Tool #11 - digital citizenship

Teaching students to be responsible on the internet is important from a young age. Students need to be taught the dangers of online sites as well as how to determine websites that are reliable sources to use. Last year I used the Brain Pop videos and quizzes to teach my fifth graders about being careful users of the internet. Another fun, quick video to use with students is made by the creators of "Phineas and Ferb" on Disney called "Common Sense with Phineas and Ferb" which links to the Common Sense Media website that has many useful tools for kids, parents, and teachers.

Tool #11 - what I learned

Two tools I hope to add to my teaching this year are a class wiki or blog so students can have a place to "discuss" what they are reading and learning. This will allow students across classes to be able to discuss book club books and expand their knowledge and comprehension. I also want to use more of the image generators, especially Glogster as a way for students to create something representative of their learning.
I think more of the learning in my classroom will be done on an individual basis through the use of videos, links, and webquests through technology. I see the iTouch as a very useful tool for students to use as a resource as well. If they need to know the definition of a word or replay a video it can happen instantly through the dictionary.com app or video podcasts.
I enjoyed seeing all the different tools that are available for me to use, however it took a lot of time to explore and learn how to use them. I wish the course would have had more group worktimes set up so that we could help and support one another. I feel that even splitting it up into segments of one or two tools a month would be more beneficial than trying to get it all done over the course of 2 months.

Tool #10 - iTouch apps

I LOVE the iPod iTouch!!! I was able to use 80 iTouches with my fifth graders last year, and learned ALOT! There are so many great ways to use the apps in classrooms for research, information gathering, and practice of skills. Not to mention the podcasts that can be loaded and watched or listened to at an individual pace. During my library student internship I created a wiki of useful apps for educators. I have just started working on putting FREE and inexpensive apps on the subject pages, with every intention of adding more as we find ones that are worthwhile.

Tool #9 - Jing and Skype

I can definitely see how using Jing could be helpful to show the steps for completing a technology assignment. It would be great to have a video for students to be able to access instead of having to repeat my instructions everytime. Another free download program that can record a video of what you do on the screen is Nvu. I have used it before and would like to try to make a recording of instructions to use in my classroom, possibly how to add a posting to a wiki or blog in the classroom.

I love the idea of having authors or local celebrities read books aloud to students. It would also be a great way to bring authors to the classroom or library without spending alot of money. My big question right now is how to find other people who are willing to Skype with my class. (But I see that the article "50 Awesome Ways to use Skype in schools" is a good resource to help answer that question. I even found a page of virtual author visits!) Over the summer I know that the PBL (problem-based learning) campuses used Skype to invite "experts" to their classroom so they could ask questions about what they were studying - extreme weather.

Tool #8 (part 2) - Blinx/YouTube

I like that Blinx searches so many video websites at once. It makes it easy to see the options you have for the topic you are searching. However, it is a little overwhelming and would take time to look through and find exactly what I want to use. It also did not have an embedding option from this site, so I used the YouTube code instead.
The video I chose is from the PBS TV Series "Liberty's Kids" to use during our American Revolution study in Fifth Grade. My only concern with YouTube is that it often gets bogged down, and takes to long to load as you watch.

Tool #8 - Hulu

I never thought of using Hulu in the classroom. But this is a great place to find informative videos to use in content areas. Every year I use the Time for Kids Earth Day issue to pique students' interest in doing a part in "saving the planet". So this excerpt will be great to use on Earth Day to help students understand more about the importance of awareness and the reason behind it.

Tool #7 - my first iMovie

Even though I had iMacs for most of last year, I never made time to try out iMovie on my own until now. I made a movie about our summer trips last July. It was so much fun!

Tool #6 - Wikis

I have been concerned lately while inviting students to create digital projects about how to help educate them about copyright and giving credit to their sources. I LOVE the wiki of copyright friendly sites! It is a great source to use when helping students use and create mulitmedia. We need to make sure we encourage students to use information responsibly.
I also loved seeing all the things posted by Mrs. Abernathy's Fifth graders. It seems like her class must be self-contained, and she keeps them very involved in uploading and creating items to use in their blog and wiki. What a great melding of technology with the learning that is obviously taking place. I love all her resources and links, too. I will go back there to use some of the websites as we study historical eras during the year.
I have started a wiki, and have attempted to use it for posting reading responses. It was difficult for me to manage or know how much to REQUIRE or leave as an OPTION. I think I will try again this year to have this as a place for both sections of my class to post and extend their book discussions.

