My Certificate

Tool 11

If I had to choose one favorite I think it would be my blog. I'm choosing this one because it has all my thinking in it for all my journeys through the technology trainings I've done. I've stored so much information on it. At first I was very skeptical of the use of a blog, but now that I've had it for a while, I'm actually starting to think of starting a new one for the professional reading I want to do on my own this summer to help me keep track of my thinking.

Now that our class sizes are going up, the need for small group instruction is even more critical. Without the added technology devices we will get in the fall, that would be a difficult feat. This will help me plan for small groups and to meet the needs of individual students.

I was surprised that this training was easier for me than when I did 23 Things or 11.5 Things. I was dreading starting this one because the others were hard, but this one was so much easier. I don't think the tools are easier, but I've done it before, and practice really does make perfect.

Tool 10

Digital Citizenship, Online Behavior, and Copyright Use are all topics I want to teach my students. Cyberethics for Kids, CyberSmart for Kids, and Brainpop are all resources I want to use to help me plan and teach lessons in Digital Citizenship. They all have ideas and videos to use and Brainpop is a site that the kids are very familiar with, so I can see it being very useful.

Kids these days have lots of access to the internet and have often landed on sites they shouldn't. I plan to start there and use the videos and the Power to Learn grant page on the Ed Tech site so that I can cover all the topics with my class. I want them to have conversations with me and with each other. We could use Today's Meet to ensure that everyone contributes to the discussion in class. I also want kids to talk to parents at home so that we are all on the same page together and what we learn at school will transfer to their homes.

Tool 9

Kids don't do anything in the same way. Using technology keeps kids engaged in learning and at their own pace and within their own learning style. Technology allows for us to individualize and differentiate to meet the needs of more kids than traditional teaching. I'm so glad that we will have so much technology available that most children will have a device available throughout the day.

In stations/centers, students can get off task. We want to keep them focused on the learning objective in front of them and we want to know what they learned through center and small group work. Using blogs and other Web 2.0 tools students have more choice of how they share what they learned. If students aren't held accountable the time is wasted.

I tried all the sites for elementary kids. I couldn't even get into Tutpup because I couldn't find an animal and a color with a specific number in order to log in. I gave up after many tries. Learning Games for Kids has some good games and it's a cute site. It's not very rigorous and I think my kids would get bored fast with much of what is available on that site. TES Board is much more challenging. I tried a few of the place value games and they were pretty good. I would use this site as a station. Study Ladder is good. You set up classes and assignments so it reminds me of Odyssey. I use that as a workstation constantly, so I could see myself using this one in that same capacity. Thinkfinity has lots of stuff on lots of content areas. However, there's so much to see and the site isn't as pretty to look at as others. I think you really need to know what you want. If you aren't sure and you are just looking for something good, this might not be the best site to browse.

I love love love the site on Ed Tech!! I've already shown it to other people working with me because it's so cool. I looked over lots of apps but the ones I think I will want my kids to use first will be the dictionary app. Kids in a book club can have an iTouch or iPad in their group and use it when they come across words they don't understand. I also like Free Word Warp. Many of my kids are good spellers because they can memorize, but this puts their spelling skills to the test to build on what they can already do. I also like On This Day. It gives historical information for things that happened in history on this day. This is something kids can do when they come in in the morning or during the day if they are looking for topics to write about, research, etc. It gives students a bridge for converstations.

These devices are just another way to keep kids engaged in learning. Information is moving so fast these days, we've got to keep kids plugged in to what's happening in the world. Centers are just one way. I've had kids work on their own individual research, look up something we are reading as a class, answer questions when they pop up and we don't know the answer. There's so much to do.

Tool 8

All the new technology will be great. My worry is not how to use it, but how to keep it all charged. Right now I have 2 iTouches, but only one cord to charge it. I have to bring them to the library to charge right now, and the kids who come in the morning to use equipment don't always pay attention to the devices they use, and will use classroom devices instead of those for the library. I'm hoping we have a better system for charging in the fall.
It looks really simple to take photos and make videos with the Dell computers. I think this will be a great feature for kids in the fall. They will enjoy sharing research, solutions to problems, or pictures that go with a unit of study.
The iTouches and iPads will be fun. I had no idea they could hold so many pages of apps. I did go to the Ed Tech page and the apps and flipcharts they have available on the site will make it so easy to fit my devices with the needs of my kids. I can definitely see them working in stations or individually will all the support from that site. I'm guessing the flipcharts won't be able to be used on the iTouch or iPad, but I still have some classroom computers and they should work fine if we are reviewing concepts, or expanding learning for some.
I'm excited to see all the new gear we will have for the coming year. How to keep it all charged remains the question.

Tool 7

I looked at Class2class-math projects for some ideas that would work with my grade level. I browsed a few ideas, but I really liked the M&M project best. We do lots of graphing and work with probability in 3rd grade and this project was right in line with what we do. To make it work for my kids and my curriculum I would set the objective to focus on learning vocabulary for probability, such as less likely, more likely, certain, etc by examining the data from several 3rd grade classrooms in order to understand how the M&M company decides how many of each color M&M end up in each bag. We study probability later in the year, so I probably wouldn't do this until near Spring Break. I wouldn't need lots of materials, just the M&Ms and graph paper so students could record their results. After we gather the data from our class we would compare that to the data from the other classes in 3rd grade. Then we can work on the vocabulary that goes with probability, as well as analyze the data for what we notice and begin to explain how the data changed from class to class.

