Final Podcast

I am attempting to upload my final podcast, but for some reason I cannot get it to save in the QuickTime format.  I'm not quite sure what the problem might be-- I hope this works!!

Nope--It didn't work   SO SAD! :(

The Power of Skype

Today's class was very interesting.  I really thought it was beneficial to talk with Kate about her experiences and tips she had for us.  I thought it was interesting when she was talking about her District's Director of Technology Instruction and how he has made it his number one priority to prepare the teachers for this innovation.  I think it's wonderful that her school can have this rewarding Professional Development.  Another great thing her school has implemented is that every student has a school gmail account.  The teacher has access to every student's password--this is a great way to manage and monitor  the students use.

We used TodaysMeet.com to experiment with back-channeling.  I think this is a great idea to use when you need to communicate with other people while you have a speaker.  I think a good way to use this in the Elementary classroom is to incorporate back-channeling within literature circles.  I'm not sure if I would personally use this in my classroom, but I think some teachers could do a great job when working with this.

One of the 2.0 Web Tools that we learned about today was Symbaloo. I am definitely going to set up an account and use next year!! That way, I have a place to keep all of my favorite websites and can access access them at any time! :)

Social Networking

The topic of Social Networking is a very tough subject, especially when used in schools.  Personally, I think that some social networking sites are acceptable but some are not. There are many different pros and cons to using them.

I have had experience with using Edmodo within my 5th grade student teaching.  The teachers used this site as a resource for students to find assignments, expectations, materials and updates.  The student's reaction to using this site was positive, for the most part.  They said they really liked how they could, "...use something like Facebook at school." Almost every student had access at home or at the library and if they didn't they were allowed time before/after school or during a break they had in class.  The only bad parts about using this was that some students were more amused with the fact they can talk to other friends or that they could upload and change their profile pictures.  The teachers I worked with did implement a rule that they could only post, if it was educational, they were turning in a assignment or if they really did have a question because otherwise the students would have just wanted to post about random things.

I do not think Facebook is appropriate, at anytime, in the classroom. I have not seen any student use this social networking site in a positive and educational way.  There are too many outside people who can access the student's account and information.  Students use this site for too many personal things and I do not want this to be in my classroom. I have seen many different forms of bulling take place and I want my room to be a safe and welcoming environment. Plus, as the teacher, I do not have full control on what they are saying and cannot see the "messages" and "conversations" the students are having through Facebook.  Don't get me wrong, I think Facebook has many great resources and is a positive way to stay connected, but it is not for school and not educational related.  If students want to use this outside of the classroom--go for it--it's the parents choice.  Here is an interesting article on The Pros and Cons of Facebook in the Classroom. 

I also worked with Wiki Spaces. I think this is a great site where the students and their families could be allowed to look at what the kids were doing in the classroom.  I liked how the site had a privacy block and you had to be accepted (by the creator/teacher) in order to access the information.  We could add links to websites for extra practices and post pictures of what we were doing in the class.


**We created a Two Person Poem and created Podcast.  This is a fun and interactive activity to use with students. This would be a great item to post on a class's Wiki. Here's how you can create your own: You need an iPad Touch, click on iTalk, Record your 2 person poem, plug iPod Touch into the computer, iTunes will pop up, select the Apps tab, scroll down to the "file sharing" tab, select iTalk and highlight your audio, save to the desktop, pull audio into Garage Band, edit the clip by adding pictures from the internet or camera, chick on share, scroll to export to disk, click on highest quality and save to desktop, drag the icon on the desktop to QuickTime player, Click on Save as, save to desktop.  Then, you have finally created your Enhanced Podcast.**

Great Resources!

Today, we got to explore some great websites.  I have linked a few of them so I can use them for next year.  This is a great study-guide activity for students to do in the classroom or at home.  I would change the questions and answers to correlate with the unit we are discussing.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire?



This is a great resource for some Project-Based Learning ideas.  It is an easy resource to access and get great lesson plan ideas.  As I was reading through some lessons, they reminded me of a Social Studies simulation we did for the American Revolution.  I think this site would have given me some great extension activities--especially for my accelerated learners.