Tool #5 - Social bookmarking

Two new really nifty sites that I found by searching "Web 2.0" in diigo are:
Web 2.0 Guru
and The Teacher Chronicles
Both of these sites had so many resources to explore, try out, and use in the classroom. Some I had heard of through 23 Things, my librarian classes, and 11 Tools, but some are still new to me!

I already had a delicious account that I use with my students and had been wanting to set up another bookmark page for some of my websites for school and library resources. So this time I tried diigo. It is definitely more powerful and a little more complex than delicious. I joined 2 groups after searching "fifth grade" in the Community section. One is called "Digital Storytelling" and the other is "Learning with Computers". I think I will enjoy my "professional" social bookmarking site! this will allow me to keep adding to my students' account on delicious.

Tool #4 - MWE Reader

I was already using a Google Reader to track some personnal and professional feeds. I recently installed an RSS Reader app on my iTouch so I could access them on the go. So for this tool I experimented by setting up a second Google Reader account with my SBISD email to keep track of more teacher websites and fellow MWE teachers. I added 5 MWE teachers and the 11 Tools blog. I might try out other Reader sites as well to be able to separate what I am keeping track of better.

Tool 4 - Google sharing

iTouch Presentation
I want to share a project I am working on through my internship to tell others about what I learned about using the iTouch in the classroom. So I am working on a presentation on Google docs to be able to share with the district librarians and pilot campuses.

Tagxedo Blog Creation

I just learned about another image generator and thought I would share a cloud I created using the words in my blog.

To try it yourself go to Tagxedo! It's fun and has so many options.

Tool 3 Part 2 - Word Sift

I inserted the first part of the Declaration of Independence into the Word Sifter. The image generated showed the most frequent words in the text I selected. There is no way to save this image other than as a screen shot (that I found), so this would be a teaching tool. I would use it as an introduction to a topic of study where I would decide the content, or possibly as a review where the students develop it by suggesting vocabulary words to add. I especially like the other parts of the page, such as the visual thesaurus and images of the most frequent words. This would be great to help our ESL students!

Tool 3 Part 1 - My Glog

I made a personal Glog first with pictures from my family's Disney trip in 2008, but it did not save because I did not make an account first. So, this is my "school" glog about Colonial Day in Fifth grade.
Glogster is a fun site to make a different kind of visual. I think students would enjoy making these instead of traditional posters to share information visually. It could still be used as a "prop" to help their presentation, however it would be a digital version on the ACTIVboard. I could see students posting these into a class blog, Ning, or Wiki so they could all be there for easy access during presentation day!

Tool #2: Posting and Commenting

I like adding to the conversation when I visit a blog that I feel a connection or strong reaction to, however I try not to leave a comment merely for comment's sake. As a blogger, I like reading what other people think about my thoughts as well. I have resisted having my students blog in the past because I was afraid parents would be fearful of letting students onto the "Web". I just recently discovered what I "Ning" is, and hope it might be an option that will shelter students, and yet allow me to open communication with my students. (I think we look into these later, so I'll leave it at that for now.)
I am going to follow 5 of the teachers I will be working closely with next year at MWE: Meredith D., Jenny M., Carole M., Jenny H., and Meg L. See ya in the Bloggosphere!

More Web 2.0 learning - Tool #1

Last year another teacher and I were the recipient of an SBISD Power to Learn grant! Through that grant we were able to purchase 81 iTouch devices to use with our fifth graders. I learned so much about the power of hand-held devices in classrooms! I saw excitement and authentic learning and discovery takeing place. I saw students motivated to use and explore through them. And now, thanks to our trials and tribulations, the district is moving forward with their technology plan!
In the coming years all SBISD schools will receive up-to-date technology for student use. Next year, MWE will be one of the schools receiving iTouches and Netbooks. It will be an exciting time of learning and exploring together. It definitely changed the way I thought about teaching and how best to reach my students. I am excited to be a part of taking what I have learned and making it better and more engaging over the next school year.
So, here I go learning, once again, that the "tools" out there on the "Web" are ever changing! I am always open to learning and trying new things. And that way I hope to guide my students in their learning by showing them the great things that they can use and create while learning.