Weather widgit

I was looking at some widgets you can add to your Blogs and found Weather Widget. This is a great tool for younger elementary students when you are talking about the calendar, days of the week and weather. It's interactive and fun. I was is Georgia when I downloaded it and the scenes match what you think Georgia should look like. The weather in the widget matched what was going on outside as well. It's something fun for the kids to look at on your Blog and informative as well. Sort of a break from my normal school Blog activities. Another widget I added was the news reel. Newsreel keeps me updated on the latest news about Apple, Google and Microsoft technologies.

Digital Story Telling

This digital story is about me and contains information my students might find interesting.  I would use Digital storytelling in the classroom for numerous different projects.  I think it's a great way to have each student introduce themselves.  The students would make a digital story about themselves and publish it to my classroom blog.  We used to do this with those big poster boards but they take up a lot of room in the classroom and hard to store if you want to keep.  Digital storytelling covers it all with no space issues.  I would also use this media to have students take a project and have to do an explanation through digital story telling.  Something that seems simple to do is difficult to have to explain in detail how to do.  For example, how would you break down the steps in making a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich.  Having to break down a process we take for granted can teach students to think things out more.

Evernote Online Tool

evernote:///view/10612204/s96/77a974d4-a638-4c8d-bb5e-c81b9bb713d9/77a974d4-a638-4c8d-bb5e-c81b9bb713d9/

Google Docs Welcome Letter

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1sn6RYePgLrNuzmR6FavYQB_DmqUfwmOVEYAH3TjAgNM


Google Docs turned out to be a pretty versatile program.  I liked the feature of creating a document that I could give others pemission to edit online rather than having to email the document back and forth.  Students would be able to edit and create team or partner papers.  I used the Google Docs application for this classroom letter.  If I was working in collaboration with another teacher in the classroom this letter when drafted in Google Docs allows for personalization for each of us on the team.  In this letter we were talking about welcoming the students and giving the parents and students an idea of the internet requirements needed.  My part was more general informative where as Amer was specific as to the permissions part of the project.  When you put it all together you get a document that you both worked to create and gives the subject continuity.

My Avatar

I would use my Avatar to give students assignments on my Classroom Blog or Wiki. My Avatar would give information on the assignment details and requirements. I would also use her to give parents announcements. I think the students would enjoy having their own Avatar that could give book reports on their on Blogs.
Pro's-It would give the students a fun way to get their assignments and engage their creativity to create their own. By giving presentations with their Avatar shy students could give speaking presentations without the pressure of being in front of the class.
Con's-You would have to make sure that the Avatars are appropriate for the classroom and that what they say is not offensive. Students may become dependent on their Voki and not become comfortable with their own speaking ability.

Final Project

This movie is designed for students ages 2-5 grade level. I would use the video as a supplement to other textbook material available. We would take health and nutrition in steps by studying one portion of good nutrition at a time. The video would be shown at the beginning of the topic session. The children would be asked if they thought they had good or bad health habits based on the video. The students would be asked to go home and make a list of what types of food they had in their refrigerators and cupboards. We would then divide the foods into the basic food groups. We would work our way through all the topics in the video in more detail in age appropriate lessons. Students would be asked to identify the good habits and come up with some new ideas for recess exercises we could do as a class. To look at the portion sizes part of the video we would integrate it with our fractions lessons in Math. We would also study labels and how to read them among other activities.  At the end of the course they would watch the video again and see what facts they have learned and decide if they felt they could make some healthy changes to their current lifestyle.

Assessments

The two assessments styles I would like to use in my classrooms are Real-World and Self assessments.  I think that the real world assessments allow students to feel that they are getting unbiased and honest feedback.  The people in the outside the classroom world will not know the student personally and can therefore give an honest open opinion. Sometimes students within a classroom have certain biased feeling toward another student and sway their feedback based on those biased feelings.  I also feel that students will get a feeling of accomplishment when something they put out to the world is accepted and thought of as important enough to elicit a comment.

