How I Plan To Use My Blog

I plan on using my blog to keep any resources I may use in the future. Sometimes I find things that I would like to use, don't save them, and can't find them again. Another way I may use my blog is to keep parents updated on what their students are doing throughout the year. I will post pictures of different activities we do in the classroom, as well as resources they can use at home to keep the learning process going.

ReadWriteThink

I created a Cube based on my digital story. It explains who the main characters are, main points, and what I liked best about the story. I really enjoyed how easy it was to navigate and that you don't have to sign up to use it. I browsed the site and learned about the Student Interactives that are available. Topics include Organizing & Summarizing, Inquiry & Analysis, Writing Poetry, Writing & Publishing Prose, and Learning About Language. This is a very useful site because nearly everything is covered from Lesson Plans to  Online Professional Development to Parent Resources.

Digital Story

The Lion Who Made Friends With The Fox

I created a digital story using http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/. The site did not require sign-up. It was easy to navigate and gave instructions. It would be neat to see the stories students come up with. 

*******UPDATE*******

I forgot to include the code for accessing my story. I also made the mistake of not writing it down so I created a new story. The story was originally going to be about a mermaid who saw a girl fishing and made friends with her. I changed my mind and wrote about a mermaid who finds a treasure chest. I really like the site and find it easy to navigate and add graphics, but I haven't figured out how to edit a story after you submit it. 

Here is the code to my new story:

PFG307

Curriki

Curriki is an online community for creating and sharing best teaching practices and curriculum. The community contains lessons, units, assessments, and multimedia resources across all subject areas. Grade levels include K-12 and all material is free with sign-up. Teachers can use Curriki to build on their own curriculum. Outside of the classroom, Curriki is extremely valuable to those who may not have access to high-quality education. The most beneficial component of Curriki, the leading organization behind the OER movement, is that they are currently working to develop multilingual educational content. I didn't find any aspect of the community that is negative. 

Curriki is the leader behind the OER movement

Khan Academy

Kahn Academy is an organization that was created in 2006. The organization films lectures and posts them via YouTube. Lectures are generally short and cover only the topic that the user chooses. For example, the Introduction to Addition is about three minutes long and very basic. Kahn Academy is an amazing resource for both parents and teachers. Parents can use Kahn Academy to help give their child another form of instruction that may help them better understand the material. In the classroom, teachers can use it as a sort of 'co-teacher'. The most beneficial aspect of the site is the amount of material and subjects are covered. Also, the lectures are very thorough. The only negative I found with Kahn Academy is not wanting to rely too heavily on it. It does lack a personal touch that only teachers and parents can give face to face with the student.

Kahn Academy Addition Lecture

Are You Googleable?

Some of the heaviest users of online tools and social media are our younger students. More and more young people are growing up as visual learners and sometimes visual attention seekers. As a teacher in the age of social media, it is important for me to teach my students that what they share what is shared about them over the internet can have a huge impact on their real life and virtual life. I need to know what a digital footprint is so that I can teach my students about the effects of their internet usage is.

                To teach my students about digital footprints, I will ask them if they believe they are “Googleable”. I do not want my students to fear social media. Instead, I want them to be aware that what they share on the internet is permanent even if they hit the “delete” button. No matter what they do, they will have a digital footprint. It is up to them to keep it positive or negative.     

SOURCES: 

http://www.teachhub.com/10-things-your-students-should-know-about-their-digital-footprints http://digitalfootprintimu.weebly.com/follow-your-footprint.html

http://www.sanjuan.edu/Page/24650

http://sybasigns.com.au/digital-resources/web-2-0/digital-resource-managing-your-digital-footprint

Mindmapping

My Mindmap

I focused my research on the opportunities and challenges teachers find when integrating technology into teaching. I think the two most important points are being able to take the time to experiment with technology and network with peers. One thing I like about my map is that it can always be edited and updated. SOURCE: Education World - Integrating Technology

Build Yourself Wild

The avatar I created is a combination of different animals. I liked the option to generate a random avatar or create one that resembles you. If I was to use the application in class, I would ask my students to create an avatar of themselves and a random one. We could post our avatars around the room and research the different animals that make up our random avatars. For example, my avatar has peacock feathers so I would find more information on peacocks. I think this could be a creative and fun activity!

QR Code

Post-It Note Jeopardy!

I created a sample game of 3rd Grade Language Arts Post-It Jeopardy. This game can be used for any subject and can include more topics/questions. I added links to the sites where I found the idea and questions.

   

SOURCE: http://www.post-it.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/PostItNA/Home/Ideas/Articles/Quiz-Game/

                                               

Technology Tools

Remind Flyer

Technology Tool- Remind App

Remind is a free, safe, easy-to-use communication tool that helps teachers connect instantly with students and parents.

Remind App

(SOURCE: www.remind.com and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncRnRakCJI4)

Promethean Planet

I've seen Prometean Planet used for group work as well as individual and whole class instruction. Teachers allow their students to use it for play and work. 

I really like that this program allows students to hear the different sounds that instruments make even though they may not have access to some of them. This program comes with ideas to help further learning such as creating an instrument. I would use this program to show students the wide variety of instruments. If an instrument is mentioned in our reading, I can show my students exactly how that particular instrument sounds and looks.

(SOURCE: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/resources/themes/music.aspx#.VPPVvPnF8Yk)

Introduce the various instruments. There are different families of instruments that make up an orchestra. Introduce students to these instruments and the sounds they make. As a follow up activity, record the sounds the instruments make and have students identify which instrument made what sound. If you have LRS devices, like ActiVote or ActivExpression, this is a perfect opportunity to gather instant feedback from the class.

