Lesson 8 in Review

This weeks reading focused on security and its importance when it comes to the use of technology.  Our readings were from the two following links: How Computer Viruses Work and Netiquette. 

The article about computer viruses discussed what types of viruses are out their that can affect your computer and how they are transferred from person to person.  These computer viruses are compared to viruses that are spread from person to person.  They have a way of replicating, and moving from computer to computer by e-mails, documents, etc. This is a great article to check out! Make sure your computer is protected by a secure site.  Don't trust those links that look like spam, and if you're suspicious of an e-mail, don't open it.  For those that have had the experience of a computer crashing or a virus infecting your computers hard drive, you know what I'm talking about when I say this is HORRIFYING! I have had experience with a computer crashing and my debit card information being stolen and used.  It is not fun to go through either of these experiences.  Luckily with the case of the debit card, my bank was quick about noticing suspicious expenditures showing up on my account and contacted me. Everything was quickly taken care of before much damage could be done.  I am very thankful for this.  

The article on Netiquette is about the etiquette that we shout have when surfing the net.  This article discusses what we should say, do, post, not post, etc. on the net.  If you are unsure about a site, take time to get the feel for it and pay attention to what others are positing.  Sometimes a site may have certain rules for posting content and in these cases, make sure you're aware of these rules.  This is also a great article to check out.

The rest of our focus for the week was on Edward de Bono and the Six Thinking Hats Process.  Edward de Bono is very well know in many different fields of study and work.  He has written multiple books which have been translated into at least 34 languages.  He has been invited to lecture at multiple conferences in 52 countries and he has been awarded several prestigious awards.  Edward de Bono was born in Malta in 1933 and he introduced the idea of lateral thinking.  He has made his works practical and available to everyone.  There are multiple schools that use his works and programs as tools for teaching and learning.

The Six Hats Thinking Process is split into six categories organized by different colored hats. These include the white hat, red hat, yellow hat, black hat, green hat and blue hat. Each hat focuses on a different way of thinking. The white hat focuses on data and states the facts.  The red hat is the emotional hat. The yellow hat is the positive way of thinking. The black hat is the conservative hat.  It focuses on the negative aspects and the risks of a decision. The green hat focuses on creativity and new ideas. The Blue hat is the facilitator hat and its focus is on the structuring. The six hats thinking process can be used in any line of business, meetings, and education.

I see this being used in my classroom in the future when examining different questions that I discuss with my students. It provides students with different ways of viewing the information and learning to use those different ways to think about information.  A site I found with a great classroom example is located here as a Teaching Example.  

This week has been filled with valuable information that can be transferred into my classroom.  Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to leave any questions or comments.

Lesson 7 in Review

This weeks focus was on the brain, educational technology and Web 2.0 tools. I will begin by discussing the technology explorations, followed by the Brain Module, and then the Web 2.0 tools and educational technology that I plan to use in my classroom.


Technology Exploration 19:
Delicious, History Pin, Diigo, Calculator, and A Talking Calculator.
Delicious is a place where you can collect items from across the web.  This site reminds me of the site Pinterest, which has become very popular over that last couple of years.  Delicious was designed to help users create "Stacks" which are organized with links, pictures, videos, etc. of related materials. I liked the site, but I already am a member of Pinterest and really like it.  I would recommend it to other educators though.
History Pin is a way for people to share glimpses of the past and build up on the story of human history. I found the site interesting and would recommend it to other educators. I could see it being used to research a child's state or county history.
Diigo is a transition from Delicious.  There are similarities and differences and it's also very similar to Pinterest. It is similar to a cloud-based personal information management service which allows users to collect information from a variety of devices, websites, etc. I still prefer Pinterest, but it is still a good resource, and educators can make their own judgement on this resource.
The Calculator from PBS Kids is a good resource for students when calculator use is allowed. I do not like my students to rely on calculators, and use is very limited, as they need to learn the processes to work math problems out on their own and not rely solely on this resource. It is good, but again I would limit students use of this resource.
The Talking Calculator sounds like it would be a great resource, but I found it to be a nuisance, as I felt I had to jump through many links to try to download the resource and still didn't accomplish this goal.  I found it to be rather annoying and complicated to download something that should be easy.  There were multiple advertisements you have to go through to get to the product you are actually trying to download. This is a resource I wouldn't recommend to other educators and if I did would warn them of all the problems I faced.

