Tool11

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox?

Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.  I like using the IPad or mac book; have the students work in groups, submit data as they are working, and it is displayed on the active board immediately.  The teacher is sure everyone is participating and other groups can get ideas from other groups. 

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom?

How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?  I have been receptive to the idea of a technology based classroom and have seen first-hand the power of capturing students who are not engaged in lessons that do not utilize technology.  In science we have been utilizing the processes and the tools but we will continue to find new websites for student exploration and new creative methods to use that technology.    
3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

There were not any unexpected outcomes from this program. 

Tool10

For your Tool #10 assignment:

1.    Discuss at least three things you would want to make sure your students understand about being good digital citizens. 

There is to be no cyber bullying, they must surf educationally approved sites, when we are writing papers and using the web as a resource we must be sure not to violate any copyright laws, and last but certainly not least the use of technology is a privilege and as a student it is their responsibility to transport our technology properly or that privilege will be taken away. 

2.    Share at least one of the resources mentioned above or on the Ed Tech website that you plan to use instructionally.

 Brainpop and  copyright with Cyberbee. 

3.    Explain briefly how you would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to your students.

  Play a short clip that educates students about digital citizenship, have them pair share about what they learned, have an open discussion to review key points, and create a short quiz or have students write a brief summary about digital citizenship and use as an exit ticket. 

4.    Explain briefly how you plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with your parents.

  Share at meet the teacher night the responsibilities of all students concerning technology, have computers set up so that students can explore and share with parents what they do, and explain digital citizenship at that time and include information in class rules.   

Tool9

1.      Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective?  It is important to tie technology to the objective to make your lesson meaningful.  If you are utilizing technology based applications but they do not relate to the objective you are not providing our students with a quality lesson or you may be feeding them to much information and affecting the rate the students may be able to retain useful information.

2.      Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers? I like this question because it is the same as a direct instruction lesson.  We need to hold students accountable to be sure they were able to grasp/ master the concepts at the stations/centers.  I have observed a lot of great stations and centers but there is nothing to show what they students mastered.  If we do not build this component into our lessons then we are failing our students.  It is truly wishful thinking that every student will go to every independent station and do exactly what they are instructed to do.  We may need to reteach a concept based on the results of a mini quiz at one station.  

   

3.    Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like? How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? online mini quiz; students would be required to score and 80 or better to show that they mastered the concept and the other station students will be required to write a summary of what they learned,  and students could be given a rubric/checklist to ensure they  reached a certain level of mastery.

4.    List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? Brainpop, Edmodo, Khan Academy, and IXL. 

Brainpop:  1.We have done teacher lead on a Brainpop.  We have a reading from a science magazine and pair shares prior to playing the Brainpop to introduce material.  Students always use the same remote during Brainpops. Students then used the active votes to complete the quiz and results were displayed immediately based on the remote number.     

Brainpop:   2.We could set up the Brainpop stations as an independent station.  Students use mac books and headphones to review and take the quiz.  Students are required to score and 80 or better.  They print the results or email results to teacher/s. 

5.    What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station.   Currently in science we use the ipads to complete Brainpops ( done individually, students take the quiz, and are required to score and 80 or above and print out the results).   Explore Learning (Usually done in groups of two or three to complete and show mastery of science experiments).  Explore learning has a two to four pages that students are required to complete to show mastery.    

Tool8

Most of the devices coming to the classroom I am familiar with ,but there is always something that can be learned about our tools.  I reviewed how to set the preferences on the iPad so that it does not automatically sync to every device that connects to it and syncing book marks.

One thing we started last year in science was having the students computer screen face the teacher so that the we are confident students are on the proper website.  This also works well during stations.  If the teacher is up front conducting a teacher lead station, the students are still monitored. 

Nothing should be placed on desk or table while technology devices are being used.

Teach students the proper way to carry and have a system for picking up and returning all technology.   

Tool 7

1. After visiting the resources above, design a collaborative project with another classroom.
2. Post the following about the project:
   1. Content objective - Ways to improve the environment now!
   2. When you plan to implement   Spring 2012
   3. What tool(s) you plan to use: Netbooks, iPads, Cameras, and Mac computers 
   4. A brief description of the project (plan - two or three sentences) Students from Ms. Battles and Ms. Tavilson's science class will communicate with Lewis's class to collaborate ideas on how to improve our environment now.
   5. If you need to find another classroom - We can begin networking with other classrooms right here!

Tool6

1. Selected Skype and Google Docs from the tool list; accounts have been created.
2. Use Google Docs daily for ICU (missing assignments) and NL and I created our classroom rules contract using google docs.  We selected google docs so that we both could contribute and edit the document away from school.  
 
3.Link to the URL is listed below.

https://docs.google.com/a/springbranchisd.com/document/d/1byFSVUcqeW0XjTDEYilXni48DBNuBjWX50jRl5YkOvU/edit?hl=en_US#

4.Kids get excited when we use technology.  They become engaged because a lot of the technology requires active participation; example) activ votes, interactive computer games.

Tool 5

1.  Created a Wordle for Science and  use Mix Books to start a scrapbook for Spring Oaks Student Council state documentation and Anti Defamation League's No Place for Hate Documentation. 

2.  Embedded links for Wordle and Mixbooks.

3.  Students will list all important vocabulary that they have learned from the current unit.  Each group will be able to share and define the selected vocabulary with the class.  We could expand and have students compare data and only present words that no other group listed.  We could use this activity to see how much of the unit students retained from the prior grade level.

  Use Mix Books to start a scrapbook for Spring Oaks Student Council Student Council. Every year my middle level officers struggle to compile photos required for the state for documentation.  Using Mixbooks seems to  simplify the process.