Create an instrument. After students have an understanding of the components that make up an instrument and how sound travels, challenge students to construct an instrument of their own using what they have learned. This can be done as an in class or at home project.

Additional Tip: Divide students into groups and assign each student a type of instrument (woodwind, string, brass..etc.). Once the groups are arranged, encourage each group to compose their own piece of music to perform.

Index Cards

I made an index card for a Student Information Form. One card contains student information and the other card contains parent information.

Index Cards Power Point

Tools

Tools for my future classroom

Dakota's Technology Tools

Scavenger Hunt

Click on the following link to take the Panda Scavenger Hunt !

Student Information Form

Please click the link below to share some student information.

Technology Choice- Tech Matrix

Tech Matrix provides assistive and educational technology tools and resources to support learning for students with disabilities and their classmates. I will use techmatrix.com when in need of differentiated instruction, which will mostly be common. I found the database of over 400 resources highly useful because it allows you to search exactly what type of app you need, where you can access it, and research relating to the use of technology to assist in student learning. For example, I searched for resources that can assist a 3rd Grade student who has a hearing imparement and is learning about fractions. Below is in example of the app I found on www.techmatrix.com:

Freddy Fraction

Freddy Fraction is a busy bee who needs your help! Freddy needs to collect all the honey pots for the Queen Bee. It is your job to guide Freddy quickly to the honey pots! Help Freddy find his way to each honey pot by dragging him onto the space that equals the number in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

SOURCE:www.techmatrix.com

Technology Choice - Apple IBooks

IBooks is a free application from Apple’s Itunes App Store. It is an app that can read the entire book for you or assist you along your way with the dictionary and the option to “speak single word”. With its wide variety of titles, IBooks can be used for research, entertainment, and art. It has a feature that allows teachers to create their own multimedia interactive textbooks. 

SOURCES:

Teaching and Learning with Technology 

http://tidbits.com/article/11150

Search Engines for Kids

GoGooligan 

Large, Bold font

Organize Notes feature

This engine is powered by Google’s SafeSearch and custom search engine option, though it’s clear that it’s not affiliated with or part of Google. It styles itself as an ‘educational/academic/ search engine’ for kids and teens (source: http://www.philb.com/articles/childrensearchengines.htm)

Pros:

+      +  Large text

+       + Organize Notes feature allows students to quickly organize their notes while they do research.

Cons:

-       - Minimal results. When I searched the word ‘Bomb’, I was redirected and could not view any of the results that showed up (Bombing of Hiroshima, Bombay, etc.)

-        -There is a link that reads “What is a Gooligan?” The link opens up a site called urbandictionary.com. This site has a lot of ‘slang’ terms that students may have heard from a peer or parent, heard in a song, or seen on TV. Urban Dictionary allows users to search for the definition of these words. The site contains explicit content.

f  QuinturaKids

     This site provides some animation linking to other aspects of the site (games, animals, sport and so on) with a word cloud above the search box. There wasn't any way of getting the engine to search verbatim though. (source: http://www.philb.com/articles/childrensearchengines.htm)

Pros:

+       + Related words show up after searching a certain topic.

+        +Visually appealing to kids.

+        +Games, Sports, Animals, Music, and History are shown by corresponding icons and are easy to find.

+       + Available for Iphone/Ipad in App Store.

Cons:

-        -Difficult to find exact results. When I searched for a map of the United States, of the 12 results that showed up, none of them contained a map.

Rubrics/Assessments

There are two types of assessments- formative and summative. While a summative assessment is given only at the end of a lesson, a formative assessment takes place from the beginning until the end of the lesson. A rubric is a tool that will help give students an idea of what is expected of them on an assignment. I have seen teachers create a rubric for everything from writing a paper to participating in classroom discussion. Using detailed explanations puts responsibility on students to consider the extent of their performance while carrying out tasks.

            Creating a rubric can be easy with the use of templates and various websites.

1. Rubistar - Enter key words (ex. 3rd Grade Math) and search rubics that others have created and used.

2. Essay Tagger - Common Core is included.

Teaching and Learning with Technology

http://edtechteacher.org/assessment/

My LiveBinder

On www.livebinders.com, I created a binder of resources that I will use when I am a classroom teacher. Some of the tabs I've included are a blog that provides templates to create a Substitute Binder and State Standards. In the future, I may create a LiveBinder for my subs so that they can access it before even coming into the classroom. I think it's a good feature because I can easily updated with what we are currently working on without having to make copies, etc.

My LiveBinder

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1645574

Photobooth

I would use the Photoboother App for doing a time lapse of my students portraits to see how they've grown throughout the school year. I would also use this for learning names/seating assignments. There are a lot of different ways to use the app.

Technology

Hello! I will use this blog to post what tools I will be using in my future classroom and resources to help me become more tech-savvy as a teacher. Enjoy!

Pinterest

1. www.pinterest.com
   
   
   Pinterest is a web and mobile application company that offers a visual discovery, collection, sharing, and storage tool. Users create and share the collections of visual bookmarks (boards). Boards are created through a user selecting an item, page, website, etc. and pinning it to an existing or newly created board.
   Pinterest contains an endless amount of teacher resources such as lesson plan templates, classroom management strategies, and art projects, to name just a few.

Class Dojo

http://www.classdojo.com/about/

Class Dojo is behaviour management tool for the classroom. Each student has a profile to which teachers can assign positive and negative points (or 'dojos') throughout the lesson. It allows you to connect with parents, students, and other teachers. Class Dojo is available as an app as well as a website.

Share My Lesson

http://www.sharemylesson.com/home.aspx

Share My Lesson is a place where educators can come together to create and share their very best teaching resources. Developed by teachers for teachers, this free platform gives access to high-quality teaching resources and provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire each other.