Technology Exploration 20:
Math Wiki and PicLits. These two resources were explored in Technology Exploration 20.  The Math Wiki was designed to help teachers gain an understanding of Writing Across the Curriculum with Math.  I found it to be very informational and provided several examples of how writing can be used in Math. I would recommend this resource to other educators.
PicLits is interesting.  It is a site designed to create creative writing through graphics. I could see this being used for a writing or art class, where students can create their own story using a picture.  


The Brain Module was very interesting and I really enjoyed looking at the site: http://www.dana.org/. The site was very informational and provides educators with multiple resources about the brain, how it works, and about different disabilities that relate to the brains functions.  I really liked the resource that was about the arts in schools and how it relates to students learning.  I was a musician throughout middle school, high school and even through college, and still play the clarinet to this day.  I enjoyed music, and overall it helped with my understanding of repetition and how that is important in learning.

Web 2.0 tools and Educational Technology resources are also valuable resources in reaching our students and educating them.  Some examples of technology that I have seen used with my special needs students this past year include: Phonemic Awareness- a computer program that quizzes students on their reading comprehension, awareness of letter sounds, rhyming, etc. It was very useful as it let our teacher and the rest of us (assistants) see what the students had learned. We also used websites such as http://storylineonline.net, http://mothergooseclub.com, and http://pbskids.org to help with our students learning.  Storyline and Mother Goose Club were both sites where students could choose a story or nursery rhyme to listen to. This allowed students to follow along with the text of the story and learn the correct pronunciations of words. PBS Kids provided students with educational games, such as math, where it tested students knowledge of the topic that had just been covered. One example is measurement. Students used a game on measurement from this site to reinforce what they had learned in class that day or week.  They enjoyed it and it covered the material they had just learned. It made learning more enjoyable for them.
Our school also used Accelerated Reader, which tested students comprehension of books they read independently or had read to them.  This was used to see and track students progress with their reading.
One Web 2.0 tool I could see myself using in the future is Edmodo. This could be a very useful tool in communicating with parents and students. I also like the virtual manipulatives website, and the math dictionary websites we were provided with in class.  These are all helpful links that can be used and be beneficial to students learning.


Hope you enjoyed this weeks blog review.  Please leave any feedback or comments.

Lesson 6 in Review

Lesson six was about WebQuests and how to use them in the classroom. This weeks assignment was to create a WebQuest of our own on any educational topic.  I designed my WebQuest to allow students to explore the continents, other countries, and get an idea of someone elses culture.  I think it's very important for students to be exposed to other cultures.  It is also important for students to read a map and be able to identify countries and continents on a map, which was the sole purpose of this WebQuest.

This WebQuest also allows them the chance to work on presentation skills and collaboration skills. The students work in groups to research an assigned continent, then create a group presentation. This WebQuest allows the class as a whole to practice their writing and illustration skills by creating a book about the countries they studied.

The link to the WebQuest is listed below.

Countries and Continents WebQuest link

What's so hard about creating a WebQuest? 

Well, for me coming up with a topic was what I found to be the hardest part of creating the WebQuest.  I love to travel, and this led me to creating a WebQuest where students study the 7 continents, and a country of their choice. They must work in a group setting to study their assigned continent, then they break off individually to study a country.  With their country study they must create an oral presentation, draw their country's flag, and create a page for the Class Country Book which will be shared with the rest of the fourth grade team.  (I am not in a classroom right now, and have only worked as an assistant this year, so this is a WebQuest designed for a future classroom).

What issues might you face when creating a WebQuest?

I had issues with my documents wanting to not upload properly to attach to my WebQuest, but after several attempts, they finally loaded.  Also, I had issues with my rubric not fitting to the page width correctly, and attempted to fix it several times, and with each attempt it got worse.  After attempting it the last time it looked better but still didn't look completely correct, but was left the way it was. 