Self assessment is also important because students need to be able to look inside themselves and be honest about what they see.  Students seem to have many excuses as to why they can't complete certain assignements or to what standard they are working at.  If they were taught at a younger age how to look at their work and honestly assess it they should be able to understand where their weakness are without causing an argument when the teacher assesses them from their point of view.

Using Technology questions Ch 6

What is the difference between searching and researching?

Searching is using the internet to find information or more places to look for information. Searching is not always backed up by citings and professional reseach. If al one does is search you won't necessarily have the accurate information you are hoping to find. Reasearch on the other hand is backed up by facts and presented in a formatted style.

How might you use cellphones in the classroom?

Cellphones could be used to text in answers on a poll questionaire or students could use the internet to search for information on classroom topics. Students could use the camera feature to take a picture of a page of text for future reference or use the video option on their phones to create short movies about topics they have to present to the class.

Pick a game.

I didn't find any games that interested me at this time but the Math Algebra Blaster game Amy found was really fun and I think it would keep the students entertained while learning. I think learning is always more fun when it doesn't seem like learning. If you can bring games into the classroom that teach kids subjects they usually struggle paying attention in, you have won a great battle. Games keep students engaged and challenge them to strive for a higher score while teaching them in formation in a fun way.

Wiki

School Events Calendar Podcast

This Podcast is what I would use in my classroom for our events calendar.  The podcast would be published on my classroom Blog and accessible for students and parents.  There would be a monthly printed calendar but the podcast would have all the details for the events listed.  I would also have students make their own Podcasts to do book reports or other classroom projects that they would post on the Blog where other students could comment on them.  Students could do Podcasts on an activity or hobby they are interested in and willing to share with other students as a way to get to know each other better. 

100 Ways to use Facebook in the classroom

Share interesting websites.

• Posted by Patricia Kawaa on June 9, 2011 at 6:52pm
• View My Blog

I think sharing websites would be a great idea.  One idea I thought of was to have an assignment on different jobs in our city.  The students would think of different people and jobs throughout their community that they think of as helping build the community: postal workers, construction workers, store owners, veternarians etc.  Each student would pick one career to write about and then they would use the internet to find interesting websites related to those jobs.  Students could share their websites with the other students in the class and students could make comments on the different jobs or ask their fellow students questions to see how they would intereact with their jobs. Students would  be able to suggest websites they find that might be relevant to other students in their class.  After they have developed their career profile, they would become ficticious charaters in those jobs.  The students would interview each of the other students to gain  a better understanding of how their different jobs are linked together to develop the community they live in.

Classroom Survey

<iframe src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dFViT3ZlWkxLSXdGVTFiYWxWVEx0cXc6MQ" width="760" height="1645" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>


This survey was made in Google Docs.  The survey I created gives students the chance to give me honest input on what they felt about my class.  It has incorporated numerous options for students to give me feedback.  There are check boxes, fill in the blank and several other options you can incorporate into the survey so you can get accurate data.  Students don't always get the opportunity to let teachers know about things they feel need to be changed or things that are going well.  The surveys can be anonymous  so students don't feel put on the spot.   They can also have the option to leave their name if they would like to.

Learn to Blog

1. In reference to the 6 Assessment Points for student blogs, how would you, as an educator, add or take away from this list?
This first 6 assessment points are only a base of what you could create for your class requirements.  As an educator I would start with these points and add or take away from this list depending on what the criteria for the project would be. Even though the assignment is a Blog the students would still have district and state requirements that need to be included for a graded writing project.  To have some fun you could make requirements for creativity such as photoshopped pictures or game creation that link to the learning objectives of the assignment.

2. If you were obligated to use a blog, how would you use one in your unique educational setting?

I would use a blog for students to create a daily journal.  This journal could be shared with classmates, parents or kept personal for instructor review only.  I would give students a daily topic to discuss their personal opinions on a current event or project they are working on.  They could add pictures or links to additional pertinent information.  Since this would be a graded writing project, grammar, style and writing format would be observed.  The students writing would hopefully evolve over the year.  There would be a variety of mandatory styles included such as poetry, narrative, creative, persuasive etc.