Final Reflection

The summer is quickly coming to a close and it’s time to reflect on all that I have learned from Summer Camp 2.0. We started the summer nice and easy, set up a blog and personalize it. I’m still trying to figure out if I will use a blog format this year in my classroom or stick to my already formatted website (maybe I’ll send out a poll to parents). Moving on to the next week and making a Prezi Presentation has been something that I’ve wanted to do for years. Power Points are SO boring. I really hope my team will help me add to this so that we can use it for Parent Information Day. The screencasting activity stretched my comfort zone, however, I think that this tool could be used a lot in the classroom and at home.

Overall, Summer Camp 2.0 has added many tools that I will be able to use to enhance my students learning at school and at home. I’ve already been sharing my new tools with others. I get excited sharing such fun tools. My hope is that using these tools will not only be easier each time I use them, but also find even more tools throughout the process.

Activity 10: Free Choice

I decided to try a social bookmarking site. I looked into both LiveBinder and Delicious. I went with LiveBinder because it looked much more useful for my classroom.  I have always wanted a tool like this. I am so sick of having all of my curriculum in binders! I wish I would have found this in June- what a great way to spend the summer. I suppose I could make a few binders before school starts.

Here is one that I did for my classroom. Every teacher has a "sub binder". Now mine will be on LiveBinder!

Substitue Binder

Activity 9: Fitness Assessment

Scenario 1: Collaboration = Harassment?
A student is using Google Drive as a writing and collaborative tool for peer reviewing. Juan and Jeremy have used the platform instead to exchange comments that involve name-calling and racial slurs. Jeremy’s parents object when his account is suspended claiming it will negatively impact his academic progress.

 

The issue here is the fact that the students are using the tool for name calling (that includes racial slurs), harassment.  The boys' feelings are in jeopardy. 

I would recommend having a meeting with the each boys' parents individually with school administration. I would review the technology policy and follow through with the appropriate consequence. 

 

 

Scenario 6: Course Management Overload
Ms. Carlson is excited to use Edmodo, a course management system similar to Moodle with her students.  Although Edmodo isn’t officially supported by the tech department like Moodle is, she is excited to use it because she finds it much more intuitive to use and she likes the interface better than Moodle.  Ms. Carlson is vigilant about the privacy settings, has informed her principal and parents of her instructional goals and objectives. Her students jump on board and post to the discussion at record numbers. Ms. Carlson is pleased to see such motivated dialogue on a novel that had previously felt like pulling teeth.  Two weeks into the unit, she receives a parent complaint. The complaint is as follows:
     Dear Ms. Carlson, Mr. Miller, Mr. Hamilton and Ms. McIntyre,
     Although my son is a motivated and active participant in all of your classes, I am concerned that the school does not seem to have a unified course management system. He is using Moodle in Math, Edmodo in English, Schoology in Science, and Kidblog in Social Studies. Furthermore, all of these sites require different logins and passwords. As a parent, I am having a difficult time keeping this all straight and am requesting that the school discuss this issue and figure out a more streamlined approach.
     Thank you for your consideration,  
     A supportive but confused parent
There doesn't seem to be any ethical issues involved here. Ms. Carlson made sure to inform both her principal and parents about her instructional goals and objectives.  No one's safety or well being is in jeopardy. Based on this scenario, I would use this email to call attention to how teachers are using technology as a whole school. Maybe the students can work on having the same username and password for all of the sites, thus making it easier to access and remember. Using different sites and remembering usernames and passwords is now a fact of life. The sooner you become comfortable with this the easier it will be.

Polling and Data Gathering

I decided to use Google forms since I've seen many of my colleagues use it at school. The process was simple and very user friendly. I think I could use Google Forms with parents and colleagues. It would be a great tool to see what parents think and get their opinion throughout the school year.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is something that I have learned to do well since we do not have laptop computers to use at home. Many times I will work on lesson plans at home. Before cloud computing, I would email myself what I needed from home and open it on my computer at school. This became pretty difficult as I started to use Smart notebook for the majority of my lessons. Alas, Google Docs and Google Drive! They saved me!

