Technology Conference

Since all of our blogging needs to be done by this Thursday, I won't be able to blog about the NETA Conference that I'm going to on Friday with some of my colleagues.  I am really excited to see what it has to offer for Ipad ideasand how to better use my Ipad that I have.  So excited to visit the vendor booths!!!

Integrated Tech Lesson #1

During 4th quarter one of our genres for writing is poetry.  So I decided to try the poetry on Readwritethink.org.  I made a jump code for them, so it was easy to get to.   The site was easy for them to navigate .  I let them choose any of the themes that they wanted, but they had to create free verse poems.  Then they brainstormed key words or phrases about their theme.  Next they wrote their poems.  After they wrote their poems; they printed them and took them home to share with their families.  The students absolutely loved it!  Since they loved it so much I allowed them to use this site to create more poems during their independent work time.  This brought new life to the Daily 5 and the kids were excited that they were able to work on poetry again.  I will definitely use this lesson again next year to teach poetry, and probably add acrostic poems to the list.

Integrated Tech Lesson #2

So when I posted my blog about the ISTE Standards I accidentally posted the wrong web site that I used to discuss how I applied those to a tech lesson that I taught....the site was supposed to be Storyjumper.com.  As for my 2nd tech lesson I actually had my class go to Storybird.com and make poems.  My students liked this, but they were only able to use the words that were available on the image that they chose to use.  So it was hard for them to come up with a poem.  They wanted to be able to create their own words, or somehow get new words to choose from, but they are unable to do that.  As for me I agree with the kids.  It was a learning tool for me too.  I think the next time I use this site I will probably have my kids make the digital storybooks  on the site.

Collaborative research project with ELL, Sped, and 2nd grade
In the beginning the adults met and collaborated on how we were going to teach it, and the process involved.  My practicum students were also involved with this lesson.
We used Keynote presentations to introduce the students to the project (Shadow Puppet).  Then the students worked in pairs to find pictures.  Then I also had a Level 1 ELL student come in and help be a teacher.  The students worked together to take pictures, find the pictures, import the pictures, and then record it all on Shadow Puppet.  The hardest part was to find a silent room where the students could record, and they had to have an adult with them to use a room. The students were so excited to do this and loved every moment of it.
As we regrouped to talk about how it went, we thought that our next steps for next year would be to have the students reflect on each others projects  ( 2 stars and a wish), which goes along with our writing problem.  This was a great experience for all of us and I am so glad that I did this project!

                                                               ISTE Standards

ISTE defines creativity as creative thinking, constructing knowledge, developing innovative products, and processes using technology.  As educators we can facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by teaching them a variety of technology tools, tips, apps,  and websites.   The next step is to provide them with opportunities to choose/ use the tools they have learned to create a project related to their curriculum that they are studying. The hardest part about this is finding the time to let the kids do this, and all of the planning that goes into it. A project that I had my students do this quarter was to create a digital picture book at Storybird.com.  One of our genre's for 4th quarter is writing a "How To".  So I created a jump code for this site which made it easy for them to access.  Then I showed them a short tutorial on how to navigate the site.  Next I showed the students a "How To" picture book that I created on the site.  They were allowed to choose whatever "How To" topic that they wanted.  Now let's take a look at how this project relates to the ISTE Standards.

     1. Creativity and Innovation-They created an original work, but it followed a "How To " model. A new product was created, but trends were not identified.
     2. Communication and Collaboration - The project was used to communicate, but no collaboration took place because they did it independently, and it was one form of media.
     3. Research and information fluency - The students didn't have to do any research for this project.
     4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making - The students did do some critical thinking skills when choosing their topic because they had to think about something that they could do, or make well. They didn't have to collect and analyze data.
      5. Digital Citizenship - The students needed to demonstrate digital citizenship when making their digital "How TO" picture book. They had to practice internet safety by staying on the site, and were positive about the learning taking place.
     6. Technology operations and Concepts - The students needed to use the Dell lap tops and the web site Storybird.com to Make their digital "How To" picture book.  Trouble shooting is nothing new to our students because they have to do that every day with the Dells.   They all understood how to use the site.