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BP#14_2009103_blog_comment_Buss

BP#14_2009103_reflective_media_asset

BP#13_2009103_web20_tool_Raylit

Raylit is an educational site that addressed the needs of student. There are cartoons that host the educational sessions which are composed of fun learning games, videos, music and stories-things kids love. They talk about interesting things and guide kids through the lessons and games, making learning fun and effective. This site is good for kids from 3-7. What I like about this site is that you can type in your student's name to register them. Once you have done that the cartoons that guides the students through the lessons will call them by name. This makes the game personal for the kids.

Each session has 5-6 educational items. The items I had when I signed up under my daughter's name was, sequencing, matching the professional with the correct tool, learning numbers and counting, science knowledge clips and a sing along called Mr. Son, Mr Golden Son. The child's age will give you different educational items.

I plan on using this site with my second graders. I have ELL students and students that are working towards level that can really benefit from this site. It is hard for teachers to go back and teach skills that was suppose to be taught in kindergarten and first grade. This site will supplement to help fill the gaps in education.

As a teacher, I like the fact that I can send a text message to my students that will be spoken by the cartoon characters. I can click on their names to update their profile and settings. I can also view their current curricula and track their progress.

This site is not free, but I believe it is beneficial, therefore I plan to propose this site to administration at my school. I will try the trial version, track my student's progress, and show the data to my principal so that he can see how useful Raylit is.

picture from www.raylit.com

BP#12_2009103_web20_tool_Easy_Test_Maker

Easy test maker is a site where teacher can go to create their own tests and quizzes. There are many tests you can create from multiple choice to true / false type test. In second grade, after we have read a story, a selections test always follow. My students are getting so tired of taking this test the traditional way (pen and paper). And to tell you the truth, I am tired of giving it to them the same traditional way. So, now that I have found this site. I plan to create the test online. The test is originally multiple choice, so for me there is not thinking involved. All I have to do is to plug in the same questions with the same answer choices and wha-la the test is created! Easy test maker will also create an answer sheet in which you can give it the conventional way if you want. What I like about Easy test maker is it has a spell check function built right in so that it will take all the guess work out of how to spell something. Easy tester will also allow me to duplicate tests. Why is that important? Well, instead of me creating new tests, I can duplicate the original test, edit it while the original test reams unaffected. This works for me because the selections tests are all formatted the same way. The only thing that changes is the questions and the title of the story.

picture from www.easytestmaker.com

BP#11_2009103_web20_tool_classroomtools

Classroomtools.net provides free customizable flash templates to embed into blogs, wikis, and websites. There is no no sign-up, no password, no charge......(Russel)

There are 17 templates that are available for teachers to use. They range from fill in the blank to interactive games. While playing around on this site I came across several template that I plan to use in my classroom. The first one is the Venn Diagram. I plan to use this to teach compare and contrast. As second graders, my students have a hard time understanding how to use this particular reading strategy. Our school is using the Houghton Mifflin's reading series. My class is reading a story call Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night. This particular story compares and contrasts Henry and Mudge and Henry's mom and dad. It is my plan to model how to use the template by comparing and contrasting Henry and Mudge. Then, they are to compare and contrast Henry's mom and dad independently. This will show me if they have actually grasped the concept of using a Venn Diagram to compare things.

The other tool I liked was the virtual book. The virtual book can be used by dragging and dropping text into the book's template. I have the option of going on the web and finding stories from the reading series, copying it and dropping it into the template to create a book that can be read online. I can use it to teach poetry. My students can interact with the poem by highlighting the rhyming words. I like that my students need only to click the bottom right hand corner of the page to turn it. It is totally awesome.

There is one more tool I would like to mention, and that is the game creator. You can create your own educational game. I play to create games to teach about phonics, nouns, antonyms, synonyms and other areas in which my students are weak. I hope you will go and take a look at this site. It is very useful.

picture from www.classroomtools.net

BP#10_2009103_1min_video_Zoodles

BP#9_20091003_blog_Flickr

While researching flickr, I came across many lesson plans, but I came across an idea of my own that I will be using and implementing in my reading lesson. Like I have blogged earlier, I am teaching my students about text features. Heres what the lesson plan would look like:

Objective:

Students will be able to create their own text features

Students will be able to use the Web 2.0 tool Flickr to create text features

Motivation: Have a slide show of student interaction. (can get from school website) Ask the students what do they think the people in the slide are thinking just by looking at the expressions on their faces. Tell them they have verbally given you captions for each picture. Tell them that they write captions everyday and do not realize it. Tell them that today they will have the opportunity to write captions for pictures that they will find on Flickr. Tell them that they will be using other text features as well, like: bold print, font color, headings, titles and pictures.

