Tool #11 - Self Assessing and Reflecting

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.

Since my classes have already used Edmodo,Animoto,and Wordle in my classroom, I look forward to using new tools such as Today's Meet , Thinkfinity, and Google Docs  just to name a few. I will show my students these sites and let them take off to design and create. I bet some of my students have already hit some of these sites and know of other sites to share as well. I am always asking and polling  my class about the latest sites they have visited. They get on my computer, pull up the site and share it on my active board with the class.  By the next day, a student will want to share what they learned or created on that site.  Remember...... I am just the facilitator!

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?

 Traveling through 11 tools has opened up my view of the cyber world. This was just the tip of the ice berg! Due to our ever changing, dynamic world, 11 tools is such an eye opener yet, It is not the be all . I am very excited about getting the new iPads and Macs for my classroom . These and the new tools I have learned will definitely change my instruction. I have always thought of myself as the facilitator for my students' learning and this will enable them to show more ownership of their  work and ideas. 

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I feel so much better and confident in my teaching just knowing these some of these  tools of many that are out there in the cyber world. I also had some Ah ha moments myself. I was surprised at how I maneuvered through 11 Tools and enjoyed playing and creating the tools . At first I was intimidated and now I am ready to ask and learn so much more to enhance my teaching!

Tool #7 Reaching Outside your Classroom: Online Digital Projects

Content objective
TLW work with students in other classrooms via Today's Meet and discuss their findings and experiments with mixtures and solutions.

When you plan to implement
I will show my students at the beginning of the year how to post on Today's Meet.we will talk about what is an appropriate post as well as how to communicate in a positive manner. 

What tool(s) you plan to use

Today's Meet.

Discovery Education
Skype

A brief description of the project (plan - two or three sentences)

Throughout the school year, my class will communicate with other classes using Today"s Meet and Skyping as they cover certain science and math objectives . They will post new findings as well as their opinions on topics such as matter, geometry, forces, division, fractions etc.

If you need to find another classroom - We can begin networking with other classrooms right here!

I will work with other teachers on my team: Ms. Markham and Mrs. Davis as well as Mrs. Posey.

Tool #10 - Underneath it All - Digital Citizenship

1. Discuss at least three things you would want to make sure your students understand about being good digital citizens.

First of all, I would talk about being " Web Librarians" and visiting sites and show the students how to read the address to a website after using key words to search a topic. So many people search topics and click on the first site they may see and it may not even be about the topic they may be researching.

Second, I would talk to my students about having integrity when independently searching the web as well as writing and putting presentations on the world wide web for all to see. I would show then the Brain Pop Video that talks about Digital Citizenship. We could then fishbowl out our findings from watching the video.
Last, I would talk about problem solving and deciding what on the web is fiction/ nonfiction. Not everything on the Web is true or credible.

2. Share at least one of the resources mentioned above or on the Ed Tech website that you plan to use instructionally.

Brain Pop

3. Explain briefly how you would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to your students.

I will have a class discussion about netiquette. I do want any students to be trolls and start flaming. Each child will sign the SBISD sheet with the oath on it stating they will use the Internet with the appropriate etiquette (netiquette).

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4. Explain briefly how you plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with your parents.

Every year, my students' parents sign a sheet showing they understand the appropriate ways in which their student will work on the Web. This will also be covered at Curriculum Night.

Tool #9: Incorporating Classroom-Based Devices as Tools for Learning

Tool #9 Assignment, create a new post in which you respond to the following:

1. Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective?

Some problems educators have is they may use technology for technology's sake and not connect it to the lesson/objective. Yes.... the students are having fun with the technology, but are they really learning.? Whenever the technology is connected to the objective, you begin to hear the "Ah ha" sounds all over the classroom. The learners are engaged and are ready to learn more!



2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers?

If students are not held accountable for their stations, they may not learn the objectives or test well. Why have stations/ centers if the instructor can not see or measure if a student has learned a specific objective?

1. Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?

One link my students could visit could be Brainpop. They can go, watch the short video and take the quiz . I have used this in my classroom before for learning stations and was able to access the students' grades.

Another site is Mangahigh. This past year, my classes loved competing with other classrooms around the world in math games . The student's results are visible for the teacher to see the results.

1. List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?

Thinkfinity -it has interactive games on all subjects for early childhood to the high school learners. 

Today's Meet is a site the students can go to and post their findings from the Thinkfinity site.

1. What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station.

There are so many ways to use i Pods and iTouch/iPad! The students can make their own videos and presentations by going to sites such as Animoto and share them with the class. they can work on presentations while talking to each other on Today's Meet. They are also able to vied videos or short excerpts on Discovery Education.

Tools # 8 Taking a look at the Tools

iPads and iTouches:

Today we viewed the tutorial and learned how to sync the devices the devices to the teacher's computer , create and I Tunes account and add apps.
 This is great for stations when math or science apps are added on I pads. For example, a science video can be down loaded and a student  can watch the video while at that science station.

Dell 2120
This introductory video should be shared with students as well as teachers. Although I have had the Dell Notebooks in my classroom for the past 2 years, I am going to show my students this video that Angela McNeil has created.
 Once my students watch the video, they will be ready to create, plan, learn and much more in my classroom.

Tool # 6 Building Community in the Online Environment

1. Today's Meet: I signed up and created an account on Today's meet.This is a great  way to conduct a live meeting with  a group of people.It will provide instant feed back. I got on it and had  fun talking to my sweet friend , Dorothy.
http://todaysmeet.com/JanaceksJoys12

This would be great to use in the classroom when my students want to have a group chat like when they are working on a project together and need to communicate with each other. They can talk  about their findings in their research and assign activities to each other.


2. Wall Wisher :
On Wall Wisher people/ students can be invited  to go to my wall  and write their comments about a certain subject or topic . This is comparable to having students put post it notes on a KWL chart before a topic is introduced.
Wall Wisher :roses

Tool 5 :Building Community in the Online Environment!

Animoto :
I  have used Animoto in my classroom  after introducing my objective to my class. It is a great way to show the students what they will be learning for the next 30-50 minutes. I have also shown my students how to make the Animoto videos and they took off making their own shows on Matter, 3D Shapes, Angles, The Water Cycle and so much more!

 Wordle-
This is such a fun way for students to express their feelings by using adjectives and having www.Wordle.net  create their poster. This is also super to use when they  want to use some words to describe a science concept such as matter, the  water cycle or  types of weather. Below is a fourth grade math wordle I made in just a few minutes by typing up some math words and letting Wordle.net create a poster.