Tool 6

I looked at the video tutorials for several of the links for this tool. This is a little overwhelming to me because it seems like some of this can be done in class with the kids. For example: Poll Everwhere lets you set up polls to ask questions and students repond. But, the kids are right there, and I can just ask and they can raise their hands or vote with sticky notes, etc. Less time, less work, right? However, I was really intrigued by Today's Meet. I love the idea of posting questions related to content and having students write their ideas and thoughts for discussion in a lab setting. I can see this working with all content areas as a way to get kids talking about content and building that knowledge base. Also, it's easy to use and will not be scary for my kids who don't get as much computer use at home.
Edmoto is an interesting site. I am nervous about using it, so I might start small with one reading group and post thinking and questions as they read. They can respond in class or at home and we can talk about their answers and thinking in class in our group. If that works well for me, I would extend it to other students in my class. I'm excited that it's similar to Twitter because I have a Twitter account but I never use it. Perhaps this will inspire me to try it again.
I can totally see these sites getting all the kids to participate. I had a student this year that struggled to respond in class, but he loved technology and using the computer like this as a medium to share his thoughts. I think it will really help with kids staying on topic and really thinking through the curriculum.

Tool 5

These sites are so easy to use. I've used Animoto before, but this time I tried Stupeflix Studio and Storyjumper. They both take time to use, but there's so much thinking involved, especially as you write your own story in Storyjumper. I used the same set of pictures for both to see what different things I could do with the same pics. The story I wrote in Storyjumper will definitely be a lesson tool for what's wrong with this piece of writing since it's a list and has no real plot. Lots of my 3rd graders start writing this way with no real focus on a climax. The video from Stupeflix isn't really for a lesson, but is more a model of what we can do to show we've learned content, such as with solids, liquids and gases in our first science unit. After my computer is reimaged I plan to make all of the links on Tool 5 favorites in my web browser so I can use them throughout the year with my students.

Emily and Lydia Go to the Beach a fabulous story from Storyjumper.

Texas Girls my video from Stupeflix Studios. Actually, the first video we made (I asked my daughter to sit in with me since she's in the pics) wasn't usable for the blog. The Ke$ha soundtrack was not working for this. This is my edited version.

I think both of these sites, as well as others like Animoto, require users to be 13 or older. How do we get to use these with kids so they can access the sites at home as well as at school without needing to use my account and username? Just curious.

Tool 4

Creating forms and docs with Google Docs was really easy. I had no idea it would be so simple. I was a little nervous at first because I didn't have much success with my students when we tried using the word processing earlier this year. I love the ability to send forms to email directly. It makes me wonder if it's possible to create an address book like we have in our email so that I can send forms to parents. I'll bet it's a tool coming up soon.

Tool 3

I got both of my videos from You Tube. I've been to Teacher Tube and Discovery Education. I like all of the sites equally, but I generally tend to start with You Tube. The 2 videos I've added are good for math lessons with place value and area/perimeter. I think my kids will really like them. I'm eager to add them to my Ipads that we will hopefully have in the fall so I can use them as a center for kids.

As far as copyright goes, I know that as an educator I can use materials as long as they are used for teaching and are published in a secure site. Because of this I checked my settings for my blog to make sure that it is not available to anyone to comment, but is limited to registered users.

I have never been on Picasa, so I did play around with it a little. I've created a few folders there with some of my picture folders and put them on the web. I couldn't find the filter for remix, so I'm not sure what that is. My students and I have used picture sites like flickr and they are much better at it than I am, so I let them steer the searching when we need that site. I've used this in class for lots of different things, but the most recent was probably when we made landform books and the kids had to search for images that fit the definition of the landforms in their books.

Tool 2

I created a google reader a few years ago when I did 23 Things. I haven't used it since then. However, this time around I actually think I'll use the blogs and sites I am following in the reader. I think I chose better this time. As far as writing on blogs, I don't mind posting about what others have written, but I really prefer talking to my teammates in person. There's so much you miss when you just type online as opposed to talking to a person. There are all the nuances of communication that you miss when you write online. I don't know that I would feel comfortable posting problems or situations in my classroom online. It's a really personal area and the people on my team know my kids and my teaching style and are better able to offer help that I can really use. Writing my thoughts online is hard for me. I'm working on it.

The site I'm planning to visit is for 3rd grade teachers. It has lots of useful information about teaching 3rd grade.

Tool 1

This was super easy because I already had a blog set up from 23 Things and 11.5 Things. The voki was fun. It was really simple to do. Thanks for having the video on the 11 Tools page so that I had the steps for putting the avatar voki into the blog. I thought I could do it myself, but when I got to the design page I realized I had forgotten which step to choose after that. The video was great and the voki popped right up on the blog. Easy, easy, easy!