Tool 7: Reaching Outside your Classroom: Online Digital Projects

This tool took a little more time and research than the others. I would like to get involved in throughout the school year. I would like an ongoing project on Science and thought it would be interesting for my class to be a part of it. It would help them to see the differences between Plants, needs of a living being, changes in seasons, etc. After a long time thinking about a collaborative project to share, I decided to make a project aboutPlants. We can Skype and use Google Docs to share my student's ideas, with fellow educators from our school, district, and nationwide.
Content objective - Teachers and students working together will explore and research the plant’s part and difference between plants. I want to implement it during the plant’s Unit. I think I can use Skype, Google Docs and one of the web albums that can be used online to store our pictures. I think it would be great for us to make an Animoto of our pictures. I would create a Google Document and have my students share their ideas on what they know about plants. Afterwards, I would share this document with the teachers that my classroom is in collaboration with. Once the students have shared their ideas, the educators will have the students research some of the Plants and create a new document showing what they have learned. Finally, the classrooms can either Skype or share a Google Doc, in which we will all compare and contrast the different plants and plant’s part

Tool 6: Using Web Tools to Promote Discussion in and out of the Classroom

Today I created a Diigo account and subscribed to Wallwisher. The Diigo account makes easier to do research and share ideas with teammates. I also created online notice board using Wallwisher. It was very easy to use. It’s basically same as if I used a bunch of post it notes in my classroom to remind me of to do list. This is great to use among school to ask and answer questions or concerns with administration. I could see myself using it with parents and getting their feedback on things, that way they could put their name on it or not which would get more to post. I think, this tool can be used by parents or teachers as reminders for each kid what to do.

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ApEnIpnhRU

I have also used Skype and Google Docs before. I think it would be fun to Skype with other classes on campus as well as at other schools. I see the students being able to share their thoughts without being scared because at some of the sites you don't have to give your name.

Tool 5: Producing with Web 2.0 Tools

I explore most of the sites suggested for tool #5. I found each one of them pretty interesting and fun. I used Wordle and I created a document called " K Palabras Frecuentes" where I typed some words that are very frequent to use with K and the students will be able to see them in different colors very important to review vocabulary.

I tried ABCya, and I find this one more friendly for younger users. If you scroll down on this page (ABCya) you can click on your grade level and you will find a couple of kids computer games. They are good, most of them are for math or LA. They can be used in a center.

I found Bookr, Tikatok and Storybird very similar regarding the objective of the tool which would be have the students create their own books. I created a book about Shapes using Bookr. I used this tool last year with my students and they really enjoyed it but we had problems saving/posting their book back then. Hopefully this year will be better since we are getting all this new technology!

Tool 4: Moving Up to the Clouds

I could use Google Apps by making documents that have not been finalized available for my team to see as opposed to emailing each other back and forth and saving the same documents too many times.

I'm not quite sure how to use it with my kindergartners since they are young and this is a little bit more complicated for the little ones.

I think is difficult using Google Apps with my parents because at this point I would say about 5% of my parents have email, but I could send them notes and they could reply right there instead of sending it back and forth.

Google docs and forms are going to make it easier for me and my team to share and work on items that we all use in the classroom and planning on team stuff. We are all going to easily modify documents. With Goggle Docs, the document is in one place and each of us has access and we can adjust one! We can even add our comments in different colors from the text. As teachers of the same team could work together from our own room with our own materials to discuss topics or produce lessons. I plan to use Google Docs more often now that I somewhat understand how they work!

Tool 3: Finding online video and Image resources.

Using videos and interactive stories with our kindergartners is an amazing resource to use because is engaging and allows teacher display more information, and enhance student learning.

I'm familiar with Discovery Education and I've used that one often.
I couldn’t embed a YouTube video about Spanish Alphabet, I just pasted address and it is very interactive and fun to remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EGdmBnY370&feature=related

I visited several sites and I signed for Teacher Tube and School Tube because they had good videos, but not too many. I embedded these videos about Spanish Alphabet and Needs of an Animal

The other sites were good too and they had so many things to choose. Since I hadn't done this before, it's going to take me a little while to learn how to navigate them.

I learned about copyright and fair use is that the laws are not very clear but as long as something is used for instructional purposes it's okay. Also you can not publish to the public in general, only to a secure site and for educational purposes. It’s a good idea to check with our librarian about copyrights.

I think Picasa and Flickr are great sites where we can find many photos and I will definitely use them with my students this year.

Tool 2: Building Community in the Online Environment

I found learning and creating PLN's very beneficial professionally. It’s very helpful to share and view other colleagues thoughts and ideas on any subject matter. I am always searching for new ideas, and it is so much easier to visit the blogs of other teachers to see the kinds of things they are doing in their classrooms rather than searching many sites on the internet or through textbooks.

Sharing my thoughts publicly is an issue for me because there are times where we can post something wrong and it might be the crux of our argument, luckily it’s very easy to emend our mistakes and we can-and have to- do it in a graciously manner.

I found Google Reader interesting but difficult. I bookmarked some great sites, subscribed to a few interesting sites on Google Reader and I am following 2 blogs, still a little confused but making progress. I have no doubt that if we use effectively everything internet has to offer it provides schools with an excellent opportunity to engage the community we serve.

Collaboration and team community is the survival technique of all educators.

11 Tools. Tool 1: Getting Started

I worked in this blog – 23 Things - one year ago and now I am ready to continue with 11 tools. A slow start but I hope it will be funnier, easier and more productive than 23 things.