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Friday, April 24, 2009

Summative Reflection

I thought I would sum up my thoughts on this whole blogging experience. If you are someone who likes to write, I think this is a terrific outlet for you. I, on the other hand, would much rather spend my time having face-to-face interactions with family and friends; therefore, I probably won't spend much time on this site in the future.
I have learned a lot about social networking, RSS feeds, Wikis, podcasting, and twittering. I have also had an opportunity to reflect on the many issues that surround these topics. I also discovered that I prefer to attend class instead of taking it online.
Classroom application for me is limited. Most of what I have learned will assist with parent/community communication. As far as my kindergarten students, the projects we could create would be a tremendous amount of work for me, and I don't really see a huge benefit for them other than it would be "cool" to see it on the computer. Parents would probably appreciate seeing the projects too. I have really enjoyed playing around with Voice Thread. Voice Thread is a neat interactive tool, but again, more of a tool for me, not my kindergartners. It has been amazing to see all of the projects that are out there, and what other educators have created around the world.
I am glad I have had the opportunity to explore all of the aspects of online learning. I probably wouldn't have done this on my own!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

ABC Notebook

I did a Voice Thread with my kindergarten classroom as we do our ABC notebook with Visual Phonics.

ABC Notebook

Friday, April 17, 2009

Voice Thread

Well, I think I finally have my topic for my presentation. I'm going to demonstrate Voice Threads. I actually found a little research on the topic. Anyway, I posted a video/slidshow regarding Voice Threads. At least I have a start...

Voice Thread For Education

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Disrupting Class

I finished reading Disrupting Class. I actually found it interesting to read. Of course I was interested in Chapter 6: The Impact of the Earliest Years on Students' Success. As most of you know, I am a strong proponent for funding quality preschool programs. It was interesting to read Christensen's take on this topic. He suggests teaching children how to be parents before they become parents. I definitely can't argue with that. I've always stated that people should have to be licensed before they can become parents.
The chapter ended abruptly though. I wish he would have delved deeper into the dynamics of how this program would be implemented. I was left to wonder how technology was going to assist in the development of this course.
Christensen also discussed the importance of "language dancing" (face to face interactions between parent and child) and how it is an integral component to reading success. This is a prime example of why we need to get parents off of the computers, so they can spend some quality time interacting with their children. My greatest fear in all of this social networking (facebook, myspace...) is that we are going to spend so much time writing about our lives and less time living it with the people that mean the most to us, our families!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Week 4 Reflection

Again, I started off with the work of reading the articles, replying to strands, and making a few replies to other peoples' comments. Then, I updated my website with a new newsletter and homework piece for the week. I seem to have trouble downloading an Excel document into my school website, but I think I have it figured out now. I played around with Voice Threads again, because for some reason, I am intrigued with why so many educators on the Classroom 2.0 website find it so valuable. I would like to use this tool to create a book using the kindergartners voices as they say the letter name and sound as well as the name of the object on their ABC page. I used my digital camera's video recording and recorded my dogs. Then I loaded it into the Voice Thread program, and it worked. I then embedded it into my blog site. It took me a few tries because I didn't realize that I needed to set it to allow others to view it, but it worked, and you can hear my voice pretty clearly. Because I don't want to have my kindergartners photos on the web, I am planning on recording their book page along with a voice recording...we'll see how that goes!

Then, I saw that Lisa had some fun with the Voki site, and I just had to try it. It was a lot of fun! I played around with the creation of the character and set up a voice recording, and then I embedded it into my blog site as you can see!
I also read Disrupting Class by Christensen. I actually enjoyed reading it and found some very interesting insights.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Let me know if you can view and hear this video. I messed up the other one, so I thought I'd try it again. I want to try to use Voice Threads for a project with my students, so this is a test!
Thanks!

My dogs

Sunday, April 5, 2009

I have been playing around with Voice Threads, and I did a little video of my two dogs.

