Thing 21-Flipping the Classroom

The elements of a flipped classroom that I am going to incorporate into my classroom are students using reading interventions that I would normally do in class at home and then bring in completed work to me.  Also, I plan to have students use the quizlet feature at home to do spelling and vocabulary at home that I would normally have the students practice in class.  The link below is a quick example of how I plan to use educreations whiteboard app to explain math problems to help parents and students at home.  I tried putting a jing video onto my blog, but it would not play, I thought to convert it, but zamzar doesn't convert swf files.  However, I did get it to upload into my "Face of the classroom" at the link below, so please check it out.  It is a reading intervention program that I will have my students do at home instead of in the classroom to flip my classroom; it is me explaining the process to parents so that they can learn to help their students and view it over and over to in order to better understand the process.

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/partial-sums/1104433/?s=SZsUUM&ref=app

http://mrvshawks.weebly.com

I showed the "How to do Read Naturally" reading intervention video to a school colleague and she thought the video was a great tool to help the parents and students use the reading intervention program effectively at home.  Some ways she thought I could improve it are to use a different color than pink to highlight the "hot read section" because it doesn't show up well, to say the actual number of the step instead of just saying "the next step is to...", and to pause between each step a short time so that parents or students can pause and restart the video.  Some of the strengths she thought were the use of color to underline and the arrows pointing out the steps and where they are to be done on the students sheet.  The tone of my voice and the end when I thanked the parents for helping their student improve as a reader.  I will improve my next recording by pausing a little after I speak to make it easier to understand me, continue to use the highlighting feature, and make sure that I am more specific with the details I say.  Also, I plan on trying to use the powerpoint so that I can use the pointer feature when discussing during the video.

Thing 19-Digital Storytelling

Video can be seen at:  http://mrvshawks.weebly.com

This is a great way to get disinterested students in certain subject areas to engage in the curriculum.  Some ways digital storytelling can be used in my elementary classroom is in writing short stories that the students then bring to life using video, to do skits in Social Studies, and to do bullying or health videos.  Using videos in these curricular areas will inspire students to be more engaged and develop a deeper understanding of the writing process and concepts being taught.  Finally, it will help students to develop confidence in speaking in front of others and using the appropriate voice level to communicate.

Some feedback I received was they thought it was a cute video, liked the transitions and the music I chose, but thought I could improve it by adding captions.

On a side note, I became pretty frustrated with this assignment because I made the video on my school ipad, which the kids will be using, and really struggled with trying to find a way to share the video.  I finally had to set up a youtube account and all the sharing features within youtube in order to get it to the face of the classroom.  On the brightside, I know how to use it for this year in school.

Thing 20-Online video and audio

I would incorporate online video into my elementary classroom by using Khan academy to show math problems, using science videos to show volcanoes, animals, teacher raps for life cycles, etc., and using history videos to show American Revolution, slavery, etc.  I don't plan to use the audio resources because video has visual and audio together.

One of the tools I am most interest in using is Discovery Education.  The features in this tool appear to be very valuable in supporting teacher instruction.  The ability to do a curriculum standard search seems very useful to align videos to state standards.  Using the "my content" feature to bookmark videos and create folders for reuse of videos seems like a very useful way for teachers to organize themselves and lesson plan.  Having quizzes and assignments already created for teachers to use with the videos is a huge time saver for teachers who are already swamped with things to do.  The writing prompt feature also seems very beneficial and I like that they give a picture to go along with the prompt to help visual students.  Finally, the calendar feature is neat because you can show students things that happened on that day in history.

As far as strengths and weaknesses, I feel they are very obvious.  The strength of video over audio is that you are reaching both visual and auditory learners by using video while with audio you are only reaching auditory learners.  Since I am a visual/kinistetic learner, auditory and lecture learning was very difficult for me, however, when I can see something along with auditory I gain a much deeper understanding.  A weaknesses of both video and auditory is that students miss out on the actual experience of doing the task or kinestetic learning.  A classic example is teachers that teach 3D shapes using a computer or a book.  In my opinion and supported by much of the latest research with boys in education, is that students need authentic experiences in education whenever possible.  However, video examples are beneficial in supporting learning.