Materials:

Class Flickr account

Lesson:

Tell students you are going to introduce them to new tool that they will be using in the class.

Introduce them to Flickr. Tell them that you have already started a classroom group for them to join. Once they have joined the group they can post their pictures to it so that classmates can look at their pictures and add captions, heading, titles, font color, font size and bolded print.

-students will find pictures and post to class group

-students will add captions, font color, titles or heading and bolded words to any classmates picture. They can not add these text features to pictures that they chose.

-save the edited pictures to the class group

-have each student tell about the text features they added. Allow other students to add comments with positive feedback.

Below you will find an example of a student's finished project.

Game Day (title, font color and size)

The boy is trying to hit the ball (Caption)

You can also use this idea to teach inferencing. Just have the kids write captions about what they think the person is thinking in the picture. This will get them to look at people's facial expression to discern hidden meaning.

Here's an example of inferencing

This little girl is happy because it's her

birthday. I can tell it's her birthday because

she has cake all over her face!

*pictures from Flickr

BP#8_20091002_blog_comment_saray

BP2_2009101_Anti-Teaching

Assuming that our current educational system does not satisfy the needs of most of our learners, what would work?

I'm sure that a lot of us have asked that question. Here are my personal insights. Let me know what you think.

The new buzz term at our district is Differentiated Instruction. Would it not be wonderful if every student learned at their own pace, if the content was customizable to the student's needs and interests, if the resources were available 24/7, if students directed their own learning?


While researching for my first post, I found a very interesting article by Michaela W. Colombo and Paul D. Colombo Using Blogs to Improve Differentiated Instruction. Among the key ideas that they discuss is that technology makes it possible cater to the needs, strengths, and interests of students across the whole learning spectrum. Moreover, collaborative technology allows students to develop some real world skills that they will need to use outside of the classroom to succeed in life, such as social and metacognitive skills.


I strongly believe that technology could help us individualize instruction and learning for each of our students. When we individualize their learning, they are able to draw from their strongest multiple intelligences, and direct their own learning. Just like in the example posted by Michael Wesch Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance, students take charge of their own learning and thus, subject content is both relevant and significant to the student.

BP#7_20091002_web2.0_ekoloko

My last web 2.0 tool is www.ekoloko.com. Ekoloko is a virtual world that is much like Second Life, but it is kid friendly. This virtual community allows kids to discover the world both virtually and realistically. Kids learn and have fun by playing games and quests while saving a virtual world. This virtual world teaches kids how to be responsible for the world around them. It show them how to recycle and makes them aware of the ecological problems we are having because of pollution.

This is another site that was very easy to use. It is free to join, unless you want to become a pioneer. Pioneers have special privileges that the basic account holder does not have, but you can still have fun with the basic account the differences aren't the drastic.

The educational value of this site is that it teaches our children about a realistic problem. Pollution. While on a quest, if they choose to take the challenge, they can learn about different things and earn points. There are guides throughout the virtual world that can help them if they have a question. They can build a community of friends that they can meet and chat with. This site is good for group collaboration.

Below you will see a screenshot of Ekoloko. I plan on using his site during my science block. I am going to show my students how to create their avatar so that they will have ownership of it and the virtual world they are about to enter.

This is the first page you will come to. You can choose either english or another language that I

understand. From this screen students can go to a tutorial that will show them how to navigate

through the virtual world. I plan to project this site onto my promethean board so that my students

will be able to follow along as we sign up to get into the virtual world. It is my hope that Ekoloko

will peak the kid's awareness of the environment around them and motivate them to do their part

by keeping the community around them free of litter.

After going through this site and learning about recycling, I plan to start a recycling bin in my room.

The kids will be responsible for maintaining it based on what they learned in the virtual community.

We will also get volunteers together (parents and staff) to help clean our school/community play-

ground. Students will write blogs to places like Lowes asking for donations, so that we can go and

beautify the community by planting flowers, and painting over graffiti.

I am really excited about what my students and I can do with this site.

BP#6_20091002_Web2.0_Zoodle

The next site that I found interesting and highly useful is www.zoodles.com. Zoodles is a site that keeps children's safety in mind. Zoodles has created a site that kids can learn and play without the pop-up ads that you would normally see on other sites. There are parental control options where they can block shows, sites and games. It allows parents to see everything their kids are doing online. It gives parents progress reports, it shows the games the kid most frequently play and how long they are playing them. Zoodles makes it easy for parents and educator to sign up for this site. Parents have to register their children. Once they have done that they can create a profile for them. Zoodles will allow you to take a picture of your child so that your child can click on their picture to get into the site. This is a good idea for kids that do not know how to read yet. The one feature I love the most is how zoodle allows you to customize games to fit your child's age and ability level. How great is that! A win-win situation for you and your child/student.

