Thing 11 Self assessing and reflecting

Finally I see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! Yeahh finished my last tool and very excited to begin using what I learned with my students. I would have to choose animoto as one of my favorite tools. Kids love pictures and images and using animoto as a mini-project for science or social studies is one of my goals this year. I'm thinking students can use it for our Ancient Egypt unit of study, as a final project depicting what they learned about food, traditions, culture, and beliefs. Also I loved stroy bird, whcih I plan to use it as a center activity on the active board. Having kids create their stories or retell a story using pictures and text to present to their peers as a small literacy project.

I'm changing the lay out of my classroom in order to accomodate all the devices we will be using in implementing technology. Kids are used to using I-pads, I-touches and netbooks because they have siblings or parents who use them at home. Therefore using them in the class might be a smooth transition, by teaching them how to take care of the devices and reviwing our curriculumn in order to target the skills my studetns need to learn and implementing them into these devices in order to acccomodate their learning.

I was surprise to be able to learn and go threw all the tools by my self, I am not a technology whiz and learning how to use these tools got me a bit apprehensive! So I would have to say, I surprised my self and I am ready to jump into the new school year and get started using everything i learned with my students.

Thing 10

In this day in age teaching kids about safety in the web is very important. I will teach my kids by explaining in child like terms the dangers that they can encounter. Just like we talk about stanger danger, I would describe that in the internet they can encounter many strangers, and they cannot give out any type of information about themselves to any one, or yet chat or write to anyone that they do not know in the internet.
Also that just like we are good citizens and we help one another and give positive feed back, we need to do the same when we are using technology. We cannot write anything negative or hurtful, because it hurts peoples feelings, and you wont want others to do the same to you. Basically no bullying in the internet. In addtion I plan on teaching about copyright laws (plagiarism)and source in which we can obtain images, and sources in which we are restricted from using certain images.
I found a video on braini pop jr that I plan to use in teaching about inter safety.
I plan on speaking to my parents on how they can also help their children stay safe while using the internet. I'm thinking about presenting during open house or parent conferences a broucher made by me describing and depicting ways that they can help their kids, and what they as parent need to look out for in order to keep their kids safe.

Thing 9: Incorporating Classroom-Based Devices

It's very exciting to have all the devices (I-pads, I-touches and Netbooks) as part of the technology that needs to be implemented in our daily teaching. Using these tools to help us focus on what we will be teaching and tying it to the objective is the main purpose. We need to use these devices as teaching tools and to help us plan accordingly by thinking about tools that need to be used for a specific lesson and purpose, therefore the student will gain a better understanding of the concept we are teaching.

Holding students accountable is a way of making sure they are actively participating in the learning process. Kids are not only using the tools as proof of gaining and applying the skills but also it's a resouce for the teacher to observe students strenghts and weakness. This can help us prepare and think ahead as to what each student my need help in, adding to our defferential teaching.

The sites that I really like were TES iboard and learning games for kids, it has many activities that are great for 1st graders to target their Math and Literacy skills, using netbooks and the active board is a great way for kids to practice concepts previously learned. I would also incorporate it in my bilingual stations so studetns can practice english vocabulary. In stations the students can re-create the story; for example (The gingerbread man). The student can use the same characters just change the stories plot and have them re-create a story arc based on their new story, which will be the accountablitly part.

Some of the I-Pad apps that I would use for centers would be the (A Bee See Sight word, and Hen House)
I can see my students using the A Bee See Sight word app to practice english sight words, by spelling and pronouncing each word to practice during bilingual stations. I can have my students write on wallwhisher a a list of vocabulary words and create a sentence that can go with it. In Hen House the students can place the eggs in numerical order and practice ordering numbers in order from least to greatest or greatest to least. With accountability I will have students record the scores they obtained from the game.
I am looking forward to also using the I-pad as a way to help my students with their fluency. Having them record their voice and listen to themsleves reading will help them become more fluent readers, because they can hear their voice, pace and errors that they make. During guided reading the accountablitiy part will fit in having them describe what they heard from their recording and what we need to work on.