  

Thing 18- Virtual Classrooms

My plan to extend my classroom begins with creating a website and a blog to interact with my students and parents outside the classroom.  I plan to use Quizlet to create vocabulary flashcards for Language Arts, Math, and Science for my students to access and practice at home.  I also plan to use Educreations or another virtual whiteboard app to record myself doing and explaining math concepts we are learning, so parents and students can refer to them at home while practicing or if their student is going to be absent for an extended period of time.  Next I plan to post questions on a blog about the book we are reading in class for students to respond to at home.  Finally, I plan to link an internet sight to my website that students will use to practice the spelling words for the week online.  Since I teach Elementary kids, the way I would be helping the meet the NETS-S requirements would be that I am giving them experiences with online learning and developing a sense of knowledge and comfort with using online learning.

Navigating online learning:
The things necessary for students to be successful online learners are self motivation, access to an online computer, skills needed to navigate the online platform, information on courses available, and a contact to troubleshoot computer issues or course issues.  Based on talking to colleagues, one of the major issues with online courses is motivation of the student to complete the tasks and use their time wisely when they are in the computer lab.  I've heard many stories, especially when students are using the course to catch up or make up for a failed class, that the students spend much of the time surfing or using facebook or other communication sites.  Access to the computer outside of school is another big issue, especially in the district that I teach in.  Many students do not have computers at home or internet access, they have to go to the library to get online and that has a timelimit.  Finally, I see troubleshooting as a very key aspect to ensure that the students do not become frustrated with the online learning experience.  

Thing 17- Professional Learning Networks

Learnport seems to be a great resource for teachers to not only continue their education, but the netTrekker search appears to be a wonderful tool for teachers to find or enhance their content area with great ideas and technological tools to engage learners.  Learnport has a very userfriendly website, filled with tutorials, an easy to use search engine, a vast amount of courses, and a place to keep track of courses completed to help simplify the process of continuing teacher education and the process of getting recertified.  On NetTrekker, I am especially excited to further explore the English Learners section to gain more ideas and resources for helping my ELL students close the achievement gap.  However, I can see the need to help veteran teachers become comfortable with this new system of accredidation and maybe a quick walk through on how to use NetTrekker with some one on one assistance.

The purpose of Twitter and Facebook is help people stay connected and share with each other no matter where they are in the world.  It allows people to stay up to date with the happenings in each others lives without having to be in direct contact either in person, phone, or skyping. 
The pros of using these sites in the classroom are that they are engaging to students, it opens the line of communication for parents, students, and teachers 24 hours a day, it allows for an interesting way to dialogue about a concept or piece of literature, it could be used to allow students from different cultures and countries to dialogue on a concept, it allows students a chance to move at their own pace and helps students that struggle speaking in front of piers because they do not have to respond immediately in a classroom setting, it allows students who are absent because of illness or a family trip to stay informed and be able to interact with the class, and it allows advanced and struggling students a platform for asking the teacher or others for help or to find ways to enhance their education.  The cons of using these sites are it opens communication for parents, students, and teachers 24 hours a day, it can be a slippery slope if a student is to take a comment posted by the teacher on an assignment the wrong way and then possible respond back in an innappropriate way, it could lead to bullying if students responses become negative before the teacher can delete them, and not all students have access to the internet so it could alienate those that do not have the capability of getting on line outside of school.    I put down the ability to communicate 24 hours a day in both because it is a great thing to always have open lines of communication, but in my experiences, sometimes people will say things in type that they would never say in person or on the phone.  Therefore, some parents or students or even teachers may type something in the heat of the moment and once it's been saved, it is for all to see.  This may lead to messy situations.  Also, with younger students like my 3rd graders it may take a long time for them to create responses since their typing skills are very lacking. 

As far as outside the classroom, I think the pros are that families, freinds, and associates can always stay in touch and be a part of our ever changing lives via these tools even though they live on opposite sides of the world.  It also really helps to "shrink" the size of our planet and allow us unique oppurtunities to build relationships with people from other cultures and countries around the world.  The only cons I can think of are the ones that cause annoyance.  For example, when people tweet about their dog watching tv all the time, someone you meet but didn't really care for continues to contact you, or a relative keeps saying things that are out of control or inviting you to play "barnyard' games on the site. 

