For our collaborative project, Sara Tracy, Charissa Widman,
and I worked together. Our classes
created projects using Storyjumper, and students posted comments on projects
from other classrooms. My students were
instructed to choose at least three projects from each classroom and comment using
the 1 star, 1 wish feedback. The star is
one thing that they really enjoyed seeing in the project, and the wish is a
suggestion. This provides a great
opportunity for students to give feedback on others outside of our classroom. My students also enjoyed viewing other
Storyjumper books because it gave them more ideas of what to include in their own
books!
Angie's Blog
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
Lessons Taught & Lessons Learned
As I reflect over the course of the semester, I realized I
have integrated more technology into my teaching than I ever have before. I now feel more comfortable trying out new
technology resources with my students.
Previously, I was too scared that the lesson would be a total flop or
that my students would know more about computers than I do. As it turns out, I am knowledgeable, capable,
and confident in teaching my students skills with the use of technology. Listed below are the TOP 5 lessons I have
learned from taking this technology class:
1. Story Jumper
The biggest thing I have taken away from this class is to
have students create, not just consume, technology as it helps prepare them for
their future using 21st century skills. I encouraged my students to write a book
using www.storyjumper.com. Not only did they learn keyboarding skills by
typing out their personal narratives, they also learned how to create a picture
book. All of my students were so engaged
while using Storyjumper- I just wish they would be as enthusiastic to work
diligently when we have out our notebook paper and pencils!
2. Kahoot
Talk about a great review!
My first Kahoot was a weekly vocabulary review on kahoot.it. I loved how it shows the student responses
immediately. If many students got the
answer incorrect, we were able to stop and have a discussion about it. I plan to use Kahoot for more weekly or unit
reviews next school year!
3. Educreations/Screencasts
I had the perfect opportunity to send a screencast to one of
my student’s parent. I received an
e-mail from a parent on how to find fractional parts of a group because her
daughter did not remember and needed to know for her homework. I quickly (and easily!) made a screencast on
Educreations to show the steps to finding fractional parts of a group. My student came back the next day knowing how
to solve these kinds of problems and kept reminding me about how I sent her a
video of myself talking! I am so
thankful I learned about Educreations because it made my response to this parent's question WAY more understandable! My
screencast is below.
4. Twitter
I joined in on my first Twitter chat one bright and early
Saturday morning. The #nt2t chat focused
on global connections. I loved the topic
and discussion... when I could keep up.
The chat went way too fast for me, and I struggled to keep up with everyone. Using Twitter was a new experience for
me. In order to continue using Twitter,
I need to work on figuring out all the buttons/features first. Then I think I’ll be able to concentrate more
on the conversation (and hopefully contribute more to it, too!)
5. Haiku Deck/Digital
Citizenship
Haiku Deck was quite interesting for us. Students created slides to represent eight
vocabulary words from the week. They
were to display the word, a meaningful sentence, and a picture. One of my students quickly found out that
there are inappropriate pictures to choose from on this site. This brought up a good opportunity to review
digital citizenship. Even though Haiku
Deck is simple to use, I don’t recommend it for all students because of the
ease of finding inappropriate pictures that do not really even relate to the
word being searched.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Haiku Deck
A recent project my third grade students worked on was a
vocabulary slideshow using Haiku Deck.
Students created slides for all 8 vocabulary words of the week. They wrote a meaningful sentence and chose a
picture from the website to represent each word. Although Haiku Deck is easy for young children to use, this is a resource that I don’t plan on using
with students again because of inappropriate images.
We found out that there are some pictures within the photo search on the
website that are not school-appropriate.
One student added it to her slideshow to be funny. It provided a good opportunity for a teaching
moment about digital citizenship. Because of this experience, I plan
to look for alternate resources to use for reviewing vocabulary.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Cookie Dough Ball recipe
Thanks for letting me try out a new Pinterest recipe for class snacks today! If you are interested, here is the website for the cookie dough ball recipe.
