BP14_2009121_OneMinMessage

I decided to research another movie production website. Although I thought initially I liked moove.com it was difficult to move the movie to a quality production to use for teaching purposes. It didn't look as professional as this website. So, instead, I created a better advertisement for an easier tool to use.

BP13_2009121_blogcommentmelissa

Wow. Melissa, What an amazing award that was presented to you. I am impressed.
I enjoyed reading your post. I too am a kindergarten teacher who loves the book Flat Stanley. I have always mailed out Flat Stanley to different people, but how much easier it would be to use a PB wiki. I have never heard about that until attending Full Sail. The students would get quicker responses using the internet. What a powerful tool for the students to be able to share information with family not only at home but miles away! I am sure students were intrinsically motivated by this project.
One thing I did with my students, which they loved, was mark on a big world map where Flat Stanely had been. I had flight attendant friends who would take Flat Stanely all over the world.
It is a shame your district doesn't allow you to use anymore outside servers. I look forward to trying this project in my own classroom someday!
December 13, 2009 3:13 PM

BP12_2009121_sketchfu

The website, sketchfu.com, is an easy tool to use for any age. It is a place to publish pictures that can be used for educational purposes. There is a feature on it that replays each step in the drawing. This feature allows the learner to go back and observe how the artist created their drawing. After, the learner can copy techniques learned from the original artist. It can be published to many different web applications.
For reading, I would like to use this tool in my classroom when we create digital stories. This site could be a place where the students illustrate their portion of the story. It is easy to navigate. It would be easy for kindergarteners to get on and explore using the basic computer skills of a mouse. They could create multiple pictures and simple sentences to go with each picture.
In science, the students can come up with scientific pictures that represent a whole product. For example, a child demonstrated through picture what creates a plant: seeds+dirt+water=plant. This project demonstrates creative and critical thinking skills.
Another feature this site provides is the option to add to other people’s art. I would like to use this concept for math. I would create a grid. Each student could add a different way to solve the math problem. This project would prove the point that there is not just one right way to solve a math problem.
In conclusion, this web2.0 product can be used in all subject areas. It allows both the teacher and student to be creative in its use.

BP11_2009121_Webtools#2

I just registered my school, Pioneer Elementary, for the edu2.0 free online webschool. Visit it at http://pioneerelementary.edu20.org. This website allows you to teach a class, start blogs, post lessons, teach online lessons, and use grading tools. It has great tutorials showing how to use the system. I still have a lot to explore, create and figure out.
I envision using this website as a supplemental source for the parents and students. I am interested in the great assessment tools. I see this as a site parents can go to monitor their student’s progress. They can also see upcoming events, projects, and homework assignments. It would solve concerns parents have if their student is turning in homework and mastering the concepts. I know many parents come to parent teacher conferences where they find out for the first time how their students are doing. Many times they get frustrated cause they claim they didn’t know about this. With an online system, parents can be updated daily.
For the class lessons, I think I would provide a weekly outline of what our students would be learning. I would also add powerful websites the students could go to for additional help for concept mastery.
I would also like to start parent-based forums on ideas or concepts to use in the classroom. Since this is for earlier childhood education the forum would be focused more toward the parents. It gives the parents an opportunity to get actively involved in their child’s education even if they work full time.
It is amazing how easy they make it now to register a school online. It seems like it might be a lot of work at first, but very much worth it in the long run. I can’t wait to share this with other teachers at Pioneer Elementary.

BP10_2009121_classtools

“Classtools.net provides free, customizable flash templates to embed into blogs, wikis and websites.” This is an excellent place for teachers to go who want to create their own arcade games, online flashcards, animated books, countdown timers, and many more.
I would use the quiz-making tool in older grade classrooms for self-starts in the morning or reviews for tests. It is very easy to create. First, come up with 10 or more questions. Next, the computer automatically puts it into an arcade game. The final product is an interactive way to test student’s knowledge as they play a game. This would be a great tool to reinforce what has been taught for self-mastery.
I would also make kids create their own book and download it into a ‘virtual’ book so the other students in the classroom could read and comment on it. This would help their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.
This site also has great classroom management tools. I would use the random name picker and the timer count down daily in my classroom. These tools are also easy to use. This is great for choosing classroom helpers or calling on students to answer questions. Since it is completely random, the students never know if they will get picked again sooner or later. They always have to be on their toes. I used to use popsicle sticks for this. I would take a name out and not put it back in the cup until I went through all the names. The students would then know once I picked their names, they didn’t have to worry about it until I put the names back in the cup. This tool solves that problem!
This website is a great, inexpensive way to create effective interactive learning through technology.