Wow, there are so many sites out their for teachers to improve as educators, especially using technology.  However, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all outstanding sites that I'm learning about and then the plethora of ideas at each site.  How will I find the time?  Ever feel like a little fish in an ocean of information?

International Society for Technology in Education:  The purpose of ISTE is to make sure that technology is being used to improve learning and teaching to help students reach there full potential.  The standard membership is less than $10 a month.  The benefits of being a member are that you receive the magazine Learning & Leading with Technology to help keep you informed, you get 60% off webinars to learn new things about learning and teaching with technology, and access to NETS resources and ISTE's online communities that gives the teacher more resources and oppurtunities to communicate with like minded educators on using technology to improve learning.  The unique skills and abilities that I could contribute are all the ideas and input I can give from using the things I am learning from the 21st Century class with my elementary students and giving feedback on what works the best, didn't work, and where change could take place to improve the technological experience for elementary kids in a diverse school environment. 

Thing 16 - Reference and Research Tools

The two databases that I compared are e-Library Elementary and Kids Info Bits.  The topic that I used to compare and contrast these two databases was George Washington.
As far as appropriateness goes, I Kids Info Bits was more appropriate for elementary students because if the reading level for the article was considered easy then I feel upper elementary students would be able to read it and comprehend most of it.  Also, the text to speak function on Kid Info Bits will really help students read the words and better understand the text.  Finally, I thought the articles had more pictures to help support the text.  Overall, I felt that e-Library Elementary articles that I read, would be better suited for Middle/Highschool age students.  Most of the articles I found on the topic of George Washington were above a 7th grade reading level.
Usability I also thought Kids Info Bits was better suited to elementary age students because of the cartoon picture icons that represented a variety of categories that they could click on to help guide them to the more specific information they are trying to research.  Also, the color tabs for whether it was a reference, magizine, etc.  would be helpful for younger students.  Again, e-Library Elementary seemed geared more for Middle/Highschool students and would take more instruction from the teacher to teach them how to navigate it.
The content in both was accurate and filled with many facts to allow me to learn about George Washington, which was my goal.  However, the content was made easier on the Kids Info Bits because of the text to speech capability and the pictures to support the text.
The credibility on both sights was very apparent with all the articles, magazines, and photos being well documented with the author, publication, and the date of creation.  

General One File:
Since I teach 3rd grade, the use of this database by the students would be way above their reading level and therefore not appropriate for them to use.  However, it would be a good database for me as the teacher to research new educational strategies and methods being used in education.  For example, I looked up ELL learners and found some very interesting articles and book reviews that I could use to help decrease the achievement gap in my classroom. 
Again, for my elementary students this would not be very user friendly since it is geared towards adults, but it is very user friendly and easy to navigate as an adult.  The search engine pops up ideas as you are typing in your topic, their are many articles and such to choose from within a topic search, and it gives you related subjects on the sidebar to go with your topic.  
The content is accurate, filled with lots of facts about the topic in the articles, books, etc. that are current and useful.
The credibility of this database, like the two above, is very apparent with all the articles, books, etc.  being cited with author, publication, and the date of creation so that you can easily check on the validity of the information.

Mel Citation creator:

 Mel Citation:

 

Bib Me Creator: 

 Bib Me citation:

Thing 15- Google Reader/ RSS

One of the RSS feeds that I am subscribing to is the "Free Technology for Teachers" blog.  This blog is filled with outstanding articles on using technology in school.  I was really interested in this Ipad teaching since I just received an Ipad to use in my classroom and could potentially have access to an Ipad cart in the very near future.
Below is another feed that I just could not stop reading, it is filled with lots of creative ways to use technology with students.  I especially liked that some articles like the one below discussed ideas to incorporate technology with ELL learners, which my school has, and younger students.
Using Google Reader is going to be very useful to me because I won't have to waste time surfing the web to find valuable articles related to technology use in education.  It will help me as a teacher because I will be able to get creative and interesting ways to incorporate technology into my class to make learning fun, relevant to their future, and rigorous.  Thanks Ron, Craig, and Andrew for the valuable feeds that you pointed us to during the webinar.

