this area. Sometimes the use of technology in the classroom can help motivate an otherwise unmotivated student to learn. Technology excites kids. They have learned to use technology at a very early age unlike most of us educators. I feel personally that the students have a much easier time learning to use technology than myself. I am learning to overcome my fear and intimidation of using new technology in order to better educate my students in this area. Did I use the word technology enough? LOL

2. I feel that we should hold students accountable at work stations/centers to teach responsibility. I feel as a teacher I need to model this to my young students over and over in order for them to learn this accountability.

3. I have to admit, I feel there are better interactive web sites that are developmentally appropriate for my kindergarten students other than the sites given. I did like IXL. I felt that the math games are very age appropriate for my students. I will definitely use this site during to centers. I plan to take the time to find other sites that the students can use as well at centers.

4. There are so many wonderful apps for the itouch. Several that I found and will download for student use are 123 Animals Counting, A Bee Sight Words, and All About Me. I just scratched the surface in my search. I know I will find and down load many more that my students can use. I am still thinking about how and where I will store the itouches since I will be in a new classroom. I am considering using the zone method regarding centers. The classroom will have 3-4 different zone areas. Each zone will consist of several centers. Students may go to another center in their designated zone after they have cleaned up and put away the materials they used at that center. This would enable more students to use the itouches each day. Students will be at each zone for 20-30 minutes and will visit 2 different zones each day.

5. Students could video tape themselves or take picture using the itouches.

Tool # 8

I am looking forward to having my students use the Netbooks and itouches. I feel it will be very important to go over the rules about proper use of these devices. We will review these rules and I will closely watch and observe my students as they use the Netbooks and itouches, especially when they first begin to use them.

I was excited to learn that the Netbooks have webcams. This will be very useful since the students will be using Skype for their project. The students will be using the Netbooks during centers but students can also use them on a rotation basis during Writer's Workshop as mentioned in Tool #7.

I am looking forward to setting up an iTunes account and downloading educational apps that the students can use. I know the itouches will be VERY popular. Besides using the apps, the students can take pictures and videos of themselves and each other. I excited that this new technology and resources will be available to my students.

Tool # 7

I have to admit, I having been pondering for several days what online project to have my class focus on this year. I decided that instead of narrowing it down to one specific unit of study, they would use the internet as a way to share their knowledge and skills in language arts. Students could have a buddy assigned to them or respond to other students in a classroom randomly. I like Julie Hofle's idea about sharing with another class on my team first(are you reading this Ms. Buck? LOL) and then sharing with another Kinder class at another school in the district. This would be ongoing project throughout the year. I will begin this project in October.

For reading students will share their ideas, reflections, and connections to stories we have read in the classroom. Students would do this using Google Docs, Wall Wisher, and Skype. Students could create a survey about their favorite books on Polls Everywhere and send it to their buddy.

In regard to writing, students will share their writing with their buddy or buddy class and their buddy will respond by using Google Docs and Skype. Students could even ask their buddy class about suggestions on topics to write about using Wall Wisher. Students could also write letters or notes to their buddies using Google Docs and Wall Wisher. I look forward to this project! On to Tool #8!

Tool # 6

Try this audience polling system at Poll Everywhere

Wow! This tool was a breeze compared to the others. I used and embedded Wall Wisher onto my blog and created a survey using Polls Everywhere. Even though my students can't text, I can create, enlarge, and print a survey and use it with my class as a pictograph or a bar graph. The students can use their lap tops to post responses on Wall Wisher. I can see them enjoying making posts on the "post-it notes". Both tools were easy to create and are age appropriate for my students. Off to Tool #7!

Tool # 5

I decided to create a personal word cloud and an educational word cloud. The first one is of my favorite rock bands or performers. The second one is the five senses.

This was my favorite tool thus far. I really enjoyed working with Bookr. I created a book about plants. I know how to add pages, but I'm wondering if there is a way to delete pages that were accidentally added. If you read my book, you'll see that there are blank pages that I accidentally added.

This is definitely something my kinder kids can do. They can create books at centers or during Writer's Workshop. Students who have difficulty writing can work with a partner. We could also write class books about topics we are studying in Science and Social Studies. I will be using Bookr quite a bit now in the classroom.

I also created two word clouds. I used ABCya! I wanted to created a word cloud of my favorite rock bands and performers. I then created a word cloud of the five senses. Off to Tool #6!

Tool #4

This tool took a little less time and was a little easier to figure out. I really like Google Docs. I created a document and shared it with my team. I stated how using Google Docs would be a great way to share and store parent letters. Claudia and Adelina could find the letters there and translate them when needed. I also created a VERY SIMPLE quiz which is attached. I'm thinking we could use the survey tool to create graphs for our kids. Off to tool #5!

Tool # 3

I visited the Hill Country several times this summer. It's my absolute favorite place to be. I found this  picture on  the Flickr Creative Common site. I wish I could say I took this pic, but I didn't.

Whew! This tool took a while to complete. It took a while to find videos and pics that I wanted to use. During my search, I learned how to navigate Kid's Tube, School Tube, Teacher Tube, and Flickr. I have never used these sites before, but plan to in the future. It was also enlightening to learn which sites my students and I can use pics from without abusing copywrite laws. It took quite a while for me to figure out how to embed videos. It's actually simple once you learn how to do it. I like the American Symbol Video but I'm unhappy about where I placed it. It does not fit and part of the video is cut off and not completely visible. These are one of the things I plan to tweak. Hopefully I will have fixed this issue by the time most of you view it.