BP9_2009121_oneminuitemessage

BP8_2009121_Peerreview

Hey Vandy,
I completely agree with you. Keeping an open mind is vital for not only a teacher, but for students as well. It is also important to teach students how to keep an open mind. This will help them understand to respect others opinion, which is important as students will be respond to other blogs, twitter, and discussion boards.
I love your thought, "It's amazing how things change but stay the same." You nailed it with that comment. Although students have been going to public schools for years (same), our curriculum, news, and technology is ever changing.
What a great principal you have to keep a common vision and always think of what is best for the kids.
I always enjoy reading your posts. Your ideas are very interesting. Thanks for the knowledge!
Katie

BP7_2009121_WEBTOOLS

Airbnb web 2.0 tool is just up my alley. My passion is travel. I will use this site for my own personal use. It was the coolest site I have explored so far. This place is where any individual can post a room for rent featuring places all over the world. They have different bedrooms, villas, homes, bungalows, ect for rent. These are just individuals who are willing to rent out their home to others.
Now, you are probably wondering how can I use this site in my classroom? I wasn’t able to research specific lesson plans using this exact site, but my mind is swarming with lesson plans. These would be for upper grades that include researching and planning out the perfect vacation. I believe students would learn vital skills doing this. First of all, they would have to learn how to be organized in planning. Second, they would be able to research a place they would want to visit around the world. They would learn about the culture, food, foreign exchange, transportation, and famous historical sites around the neighborhood. They could e-mail the individuals on this website about their place and also about their country. They could also surf this site and look at different living conditions from around the world. They can see a genre of living spaces including condos, apartments, castles, igloos, bungalows, houses, ECT. This type of lesson plan allows the student to take over his/her own learning process, as the teacher is merely the facilitator.

BP6_2009121_Web2.0Tools

memoov.com teacher review:
Wow! I give this program four stars! This new web 2.0 product of memoove.com is a great resource for teachers. It allows you to create animated characters in different settings for free. It is simple and easy to use as it is not that complicated. Even new teachers to technology could use this in their classroom. This website has simple step directions on how to create an animated video in minutes. It has characters you can choose from. You can even change their clothes. It has different settings you can also choose from.
How can kindergarten teachers implement this product in their classrooms?
This is a great tool to introduce new letter sounds, sight words, and phonemic awareness activities in an entertaining way. I would like to create multiple short videos introducing new topics for students to watch. It is using cartoon characters to keep their minds entertained while they are learning. A sample video I would like to do is introducing a new sight word: the. I would get a funny bunny to be the spokesperson then have him hold up a sign that has the new word of the day. Then the bunny would spell the new word and use it in sentences. I really think kids would like it.
As I did my commercial using memoove for my project I did notice it was a little more difficult to figure out exactly how to do it. It was hard to figure out the timeline and how to get the characters to move around. I figured out you needed to do short little scenes for each segment that does take a little bit of time to figure out. I am now waiting for the movie I produced to download. If it works, it will be great!

BP5_2009121_Flickr

The first step to use Flickr in the Elementary classroom is to create an individual class account that parents can access as well. If students are old enough, encourage the students to get their own Flickr account as well. After this part is set up, it is time to explore Flickr in the classroom.
One lesson plan I read about was of a teacher who allowed the students to take pictures of nature or of anything. After they have taken the pictures, they download them and pick one to write a poem about. This allows the students to take total ownership of their project. They picked the picture and what their poem would be about. They also get to experience publishing skills as they would share their finishing product with their classmates and family at home through the internet. This allows the parents to stay actively involved with their child’s progress at school cause they can check their work on the internet.
Another lesson I thought about for kindergarten level would be to allow the students to take pictures and write simple sentences about the pictures for them to publish their own book. Obviously the students probably couldn’t type out the sentences. That would have to be done by the teacher, but they could probably access it off the internet. Also, for first graders, they could take pictures of items, label the items, and put them into alphabetical order. This project would be great for ESL and ELL students.
Now, go get Flickred!

BP4_2009121_My Ideal Classroom

Welcome to my elementary classroom. Yes, you still need to get in your car and drop your child off promptly at 8:30. Social interaction is a crucial part of elementary school. As you enter, you will notice tables that do have personal laptops for every student. You will also notice students independently working on their morning quick start on their individual laptops. On their laptops each student has a very modified version of their own modified Personal Learning Environment (PLE). Each student has an individual homepage that has simple places the students can click on to go to websites to do their morning exercises, activities throughout the day, and our school website blog. You will also notice the projector screen I have hooked up to my laptop computer with the morning message and quiet classical music going in the background. While the students quietly work independently, I am pulling kids one on one to review their homework assignment. Each homework assignment is individualized to the students level and each time they pass it off it gives me an opportunity to assess the student’s progress.
A recent article, 7 things you should know about personal learning environments, Discusses the importance of having a PLE. Normal PLEs allow each individual to connect with others that share their same individual interests and research topics. It allows them to get more information rather than independent channels such as a library or a textbook. A normal PLE is created from self-direction so the responsibility and learning is only the learners. A PLE is self-directed learning. So, due to the importance of having some kind of PLE, I have modified a PLE to fit into an elementary classroom. The students will not have all of the independence of choosing exactly how to set up their own PLE. Instead, the teacher will set up a general web homepage for each individual student that the teacher can access. On this website it will have the basic tools and sites the students can just click on to get to different learning sites. The students won’t be posting their reflections in the early grades, but this will allow them to get used to going to a site and navigating through their own system.
Another article I read, AntiTeaching- Confronting the Crisis of Significance, a particular part really stood out to me, “visit a classroom and pay attention to the types of questions asked by students. Good questions are the driving force of critical and creative thinking and therefore one of the best indicators of significant learning.” Wow. That is a powerful way to observe classrooms. Students do take school as a game.
The problem that our society faces is how fast technology is impacting our world. Our textbooks are becoming outdated even before they are finished printed. If schools invest in the latest laptops or latest technology in a few years those will be outdated and further purchasing will be required.