These were the problems I ran into when creating a WebQuest, but overall the experience was good. This was the first WebQuest I have ever created and I can see this being a great resource for my classroom in the future. I will design more WebQuests in the future, hopefully with greater ease each time.  I think coming up with a topic will become easier when I'm in a classroom of my own.

You can design your own WebQuest by visiting the site Quest Garden.  Enjoy and have fun creating your own WebQuests.

Lesson 5 in Review

This week focused on visual literacy.  We were assigned four technology explorations and several resources on visual literacy. This weeks technology explorations were Prezi, Spicy Nodes, Edmodo, A Math Dictionary, Glogster, JIng, YouTube for Education, SchoolTube and TeacherTube.

Technology Exploration 15:
Prezi and Spicy Nodes: Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that can be used to create unique presentations. There are multiple resources available to help explain how to use Prezi.  This is a great resource for teachers and can be used for any subject area.  Spicy Nodes is a site that gives visitors a visual guide through a website.  It helps organize information and makes searching for materials easier. This resource could be used on a classroom website.

Technology Exploration 16:
Edmodo and A Math Dictionary: Edmodo is a site that is similar to Facebook for educators.  It is a place where teachers can share information with students, parents and guardians, as well as other educators.  This site has actually been recommended to the teachers at my school.  It can be used in any classroom to help keep students up to date with school work, especially if they were absent that day. A Math Dictionary is a wonderful resource for educators and students.  It provides students with definitions of those tricky math terms that students sometiems struggle with and provides examples that students can work out.  This site is great for educators that have a SmartBoard and could use this as a form of interactive technology for students to practice problems.  It could also be used as extra practice and for tutoring purposes.


Technology Exploration 17:
Glogster and Jing: Glogster was created as a resource for digital expression and as an alternative to offline boards, posters and web tools.  This provides educators with a resource that students can use to create artwork to express themselves.  I could see this being incorporated into a writing assignment where students have to create an illustration portraying their story. Jing allows users to take a screenshot and capture an image that you see on your computer.  You can also record comments and video for up to five minutes.  This resource can provide educators with a way to grade students writing assignments and record their comments for students to see, allowing for them to see what they need to correct or work on.


Technology Exploration 18:
YouTube for Education, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube:YouTube for Education provides high-quality educational content while blocking those sites teachers don't want in the classroom.  It provides teachers with videos that can be related to the material they are covering in class. SchoolTube is a site that provides teachers with a safe sharing environment. This resource also provides educators with a place to share lessons and projects with others. TeacherTube is a place for educators to view and share videos, photographs, documents and audio files.  


All of the resources from this weeks Technology Explorations were great resources for the classroom.


We also explored several resources on visual literacy. One thing that really struck a cord with me was looking at the wiki space and the Ten Most Confusing Traffic Signs that I looked at.  This really showed how some visuals can send mixed messages.  This made me think about the directions I may have given my students in the classroom in the past and how some of those directions may have had multiple meanings depending on the students interpretation.  I started thinking that as educators, we need to be sure that we are clear with our expectations and directions for our students.  This wasn't something that was completely new to me, but it made me think about how we perceive the intended meaning of our directions compared to how our students may interpret them a little differently.

The information gained from this week can help me make better judgements about how to give students clear explanations, how visual literacy affects students learning. Our students are surrounded by visuals everyday, from TV commercials, videos, and shows, to the Internet ads, and billboards.  Students are exposed to visuals at such an early age now and this truly has an effect on their learning.

Lesson 4 in Review

This weeks focus has been on the use of PowerPoints in the classroom.  First I want to take the moment to discuss the technology explorations from this weeks assignments and then I'll discuss a PowerPoint I have created and used in the classroom.

Technology Exploration 11:

Comic Life and iSpeech were both reviewed for this technology exploration.  Comic Life is a program that allows you to create comics, picture albums and more. I found this program to be great for a classroom setting and could see this being used as an opportunity for students to create their own customized comic. Not only would it be fun, but it would provide them with an opportunity to work on their writing and illustration skills.  I would recommend that teachers use the free trial to see if it is something they would actually utilize this product in their classroom before purchasing.

iSpeech is a program that allows you to upload documents and then listen to them as they are read aloud.  As good as this product sounds and may seem I found the voices used to read the documents to be rather robotic sounding.  Also, it would be best to use one of the upgraded versions due to the limited amount of information you can type into the text box or upload with the basic edition.