My dogs

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Week 3 Reflection

Because I like to get the "work" out of the way first, before I can "play," I read the articles listed and responded on our Concordia site to each thread. It was interesting to read each person's responses to each component within the thread. It is difficult to follow once it becomes 4 or 5 pages long, but still very insightful.
I checked out the sites listed and also added more items to my iGoogle account. I finally added a few songs to this blog spot as well. I also spent a lot of time exploring everyones' blogs.
I spent some time viewing pictures of relatives on face book and seeing what they were up to.
I explored Voice Threads again because I have read so much about this website on Classroom 2.0. I haven't created anything yet, but I spent a lot of time listening to the how to videos, so when I'm ready, I know what I am doing.
I would have to say that I have spent the majority of my time searching Classroom 2.0 for topics related to kindergarten. I have discovered many kindergarten websites that will be useful in planning lessons. I also came across a few picture rubrics for writing in kindergarten that I have saved to use this quarter as we get into more writing projects. I watched a kindergarten math lesson demonstrating how a smart board was used in a kindergarten classroom. It was fun to see other kindergarten classrooms with the same amount of energy as mine!
I could spend an endless amount of time on You Tube watching various lessons being taught by other teachers. It's like observing in many classrooms all over the place without leaving your classroom. It is fun to see the numerous teaching strategies in action.
I tried to watch the archived pod casts on Classroom 2.0, but I, too, had difficulty getting it to download and the audio wasn't working.
I also spent some time playing around with my classroom website and checking out other teacher websites to get more ideas. As I have said before, I want to make the website more interactive...I just need to have a plan!
I have found that searching other teacher websites has given me many interesting ideas, and I have saved a lot of reproducibles from these sites. These are things that will benefit my kids the most.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Reflection for weeks 1 & 2

I have spent countless hours exploring websites, reading articles, blogging, and just playing with the technology tools. I set up a blog and opened a facebook account. As my blog indicates, I have embedded videos from YouTube, created a book using mixbook.com, and learned how to add gadgets into my blog site. I have also spent time reading blogs created in Classroom 2.0 regarding issues related to kindergarten. I also spent a lot of time updating my classroom website. I have found this inclass session to be invaluable as I was able to learn a lot from my peers. I can now add a playlist to my blog as well as utilize the igoogle to organize everything into one site! One of my goals this week is to explore more sites and create a short video for parents to see how students "word stretch," and then, embed this into my website!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Here's an article about how Medford parents are utilizing social networking to voice their opinion on a school bussing issue.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Kindergarten Journal

I was playing around with mixbook.com, and I had taken pictures of some of the kindergartners' journal writing. I figured out how to post it to my blog and here it is! What a fun way to display their work! Takes time though...

kindergarten journal

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Monday, March 16, 2009

More on Classroom 2.0

I am learning a lot through Classroom 2.0. I searched blogs regarding kindergarten, and I came across a few sites that could assist me in integrating web 2.0 in my classroom. One person suggested creating digital interactive books on a wiki using this website.

They also listed another website for creating a video, and yet another website called Voice Threads was listed as a tool to use to build oral language and fluency in speaking. One person recommended that the students draw a picture of a character from a story that is digitally reproduced, and then talk about the character's traits using descriptive words. You could even embed it in a website or blog so parents could view it.

Yet another suggestion was to take pictures of things around your school that have the letter sounds you are studying, and then kids add their voices to narrate the photos.

Now, I just need to make time to play with it and become familiar with it. There are so many great ideas that it's easy to get caught up in it all!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Brown Bear

I have been playing around with YouTube and wanted to upload a video, so I chose one of my favorite books that I read to my kindergartners at the beginning of the year as they learn their color words...just doing a little exploring!



Saturday, March 14, 2009

My Classroom Website

After thinking about how I can fulfill the requirements for the MA259 technology integration class, while making it applicable to my kindergarten classroom, I have decided to apply what I am learning and upgrade my classroom website to make it a little more interactive and add more photographs, videos and audios. Feel free to check it out, and any advice you could give me would be beneficial!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Math Intervention and DIBELS

I read an interesting article on math intervention and DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). Teachers can utilize a handheld computer to administer a one-on-one assessment in Math as well as DIBELS with K-3 students, and then, the information can be transferred to a website and teachers can inform their instruction. Currently, we assess students on a hard copy and input the information to the website. This tool would be very beneficial, but as always the cost would be the issue.

Classroom 2.0

After searching for a few blogs on kindergarten assessments in Classroom 2.0, I came across a link to a software program that is available to assess students on the computer. It looks promising. It always takes forever to individually assess each kindergarten student maybe this would help.
http://www1.esgisoftware.com/ESGI/Public/index.aspx
Check it out.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Blogging test