Web 2.0

Kerpoof is free multimedia software that can be used on any computer that has Internet access. The site is great because it has an area that is specifically for educators and it lists ideas and benefits for incorporating this Web 2.0 tool into your classroom. It also has lesson plans and how Kerpoof connects to the standards. You can make pictures, movies, drawings, or create stories using the Kerpoof multimedia tools. I think it would be a great application to incorporate into any elementary or middle school classroom. I think that any you could structure the lesson accordingly to the age group you are teaching, but overall it would be a great way for the students to express themselves. I think that I could use it in my classroom for story creations. We try to have the students work on retelling stories and connecting the pictures to the stories that they are creating. I think that they could use the program to create drawings to go along with the stories that they create or they could make a story using the multimedia tools on the site. Check it out at http://www.kerpoof.com .

Totlol is a great 2.0 tool that I could definitely use in my classroom. It is powered by YouTube and has pretty much the same set up, but is for children. You are able to set up your own favorite videos, keep track of ones that are watched, and block certain videos from being viewed. This would be great to incorporate into my kindergarten classroom. I am constantly searching for video clips that I can connect to the concepts that I am teaching. It is a really great way to get my 5-6 year old students excited about what we are learning and focused on the concept. Check out this Web 2.0 tool at http://www.totlol.com .

Another Web 2.0 tool that I found was ispeech. It is a tool that allows you to convert text to speech. This is a great application for me teaching kindergarten because there are so many tools that I would like to utilize within the classroom, but it is hard because my students are unable to read. One thing that ispeech does offer is the fact that you are able to take the text in your blog and convert it into a talking blog. This would be great for my students and would allow me to create a blog geared toward them that they were able to participate in. This way whatever I posted the students would be able to listen to, whether it is in centers or from at home. Check it out at http://www.ispeech.org .

Kindergarten Tour

Since we have started an all day kindergarten program at Trinity Area School District we also introduced KinderCamp. We felt it was important to prepare the incoming students as much as possible for their all day experience. This video was made to help the students become familiar with their surroundings and take away some of the first day jitters they may be experiencing.

Kindergarten and Computers

I found an article that discussed the important computer concepts kindergarten students should be using. Being a kindergarten teacher and one that is convinced that my kindergarten students can use any and all equipment that the older students do this article really caught my attention. I hate hearing teachers that are so pessimistic when it comes to the thought of kindergarten students using the computer. The author of this article Susan Brooks is under the same impression as me, that five year olds can do amazing things when given the chance to. The author of the article is actually one of the co-founders of Internet4classrooms and was also a 30 year veteran of kindergarten and technology classrooms. Susan listed the basic skills that she felt were necessary for the kindergarten students to learn. She also provided sites that she felt would best enhance those skills and that were appropriate for a kindergarten age group. I was glad to see her outline so far because it seems to be what I am following with my students so far this year. We have been practicing our mouse skills from the beginning of the year up until now. This past week I began introducing the basic keyboarding skills. They really surprise me with what they are able to do when given the chance. I liked Susan’s idea of using computer words on the word wall. I think I will start to integrate those on our word wall in the classroom since we are beginning to integrate the keyboarding skills. It would be an easy way to review those words on a daily basis even if we were unable to get to the computer lab. I would really like to follow along with Susan’s outline for the computer skills that my kindergarten students should be learning. I am excited to see what they will be able to do on the computer by the end of the year. ">http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech209.shtml that discussed the important computer concepts kindergarten students should be using. Being a kindergarten teacher and one that is convinced that my kindergarten students can use any and all equipment that the older students do this article really caught my attention. I hate hearing teachers that are so pessimistic when it comes to the thought of kindergarten students using the computer. The author of this article Susan Brooks is under the same impression as me, that five year olds can do amazing things when given the chance to.
The author of the article is actually one of the co-founders of Internet4classrooms and was also a 30 year veteran of kindergarten and technology classrooms. Susan listed the basic skills that she felt were necessary for the kindergarten students to learn. She also provided sites that she felt would best enhance those skills and that were appropriate for a kindergarten age group.
I was glad to see her outline so far because it seems to be what I am following with my students so far this year. We have been practicing our mouse skills from the beginning of the year up until now. This past week I began introducing the basic keyboarding skills. They really surprise me with what they are able to do when given the chance. I liked Susan’s idea of using computer words on the word wall. I think I will start to integrate those on our word wall in the classroom since we are beginning to integrate the keyboarding skills. It would be an easy way to review those words on a daily basis even if we were unable to get to the computer lab.
I would really like to follow along with Susan’s outline for the computer skills that my kindergarten students should be learning. I am excited to see what they will be able to do on the computer by the end of the year.

KinderCamp Podcast

This is a podcast that I created for KinderCamp. This is a summer program we have for two days to get the Kindergarten students familiar with the teachers and the routine of kindergarten. I think that this would be a great way to keep communication open with the parents throughout the school year. I could put up any announcements that I may want to make and the parents could respond with any questions or comments they may have.
Click on the title above to listen to my podcast.

