Tool #11

1. My favorite tool is probably Skype. The thought of being able to connect with another class or teacher half way across the world is really cool and what an experience for the students. I just need to find a country tat doesn't have such opposite hours as us.

2.My views haven't changed much because I am already using technology in the classroom. The one thing that I do want to use more is the google apps for their paper writing. Using Google apps for their writing is probably the biggest change I have had. I am such a Word docs person that I will have to change this thinking because I can access my docs on google anytime and anywhere.

3.There really weren't any new outcomes. Most of the activities I used or tried before. There were some activities that didn't work when I tried them before, but coming back to them and trying again made me want to use them.

Tool #10

1.Safety- Stressing the importance of safety when using the web! Teaching and instilling in them that they should NEVER give out personal information to any website or person on the web. Do not get into talk with anyone you don't know either. My students of course are 5th graders, so this is of high importance for me to share with them.

Etiquette- So many times and email or posting can come across the wrong way even though it was not meant to be ugly. Teaching students proper web etiquette will help them to be polite and not get into a situation where something posted hurt another students feelings. I think this would be the easiest to teach and share. No body wants their feelings hurt.

2.I am a fan of Atomic learning, so I would use the Digital Citizenship - touching on netiquette (84039) lesson from there to help teach my students about proper digital citizenship.

3.As for my lesson, I would have the librarian co-teach it with me. Based on these five things, It would take about 5 weeks to complete. We would address each of the topics above using Brainpop. The lessons are really good. After each lesson we could have the students go and practice proper computer usage.

4. I might have the students make a flip video about the topics and share them during Back to School night while I have the parents here. kind of like a how to be a good digital citizen video.

Tool #9

1. I don't think technology ties into all curriculum, but when you can use it you get wonderful outcomes. The importance of incorporating technology into curriculum is that of moving forward in the 21st century. We need to show our students there is more than one way to produce an outcome. If, at the elementary level, we give them the foundation of for technology and teach them how intergrate it into their learning, then when they move on they will be able to incorporate it on their own later.

2.Students should be held accountable for stations/centers because they are showing that they can handle working independently and with other students. Centers/Stations are a way for students to learn on their own and through peer learning. At the end of the day they can show what they have learned. if students can't work independently than we as teacher haven't done our job in facilitating their learning.

3.Learning Games for Kids (IXL)- This site has w ay to track progrees and print reports which is a very good way to hold the stdeunts accoutnable when working on them. It is also a "fun" way to practice and reinforce concepts already taught.
Odyssey- is a program that I really like to use. It has all content areas and I can assign the activities, which always have a quiz and report at the end of the lesson. I think the lessons are challenging in the sense that the students really have to apply themsleves and their learning.

4. States and Capitals Challenge App-This would be rgeat when we are learning all the states and their capitals. The students could this app to learn the states and capitals, but also review them once they ahve learned them.
K12 Timed Reading Practice- Help kids with their reading fluency using short passages that are timed

For the reading passage they woudl ahve to turn in their time. the states and capitals would show their accountability by doing well on the test.

5. Whe we when do our 5th grade program at the end of the year, we used the ipads as a teleprompter. The MC's used them to read their speeches from.

Tool #8

I learned that the netbooks have webcams. I have used the netbooks several times, but never noticed the webcam. That will make it easier to skpe! I am also glad to know that when we get the ipads and itouches, we will be able to synch them to our teacher computer instead of having to go through the library. It will be fun to use the ipads and touches in the classroom, especially for struggling students who need to practice their math facts.

2. It seems to go well when I have the netbooks in the class. I don't have a strategy except that I lay down the ground rules for using them and don't expect anything less than that. I also walk around and monitor closely. Maybe me wandering around the room is enough to keep them on task.

Tool #7

1. The collaborative project we will be doing in 5th grade is our Wax Museum research paper. The students will be divided into groups according to their assigned period of history. Then they will research their time period and post their notes on google docs and share them with the rest of their groups. They will be able to edit each other's notes, adding information.

2. a. TLW research a particular time in history in more depth that we have studied and write a research paper.
b. We will do this in May
c. Google docs, the internet, etc.
d.The students will be divided into groups according to their assigned period of history. Then they will research their time period and post their notes on google docs and share them with the rest of their groups. They will be able to edit each other's notes, adding information.