Here is another great site to use for Reader's Theatre .  There are so many great stories I could use with fifth-grade and even some I could have used with Kindergarten.  As long as we discussed the words first, I think they would have loved to do this reading strategy. Also, there were many helpful posters and worksheets you can download and use in the classroom.  I think that is wonderful that the author of this site is so willing to help out and give her resources away, for FREE! :)

I added my resource into our wiki page. Here is my example Prezi. (Below)

I am so glad that we have time in class to research some ideas.  When searching for idea, I usually run into the problem of not knowing what or where to search and by having these resources, I can now determine what sites are the most helpful.  I am so glad our class Wiki Page will be left active. This is a great tool to use in planning!

Here's a great site to use The Daily Five!



CLASS NOTES:
Direct Instruction:
    Ex.'s: Skill and Drill, Bottom-Up, Teacher-Centered, Behavioral Instruction
Just-In-Time Direct Instruction: Instruction at the point of need and usually under the control of the student
        *Ex. Student was having trouble with iMovie. Teacher googled and followed solution step-by-step.  Next time, student will be able to follow guide to fix her problem. *Ex. Spellchecker in Word
Cognitive Skills Direct Instruction: Improve and make automatic the cognitive skills needed for literacy
     *Ex. Big-picture and structure strategies, Focus strategies, Word and sentence-level strategies, Cloze (modified close: Madlibs)
Accelerater Reader: Daily monitoring process for reading. 
Interactive Games for the classroom. 

Constructivism: Students Create Their Own Learning!

According to Wiki, Constructivism can be described as a theory that deals with the way people create meaning of the world through a series of individual constructs. Constructs are the different types of filters we choose to place over our realities to change our reality from chaos to order. Von Glasersfeld describes constructivism as, “a theory of knowledge with roots in philosophy, psychology, and cybernetics” (p 162). ^[1] Simply stated, it is a learning process which allows a student to experience an environment first-hand, thereby, giving the student reliable, trust-worthy knowledge. The student is required to act upon the environment to both acquire and test new knowledge.

As we discussed in class, students are in charge of their own pace of learning.  There are two parts of Constructivism; Social and Cognitive.  Social is the background and social experiences used to connect the student to the content, language use is a tool used to make sense of the world in order to guide the cognitive abilities and Zone of Proximal Development which is the guide that shows us where the student is sitting with needing help and working individually.  The stages of the ZPD are Frustration, Instruction and Independent.  The top of the chart, Frustration, is the point where the student does not understand and is developmentally not ready for this information.  The Instruction level is where the teacher is is guiding the student and teaching them what needs to be learned. The independent stage is where we want students to be because then they can complete their own learning and on the own pace.  

Some pedagogical approaches we discussed were lit circles, guided reading, class discussions, writer's workshop, readers workshop, and Anchored Instruction.  During Anchored Instruction, students acquire knowledge through use in contextual problem solving situations rather than through presentation of isolated facts.  This is comparable to Project-Based learning. I have had the opportunity to participate in this type of learning, during student teaching. 


A great example of this type of learning is a student centered literature unit. We looked through student examples and I will definitely try to use this in my classroom.  Also, the Wandering Willie project was a fun idea! :)  We used a fun program called TitanPad where groups of students could create a story together, using different computers.  The teacher and students could see who wrote what because everyone had a different color. I would do this activity in my classroom. I think the students would have fun!

Research Article

This article discusses how digital and media literacy is integrated into an intermediate classroom. We learn about how a teacher and school brought these new literacy ideas through the use of technology and shares how you could do the same in your own classroom.

New literacies are evolving within our classrooms and it is crucial to prepare the students to understand the current and future expectations.  Past models of literacy include paper and pencil but new conceptions now involve the changing or reading and writing by the of the internet and computers.  These new resources now include more innovative texts, new reader expectations and new activities.  They extend the traditional literacy experiences in the comprehension of information of Internet sources.

It is pointed out, that 95% of K-12 classrooms had access to the internet, in 2005, but most students did not have sufficient time in school with this technology to develop new literacies. The teacher holds the responsibility to bring this technology into her class but it is not an easy task.  More than 2/3 of teachers feel underprepared to use technology and face challenges like lack of knowledge, lack of technology, lack of school planning, being fearful and pondering about important points before bringing this into their classrooms.