Thing14-Productivity Tools

As a 3rd grade teacher, I might need to convert my documents from word to pdf files to make sure that students and parents do not change the change the document when they open it from my website, whether on purpose or accidently. Also, so that students or parents with a variety of computer programs will be able to open and use the documents I put online.   I think knowing how to convert files will influence my classroom the most by turning pdf files into word documents so that I can make changes to pdf files that I find online to improve them by adding to or deleting information or making changes to the vocabulary to make it easier for younger students to use.

Part 2:  I changed a word document on my mac to a bmp file.  It was easy.  I changed a word doc on into a docx file.  Easy.  I changed a word doc into a gif.  Easy.  I changed a word doc into a html zip.  It was horrible, the document is all messed up with spacing and different text and bullets.  I changed a word doc into a jpg.  It was not as easy because like some of the others it opened in a zip file. I think this tool will be very helpful to turn some file formats that are difficult to use into some formats that are easier to manipulate or show the document in a better way and more user friendly way.

Google Calendar:  This is going to be a very helpful tool to increase productivity, communication, and promptness to meetings.  As far as communication goes, this is going to help me communicate with parents by sharing important dates throughout the year and reminders of days that parents plan to volunteer in the classroom.  With colleagues and administration, this is going to help me stay on top of meetings and communicate with my gradelevel team important meeting dates, testing, and school wide functions.  My students are third graders, so I don't know how much it will help them.

Thing 13-Google Earth and Quizlet

This is significant to me because this is one of the islands that I spent a week on in Fiji after my student teaching experience in Australia.  Great memories!

This is my house in Jenison.

In Quizlet, I created verb flashcards for my students.  I plan on using this website for my students to practice spelling at home and to practice vocabulary in school.  This is especially important at my school since the student population is over 40% Hispanic with many ELL students and we are over 70% free and reduced lunch.  This will be a great tool for the students to practice vocabulary and spelling in a different way and the text to speak feature will be very useful for the low readers and ELL students.  I am very excited to use this with my students next year.

Thing 6-Differentiation

Elements of differentiated instruction I use in my classroom:

• Flexible grouping in reading and math, where the students break into small groups to learn or practice.
• Kagan Cooperative learning to address classroom management.
• Pre, during, and post assessment using A-Z Reading to benchmark, Dibels, Phonics for Reading, and Delta Math.
• Formative assessment during lessons using powerpoint to pose questions and ABCD cards that students hold up to answer the questions.
• I address recognition learning by using websites, powerpoints, youtube, document camera, virtual manipulatives, manipulatives, picture books, and traditional written examples.
• I use Kagan Cooperative learning strategies to engage all learners, which also allows me to use multiple learning structures in a lesson to learn and practice their skills

The Talking Text feature would be very useful for some of my struggling readers and writers in my 3rd grade class.  The talking text feature will read individual words or the whole section of text to the student.  Another valuable part of this feature is that it will highlight the word as the computer reads the text.  This feature could really be helpful to ELL learners and struggling readers because they could listen to the text or specific words and then go back and try reading it on their own to practice becoming a better reader.  It could also be used in writing because the kids can type in their paper and then have it read back to them so they can hear if their writing make sense or if they have grammatical mistakes.

Content area reflection:  Reading/Literacy Support- This resource is about using technology to support all students in learning to read.  It discusses using audio formats such as CD players, MP3 players, and playaways that you can gain access to materials for them from the local library, remc, and from the text book publishers.  This resource also offers a downloadable pdf to find online storybooks for teachers and many of the sites are free.  Finally, it gives links for free downloads of text to speech applications.

I think this could be really useful in coordination with Prezi presentations.  For example, the phases of the moon Prezi I made has some challenging words in it.  This could help struggling readers so that they wouldn't need to read the words, instead they could listen to it.