My Favorite Podcasts

I began my search for Podcasts at the Education Podcast Network. I didn’t like it there. I couldn’t quite understand the site and it was hard for me to find what I wanted. I just recently got an iPod so I went on iTunes. I started my search thinking I would subscribe to a few; believe me it did not end in that way. I ended up subscribing to about 10 different Podcasts. I am totally addicted to them now. I listen to them at school during my prep time while I am working on things in the classroom or at the copier. There were a few that I subscribed to that I did not find interesting at all, but there were two of them that I really enjoyed.
The first podcast that I enjoyed was Kid Cast. You can read up on it and listen to some podcasts at http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/. These podcasts are by Dan Schmit. My favorite one that I listened to was about podcasting and fieldtrips. He gave some wonderful tips on how to make the fieldtrip more effective for the students and less about just getting away from the classroom for the day. Dan felt that it was first important to set a purpose for the field trip weeks before the field trip is scheduled. He also thought it was important to rethink the KWL chart and make it into a WTWT chart. Why are we studying this? What do we think we know? What do we want to know? What are we ready to teach? He also gave a great idea of creating a sound seeing tour for your students.
I also wanted to check out a podcast that was created by students. I decided to check out Willow Web since it was highly recommended in a few different articles that I had read. It you want to check out some of their podcasts go to http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/Radio/. I thought it was very well put together and each student sounded very interested in the topics and very animated. It seemed to really give them great practice on their speaking skills. I found their podcasts more interesting than most of the ones I listened to that were done by adults. It gave me some great ideas on ways I can incorporate podcasting into my classroom.

Podcasting in Elementary

At http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6253062.html I found an interesting article about podcasting. I hadn’t heard from many on their experience of podcasting in the elementary so I wanted to read an article that focused on just that.

I n this particular article titled Tell Me a Story, a library media specialist Sarah Chauncey conveys her love of podcasting and how she incorporates it into her elementary library curriculum. Sarah has made podcast snippets available to her students on various picture books on her library Web site. I think that this is a great way to take what you are teaching and look at it in a new way that will spark the interest of your students. She also has created audio files of questions that relate to each book. Those questions can be acquired at home through the Web site. Sarah feels that this would be a great way to get the parents involved in what the students are learning and reading while at school. I couldn’t agree more. I think that any way you can make that home school connection you are succeeding. This is something that I think parents and students would both be interested in. Not only will the parents get to hear about what their child is learning, but they will also have a chance to see how technologically savvy their child may be. Another great idea that Sarah had was having the students in her school read various picture books and records them. This way the students can hear students that are being read by their peers yet there is no concern of privacy issues.

I think that this article gives you a better understanding of how you can take the basic concepts being taught and team them with today’s technology and you can bridge the gap between you and your students.

Flickr

I used Flickr to upload my pictures. I uploaded various pictures of my family, fiance, and work. I think this would be a great way to keep a sort of yearbook for your students and their parents. The parents could log on to see photos of the activities that we have taken part in throughout the year. Check out the photos that I uploaded at http://www.flickr.com/photos/32301119@N07/

DELICIOUS

I used Delicious bookmarking, http://delicious.com/jef5857 to bookmark my favorite sites. I was really excited about this because it is so hard to go to each computer and type in the site that I want my kindergartners to go to. I used this as a way to bookmark the sites that I would like them to visit while at the computer lab or during center time. The majority of the sites are interactive sites that would help with math or literacy. Then there was one site that gave a variety of ideas on interactive sites that would help kindergarten students with math and literacy. Check them out :)

Instant Messaging - Helpful or Hurtful????

I found an interesting article at http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/oconnor.htm. It had a title that caught my attention, Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing? I have often wondered how IM is effecting the English classrooms of today. I know that it was just starting to become popular when I was in high school so we had not yet seen the full effects of us using IM on a daily basis.

The article begins by giving a brief introduction of the types of new messaging technologies that have been introduced since the late 90’s and continues with a description and overview of Instant Messaging itself.

The part that I was most interested in was the academic effects of Instant Messaging. One portion of the article states that it seems with all the newer forms of messaging the Internet has formed its own English language. Some feel that anytime the students are reading and writing it is a step in the right direction. On the other hand some are seeing the effects first hand in the classroom with the type of “IM lingo” that is being turned in as formal writing assignments.

The article finally goes into giving actual instances where teachers have used some form of messaging in the classroom to engage their students. One teacher set up a chat room where her students could meet and discuss the books that they were reading. She allowed the “Internet English” only in the chat room. She said that this gave them a better understanding formal and informal writing.

I found this article to be very interesting. I remember when I was a permanent substitute for a year in a fifth grade classroom. I remember collecting their writing prompts and the students would be using “u” instead of “you” and “2” instead of “to”. It was frustrating because their thoughts and ideas were wonderful but the mechanics were not. I think that it is important to teach the students the difference between informal and formal writing. I would hate to discourage the students from any type of writing that they are doing, but on the other hand you don’t want it to hinder them in the long run.

I am interested to hear from some teachers in the upper grades and see if they are seeing the adverse effects on their students’ writing. Let me know what you think!

RSS- Positives and Negatives

I subscribed to Bloglines. It seems quite beneficial, but I am still working on getting used to it. I am an organizational freak about stuff and I am still figuring out a way to make it a little bit neater. I want the setup of it to look clean and easy for me to understand each time I log on.

