Final Reflection

Wow!!!  I did it!!!  Originally I wasn't going to take this course because I heard it was took too much  time.  I will agree that it did take some time, but I enjoyed it and learned a ton.  I surprised myself every week because everything was easier to create than I thought and I had fun using the web tools.
It seem that the most difficult part for me was finding the HTML code to embed. 

I liked the blog format for continuous updating.  I could see using a blog in my classroom to let the parents know what we are doing and to share pictures or videos of what is happening.  I could see myself embedding songs that we sign and activities that we do.  I did spend quite a bit of time creating a new web page for my free choice so I plan to keep that.  I will keep the web page as a source of information for my families and add a tab to the classroom blog for more current events in our classroom.  

I will use many of the web tools in my classroom.  Digital story telling would be a great way for our class to write stories together.  I could then embed the story on our classroom blog to share it with the student's parents.  Tagxedo could be used to list words that describe a subject that we have just finished learning about.  For example, in October we do a unit on pumpkins.  For a final activity our class could brainstorm describing words for a pumpkins and create a Tagxedo with the words.  I think kindergarten students would love this activity.  I might even create a sign for my door with words to describe kindergarten and what we will learn this year.  I can see myself using Spicynode quite frequently.  We create a lot of webs during class discussions.  I like how Spicynode takes webs to the next level and extends each part out for more information.  Polling could be hard to use with each individual student, but maybe I could put a poll on the blog for families to answer.  During our Thanksgiving unit, we could poll what are you most thankful for and look the results each day with the students.  I am excited to use cloud computing to share our classroom calendar with our families.  The kindergarten specialist teacher even added in our specialist rotation.  This will be a quick easy way for parents to know what is happening in kindergarten each day.    Wow, I can't believe how much I learned this summer.  And I can't wait to implement it into my day. 

Screencasting and Youtube

I wasn't really sure how to create this video, but it was actually pretty easy.  I believe that I would use SMART instead when I am at school. 

Some ways I see it being used in kindergarten are during a center, when the students can sit in front of the SMART board and they have an activity in front of them.  I would record the directions ahead of time on a screencast and they could just listen to the directions on the screen and I would guide them through it step by step.   The other way I envision myself using it is with parents and giving them step by step direction for a project.  I also think posting videos on Youtube would be helpful for classroom parents.  We used a program called Jolly Phonics, for each letter we teach there is story, song, and action.  I think it would be helpful for parents to have a video with all of the letter actions.  Maybe this this something I will have to create soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Therrien's Webpage

Fitness Assessment

Scenario 1: Collaboration = Harassment?
A student is using Google Drive as a writing and collaborative tool for peer reviewing. Juan and Jeremy have used the platform instead to exchange comments that involve name-calling and racial slurs. Jeremy’s parents object when his account is suspended claiming it will negatively impact his academic progress.

I hope the district that Juan and Jeremy are in has a district technology policy and that it was given to parents and students in the beginning of the year to read and sign.   The teacher should meet with the principal to discuss the situation and refer to the p0licy when meeting the Juan and Jeremy's families.  During the meeting, they should explain that the boys have broken the district policy by name calling and using racial slurs.  Making sure the boys understand that technology is a privilege and can be suspended when it is abused.  The district policy should have consequences stated for each offense and the teacher and principal can use this information to talk to the parents. 

Scenario 7: Chernobyl Meltdown… 
Ms. Jansen, a special ed. teacher, has been using screencasting in her class to post review screencasts of her lessons and study materials. These screencasts have been heavily used by students and she has received glowing emails from parents thanking her for going this extra distance. Ms. Jansen decides it’s time to have her students create their own screencasts. She struggles with how best to post and share their screencasts and decides to use a class YouTube account/channel. Because some students want to do screencasting from home, she provides students with the class YouTube username and password so they can upload their videos from home. Two disasters ensue: 1.) Students post more than just their screencasts including inappropriate random YouTube videos as well as change the privacy settings of the account. 2.) Students post video content of themselves and their peers and the teacher discovers that some of these students have “no photo” stipulations on file in the office. Before Ms. Jansen can even blink, these videos have been shared/linked to Facebook pages and have an assortment of inappropriate comments posted from outside users.

Ms. Jensen made a mistake by giving out the class username and password.   I believe that she had good intentions but it should have been done in a way that followed all of the rules in the district technology policy.  The first thing she should do is to close the account and remove all of the videos that the students posted.  By giving the students access to the account she lost all control of it.  Once the account is closed.  I would meet with my principal to discuss the next steps.  In the future, the students should create videos and share them with Ms. Jensen and then she can post them on Youtube. 

