After 11 Tools Reflection

I can't wait to use things like creating blogs and avatars; digital storytelling; bubblr, flickr, and bookr; jing and skype.
I plan to use bookr or photostory to have kids create a story about a field trip or subject we have learned about.
I already knew that technology was an important part of the education of our kids but I felt ancient in not being knowledgeable about it. I now have a ton of tools in my toolbox and feel that I am more comfortable to use them to enhance learning in the classroom.
I am definately more comfortable and confident with many of these tools. However, I am still unsure of how to deal with some of the problems that I have encountered (not being able to hotlink some of my sites, not being able to download some of the videos that I wanted to include in my blog, etc.) Hopefully, some of my collegues will know the answers to what I was doing wrong.
Overall, this was a great experience for me!

Tool #11

I think the 3 things I would focus on would be safety, communication, and responsibility. I would have class discussions about each area to see what they already know and to define what each is. I would show students what kind of digital citizen I am by showing them what things I am a part of and how I communicate with others on the internet. I would model everything many many times. I think the most important thing I can teach my first graders is how to be safe on the internet. I think that I will probably go over and over this particular part because I want them to know how important it is to not give out their information on the internet to anyone!
I think that modeling and group discussions about digital citizenship will be a continuous part of our classroom next year!

Tool #10

I love the iTouch. Our kids have used it at school and they really enjoy it! Some of the apps I looked at were alphabetically - where the kids have to try to hit the letters in order as fast as they can. This can really help some of our first graders who are still not automatic with the alphabet. The other one I saw that I really liked was PegBoard - where you have to jump over pegs and remove them and end up with only one peg. This will help students with strategy and thinking ahead.
I really liked some of the apps in the videos, the tangram one is great and the one where they have to create words and try to use all the tiles. I can't wait to get back to school and see if we can get some of these apps downloaded on our iTouches!

Tool #9

I think screencasts will be very helpful in the classroom. I can see doing screencasts for things like how to get to and log on to AR, Odyssey, etc.
I also think Jing is a great way for students to share class research or projects.
By using Skype the class could communicate with other classes within the district or even around the world.

Tool #8

I found this video on National Geographic's web site. They have so many videos about insects that we could show the kids during our insect unit. I like that this video compares insects to human qualities like hard-working and team work.



This is another video from National Geographic. It is about killer bees. It shows the students how insects adapt to their surroundings in order to survive.

There were several other videos that I found that would be useful in the classroom. However, I had trouble downloading any videos that didn't have embed capabilities. If anyone knows what I was doing wrong, I would appreciate the help!

Tool #7

I love photostory. We have used it in the classroom before for presentations on our different countries during our SS unit Friends Far and Near. I liked the 2nd grade example of using it to tell what they learned about the american symbols. The students could use photostory to tell stories and have their book buddies help them or to tell about a science project or experiment they did. What a great way to share what they've learned with their classmates! The only thing I had some problems with is that the pictures I uploaded turned blurry. Does anyone know why or how I could fix it? Thanks!

Tool #6

I found a wiki that was a first grade teacher and her class writing a class story. I thought it was a great idea and think I could use it with my class. I'm thinking we could create a class story about a field trip we go on or something we've done as a class. It would also be really great to try to write a story where one person starts it and others add to it. I can't wait to try this with my kids. I think they will really enjoy creating a class story and seeing their parts included in the story. What a great way to get kids excited about writing. Kaycie, another great book buddy idea???