I registered a student in my class, so that I can explore the site. I registered a student who just came to the United States from Puerto Rico about 4 months ago. She is very far behind because of the language barrier. She also has some type of learning disability on top of that. So, when I found this site, she immediately came to mind. This student is having a hard time in reading and in math. In reading she does not have any reading strategies. Her phonics are null and void. After I registered this student, and put in her birthdate and ability level, Zoodles came up with 108 games she can play. The games range from reading to science. I am curious to find out, how her skill levels will increase over time. Thank goodness for the progress report that I will have access to.

Here are 5 popular reading games and their educational value. I plan on using these games with my working towards level (WTL) students to help strengthen their basic skills.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Just like parents have control over what their children will learn on zoodles, educators have the same control. I was able to go in and control what subject areas I wanted to focus on. In the case of this student and my other WTL students, I chose language arts, reading and math because this is where they are weak.

Save a Baby Dinosaur!

Your child develops the basics in reading sight words while helping the Wonder Pets save a baby triceratops.

Educational value: Book and Print Basics, Early Reading / Phonics, Sight Words, Reading Comprehension, Elements of a Story

2) What’s In the Bag?

Your child develops logic, matching, and vocabulary skills by listening to a series of words and then choosing the object that those words describe.

Educational Value: Vocabulary and Concept Development, Word Meanings

3) ABC Match

Your child develops early reading and memory skills by matching pictures with the first letter of their name.

Educational Value: Early Reading / Phonics, Matching Letters to Sounds, Decoding and Word Recognition, Syllables / Word Parts

4) Lumpy and Roo, and a Mystery Too!

Your child develops reading skills as well as investigation and matching skills by reading along and solving the mystery.

Educational Value: Reading Comprehension, Elements of a Story

5) Word World

Your child develops spelling skills while using letters to build words.

Educational Value: Early Reading / Phonics, Matching letters to sounds, Spelling, Vowels and Consonants

Zoodle, (August 24, 2009). 5 Great Kid-Approved Reading Games on Zoodle. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from www.zoodles.com

BP#5_20091002_Web_2.0

I researched many sites. As a matter of fact, I got so engrossed into what I was doing that I lost all track of time! It was really hard to come up with only 3 of my favorites. So, here is the 1st of the 3 Web 2.0 tools I will be reporting on.

1. www.storysomething.com- Storysomething is a personalized and customized storytelling site that busy parents can use use to write interesting stories for and about their children. Stories can be told using your cell phones or the web itself. I found that this particular tool was mostly for busy parents who did not have time to read to their children like they would like to. Storysomething makes bedtime stories easy. All parents have to do is record their personal story for their children and wha-la, a personalized, custom bedtime story their child will remember forever.

I didn't get a chance to play around with storysomething because it is a new site, so it was not up and running. But, as a teacher I saw that the site did have educational value and it did capture my interest enough for me to bookmark it so that I can visit it periodically to see if the site has been launched. I can not wait until it does! It's almost like waiting to open presents at Christmas. I am thinking it will be totally worth the wait.

As an educator, I believe Storysomething will be the perfect site for me. I am planning to use it to write stories that would relate to the content I am teaching. I will also use it so that my students can write their own stories. Another idea I plan on using is I am teaching about text features. My 2nd grade students are having a hard time grasping the importance of captions. My plan is to post a picture and my students will have to use storysomething to write or record a caption that would relate to that particular picture. Here's an example.

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe

She was so tired she didn't know what to do

Using storysomething, educators can have students write or records customized stories about their families, combine them into a class audio book that can be viewed during an open house or a PTA meeting with classroom visitations. Image how proud their parents would be seeing the final produce being shared with others. Imagine the boost of confidence that child would have sharing his/her life story with friends.

In Science, we are learning about animal habitats. I plan on having my students research the habitat and write or records their findings. For instance, if there is a child researching the layers of the Tropical Rain Forest, that child can write a story about the layers by describing them and the types of animals that reside there.

Even though I have not been able to play around with this Web 2.0 tool, I would highly recommend it because it does have potential to become something great!

BP#4_2009102_Social_Bookmarking

Social bookmarking allows multiple users to save their favorite sites, articles, and even podcasts on the Web-instead of inside your browser-making them accessible from home, school, the library, or anywhere with Internet access. (DesRoches, 2007)

Social bookmarking has quickly becoming a popular way for teachers and students to store, classify, share, and search links, all of which are gathered by many users. I know you are wondering, how is it used in the real world. Well, I am an educator, so I've done some research on the educational use of social bookmarking.