Thing 12-Google Forms, Rubistar, Data Tools

Each pair of students will be given one of the four lessons in a Chapter in the Social Studies text.  The two students will partner read the lesson and then create a Social Studies poster to present to the class during the day I read the lesson to the class.  This rubric will help me assess the students because it has specific expectations that for the students to follow and for me to look for during the presentation.  It takes out the subjectivity and makes the grading system very concrete and transparent for all involved.

Thing 11-Prezi and Zoomit

 Prezi is more interactive than powerpoint, students get to see the whole layout and are taken through the presentation scrolling from one point to the next.  Whereas powerpoint is less interactive, where you just go from one screen to the next and do not get to see the big picture of the presentation format.  Prezi also allows the student to be zoomed in on important details while also allowing them to be zoomed back out to see the main topic.  Powerpoint is just a linear slide show.  I will be able to use Prezi to create presentations to teach them about reading strategies, and Science information.  This will help some kids process the content that they are having a hard time learning by giving them a new and interesting way to view it and interact with it.  It will help focus in the kids by zooming them in from the main idea to important details and back, without them getting lost or overloaded with information like they may on an internet sight.

Zoomit is going to help me teach kids how to use websites and apps the correct way by allowing me to zoom in and highlight the important aspects of the website and the tools that I want them to use.  Zoomit will really help the students that get easily distracted by a lot of text or flashing information that accompanies many websites by allowing me to focus their attention just on the important information they will need to use to be successful.

Thing 10-Picasa

http://picasa.google.com
This is the URL that I downloaded Picasa from.
To edit the original photo in Picasa I first added text to explain it was a trip with my former 7th grade class.  Then I reduced the color temperature to get it to glow a little. Next I changed the tint to red because Mars is the red planet.  Finally, I used the graduated tint to darken the edges.  picasaweb.google.com/105119369540484365757/OldStudentPictures  This is the URL of my Picasa web album that I am using to store my new Mission to Mars photo.  I also used my Picasa web album to share this new photo with my wife Amanda.  I can use this in my 3rd grade classroom by taking pictures of the students doing skits, cooperative learning, getting awards, putting their pictures on awards, or student of the month to add them to my blog or teacher website to communicate with parents and acknowledge students.

Uploading to a public photo sharing site was a little confusing, I hope Flickr counts.  Here is my upload on Flickr.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/80609790@N02/?uploaded=1&magic_cookie=3a4b94dcc059fdf7c81a36f33977087a 
 

Thing 9-Creative Commons

I looked and looked to try and figure out how to paste this to my blog, then I checked the questions/comments section and learned about gadgets.  Wonderful little tools on the blog.  Also, I created this quiz about copyrighting, but have not had a chance to have collegeus take it since school is out.  I plan to email it out and hope to get some responses.

Thing 8- Bubblus/Wordle

In third grade, I could have the students use bubblus after reading informational or short stories to write down the main idea and a few details to go with the main idea to make a graphic organizer.  They could also use them to do a K.W.L. before, during, and after reading informational text.  As far as Wordle goes, they could answer a writing prompt in class or do narrative writing, then type it into Wordle to make it more interesting.  Another way they could use it would be vocab words in Social Studies or Science to make presentations more interesting.  I could use it as the teacher to make some cool posters about nutrition, health, or any curricular area.  COOL!!!

Thing 7- Critical evaluation

http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
The title is "Feline Reactions to Bearded Men".  This is a study where they showed pictures of bearded men and supposedly recorder their responses to collect data.  The content appears to be accurate.  I couldn't find the date of the sites creation.  All the links work and the picture below shows you how user friendly they appear.  I used deleted parts of the URL until I got back to the home site which is www.improb.com.  No credentials found.  It ends in .com, but that makes it seem legit.  No other sites link to this one.  The site is meant to persuade/inform and really just to entertain.  It's a biased website and tough to tell fact from fiction.  The site is very user friendly and the design is good with a consistent format from page to page.  The spelling and grammar was good.

















http://burmesemountaindog.info/
The title is "Burmese Mountain Dog".  This website appears to contain information about the Burmese Mountain dog.  It appears to be accurate information but it is willed with bias and opinion statements.  Most of the links work.  It says that it is the official site for this dog and the site appears to be created by a Dr.Charlie White.  Having the doctor as the creator makes you believe it is a real site.  It is very tough to distinguish fact from opinion.  The page seems cheesy, but it is labeled pretty well.  No spelling errors.  I think this site is very tricky to tell that it is a fake.

