Final Reflection

I have really enjoyed this class.  It has been interesting exploring the different tools that are out there.  Taking the class forced me to experiment with them.  So many times I hear of cool things then never go to look at them again.  My favorites were google forms, storybird, screencastomatic and quizlet.  All of those were easier to use that I thought they might be and I can see using them with co-workers, parents and students. 

It has been frustrating doing some of the activities not knowing what my position will look like for this year.  I could think of many ideas on how I would use these tools with my students last year so I am hoping I can use some of those ideas moving forward.  A lot of ideas that I have involve information for parents or things to put on a website. I was excited to build a website in the final activity and that it was easy to do so that I could see how I can use a lot of the tools that we have learned about on there. 

I thought using the blog format for the class really made us jump in and get out feet wet with the web tools.  It was good to struggle to figure out not only how to use the tools but then to put them in a place that is useful and able to be shared.  I have looked at a lot of others blogs for ideas before starting some assignments and to see how to do different things.  It has been an easy way to get feedback from Jenna and other campers. 

I would be interested in a summer camp 2.0 #2.  I am sure there are many more tools out there that are yet to be discovered!

#10 Free Choice

OK, I gave it a shot.  I tried weebly to create my own web page.  It is very bare bones since I don't know yet what kind of information that I will want on a web page.  I don't even know my contact information yet :(  But I played around with it a bit.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use and make a professional looking site.  It was easy to add pictures, links, and new tabs/pages. I checked out a few campers sites that they had done and have a few ideas.  This was way easier to use than our district pages.  I'm hopeful that I may use it more this year and can make it useful to my students and their families. 

http://misskeen.weebly.com/

#9 Fitness Assessment

I could see many of these scenarios being possible.  As excited as we all are to jump into the school year using this new technology we need to remember to take precautions against these.  Also, it should be a discussion at a school level.  Thanks counselors for sharing hazards, privacy settings and precautions along the way. 

Scenario 3: Anonymous Blogging

While the convenience of an anonymous blog looked good at the beginning, Ms Gifford should have had the fore site to see what was coming.  An anonymous blog gives students the freedom to say what they want without anyone knowing.  Even easier to pick on other students or try to get back at one for something said to them.  She should have chosen a blog where she can screen comments before they are posted.  She should have also clearly stated the objectives and how to use the blog to her students and their parents.  As easy as it is to get excited about trying something new, as teachers, we need to make sure to think things through. 

Scenario 4: Age Restrictions

This is a bummer.  It sounds like a good tool and a fun project.  The web site is probably trying to protect themselves and teachers from kids putting inappropriate things on the web.  You can't ask students to lie or set one up in your name and let them use it independently because obviously the web site thinks that the students need some supervision or the wouldn't have the 13 year rule in the first place.  One thing that Ms Applegate could do it to have the students research information on a country and then working with them, she could create the poster for them or with them using the information that they gathered.  Or have the students research information until she can find a different mode in which they can display it. 

Activity #8 part 2

It was incredibly easy to create a form.  Kelly and I came up with this idea to make a form.  It would make it easier for us a special education teachers to get information from parents early on and have it all in one place since we don't directly get this information like classroom teachers.  I liked how easy it was to customize what kind of answer that you want and you can easily change it up.  Had a little difficulty embedding into my blog but this too would come with practice. 

Activity #8 Part 1 Polling the burgers!!!

Here are a couple of polls for any burger lovers!  The first one is places that have been visited recently.  The second is to add your own favorite if it wasn't on the first list.  I know everyone has a favorite!  Poll everywhere was very easy and quick to use.  I could see using it with friends, colleagues and some students if they can get to a computer.

Activity #7

Link:
https://docs.google.com/a/moundsviewschools.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhobopA7pBsRdFl5MVZfcU81TnF5bHlhQXhOZzctaXc#gid=0

I have used drive with my team at Sunnyside.  We have shared documents, schedules and meeting agendas.  It has worked well.  I haven't started saving anything else in drive except what I intend to share.  I had seen other people using drive to make a planner and I decided that I wanted to try to use the spreadsheet in drive.  I created a calendar that I make at the beginning of each year to plug in when my student's IEPs and Evaluations are due.  It is something that I can keep for myself and share with others that need to know those dates.  I find drive useful and something that I will use more and more as I learn how.  I will probably use it more often now that I am working with older students. 