When I first signed up I was overwhelmed. I checked a few of the topics that I found to be interesting. I chose things like celebrity news, movies, technology, design, etc. I also went back to a few of the blogs that I initially read posts on that were dedicated to educational technology and I noticed on a few that I was able to subscribe to that blog right from the site. I was able to click on the Bloglines icon and it added it to my subscriptions. I thought that was very helpful. That way if you run across a particular blog that you enjoy you are easily able to add it to your Bloglines subscriptions by one click of the mouse. I also like how you are able to expand and collapse the blogs so you can see all the titles of each of the blogs’ entries and choose which ones you would like to read.

After a week of reading the blog entries I am starting to understand it a little more. I am also beginning to see which subscriptions I am most interested in. There were certain blogs that I am subscribed to that I would always check first. It is really nice to have updated information on your favorite subjects all at one place.

Fuji Apples Rock!!!!!

I contributed to a few Wiki’s. One was a Wiki that was that was trying to get a list of 1,000 names. The students in this teacher’s classroom were having a hard time visualizing what 1,000 looked like. They created the Wiki to collect 1,000 names to help the students visualize 1,000. Another contribution that I made was to an educational wiki at http://eatme.wikispaces.com/Apples. This particular Wiki was asking you to choose your favorite food from a list of foods. They then wanted you to persuade the reader to try that food. So you were to write a description of the food and explain why it is the best. I chose apples and did a small description of why I felt Fuji apples were the best apple. I think that this would improve students’ persuasive writing skills. I remember that that was one of our writing prompts when I taught fifth grade. It was always hard finding a topic that students were interested in enough to write a persuasive piece of writing about. I think that you could set up a Wiki much like this one where the students could choose what they would like to write about from a list of options. I think that it would be a great place for them to learn from one another by viewing each other’s work.

Writing for a Large Audience

I found an interesting article at http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/coulter.htm. It was titled Mr. Coulter’s Internet Tendency: to Infinity and Beyond. This article discussed how web publishing can improve student writing. This fourth grade teacher basically went through his process of publishing his students work to the Internet.

It is really nice to have some insight on how exactly certain teachers are implementing web publishing into their curriculum. This particular teacher would take the students journal writing and have them go through the normal draft, editing, and final copy stages. Then he would have them choose their favorite story once a month. He created a student friendly template, which I thought was a nice idea. He said that he keeps it simple because he wants the students to focus on the writing and not about the appearance of the text.

He keeps all of the students’ work that has been previously published in the archives of the website. Then he publishes the newest work to the front page of the site. He feels that it gets the students excited about their work since they know it is reaching people outside of their classroom.

I would really love to do this with my Kindergarten class, even if it is just scanning their best written work and making it available to read online. I think it is an easy way to get the kids excited about their work and anything that will get them excited about writing is something I am on board with. I liked how this article was structured. I think it was a nice way to read up on the subject. It was written by a teacher and he really put forth the effort to explain the process which is important. So many times I hear ideas and I think how this could possibly work in my classroom. It is nice that Mr. Coulter took the time to outline his process for having the students publish their work to the Web so us readers can figure out ways we can fit it into our classroom as well.

Blog or Article?

I wasn't really sure if we had to review a Blog or an article so I just did both.

There was an interesting point brought up at http://weblogg-ed.com/ by Will Richardson. His latest blog post was called It’s the Parent’s Fault. Not. It talks about a discussion that he had with a high school principal after a presentation. It was brought up during the presentation that no one is really teaching kids how to use MySpace or Facebook. The principal feels that it is the parents who should be teaching the students the ins and outs of the Internet. The presenter feels that it is our job as teachers and administrators to teach the students about the Internet and Internet safety. He feels that there is no reason why we cannot in some way figure out how to integrate those skills into the curriculum of first-third grade.

I think that this is an interesting question to ask and really got me thinking about whose responsibility it is to be teaching these children about the Internet. When I read this blog there were 34 posts to it. The posts were really interesting to read and it seemed like it was a topic that people have strong opinions on.

Article on Blogging

I found a really interesting article at http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml. The article is titled, Blogging? It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson! It was perfect for me since it discussed using blogs in grades as low as kindergarten.

The article begins by defining blogging for those readers who may be unfamiliar with the term. It then goes in to discuss the benefits of blogging. It notes that students quality of writing and their interest greatly improves when their work is being put online for an actual audience. The article gives examples of a few Blogs that are from fourth grade classrooms.

My favorite parts of the article were the safety tips it gave you on implementing blogging into your classroom. I thought the one program, Blogmeister, which is a blogging tool that allows you as the teacher to create student accounts on your blog. The students are able to freely add their own entries, but they send them to the teacher to approve before publishing them. I thought this was a great idea because the students are able to get their thoughts across, but as the teacher you are still able to keep an eye on what is being said.

I also enjoyed the idea of KidzBlog because it used a drawing tool which I could use for my kindergarten students.

I think the article brought up a lot of interesting ideas and things that you should check out if you are interested in incorporating blogging into your classroom.