Thursday, May 31, 2012
Post 11:Self Assessing and Reflecting
11 tools exposed to me to a lot of new things! One of my favorite tools is dropbox. It is a great way for my parents to get pictures and videos I am taking in the classroom. My parents have also sent pictures through DropBox back to that they have taken from field trips, parties, etc. A new tool in “toolbox” that my students love is Wordle! It is amazing how easily I can incorporate it in to just about any unit of study. After spring break we will start studying about birds. Wordle will be a great resource for my students to show what they have learned about their bird.
My classroom has a great variety to address the many different learning styles of the 21st century learner. My students have the opportunity to use many different technology tools to show their mastery of the various objectives.
I was surprised by how many websites and tools there are out there, and how easy they were to use for both my students and me. I have really enjoyed playing and becoming more familiar with all the new websites! Despite how much I have already learned and become familiar with, I know there will always be something new and exciting out there for me to learn. :)
Post 10: Underneath it All - Digital Citizenship
There are several things I want my students to learn about digital citizenship this year! Most importantly is safety. I want to make sure that they don’t give out personal information online or be tricked into clicking on pop ups. I also want them to be respectful of the equipment and be sure they are using it as a leaning tool. Finally, I want my students to become familiar with “safe” sights for kids to use both at home and at school. Our Librarian has already done a wonderful job introducing the kids to good digital citizenship. Even though she has already shown them the Brainpop Jr. on Internet Safety, I think it would be a great refresher for my students as we start using these new devises in our classroom. I think it would be helpful to come up with a classroom agreement specifically about ways our class can be good digital citizens. It would even be a good idea to share these agreements with the parents so that they can also sign off on them! This will help reinforce digital citizenship at home.
Post 9: Incorporating Classroom-Based Devices as Tools for Learning
All of the technology tools we have been learning about are terrific resources! It is important to tie the technology to the objectives so that we can accomplish all of curriculum goals. In order to reach both our technology and curriculum goals, the students are using technology as a resource to show what they know about concepts that are taught in the classroom.
It is important to hold the students accountable for the stations/centers so that they understand the importance of the use of technology as it relates to concepts we are teaching. Teachers can then use the technology activities as a graded assessment tool when students know that they are going to be accountable.
We have found many interactive websites that we are using as workstations in the classroom. Two of our favorites are “wordle” and “think math.” We have included these sites on a menu for extension, or they can be assigned individually each day. Each student will spend time at on a certain menu item or in a particular assigned center for an allotted amount of time. The products are expected to be complete during this time frame.
Two of our favorite apps that we are currently using are “Coin Genius,” “Envision Math” and “Pizza Math.” The students practice their math skills on the app assigned for that day during workstations. At the end of each workstation time, they must journal about what they learned/liked/disliked. It allows for great reflection time for them and gives us a good idea of which apps are worthwhile.
The ipod touches can be used for research, re-teaching, guided practice and enrichment
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