Here is my document:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1XmRPg909q8Uk94aVR1a3Y4b00/edit?usp=sharing

Activity 6: Study Tools

Tagxedo is an fabulous tool that I can see being used a lot in my first grade classroom. As a class we often brainstorm words and what a perfect way to brainstorm and then display! The kids will always be able to connect and remember what we brainstormed.

The other study tool that I thought would be helpful in my classroom or with my students at home was Quizlet. I created a word list that we use for our words of the week. This Quizlet could be easily accessed by parents to help with homework at home. The feature I thought would be useful for my students was the audio button. If they get stuck on a word, they could press the button for a reminder.

Creating a MV YouTube channel

This activity was fun because I've always wanted to post a video of my dog, Kirby. He is a singer. Every time the song "Some Nights" by Fun is on he will instantly start singing. So here he is. Sorry the end is kind of boring, my phone would only allow me to send this length of the video.

I didn't have the chance to explore my YouTube channel further than uploading a video. But I am pretty sure you can save certain YouTube channels and videos that you frequently use. This is the part of the YouTube channel I would use the most in my classroom. The fact that there isn't any ads on the sidebar would be a huge bonus.

Screencasting

So this weeks activity had me feeling a little uneasy. I rarely lecture in first grade. My lessons are very much, come to the board and help me out. Call and response. Think-pair-share. It is hardly ever me just talking. SO, I had to think of a lesson that I use, that is me talking. Poetry!

When I teach poetry the students have to listen to the examples and how each poem is constructed. Now that the hard part is over (thinking of the lesson), I can use the Smart recording tool. That was super easy. I found the recording button right away, started recording and look what I got! Don't be too hard on me, it was my first time recording. I sounded a little dull and I'm sure with more practice I could sound more interesting. Also, my cursor didn't show up on the recorded lesson.

I thought uploading would be simple since there is a little video icon to use. However, every time I tried using this an error icon would appear. So, I went ahead and made a youtube account and uploaded to youtube.com

Digital Story Telling

Wow. Storybird is awesome! I was blown away by all of the different art options. I would LOVE to use this with my first graders. I think it would be overwhelming to try and use this with the whole class, but maybe as an extension to a guided reading group.

Pimp My Presentation

Reflection

I decided to use Prezi for a presentation tool. I'm not so sure that first graders would be able to use this tool, but I can use it for many different things. I wanted to make good use of my time, so I decided to update our Parent Information Night presentation. It was awesome because I could upload the PowerPoint that I already had and Prezi converted it for me. I had to do A LOT of tweaking, but it made for a way better presentation. At times it was frustrating and I still don't have the final product I want. I will take more time to edit and tweak. I think like most things the more you use Prezi the easier it will be.

Blog Bling

First graders LOVE video clips. It helps grab attention and it's a great "carrot" to watch it again at then end of a lesson. I always hear, "again!". This is one video that is super catchy and one that I hear my first graders humming the rest of the day.

How could a blog be useful in your classroom or professional life?   

A blog could be very useful in my classroom. It would be a wonderful tool to connect with families. I think a blog is a little less formal than a website and a whole lot more interesting than an email. I also think that I could grab the attention from my first graders. A little guided practice to find and follow my blog and they would be hooked. I'm not sure my students would be able respond to blog posts or type responses, but I do think they would be able to follow links, watch a video clip, and read my posts.

After checking out some of the other blogging sites, which do you think would be the best option for you? 

After checking out some of the other blogging sites, I really like Weebly. It is very user-friendly and reminds me a lot of mac and apple products with the drag and drop layout guide. Since the main purpose of my blog is to communicate with families, weebly seems like the easiest blog site to use and create.

My First Blog Post EVER!

 I decided to join Summer Camp 2.0 because I know a few fellow campers that had joined the class and what a great way to spend my summer. I always want to find more interactive tools to use in the classroom and this class seems like such a great way to do that!
I hope to find more tools to use in my classroom and more tools to use for communicating with families.

I am very comfortable with technology. For me, it's finding the time to explore new tools. I currently use Smartbook and Ipads in the classroom. I also have a very simple classroom website.