Reflection #4 & Video Clip

How will these skills help my students create?  They'll help them create a document of what they've learned and how they grew because of it. They can decide on how they want the outline to be like, the types of music, and who will narrate the story. They can all work together and use their imaginations and see what can come when each student creates together. The end product can be used by other teachers or even by the students in the future.

How will these skills help me collaborate with my colleagues?  They can be tools to help another class out in a need to discipline and instruct them better. The whole grade can use the same stories while studying a unit. It will promote more meetings for the teachers of what the students need to accomplish and how they can improve their instruction. 

Why are these tools so popular with my colleagues?  It changes up the monotony of lecturing, but most importantly because they teach a topic in a new way. The stories instantly connect with feelings, happy or sad, and experiences that they have seen other people or themselves go through. Students get the whole experience of a topic in audio, visual, and emotions then the would from just reading a text and answering questions.

In which ways might I employ these skills to achieve classroom objectives?  I can employ these skills in a many ways in relating to objectives. First each topic could include a digital story about a person, experience, or issue happening during the time period of the topic being studied in class. A digital story could be about violence and how it has hurt the person talking and this could possibly help the bullies in class see what they really are doing. It could also be on a certain objective, say the water cycle, and the story could help them remember the correct steps it goes in.

What are the pros and cons of Digital Stories? The pros are that the stories are unique, diverse, and connect students to real life experiences. They change up daily class routine and teach learning through three of the senses. I t connects to children much better then having them read quietly in a book. The cons are it takes to much time to make your own digital story in order to use it in class. If sometime you wanted to randomly pick a video the site could be down or the story could not play. 

Nasa Digital Story

This clip was unable to download on my computer I tried it twice, but it wouldn't convert over. I tried looking it up on google and thought I found it on the nasa site but I wasn't sure how to tell. Also I looked it up on teacher tube but the videos had nothing to go about darwin. I bet it was a neat story that would get students interested in what space is and what happens there. Boys for sure love space and the vibe it gives off of exploration and finding new information over time.

Tech #2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ksa.bitesize/ is a technology site for all ages of students. It has English, math, science, reading, writing, and spelling activities. You can choose to just do the activity for each subsection or you can also take a quiz on it. For first grade I know they learn about keeping our bodies clean, and on this site they have an activity about our teeth under the science: living things tab. It is a child friendly site with a picture for each topic and so many options. The activity games are fun and different, as well as, the colors  incorporated on the site. Students might need assistance finding the site and the correct tab their activity is under, but teachers can explain whenever they have technology time. Students can have fun on here even if it is for an assignment or not.

 I can see this site being of use in the classroom for many reasons. When the class is assigned computer time each student could access this site. You could instruct them to pick an activity the class has learned about and then take a quiz on it. Students could receive points for finishing class goals or being on task when a substitute came. The points start to add up and when they reach a certain amount they get extra recess time. This recess time will take place in your class and the computer is incorporated into this time. This site is one of the few they can get on to use and practice subjects. Also for each activity if it correlates with what they learned in class the teacher can post it on her website or blog. That way when they get home their parents can help them get on and do the activity. It is a fun way to learn and test knowledge of different skills. I think the children will really enjoy it.

Tech # 1

A plus math is a tool that I found that will help students improve their math skills at home or at school. It has various links to choose form depending on their skill level. They also have games that put these skills to work as well as worksheets to practice. Students will like this site right when they see it, because they will see games that can be played and the bright colors on the site. This site can be found at www.aplusmath.com.

 I think this site would be a great tool to use in my classroom, because students if they feel the need to practice can jump right on the computer when they have assigned time. You can also have your lower math students do activities on this site, at a certain time each day when the class is split for math. That way they won’t feel looked down upon for not being as knowledgeable in math then the others. At home, students might not get parental help on homework or might come to questions they don’t get that they were given in class. This site can help them with its homework helper to guide them in the right direction. They can also print off and create their own set of flash cards to study with when they have free time. Also they can use the flashcards to help build confidence and study for the upcoming tests.

Reflection #3

How will these tools help me communicate with my students?

You can use these tools to communicate with students the purpose or meaning of a current standard in their lives. You can't communicate by really having a conversation or email, but you can use it communicate ideas, feelings, or images you feel they should see and know about. The videos that are inspirational will speak in some way to each student and they'll will connect why it matters to be learning about the current unit. National geographic helps them see that exploring our world is important to learning and animals are all around us. Also it tells them that nature is an important part of our world.

