Tool # 11b

My favorite tools are doing a digital story, Wordle, and Google docs. A particular activity that I plan for my students is that they access a Google doc I have created with the English high frequency words they must use for the week. They must copy the words and then use them in a sentence or in a story.

I have transfomed my thinking about the learning that will take place in my classroom by being psyched. If I can transfer my excitement to the children, they will be even more engaged!!

The unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised me were the many hours that it took to complete the 11 Tools and that there is so much I did not know was out there!! I know about You Tube and have used it, but I didn't know there was a teacher tube. I only used Discovery Education/United Streaming.

In the famous words of Dr. Breedlove, there are other search engines other than Google so I might as well give the not norm things a chance as well!!

Tool # 11a

First of all, I need to restate what digital citizenship is so that I can have it stored in my memory bank and that is that it is the norms of behavior with regard to technology. What does this mean? There are rules or guidelines to follow when using technology. As I mentioned in Tool #9, I am scared for what children might find while surfing the web or what kind of people they might encounter on social networks like Myspace or Facebook.

The three things I would want to make sure my students understand about being good digital citizens is about cyber bullying, using the internet for research (be it local news, etc) and it being an educational system for literacy or any other subject.

I would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to my students as showing them that you wouldn't want a stranger walking through your front door, right? Well, taking certain safety measures on the internet will prohibit bad people contacting you.

Tool # 10

The educational apps I saw were many.
What caught my eye was the Kids Music so I hope to play with the equipment to find out how to have the children use this app in class.
The apps were like cable is to me. I have it, but if I want to upgrade, so I then have to ask for extra channels.
Sort of what apps are..you buy the cell phone and then you add internet or navigation.
These educational apps are on a different level, but kind of the same.
I really am impressed with THE POWER TO LEARN GRANT. This has enabled classroom teachers to have incredible tech. equipment to use this year. We need these tools to engage the leaders of tomorrow!!!
I feel the children are going to teach me how to use the new tech. equipment we are going to be given this year so I am not worried!

Tool # 9

I enjoyed learning about Jing, Screencast and Skype. Screencast has three good reasons why we should use them: What you upload is what you see, U hold the rights to content and U decide who views your content.

As for Skype, you can also use it to call long distance from all over the world for free! I identify with the use of Skype with all the Ellen Paige commercials. I would really love for the students to be able to see another class in another place of the world..even in the district. Remember, baby steps!

What comes to mind is that a very serious discussion about how to properly use the programs available on the internet are important and their personal information should not be shared. Never state your address, personal info, etc. as there are predators out there that can pick up on the most minute bit of info and prey on children.

Tool #8

Simple Machines

Ok, what I experimented with here is posting a video from teacher tube to my blog spot.

Please place cursor over the word simple machines and it takes you directly to the video and the site where it is located.

Try it out! I hope the children find it as simple as I did to post a video and share it.

I loved teacher tube to find visual and oratory teaching materials for students.
I found a rap about clouds that will help children with their ESL. Copy the link and paste it into the address bar of your browser

I love all these extra Science attention getters!

Tool # 7

Here is a video of Spring Break 2010.

I think having the knowledge of creating a digital videostory will really engage students by practicing their writing. They will write about what the picture represents and will enforce the concept of what a picture walk does..the pictures will tell the reader what is happening and what they will be reading about.

Tool #6 - Wikis!!

I was able to read how wikis would help students with their learning.
I liked a language arts idea as far as having each student write a sentence in order to create a story.

Great collaboration tool to be used with pair sharing, maybe. Pairing students up might help them revise a sentence at a time to then come up with a 2 paragraph story.