Since I teach 3rd grade, an activity that I would do would be on acceptable use.  I would pull up websites on the projector and ask them to discuss if the sites fit our definition of acceptable use at school.  The second activity would be to teach them about cyber-bullying using email and facebook, yes third graders have facebook accounts, and explain what cyber-bullying is, what to do if it is happening, and the consequences for cyber-bullying.

Thing 4- Skype

I would like to use this in a couple ways next year. First I would like to Skype with other classrooms around the world to allow the kids to share about common stereotypes and commonalities that they have. Also, I would love to Skype with an author or government official. I think it would help to engage students further in books.

Thing 3- Google Docs

Google templates will make me more productive because it has templates I can use instead of having to create them from scratch.  The newsletter, presentations, and party invitation templates seem useful in my 3rd grade class.  

Google docs is going to make me more productive and more importantly better at collaborating because I can use this as a grade level team member to create systemic grade level forms and newsletters that the team can collaborate and add their input to during the summer time when we are not in direct contact.  As a whole building, it can be used to collaborate on planning parties, parent events, and creating systemic templates that everyone can add their input to, on their own time, throughout the use of the google docs program.

Thing 5- Thinkfinity

One activity I could use is "Fractured Fairy Tales".  In this activity, the kids read an example of a fractured fairy tale and then they read an actual fairy tale, then rewrite it as a fractured fairy tale.  This seems like an engaging way to get kids to write and think deeper about fairy tale elements.  I would use it after doing a fractured fairy tale as a class.  I would have them work in teams of two and come up with a fractured fairy tale using the interactive online tool.  Then have them share to the class.  Another activity I would use is "Eye on Idioms".  In this activity, the students have to choose the right idiom from a list of idioms to complete the sentence.  It also asks them to explain what the idiom means and gives them a picture as a clue.  I like this activity because it gives kids the visual and would allow for good discussion as a class.  I would do this whole class at first to get them comfortable with the task and then have them work in pairs to use the online idiom tool and discuss later as a class.

Thing 2- Face of the Classroom

http://mrvshawks.weebly.com

Making a website for my classroom using this website was a little frustrating because it did not allow me to put things like small powerpoints onto the pages which would have been very useful to me.  Also, I just tripped over my own feet for a while trying to figure out how to make new pages and choosing the best template.  Finally, the free pictures weren't very good, but knowing how to use jing made that no problem at all.  This could be very useful for parents to have a central site to go to in order to see what their child is learning, learn about their teacher, and be able to have continued conversations with their studnets about what they are learning.  P.S.  I've just been diagnosed with pneumonia, so I apolagize for not being very active, but it has been a very difficult week health wise.

Thing 1- Diigo

www.diigo.com/user/cvandermeulen

I'm hooked, Diigo is an amazing collaboration and educational tool for teachers.  This is going to be a great tool to help my students and their parents find quality websites that will allow them help their students get a quick refresher or practice skills taught in class.  Also, it will help me be more productive because I don't have to try and remember all the good sites that I find for my students by memory or go back to my computer to get the web addresses.  When I use them in class or the computer lab, I can have students go right to my diigo page to pull up the website to practice instead of having them type in the address (a huge waste of time with 30 elementary students).  Finally, I can't wait to set up an account that my students and parents can access where we can communicate back and forth.  It will save on a lot of phone calls to parents. 

Thing 1- Short Cuts

Wow, Jing and the shortcuts are really going to make life a lot easier and make all the things I create way more useful and interesting with captured pictures that have notes.  Three of the shortcuts that will be most beneficial to me are the control k hyperlink feature for my classroom newsletter, control z (zap) for undoing things, and control f  to find a word quickly.  Using these features will definately increase my productivity because I won't have to do wasted clicking and searching to implement changes and I won't have to reread the whole document to find certain words.  However, the underline feature in the Wacky shortcuts didn't work for me, not sure why. 

Just trying it out.