This article follows a particular teacher who has a 1-to-1 classroom, which means laptops for every student.  This teacher established and enforced structured routines within his curriculum and instruction.  Getting ready for the day, the teacher would pull up everything he needed for the day, including worksheets, graphic organizers, multimedia files, learning centers, writing prompts, and corrected work.  The students can came into his room  and be ready to use their technology for the day and enhance and enrich their learning.  Students can use their computers to work in a whole group setting, small group setting and working independently.  When the students are doing independent work, the teacher responds to the student's writing, lets students complete the digital practice sheets and offers a book study for the students.

An interesting part I found was under the "Breaks in Instruction" paragraph.  During recess breaks, the students have the choice to stay inside and engage in non-instructional activities.  The teacher encourages the students to send, IM (instand messages), email, going on to kid-friendly sites, etc.  Students who do not have access at home particularly like this time. Personally, I do not agree with this activity during this time because this should be a time where children should be playing outdoors.  I think children in this day-in-age needs to be outdoors and active.  We have a serious problem with children being lazy and obese and I think this engagement on non-instructional activities should be at a different time in the day.  I'm all for students learning more about computers and technology but not when they should be engaging in physical activities. **I'm very passionate about children being physically active- It's just my personal opinion **

Reading more into this article, it realt game me some great ideas to use in my classroom. I think computers and technology are a wonderful tool to use with the students.  As long as the teacher is choosing the correct applications and devices to use to enhance the students learning, I think a 1-to-1 classroom would be wonderful.  As Todd said in his interview,
"Every week when I am lesson planning, I consider how I can best integrate the technology. I don't use the technology just for the sake of using it. I want to use it in a way that enhances learning and best motivates students. I find myself borrowing ideas from colleagues, the Internet, and educational publications.  I am a better teacher because I am making my students' learning relevant to them and their times." 

I think this is a perfect statement for him to make because it corresponds exactly with what we are learning in our class.  It directly relates to education and is very interesting for the classroom. I thought this was a great article to read because it has many different strategies you can use within your classroom and a neat resource to use, when planning for a 1-to-1 classroom.

Reference:

Barone, Diane and Wright, Todd E., WETA Washington, D.C. (2012, May). Reading Rockets: Literacy Instruction with Digital and Media Technologies, The Reading Teacher, 62(4), Available: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/29126/

Blogging in the Classroom

I think there many positive aspects to blogging in the classroom.  Blogging is a great tool for communication.  Teachers may use this to communicate with families and students.  Blogging could even start to replace weekly newsletters.  In both my student teaching placements, my cooperating teachers had a wiki or a class page.  My teachers updated their blogs once a week and sometimes more.  This was a great way for parents and students to stay informed with what was going on in the classroom.   I think students who use blogs gain a lot of knowledge.  They can use their networking skills to research different topics and how to use new programs.  Another positive aspect with blogging is that students can use blogs to post their writings and other students can comment on their writing, leaving them great feedback.  Students could be able to write whatever they were feeling and they wouldn't be afraid to ask questions.  Teachers could use this as a tracking tool, to check students understanding. Just like we are doing in this class, I think students would really love to have an educational blog to voice their thoughts.  Especially because students love to use computers and iPads.  Overall, I think blogging is a great way to stay updated, in-touch and informed within the classroom.

There are a few negative aspects to blogging in the classroom.  A negative example is limited access in the school.  Some schools do not have the funds to have this kind of technology in their classrooms.  Some schools may only have a few available resources and not enough for the whole class to use.  Blogs might take a while to get set up for each of the students, but once they are set, I think it will work out fine. Sometimes, you can run into problems with dated technology, they may not work the way intended.  Also, some students may not have access at home which makes blogging almost impossible. A big negative to blogging is that teachers must make sure that they follow the guidelines that the district assigns and some families may not approve of online blogging for their child.  I think as long as you discuss with parents and your district, you could come up with a compromise and be able to use blogging as an educational tool in your classroom.

Blogs are such a great tool.  They are a fun and easy way to keep all the students updated with technology.  Students can learn from each other and it is a great source to use for writing and quick feedback.  When using blogs, the teacher just make sure she knows exactly what she wants her students to learn from blogging in the classroom.  She must keep it fun and make sure to not push the students into doing tedious work-she wouldn't want to push the students away from this wonderful learning tool.