Free Choice

In order to complete activities 4 and 5, I created a new classroom website.  I used Wix and loved it.  It is pretty easy to use and will hopefully be easy to update during the school year.  The looks of it are so much nicer that what I have used in the past.

I have used Shelfari to share stories that our class is reading with my students families.  I loved it.  I would like to use a website to share photos of events from our class activities.  I hope to use Flickr to keep our class photos updated.

Mrs. Therrien's Kindergarten Webpage

Cloud Computing

I thought it would be helpful to have a calendar on my blog for my students families. I have put all of the district calendar information on it. As the year progresses, I will put special events, volunteer days, and other important date that they may need.

Polling and Gathering Data

After visiting the Minnesota Zoo today, I decided to create a poll to find out what zoo animal is the most popular.  Creating the poll was quick and easy.  I'm not quite sure how I will use polleverywhere with my kindergarten students.  Maybe I could have a poll on my blog/website for my students families to respond to and then we can use the poll for a class discussion or lesson on reading information on graphs. Can't wait to see what animal is the most popular. I created a google form to ask my parents what Open House session they plan on attending. This will help me prepare for the correct number of parents. Mid-year, I usually send out an survey for parents to let me know how the year is going. The questions are regarding homework, activities, and communication. This year, I will create the survey in the google forms and see how that goes.

Study Tools

Tagxedo was fun and easy to use.  The best way I see myself using this tool in kindergarten is working on using adjectives to describe the theme we are learning about.  It might be a great way to end a unit, by brainstorming words that describe what we learned.  I believe this would have to be a whole group activity or one for the higher level thinking students in a small group or individually.   

 

 

I had so much fun creating a word cloud that I created on for each of my children with their favorite thing; Their Soccer Team

 

Ashley's Soccer Team - Blaine Blasters 

Kayla's Soccer Team - Blaine Scream

 

 For my second activity, I continued with the apple theme and created a Spicynode.  It was easy to create, but I'm not sure how I would use it in kindergarten yet.  Because most kindergarteners can't read or write independently in the fall (which is when I teach apples), I will have to do this as a whole group activity.  We will add one part each day after learning about apple parts, our senses and apples, apple food, and different types of apples.

Digital Storytelling

I used Storybird to create my story.  I'm not the most creative writer, but Storybird was easy to use since you choose 1 picture and then it gives you all of the pictures that go along with the story.  I thought the alphabet letters were cute but I'm not quite sure how the first picture of the girl and her mother fits into the story.  Oh, Well we made it work.  Using Storybird, in kindergarten would have to be a shared writing lesson.  I think the kids would really get into telling a story by looking at the pictures.  It would also be fun to create a 3D book with Zooburst.

The Great Alphabet Escape

Pimp My Presentation

I choose to use Popplet, which was fun and easy to use.  I see myself using this tool frequently with my students.  The Popplet that I created was for the ladybugs life cycle.   I found some great pictures of the ladybugs life cycle and a nice video that shares all of the information my students need. I am excited to see everything that I can do with Popplet.

Blog Bling

I use Harry Kindergarten on Youtube for many topics that we cover in Kindergarten.  He sings catchy  songs about letters, sight words, reading, colors, numbers, counting, shapes, telling time, and  money.  The song that I a posting is a new one that I just found.  It never fails that when someone asks if you have a question the kindergartners always have stories.  My hope is by singing this song a few times they will learn the difference between a question and  a statements.  They may also learn to read a few sight words too.    Some of my classes favorites are 3D Shapes, Coins In My Hands, Whatcha Gonna Do, If Your A Kid, and Vowel Bat.  My class keeps asking for more and more. 

I am thinking that I would rather set up a classroom blog than maintaining my classroom website.  I found that I really didn't like the looks of the website and it was difficult to use.  As I am considering which option to go with I have been looking for pros and cons to both.  Can anyone suggest why a blog would be better than a website or vise versa?  Some of the pros I can think of for a blog are that it is easier to update on a continuous basis, more interactive with students and families, and more user friendly.  Any thoughts? 

Kick Off!

What motivated you to become one of our summer campers?

I am attending Summer Camp 2.0 to become more familiar and comfortable with the web tools that are available.  I would like to use them on a regular basis to create more communication with my students and their families. 

What you hope to learn about in Summer Camp 2.0?

My hope is to use many of the web tools that I learn about in my lessons and on my classroom website to create more communication with my students and their families.  I would also like to make my website more interactive for my students to reinforce their learning. 

How would you describe your current comfort level with technology?  What tools do you use already in your classroom (if any)

My current level of comfort with technology is low.  I feel that I am not aware of many of the web tools that are available.  I use my smart board in my classroom and I have a family blog that I use for journaling, but that is about it.