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-truffles/
Enjoy!
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-truffles/
Enjoy!
Creativity
After reviewing the ISTE standards for
students on its website, creativity is defined by having “students demonstrate
creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and
processes using technology.” Some ways
to include creativity in the classroom are by
· Producing new ideas,
products, or processes by applying already existing knowledge
· Expressing oneself by
creating an original piece of work
· Using simulations or
models to investigate complex ideas
· Making predictions and
pinpointing trends
I plan to do a project with my students using
Story Jumper. My third graders are in
the process of writing personal narratives this quarter. To publish their piece of writing, students
will create a 5-page book on Story Jumper.
They will include their introduction on the first page, their beginning
on the second page, their middle on the third page, and their end on the fourth
page. The fifth and last page of their
book will be their conclusion. Students
will be able to add photos from home or images (props) already on Story Jumper.
This project fits into the following ISTE standards
1. Creativity and Innovation- helps
students express themselves by creating an original personal narrative using
technology
2. Communication and Collaboration-
communicate ideas effectively to multiple audiences using different kinds of
media
3. Research and Information Fluency- n/a
for this project
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and
Decision Making- plan and manage activities to complete this project
5. Digital Citizenship- students practice
safe, legal, and responsible use of technology
6. Technology Operations and Concepts- uses
technology effectively and productively
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Popplet personal narrative graphic organizer
Ease of creation: Very easy! My third graders will have no trouble creating this organizer. It is simple to use, yet gives students a few choices in color, font, and organization. I like how you can place each popplet anywhere on the screen that you prefer. I chose to do a "mountain" where the pinnacle moment is on top.
Clarity: Popplet is very clear on how to get started in creating a Popplet, and you choose the organization of ideas.
Ability to Insert pictures: Pictures are super easy to insert. A photo icon appears on the bottom right of each popplet where you can easily access pictures from vimeo, YouTube, or your computer. You may also draw your own picture (I prefer to insert one already created!)
Suggested age level: This can be used for any grade level- You can make it as simple or as detailed as you want.
Of course, the traditional strategies of teaching writing will always be there, but technology can play a huge role in teaching writing. Instead of having students plan their writing on paper, they and quickly and easily make a Popplet! The article by Bogard and McMakin (2012) share other ideas about ways to teach writing using new literacies. Two that stuck out to me were having students engage in recorded oral rehearsal with technology and to share these with a partner by listening to each others recordings and giving feedback to one another.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Flipping the Classroom screencast
I am interested in learning more about flipping the classroom! First, I would love to observe it in action in order to wrap my head around the idea. I like how I could serve as a coach rather than a lecturer. I feel, though, that it would take a lot of communication with students and parents to implement such a task and to have them on board, but I think it could be really cool!
This screencast addresses possessive pronouns. My third graders will be learning about possessive pronouns in grammar next week. Here is the link for my lesson:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/possessive-prounouns/30095788/?s=WFbqfJ
Because not all of my students have access to the Internet at home, I plan to show this screencast at the end of a grammar lesson the day before our lesson on possessive pronouns. It will set them up for the lesson the next day.
I can see how beneficial it would be for students to watch these lessons at home so they come ready to practice the skill at school. But I have more questions on how to flip a classroom when not every child has the opportunity to view it at home. Any suggestions?
This screencast addresses possessive pronouns. My third graders will be learning about possessive pronouns in grammar next week. Here is the link for my lesson:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/possessive-prounouns/30095788/?s=WFbqfJ
Because not all of my students have access to the Internet at home, I plan to show this screencast at the end of a grammar lesson the day before our lesson on possessive pronouns. It will set them up for the lesson the next day.
I can see how beneficial it would be for students to watch these lessons at home so they come ready to practice the skill at school. But I have more questions on how to flip a classroom when not every child has the opportunity to view it at home. Any suggestions?
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