#6 Study tools

The first one that I chose to do was Tagxedo.  I used it to put in words of things that I did this summer.  I was thinking this is something that could be used early in the school year with my students.  Either to just share about my summer or have them make one as well with their summer.  It would be a good way to just get ideas down on paper or to do a quick analyses of what they know.  This was my first time making one of these and I have to say there are so many options for color, font and such that I got quite distracted making it look just so.  Also, I put my name in there many more times and the others in once and it is not bigger than some of the other words.  Not sure if I'm missing something. 

Second, I chose to use Quizlet.  I think this could be a great tool to use in the classroom.  Especially since you can email the cards out to students, they can practice multiple times and even do a self-check quiz.  I am impressed with all of the different ways that you can choose to study the cards.  I chose to try to use geometric shapes.  Unfortunately you need to upgrade if you want to upload your own photos and the ones that they have to choose from aren't that great.  I probably wouldn't use this set with my students but kept going with it to get a feel for making a set of flashcards.  The video also said that kids could access it on their computers, does anyone know if they could use it on an ipad?  Would be interested to find out. 

Here is the link:
http://quizlet.com/_ertrb

Activity #5

Here is my youtube channel!


If it looks familiar, it is.  I just uploaded my screencastomatic video to it.  I had to go back and down load my video to my computer and then upload it to youtube but I do remember that there was a place to upload it directly to youtube when creating the screen cast.  The directions to create a channel were very easy to follow.  I know this would be very helpful in running a flipped classroom but also another place for put videos for extra help for students.  I've read some other ideas about having a video ready for the school year to introduce yourselves to your class and parents.  That sounds like a great idea and one that I will try to work on for the fall. 

Activity #4 Screencastomatic!!

I chose to try screencastomatic.  It was easy to use, just click and record.  It took a few tries to upload it though, not sure what the problem was but it finally went through.  I chose to show a few different sites for keyboarding.  Parents quite often ask for them in fourth or fifth grade when students need to type things out and parents realize how long it takes.  Instead of just typing up a list, this could be another way to show different sites available.  My video got a little long because I was showing how a few different games work.  Students could go in here as well from home as an easy way to access some sites.  This would be a very easy way to put tutorials on a blog or web page. 

As a side note:  I really notice how much I use "um"  when I was recording.  Shomion would not be pleased :)

# 3 Storybird

Storybird was really easy to use.  As others have commented, it was sometimes hard to find art that went with the story I was trying to write but I made it work.  I chose to write a social story on dealing with disappointment.  It is pretty general but I got an idea of how easy this would be to use for this and I could easily see including the student in writing one specific to their situation.  If I was doing that, I would really like to be able to include my own photos for that student.  The other thing that I missed, and maybe I just didn't find it, was spellcheck.  I am a terrible speller and would really like to be able to check something before I publish it for public viewing.  Overall, this was a good experience and one I could see myself using. 

Activity 2

Prezi was easy to use.  I could see using this with students creating their own or with a whole class to create a project as well as using it for presentations.  I liked the templates that they had to use.  I didn't try to add another bubble to my presentation but I would think it would be easy to do.  I was impressed with the number of pictures that were available. 

Activity 1

I spent way too much time checking out all of the backgrounds and layouts that I could use on my blog page!  It was good to look through the gadgets that are available.  I added the translate gadget to my page that I though would be very useful to parents.  I tried to add a calendar but it didn't look right so I left that off.  That could also be a very useful tool for parents.  Check out my fish I added, click on them to feed them :). 

I chose to embed a video on how to use touch math.  This is one that I have used on our math nights at Sunnyside.  It gives parents an idea of how to help thier student with touchmath. Unfortunatly when I went to embed this one it told me that embeding was disabled so I have included the link. 

http://youtu.be/baaFE3j660U

I did find another video on double digit addition with regrouping that I was able to embed. 



In starting to check out some of the tools available to put into a blog, I could really see how this could be useful in communicating with parents and students.  It would be easy to post homework and upcoming events for parents as well as videos that go along with what we are doing in class.  I am still looking for ways to use a blog or more technology in the classroom with my students. 

First Question

• When Jenna talked about Summer Camp 2.0, I thought that it sounded interesting to learn about technology that I don't typically use with other staff members.  

• I hope to learn about new technology tools that are available to me and explore how to use them as a teacher.  I hope to become more comfortable with technology terms.  

• I am comfortable trying new things on the computer but I feel like that I am not that comfortable with the web tools that are available.  I have used a smart board and smart software.