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.