Technology Exploration 12:

VoiceThread and VoiceThread 4 Education were the two sites reviewed for this technology exploration.  VoiceThread is a multimedia program that allows you to show a slide show with images, videos and documents that allow people to leave comments and information.  This is a great tool for collaboration purposes within the school you work or with a school in a different country.  I found this to be a great resource for teachers and thought it could be easily implemented into any subject area.

VoiceThread 4 Education is a wiki that provides a place for classroom partners to provide their contact information for collaboration purposes.  It is also a place to collect examples of VoiceThreads that have been used in the classroom.  It is a great resource for teachers if they are considering using VoiceThread in their classroom.

Technology Exploration 13:

Storybirds and Scribblar were the two resources reviewed for technology exploration 13.  Storybird is a site that provides teachers with the ability to create their own stories that are art-inspired.  I found it to be a great resource to get students interested in writing.

Scribblar is a program that uses whiteboards, image upload and download ability, text chat with the user list and more.  I found this site to be confusing and didn't understand what I could do with this site.  I tried the free demo but didn't see that it helped explain the possible uses for this program.  It was not a resource I cared much for.

Technology Exploration 14: 

The two sites that were explored for this tech. exploration were Xtranormal and Virtual Manipulatives.  Xtranormal is a place to make your stories come to life. I found it to be interesting and would let educators know if they plan on using it to make sure they have plenty of time to explore all the capabilities of the program before trying to use it in the classroom.

Virtual Manipulatives is a great resource for teachers, providing math manipulatives that can be incorporated into any grade level K-12.  This is a resource every teacher needs to have bookmarked for use with students struggling and to use as an interactive resource with students.

We were asked to create a PowerPoint presentation and mine was created for Kindergarten age students about rhyming words/pictures.  I used this as part of a unit on rhyming words this past year.  It was presented to them as a pre/post test and a review to help teach rhyming words, see what the students already knew, and to see that they understood the concept of rhyming words.  I placed two pictures with the word typed underneath the picture on each slide and asked students if they rhymed.

Students were directed to use the TurningPoint clickers to answer the question by pressing A for true or B for false.  We did practice these steps before and the students had to be given a visual to know where to point their clicker for it to work.  I am proud of the automatic feedback I received from using this PowerPoint because I could see which students understood the concept and which students were still struggling.  This then allowed me to work with individual students on the concept as needed. 

I would modify the presentation and use it later in the year when my students are better readers and change from using pictures and words to just using words.  I would do this to see that students understand the concept of word endings and how that correlates with  rhyming.

My students loved the presentation and found it as more of a game than a test.  They loved playing with it and each day that we used the clickers as a review they would ask if they could get the remotes out and play the game again.

Lesson 3 in Review

Once again, this class has provided many useful resources for educators through the technology explorations we have explored. These resources are great for the use in any classroom. Here are this weeks technology explorations in review.

Technology Exploration 7:
The two websites that were reviewed for this technology exploration include: www.gpat.org and www.zoho.com. GPAT is an assistive technology site.  It provides useful information for teachers and educators about the types of assistive technology that are available for student use.  It also provided information about the IDEAS Conference. Some simple assistive technologies include pencil grips and large handled cups.  There are many aids that students can have access to if the teacher knows about them and if the technology would benefit them and fit into their IEP. Zoho is a site used to create charts and graphs to display data. It can be used within a school setting or in a small business setting.


Technology Exploration 8:
The two website that were reviewed for this tech. exploration include: www.4teachers.org/tools/ and dimio.altervista.org/eng/. With the site 4teachers.org, we were to select three tools to explore. I chose to explore Quiz Star, Casa Notes and Web Poster Wizard.  Each of these were useful tools that can easily be used in the classroom and are a great resource for educators.  The second website was designed as a text to speech program.  It is supposed to function as an automatic speech recognition tool, but the program would not download properly to my computer and therefore caused issues.


