Monday, July 12, 2010

11 Tools Reflection

I made it! I have now been exposed to many tools that were unknown to me last month. I will admit that there were a few times that I wondered if I would ever get to tool # 11. I think most of it was fear of the unknown. As I approached one tool at a time, I found each tool to be very manageble. I do think it is critical for educators to keep up with technology. Our students are growing up in a world full technology and we must bring it into the classrooms.
I feel that 11 Tools only scratched the surface of what I need to know about technology. I need to make a personal goal to continue to explore these tools, plus more on my own.
I really like Google Docs and hope to incorperate it into my staff development sessions next year. I also found PhotoStory, GoogleReader, and Skype user friendly and a great way to use technology even with younger students. Proabably the tool the will help me the most next year is the one about apps. Since everyone of my teachers will have 5 itouches in their classrooms, we will need to know alot about locating, doenloading and managing apps.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Tool # 11

In today's fast changing world, it is crucial that technology be embedded into our daily instruction. Digital Citizenship is now the responsibility of all educators.
If I had to pick three things to focus on teaching students, the first would be safty- students need to be taught how to take precautions in order to protect themselves and their personal information. It is also important that they understand and apply appropriate standards of conduct and procedures for online communication. I have heard this referred to as "netiquette".
Finally I would want to ensure that students learn how to check sources they find online, as well as cite them appropriatly in order to avoid plagiarism.
Since I work with small children, the best way to begin teaching digital citizenship is through modeling. We need to model appropriate use of technology daily.

Tool # 10

This is the tool that I am most excited about using. Apps are everywhere, I have a few on my personal itouch, but I am not proficent at finding new ones and adding them to my library. Now that I have made the time to review some, I could spend all day exploring. I found several free apps that will be great to use with our students. I really like Shape Builder Lite, and Toddler ABC's Lite. I may even put these on my itouch for the little one in my life. I think the idea of providing a "lite" version is a great way to see if you want to purchase the full version.
In the spring, I took several itouches into one of our prek classrooms to use with the students. I was amazed at how comfortable the students were with technology. My wow moment was when they were finding ways to use them that I hadn't noticed when I was preping for the lesson!
I am excited about having these in the hands of our little ones next year. I think this is a very motivating way for students to independently practice and reinforce skills. I think we will all be learning together!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Tool # 9

Skype is a term that I have become familiar with in the last year of so. I have several friends that use it to communicate with family and friends that live several states away. It is also used to communicate with their family while traveling for business. I think it is a great way to communicate because it provides the visual component that is not available with a phone call. After learning more about Skype in Tool 8, I can see the role it can play in the classroom.
Jing is something that was new to me. I really like the fact that it can help you show people what you are talking about, instead of trying to explain it in words. Screencast is one step beyond using print screen to place a screen shot into a document. As a SIS, it would be very helpful for me to use the Jing software when trying to communicate with teachers about technology.

Tool #8






Videos are a great way to add to a lesson or presentation. The great thing about streaming video is that you can use a small clip, or even part of a clip to enhance your lesson. Before Tool 8, I was familair with several resources, but now I have new resources to add to the list. However, I was not aware of the amount of material available for children. I came across many resourses to use in the primary classroom.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Tool #7 Part 2

Finally- with the help from tech support, I got it posted!!

Tool #7

PhotoStory was fun and user friendly. The problem came when trying to upload my finished product to my blog. I have tried many times, several hours and a variety of strategies to get it to post. I will continue to research and work on this problem, but in meantime I am going to move on to the next tool.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tool #6

I have heard the term "Wiki", I have even visited a few (wikipedia, district curriculum wiki). It was not until tool #6 that I truly understood the function and purpose of wikis.

I can see how wikis will help me in my role as a SIS. After viewing childrensbookreview on the side bar, I have a few ideas for the fall. At Lion Lane we have been talking alot aboout "reading like writers". As a staff we can create a booklist centered around children's "book making". Throughtout the year, as teachers discover books to support teaching points they can go onto the wiki and edit the list.

I look forward to exploring more with wikis in the upcoming year.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Tool #5

Social bookmarking will make it easier for me to organize all of my bookmarks. I really like the idea of assigning tags to my bookmarks. Currently, I have an extensive list of bookmarks. Even though I have marked the sites as favorites, it takes me a good 3 minutes to retrive the site I am looking for when it is needed. I now hope to use social bookmarking on a regular basis. It will take some time to adjust to, because I am used to bookmarking the old way.

I came across two websites that I was not familiar with when I searched using tags. I found ReadingRockets by using the tag early literacy, and I found Pattern Matcher when using the prek math tags.

Tool #4

Google Docs is a great tool to know about. I really think I will be able to use Google Docs alot next year. I am a school improvment specialist, so there are always times when I compile information to get out to our teachers. Sometimes it is information resulting from one of our professional development sessions, and other times it is information they will work on in teams and bring back to the group. I can see how having a shared document will save a lot if time and confussion.
Google Reader is another great tool. There are many websites that I use as resources on a regular basis. I like how Reader will bring the information to me. Again, I can see this also playing a huge role in professional development. I can use the share component when I want to share something with the entire staff or just a few teachers. I want to spend more time searching for sites to suscribe to.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Tool #3

After playing around a bit, I decided to use Image Chef and Dumpr as my image generators. I found Image Chef really easy to use and embed into my blog. I tried out a few of the other resources listed. I created images, but could not get them embedded into my blog. I will say, I spent quiet a bit of time trying to get WordItOut and Wordle to work. I eventually gave up and moved on to Dumpr. I am glad I took a look at dumpr, it was different than the other word resources I used. You can do many things with images that you already have. I enjoyed working with Dumpr.

I think I will use several of these resources with the staff during our professional development sessions next year.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tool #2

I really enjoyed this tool. I am excited to become part of an online learning community. I can see many advantages already. I work on a campus of all pre kindergarten teachers and we have a great traditional learning community among our staff, but we are always looking for ways to reach out to the pre kindergarten teachers on the elementary campuses. I think we may have just found our answer!
While reading all of the advice on commenting, many things stood out, but the one that really made sense to me was the one about hyperlinking things you talk about. If something is good enough to speak about, provide it for others to easlily access.
I enjoyed and commented on TeachPaperless, Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Mrs; Yollis' Classroom Blog, The Blue Skunk Blog, and English with Rosa.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Tool #1

That was more fun than expected! It did take me a while to create my Voki and set up my blog background. Decisions over little things sometimes slow me down. Now that I am set up and ready to go, I look forward to collabortating with colleagues in a whole new way.