After 11 Tools: Reflections

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about all of the tools. The most useful thing I have learned from this process is how to create a blog. I plan on having an ongoing blog in my classroom every year from now on. Some of my favorite tools were PhotoStory, Animoto, GoogleDocs, Wordle, and Skype. I have already been using PhotoStory in the classroom with my students and will continue to use it in the future. I purchased a web cam and plan on using Skype. I will try it out at home first, then use it in the classroom. I would love for my students to use GoogleDocs for any research project they work on. I would like to use GoogleDocs with my teammates as well. I will use Wordle to capture the students' attention at the beginning of a reading lesson.

I feel that I have really transformed my thinking about technology in the classroom. In the past I thought some of these things would be too difficult to incorporate. Boy was I wrong! I am glad that I have had the opportunity to learn more about things that I had heard about, but was too afraid to try. Now that I feel more confident using these tools myself, it will be easier to implement in my classroom.

Honestly, when I first learned that I would have to create a blog and post my thoughts for everyone to read, I kind of freaked out. But, after the first couple of posts, I realized how much fun blogging is and how beneficial these tools will be for my students. I've really enjoyed reading every one's blogs, reading people's comments, and taking a big leap into the 21st Century. Now I can't believe I was even a bit hesitant in the first place. After all, we are all on this journey together!

Tool #11

What a exciting time it is in education with all of the technology we have at our fingertips. We are able to give so many new opportunities to our students. It is our job to teach the students the rules and responsiblities that go with this wonderful technology. We don't leave our students alone and let them figure it our for themselves!

Three things I would want to make sure my students understood about being good digital citizens are :1. information privacy, 2. cyberbullying, and 3. plagiarism.

I build such a strong relationship with the students in my class that I often feel that they are my own. I find myself worrying about their safety, and now with so much access to technology come new worries. It will be my number 1 priority to teach my students rules to maximize their learning experience and keep them safe.

I was so grateful that our wonderful librarian showed a video on BrainPOP to my students about digital citizenship. This was a great video giving basic rules about internet etiquette. Basically, the rules we have in our day to day lives are the same as the ones we have when using technology. I would use this again to introduce how to be a good digital citizen. Also, the creation of flipcharts stating the rules and with examples of good/bad choices would be a way to teach this. Lots of discussion about how to handle certain situations is key. I would also do lots of modeling beforehand as well as active monitoring while they use the technology to ensure that the students are being safe and responsible.

Tool #10

I enjoyed learning about the iTouch. I think that they will be such a great addition to the classroom. When reviewing the apps, I noticed several that are free as well as several that the district has provided for us. There are a bunch of math apps, which will be great for reinforcing a TEK once it's been covered. I could easily see them being used in workstations. I noticed an app called ABC Tracing where train, truck and worm animations come to life for children to follow, while showing the proper way to write alphabet letters and numbers. This really spoke to the mother in me, as well as the Reading Recovery teacher in me! The district provides Google Earth, which I love. Another district provided app that looks useful is USA Factbook. Of course, there are plenty of games such as Hangman and Sudoku. What a great tool to use for classroom management. The students will really benefit from having iTouches in the classroom!

Tool #9

When I began working on Tool #9, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jing and Skype were already downloaded onto my computer. Woo hoo! All I had to do was create an account and I was off and running.

Jing....what a cool program! It is very intuitive and simple to navigate. I played around with Jing using Google Earth. So, my creative juices are flowing...a cool project idea came to mind while I was doing experimenting with Jing. 2nd grade students learn about habitats during the 3rd nine week period. During that time, they choose a habitat, research it, and present it to the class as part of a research project. Jing would be a wonderful tool to use for this. The students could create a blog about the habitat, post daily as they learn more information, collaborate together and keep track of their research using Google docs, and use Jing to share visuals from the web directly on their blog. They can capture a picture of the habitat they are studying on Google Earth and post it to their blog. Wow!

See...here is MY habitat.






I've heard a lot about Skype and know several people who use it regularly. My aunt talks to my cousins (who live throughout the US) using Skype. My friend talks to her fiance (who is stationed in Iraq) using Skype. Another friend uses Skype for conference calls at work. So, Skype is all around me. Yet, somehow I have never had the chance to use it.

Several ideas come to mind for using Skype in the classroom.

• If you have a student who is injured/sick and can't return to school for some time, use Skype so he can join the classroom from home.


• My class had pen-pals in Kansas last year. It would have been great to talk to them using Skype in addition to writing letters.


• Can't afford a field trip? Use Skype to bring the field trip into the classroom.


• Use Skype to collaborate with other teachers in your district or around the world.


• Going to be away from your class for a while because of maternity leave, honeymoon, illness or travel? Stay connected with your substitute and students using Skype.


• Have guest lecturers, busy parents, or authors present to your class using Skype.

Personally, I would use Skype at home to talk to my many relatives who live throughout the US...from Hawaii to Michigan, from California to North Carolina, and some in between. That's it!!! I'm getting a webcam!!!

Tool #8

I really like using videos as a resource in my classroom. Videos give students visual representation of the concepts being taught. As a result, they are able to understand the concepts better and retain the information.

I have used Streaming Video, YouTube, and Hulu consistently in my classroom. I was so excited to become more familiar with the other video resources.

I am including a YouTube video I used in my class this year when teaching camaflouge and mimicry. The students were amazed by this octopus!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygh1-ul6E94

Blinkx is a wonderful resource! I definitely will utilize this website in the future. I love you can search videos on a particular topic and it brings them together under one site. I found this video using Blinkx. It is a clip from MSNBC that discusses the environmental effects of the oil spill on wildlife. This would be great to show during the 2nd grade units on habitats so students can better understand how habitats are threatened.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37527985#37527985

Videos are a wonderful resource for the classroom. It gives students greater insight to the information being taught. But, as with any resource, videos should be previewed and planned ahead of time to ensure that the content is suitable for the students viewing.

Tool #7

I actually have a little experience with PhotoStory3. At the beginning of this school year, I used the program with my students to create a digital story about how we choose books at the library. The students helped sequence the pictures according to what they do when in the library. They also narrated the pictures. I really wanted to include it in this blog, but it is saved on my san drive and for some reason I'm not able to access it. I'm so bummed! I created this PhotoStory about our last days at RGE this school year.

I think that PhotoStory3 is a useful tool in the classroom. It can help students with sequencing. When narrating the story, the students have to decided what is most imporant about the photo and basically summarize it. This can help them make a good connection with reading comprehension. I wanted to use a PhotoStory with an autistic student in my class, but, unfortunately I wasn't able to get to it. He had a difficult time with sequencing. Making a PhotoStory of his daily schedule would have helped him with sequencing events as well as helping him with routine.

Tool #6

I really like the idea of using a Wiki in the classroom. When teaching reading comprehension to students , having them link their background knowledge with new information is key. Wikis will help students build greater connections between new and old knowledge by allowing student-created structure for the information and ideas. Plus they can collaborate. In my mind, you can use Wikis as a kind of online literature circle or book study. When thinking of Bloom's, the students will use synthesis and evaluation constantly and consistently when they work on a Wiki.

As a part of the intervention team, Wikis can be used to organize literacy groups. Instead of emailing back and forth, we can use a Wiki to organize data, groups, and information about the students. I could be wrong, but Wikis sound similar to Google Docs. I think either one of these could be used to organize intervention groups.