Post #11

1. My favorite tools are- 

• Google Docs 
• Wallwisher
• Storybird 
• TikaTok
• Blogger  

I plan to use these tools in my literacy workstations for students to create their own stories, respond to  books, discuss books, and track their book club minutes. 

2. As I'm finishing up the 11 tools I have learned quite a lot about how learning and teaching is changing.  Browsing different websites and blogs I have gained a lot of ideas. I have learned ways of how to implement technology and products my students can create for Language Arts and Social Studies. 

3. Unexpected outcomes I had were- 

• I didn't realize how easy writing and creating a blog would be. 
• How many websites there are for students to create their own story/book.  
• How many apps on the iPad the students can use for language arts (vocabulary, puppets theatre, making videos, etc). 

Post #10

Digital Citizenship

• Three things I would want to make sure my students understand about being a good digital citizen-
• Cyber bullying.  
• Never giving out personal information. 
• Finding reliable sources. 
• One of the resources I would use to share with my students is the Brain Pop videos: Cyber bullying and Digital Etiquette. 
• I would teach the idea of  digital citizenship  by watching the Brain Pop videos to introduce the idea. Afterwards, we would discuss our learning...create an anchor chart in our resource area.  I would also model  for the students what digital citizenship looks like when I use my resources to find reliable resources for me or for the students to use. I would also have students create videos to share with others about what Digital Citizen ship is, what to do, and/or what not to do, etc. 
• I plan to share with the parents the student created videos about Digital Citizenship so the parents can see how their children understand how to be a good Digital Citizen when using  technology in our classroom. 

Tool #9

Incorporating Classroom based devices as tools for learning

• I think it is important to tie the technology to the objective so I know exactly what I expect my students to learn. 
• We should hold students accountable for the station to ensure that learning is taking place. 
• I visited several sites from the interactive websites...I liked Learninggamesforkids.com and Studyladder.com. Students can maintain and put into practice grammar and vocabulary skills, especially for my ELL learners. I can hold students accountable by having them create a flip chart of what they learned/ how they use these grammar or vocabulary skills in reading and/or writing to share with their learning partner. Students could also make a video, for example: explaining a process of how to use prefixes in reading to find meaning of a word. 
• My favorite app I found for the iPad is the Educreations Interactive Whiteboard. Students can create a video tutorial explaining a reading strategy, or describing to their peers how to pre-write/how to revise a composition. I see my students using these videos to share with their peers and engaging them to teach others and learning from each other. Other apps I found that I liked are Free Books (students can browse through thousands of books to read), and Playtime Theater (students can create/write their own puppet shows with pictures, costumes, etc). I see these stations in my classroom as  engaging, lots of talking, interaction with the other students in their group giving each other ideas, and helping each other. 
• I can also see my students using the iPads to create commercials for books to persuade their peer to read their book. 

Tool #8

Classroom Devices 

Two things I learned about my classroom devices-

• Netbooks are equipped with webcams for students use to Skype with others or to make videos for classroom projects. 
• I will create an iTunes account with my school email to manage the iPad's, and content from iTunes will  automatically sync to all iPad's without having to sync each one to my teacher laptop.  

I plan to use my classroom devices for  Language arts/Social Studies workstations and projects. I plan to manage my devices by creating clear expectations in a mini lesson and modeling for students what you can do and what you can't do. 

Tool #7

Reaching outside the classroom- Book Club Project 

• Given Skype, TSW be able to discuss their book club book with another classroom in the school district by discussing key elements from the book. 
• Implement in the 2nd 9 weeks.  
• Tools I plan to use- Wallwisher.com, Google docs, Skype 
• After finishing their book club book, the group would get on Skype and discuss the book with the other group from another school who also read the same book. Topics of discussion- story elements, character development/changes, lesson learned/theme/message, what they liked/didn't like about the book, and/or what would they change about the book, etc. 

Tool #6

I created this online bulletin board on Wallwisher.com to use in my classroom to have my reading groups respond to their book club book. Sometimes members of the book club can be shy to share, so this is a way for them to write their thoughts about the book, and to check each other's comprehension of the book.

I also went to TodaysMeet.com and created a meeting where I left them a question, and then the students can have an online discussion about the question.

http://todaysmeet.com/greengroupBookClub

I think my students will enjoy using this technology to discuss their book, and the students will be more willing to share their thoughts and be more engaged in READING! =)

Tool #5

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=28021875C755783


The products I made above can easily be made in the classroom. I used Wordle to create a list of character traits that I can use as a set or my student's can create one to describe their character with text evidence  from their independent reading book in a literacy workstation. I also used Comix.com to create a comic strip about what an inference is. The students' can create comic strips about their independent reading book, tell a story (narrative), or to explain a reading or writing skill to show understanding of a concept taught in  my classroom.

Tool #4

Google Docs can be easily used in my classroom!  I created a document to collaborate with my teaching partner to share reading levels and guided reading groups. I think my 4th grade team can easily use Google apps for lesson plans, road maps, collecting data, etc. I can also use the Google apps for students to use during their book club chats to write their minutes of their weekly meeting. I think the students will enjoy typing their minutes in a Google doc =).

Tool #3

As I went through different videos, I really enjoyed watching and getting lots of ideas to share with my language arts partner. I found videos on guided reading, and I liked watching what other teachers do similar or different than me in reading groups. Additionally, I found student project videos and I got several ideas on how to integrate technology by having students make commercials to convince classmates to read their books.

About copyright and fair use-I learned that of course teachers and students can not copy entire works and that the laws seems to not always be clear, but I think the video said after 14 years it goes to a public domain since there are so many ideas created daily.

I created a dropbox account for school and home. I'm excited to have all my iphone pictures and camera pictures in one location that will always be there. And finally, I can have all my school files in one place instead of in 'my documents' folder and flash drive...now I won't be searching everywhere for one file...I can just go to my dropbox. =) I will also create a dropbox for all my student's technology projects and flipcharts (yay!).

Tool #2

I visited 5 blogs and enjoyed reading other's point of views, thoughts, and ideas. My favorite blog that I visited was Mrs. Cassidy's classroom blog. She is so creative with the different activities in her classroom and  what I loved the most is that her students also have blogs where they post their own projects and/or assignments. After viewing the other blogs I think it is great to participate in an online community where you can learn from other teachers. Reading other people's comments shows me that we have the same thoughts or that teacher's have different opinions about how to do something or teach something. I don't mind sharing in the comments I leave because they are just my thoughts as if I was sharing with my teammates. I'm looking forward to visiting other blogs.

The comment I posted on Mrs.Cassidy's blog-
Looks FUN!! I'm excited for the new iPad's we are getting in the fall for my classroom. How fun integrating learning and technology!! 

Tool #1

Creating this blog was easy and fast!! 

I'm looking forward to learning how to integrate all this technology with reading and writing in my classroom with my fourth graders!!