Tool #6

VoiceThread: I think this is a really cool way for kids to learn or teach others. They could use it for social studies. They could choose a picture from history and make up a story based on what they have learned from the time period. They could become one of the people from the picture and tell the story from that perspective. It would be a good use for younger students and struggling older children in the area of writing. It can help with story mapping, fluency and flow of story writing. If they tell the story orally then they could write it and embellish as needed. Some children are better story tellers orally. Children could choose a math problem to solve, or in science they could take turns teaching about a concept- ie. Photosynthesis. For whatever reason, I wasn't able to get vioce to play back for me. So not sure if it will work with the voice or not.



Skype: I use Skype with my children at home at least twice a month to talk to my brother stationed at Del Mar Marine Base. When he was in Okinawa, we Skyped once a week. I have several stusents who have just moved overseas and one that moved to Arkansas. So, I was hoping to be able to Skype with them this year. Hopefully we can find out if in the Southern Hemisphere do shadows go from west north to east or do they go south instead of north. if not, I will find out that answer when I get to Africa this summer!

Tool #5

1. Wordle: I really enjoyed wordle. The fact that it enlarges words that frequently appear in order to help you figure out what the main idea might be is great. I think that this would be great for kids to use for science or even social studies, i.e.- Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address. I chose to use William B. Travis last letter written from the Alamo. What a great way for kids to understand text that might be hard to understand by pasting it into wordle and allowing it to help them find the main idea. It is visually fun!
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Animoto: This is one of my favorite tools for the classroom. I use this every year for my students to make an endangered species video based on the research they did for their research papers. The kiddos love it! The finished products are fabulous and I make them a cd of the animotos to take home as a memory of 5th grade.

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Tool #4

I really like Google Apps because I can access it anytime and anywhere. This is a great way to collaboratively work with other teachers in your district or even your own team. I can see my team and I using this to edit and work on news notes or other grade level material where all our input is necessary. I have already incorporated Google docs onto my room back in December. I was very excited about using it, but wasn't sure how it would work. It worked wonderfully after we got pasted the internet issues. The kiddos sent their writing project to me via email. I haven't edited yet, but I am looking forward to using the editing tools.

Tool #3

1. The sites I find most helpful are teacher tube, discovery education, you tube, and pbs.

2. This video is from pbs. I actually used pbs today in my class to teach them more about the dust bowl of the 30's after reading a Bluebonnet nomination Barn Stormer. Here is a video about habitats and environments of whales. 

Watch the full episode. See more Ocean Adventures.

 I found another really good one for science- Kilauea, on Hawaii's Big Island, is the world's most active volcano. I am trying to embed it, we shall see if it works. If not, it was under the topic Exploring Science. Volcano videos are great for teaching land formations, constructions and destruction of land, along with the rock cycle. I am very excited about watching this video with my students. I know they will love it!
Introduction
if you right click on the word Introduction it will take you to the website. Not sure why html code isn't working

3. I don't know that I learned that much about copyright and such because I didn't run into any issues of copyright with the videos I embedded.

4. I can see using the drop box in order to post copies of instructions in case students lose their hard copy they could go to the drop box and get another copy. Also it would be a good way to archive news notes for parents to access. I downloaded public stalagtite and stalagmite pictures from picasa. It is a great way show the class pictures on a topic, but also you could save pictures there for the students to use in projects or to use to analyze and apply concepts.

Tool #2

I think it is very important to establish an on-line community especially if you rely on blogging and learning via the web. It is a great way to get new ideas and establish new friendships due to common interest. I enjoyed seeing other colleague's blogs and commenting on them. I also like their comments on my blog because the comments help me to improve my blog and learning. You definitely put yourself out there to criticism especially if someone doesn't like what you say. So it is a bit scary thinking that others and rip you apart if they don't like your posts, but that is a risk you take.  I think blogging is impersonal versus having a face to face discussion, but if I want to discuss something with my team I would do it face to face. If I want to just put something out there then I post it on the web. The blog or website that I want to visit and read more of is... it seems pretty good.
http://ifbeesarefew.blogspot.com/

Tool #1

This was fairly easy, however I couldn't get the VOKI to talk until after I added it to my blog.