Technology Exploration 9:
The website explored in tech. exploration 9 was http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/.  It was a great resource and would be easy to incorporate into the classroom.  Power Talk is a program that speaks texts that are on presentation slides.  Great resource


Technology Exploration 10:
The websites explored in tech. exploration 10 include: http://www.webquest.org and http://readthewords.com. The WebQuest site provides links to different WebQuests.  The ReadTheWords.com site is another text to speech technology that provides users with the ability to generate audio files from written materials.


Now onto the documents I've used with my after school students.  This summer we are planning a mini-camp and field trip.  I have created a postcard for my students and their parents.  At first there were pictures that made the post card visually appealing, but it was a little distracting. There was too much going on with the pictures behind the text and it was distracting to try to read. It was also lengthy and needed to be shortened to get the message across in a quick but effective manner.  

I have since recreated the postcard to make it more effective.  This is what it looks like now.

Front of post card, discussing the topics for our mini-camp.

Back of post card, letter to parents discussing the field trip.

I removed the pictures from behind the text and made them smaller and to the side of the texts. i also added a solid color for the background and a contrasting color for the title to make it stand out.

















The parent letter was written with a small picture to the lower right corner and the title of the camp written over top of the picture.  The letter quickly lets the parents know what students should do to prepare for the trip (i.e. wearing tennis shoes, jeans, and bringing a light jacket).


The postcard is now much more effective and less distracting than the first version.


That's this weeks lesson in review.

Lesson 2 in Review

This week has been filled with lots of information on wikis, databases and spreadsheets and the use of each in the classroom.  

Tech Exploration 4:

Technology Exploration 4 was about concept map tools that can be used in the classroom.  The two I looked at and tried were Xmind and Bubbl.us. Both of these sites were great resources for teachers to use in the classroom.  Xmind is a program where you can customize and design your own concept map and then have it uploaded to share with co-workers.  It was very easy to navigate through the site and there was a video to introduce the program to new users. Bubbl.us was another great site for teachers to make and use concept maps in the classroom.

Tech Exploration 5:

Technology Exploration 5 was about Animoto, which is a site where you can create videos using your photos.  You can create videos using your own photos to show what you've been doing in the classroom, or you can use photos from image library and make educational videos to teach students about different topics in education. It was a great site as well for teachers or students to use.

Tech Exploration 6:

Technology Exploration 6 was about Google Docs and PhotoPeach.  Google Docs is a place for teachers and students to create, edit , share and store documents online.  PhotoPeach is a site that allows you to create custom slideshows, and share the shows you create.

Now on to my internet search for spreadsheets and database uses in the classroom.  While doing my internet search I stumbled across the website:

http://classclatter.blogspot.com/2011/05/spreadsheets-and-databases-in-classroom.html

This blog tells about the uses of spreadsheets and databases in the classroom.  It also provides two other websites that are useful links for teachers. These links are: 1.)http://juliannbetker.efoliomn.com/spreadsheets
 and 2.) http://www.amphi.com/~psteffen/excel.html.  The first link provides examples of uses of spreadsheets and databases in the classroom and the second link redirects you to a website that offers further links to other sites about integrating spreadsheets into the classroom.

I used the first link to see how spreadsheets were being used in the classroom and found there are some interesting ways to use spreadsheets in the classroom. When I think of spreadsheets, I usually think of math, but this site tells how spreadsheets are being used in Language Arts which surprised me.  It tells how spreadsheets can be used to make vocabulary lists, study guides and crossword puzzles.  It can also be used to make a timeline.


While student teaching, I used spreadsheets to keep track of students grades (pre- and post-test grades), progress with certain subject areas, and for tracking their involvement in the classroom.  I used spreadsheets to help me keep track of who was answering questions in class and who participated in class discussions.  I also used spreadsheets to keep track of students that were struggling with math, as we had begun a new math program at the elementary school and my fifth graders were having a hard time with it.  I never used spreadsheets much with my students other than for my personal use of tracking their class involvement.  Spreadsheets are such a useful tool for teachers and students.