I will definitely have a classroom blog, next year.  It will be a great way for me to keep my students and their families updated with what we are doing in the classroom and keep the communication level high!  I will help my students set up their on blogs and use them as a writing communication tool.  I will have students use their blog as a daily journal to record their reading and writing.  I might set up a Reader's Workshop though their blogs and they must complete their task, for that day, online on their blog.  Then, the other members in their group must respond and comment on the blogs.  This is a great way fro students to have fun while reading and writing and working collaboratively with their group.  Also, it gives me instant feedback with what student has completed their assignment and gives students quick feedback from their groups. 

iPads in the Classroom

Today in class, we discussed how iPads are used within the classroom.  We discussed a lot of different  pros and cons. Overall, I think iPads are a good tool to have in the classroom.  During my student teaching, I had a 5^th grade class with three iPads.  My cooperating teacher received a grant and she was required to take a course to become certified.  We didn’t really use the iPads much because we only had a few applications.  The only time we used them was for taking pictures in the class and if some students finished their work early, they could use them to play games.  

After learning about all the apps we could have used, I think the iPads would have been more effective.  

I really enjoyed searching for educational apps, online.  I think this will be key when keeping updated with the new programs.  Using some of the sites found on the wiki, I really saw some interesting applications.  One that I would use is the StickPick.  I know I could just regular sticks, but I think they are great because you can change the settings and label each student’s stick based of their abilities. Then, use the program to randomly choose student’s names in discussion. 

 

Today, we created a digital book talk using iMovie.  Our group read The Eleventh Hour.  We brought a bunch of different props and then went outside to film our book talk.  When we were done filming, our 

group worked together to edit the film.  Some of our group knew a lot about iMovie and some didn’t know as much.  It was a great way for us to work together and I think this would be a great way for students to work together, as well. 

I would definitely have my students use iMovie to create a book talk or to create another type of literature presentation.  They are super fun and interactive! Plus, they can use these skills to create ideas to show their own personal experiences and in other classrooms.  Last night, I created an iMovie to give to my last student teaching placement.  I think my Kindergarteners will love it!

Digital Story

When we got to class, we had the opportunity to look through everyone's storybook.  I enjoyed seeing all the different ideas from each group.  I think it is very important to give students their results, right away.  Letting the students see everyone's final result has a positive impact.  Even I was wondering when we were going to see the other groups project, yesterday.

Today gave me a better understanding about our Digital Story Project.  Watching each example video made me think of many different ideas that I could use for my project.  They were really good stories and each had many great characteristics of each of the seven elements.  Some were tear-jerkers: sad stories make me sad!

I think using the outline and the student example will help me out, when writing my lesson.  When writing the Outcomes, making sure to follow, "As a result...(these) are the outcomes." I'm glad Dr. Schmidt shared this information.

The greatest piece about this project is the reflection part.  I think this is a great way for students to assess their own work and actually make connections with the target and their own experiences.  A great way to have technology connected in the classroom is to record your students, either during their work-time, lessons or presentations.  A great example of having students record themselves was when one of the girls in our class used an iPad in a teacher/student conference (to record themselves) and then review what they talked about.  The student could use this recording to go back and get ideas for his story.   What a cool idea!!


Refreshing our minds about Copyright rules was a good idea.  I totally forgot all the exact rules.  And I thought her question was funny, "What is 10% of 2 minutes?"  We all know that answer but for some reason most of our minds were thinking 20 seconds- DUH! I think that would be a fun question to ask a older group of students--keeping them on their toes and seeing who is really analyzing the question.

I'm excited to create my own story--now I just need to decide on one idea!

The Student's Walk

Using our class Wiki page will give me great resources to use in my classroom.  After seeing all of the exciting things we could have used makes me wish we could have had this information before student teaching.  Especially using the online book site, BookFlix.

Today, we listened and watched a book called, Rosie's Walk.  We used this book to reinforced the skills of prepositional phrases.  Then, we worked collaboratively to create our own storybook.  Using cameras and PowerPoint, we went outside and took our own pictures, using prepositional phrases.   This would be a great active to do in the classroom because it works directly with a skill that students need to learn and innovates technology in the lesson.  I would definitely use this lesson in my classroom.  I think the students would always remember what prepositional phrases-- I wish my teacher would have done something like this for me!

 

This class is so fun, so far! I am very interested in learning more strategies and about more technologies. 