How will these tools help me communicate with my colleagues?

Teacher tube can help you communicate with your colleagues if you were to post a video on it and send them a link to it. Maybe it is about a neat experience your class went through while covering community helpers and it can be of help to her class, by relate that experience into their lesson when they learn about community helpers too.

How will tools help me communicate with students parents?

It will communicate to them by showing them what we are actually doing in class is making them grow. They will see if videos are done what knowledge their students have gained on lets say the water cycle first hand. It communicates that hard work and learning are really happening from your teaching techniques.

Reflection#2 and video clips

#1 These tools like the google calendar and google sites will be very useful for students and communicating to them. The google calendar can help them be updated with events in our class and school. They can also get on our class website and see what homework assignment is due and what announcements there may be. Also as a class you can make changes on the class calendar to help the students get familiar with the sites.

#2 The igoogle, google calendar, and google sites tools are helpful for keeping in contact with the parents of the students. Igoogle will help you to send direct emails back and forth addressing problems, concerns. and news. Google calendar can help parents plan for upcoming field trips, picture day, immunizations,and eye testing. Google sites will help the parents view in class events and what homework their child should be working on. They can also view if their children is the student of the week.

#3 Igoogle and google docs are the only tools I can think about that would help me communicate with my colleagues. We could email each other with questions, ideas for the next unit, references, aids,and tag them educational videos. With google docs you can send your lesson plan or letter to the other 1st grade teacher and they can add to it, fix it, and send it back. 

#4 I can employ the tools by doing weekly or monthly technology classes. Using them to communicate when school is not in session. Have the students make a site about a historical place or their favorite sport, and that way they are doing social studies and technology in one.

#5 The pros of tools are communication, response time, organization, and you are more updated with world news and technology. Also they help teachers talk with family, colleagues,and parents, and at the same time make a new section on the class website.

The cons aren't being able to access a computer, the web might be down, computer is having problems, and children might accidentally get into trouble looking on the computer to find the class website. This could cause issues with the parents and they might have to be with parental supervision when getting on following times.

Video Clips

Mr. Duey- At first I thought this video was so cheesy, but as it went on I started changing my mind. Kids learning fractions would get this song stuck in their heads and it would help them to remember the steps when needed. Also they can relate to the rap music that the video is made to, since rap is something they've hear on the radio. They could possibly start to think of math as a cool subject and not a nerdy one by seeing this video.

Web 2.0- This site was unique with the way the music was used and the type of music catches your attention and brings you in. The information seemed like it was important by the way the video was presented and it kept you interested. It's a great source for teachers to get themselves updated with the new technology for this time period.

Ideal classroom

If I could have my ideal classroom, it would be in a Title 1 school, where their are a range of diverse students. The size of my classroom would be of medium size and be a place where children can feel safe and trust me. The walls of this classroom would be brightly decorated with artwork from the class and with posters to help them remember their colors,animals, word chunks, and letters. The class would be orderly and have many resources,such as, books that they can use and borrow. I'd prefer that my classroom be first grade, with children who want to explore learning and find out their potentials. 

The personality of my students are all different and some will take me awhile to figure out. The parents of the students are helpful in supporting the school and being there for their students. They communicate with me and express their concerns.We work together to try and help the students learn the best the can. Some of the parents aren't really involved with the school or their child's success. The colleagues at my school are very helpful and share ideas of teaching techniques that work. They also give advice of things you could do to make your classroom better and help you get a feel for the school. 

The teaching techniques I'll use in my classroom will be starting with what the students know, being positive and complementary, tell them how they are progressing, make the material meaningful and apply it to life experiences, and reward them for achieving goals.

The technology that I'll incorporate in my classroom lessons  will be using laptops to do reading and listening exercises. Also doing little computer lessons to help them get familiar with technology and  see how it's important in this world.

The content I'll teach will be the core curriculum standards for each academic topic and the concepts will be learned through activities, homework, and field trips.

The class goals that I'll embrace will be respect, hard work, caring, being respectful of all different cultures, and high reading levels.

What I hope to teach the classroom is that each person is of importance, life skills, work ethic, respect, and love of learning and self.