TPACK: Technology Innovate

Today, we discussed the TPACK Framework.  In class, we watched the ISTE Radio Show and it explained how the TPACK Framework is used.  TPACK stands for Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge.   First, an educator needs to determine the Content in which he/she is teaching the students.  Then, the teacher needs to determine the best strategy to use when delivering this skill. And lastly, the teacher will innovate technology into the lesson, to enhance student learning and achievement.

With TPACK, the creators explained how in schools, technology was first presented as "Technology Use" in the classroom.  This is where the teacher was given technology and just told to use it in any way they could.  Next, it was presented as  "Technology Integration", where the teacher chooses the technology they wanted to use and then came up with the lesson around it.  The last and preferred way is "Technology Innovate."  This is where the content is chosen first,the pedagogy or strategy is chosen second and the technology in which enhances the lesson is chosen last.

We learned about the Lesson Plan Assignment and it seems like it will be a fun project.  I am interested in going through all the technology options to see which best fits into my lessons!

We also used a few different programs today and created some activities where our students could learn the content while involving technology.

First, we read a book and created our own page to practice repetition.  I think this would be a great lesson for younger students because it is educational and engaging. You can see my example above.

Another example was creating an ISpy class book, using cameras and PowerPoint. I thought this was a great activity because it involved working as a team, rhyming words and using cameras and computer applications. You can see my example to the left.

This class has been pretty exciting so far. I'm excited about learning all this new information!! :)

First Day of Class!

Today was the first day of my Integrating Technology into the Reading and Language Arts Curriculum CI556 class!  This class is going to be a beneficial learning experience for me in continuing my learning in Education.

We created this exciting project on Wordle today. It is a paragraph telling you a little bit about myself.  I actually had a few fifth grade students create these for me.  They used them in English and just to have fun with.  It was neat to create my own.

Unfortunately, I had to come to class late but it was for a very good reason!  I had my second interview for a Fifth grade teaching position in a school district that I would love to teach for!  I really hope this position works out well for me because I loved my fifth graders when I was student teaching and I would be a wonderful fifth grade teacher.


I had prepared my lesson over the weekend and studied questions I thought I would be asked.  I made sure to mark the pages in my portfolio I wanted to show and had a stack of freshly-printed resumes ready to go! The interview process was very nerve-racking, at first.  I just needed to remember to take a deep breath, a drink of water and calm down.  I knew I would do fine, but I really wanted this job.


As I was interviewing with the panel, I noticed that all my butterflies went away and I was as calm as can be.  I was ready to answer any question that came my way and turned into a bit of a Chatty-Cathy :)  As we finished up the questions, I had a chance to ask some questions back.  I decided to ask about the school and what the parents thought the most important parts were and how they felt about the school as a whole.  My interviewers loved answering this question because it gave them a chance to show off what their school has to offer.


After all the questions and discussions, the principal and panel told me what a wonderful job I did and that they were impressed with what I had to offer.  It was time for the teaching portion and I was definitely ready to teach! I had a small group of fifth graders and we worked on a Comprehension strategy called, Get the Gist.  They seemed to really love the interactive parts where they could count their gist statements on their fingers. Plus, when working with a group, they come up with double the ideas. The teaching portion went well and it was time for me to leave.


As I was leaving, I had a wonderful conversation with the new principal and she told me how impressed she was regarding the interview and teaching.  She said she was so impressed with the letters of recommendation I received and she was eager to get in touch with me later today or tomorrow.  I shook her hand and I'm sure she could feel the excitement in my hand.  I walked out of the school with a huge smile on my face and all I could think about was getting a call back.


I drove to Ames to get to class, as quickly as I could.  After class ended, I heard my phone buzz and saw the school's number light up my phone... It was them.  I quickly answered, trying to remain calm but I could hear the excitement in her voice!  She told me she was excited to present me this opportunity and wanted to know if I was willing to accept.  OF COURSE I WANT THIS JOB! This is a DREAM job.  I am so excited that I am able to teach fifth graders, next year. I could not have asked for a better day!

I came home to my pretty puppy, Brandi, and told her the WONDERFUL news! As you can see, she is pretty excited for me too!  I called my family to share the excitement and now I am sitting at my desk attempting to read the articles assigned for tomorrow's class.  I need to switch my mind to College mode and out of fifth grade mode.  Well, maybe a few more minutes.....


I wonder if Brandi will read these articles for me?