How can school librarians use this tool?

That's the beauty of social bookmarking. With a shared username and password, librarians can bookmark sites that relate to a specific classroom's curriculum or research project, select books and write short stories or long evaluations in which readers can review, rate and recommend to others just by tagging them as their favorites.

How can classroom teachers use this tool?

Teachers can house specific research information as tags. for instance, if you are a biology teacher teaching about endangered species, as your students search the web and find interesting sites that would relate to endangered species, they can bookmark it. The tag can say something like endangered species. So, when classmates or other students in the school go to find research about endangered species, they can simply type in endangered species and find all the sites that were tagged by previous students. Collaboration at work!

Here's an idea that Michelle Rethietsen had for the use of social bookmarking in the classroom.

Del.icio.us offers an MP3+podcast tag combination, which also allows users to post their own podcasts and then create RSS feeds. Planning a school trip? Save links to hotels, activities, and transportation by using tags such as "travel" and "school trip." You can even include interesting bookmarks on your blog. Teachers and students use the tool to tag interesting reviews to recommend books and DVDs for the library. (Rethietsen, 2007)

Richardson stated, "One obvious application is to have collaborative groups, classrooms, or even entire districts decide on a unique tag that everyone can use when they bookmark something of interest." (Richardson,2007)

References

DeRoches, D. (2007, January). All Together Now. School Library Journal, Vol.53

Issue 1, p33-33, 1p

Rethietsen, M. (2007, September, 15). Product Pipeline. School Library Journal, Vol.

132 Issue 15, 16-17, 2p

Richardson, W. (2007, March). Taming the Beast. School Library Journal, Vol. 53

Issue 3, p50-51,2p

BP#3_20091001_Anti_Teaching_

I think a compilation of virtual learning environments with course management systems, PLEs and Web 2.0 tools would work for a vast majority of students. Just think, in Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory, we learned that we all learn differently. I know for myself that I am a visual learner. I do not do well listening to lectures. Here's how you can use VLE, PLEs and Web 2.0 tools and make them work in your classroom;

Using a virtual learning environments like the Smithsonian Institute, students can use a Web 2.0 tool like blogging to personally journal in a PLE like iGoogle. They can blog about what they saw and learned there or the teacher can ask a specific question that they would have to blog about.

In this one lesson you have covered many of the MIs in Gardner's theory. You have reached and engaged a majority of your students just by changed the way you teach.

Technology can never be enough because it is constantly changing and teachers are not. In order for technology to be enough teachers need to put away the industrial way of teaching and move into the technological way of teaching. Until they do that technology will never be enough. We have new schools with all this great technology and teachers don't even know how to use it. It is a complete disservice to the students!

The key components I would include in new schools are;

1. Develop a school technology plan

2. Monthly technology professional developments-Curriculum integration utilizing project based learning, digital media, literacy information Communication Technology.

3. Interactive Systems in every classroom-Interactive whiteboards/slates/student responses, classroom audio (wireless), LCD projectors, document cameras, teacher laptop computers

4. Student computers

5. Access to broadband

6. A focus on content creation, digital imaging, and web apps

1. Open Office/Microsoft Office/ Google Docs

2. Adobe photoshop and Premier Bundle/iLife/Picnik

3. Promethean Activstudio (project based software for all teachers and students

7. A network laser printer in every classroom

8. Access to digital and video cameras for visual literacy

The key components for 21st century schools and learning beyond the test are

1. Focus on learning and thinking skills, including critical-thinking and problem-solving skills; communication skills; creativity and innovation skills; collaboration skills and information and media literacy skills

2. Develop 21st century content which includes global awareness; financial, economics, business, and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy;and health and awareness

3. Technology enabled learning to engage digitally savvy students

BP#2_20091001_five_RSS_feeds_educational_purposes

Here are the five RSS feeds that I researched and found useful for educational purposes. I will be explaining why I chose each site and how it can benefit me as a teacher.

1. Creative Pursuits: Integrating Technology into 21st Century Classrooms (www.neccning.org)

I chose this site because it is an online library called "Libraries Without Walls: Integrating Library Online Resources." The concept is libraries should not be restrained by the walls in which they are housed, but people from all over the world should have access to all types of resources that you would find in a library. You can sit at home and do research instead of going to the public library. Sometimes our public libraries do not have the information that we need when we may need it.

I found that this site would benefit me because there are times when I am looking for research for projects that I want to implement into my lesson plans but I can not find any. I get so frustrated when I can not find the information in either the school library or at my public library. This particular site will allow me to have another resource to use for research. It also has tools that I do not have in my school like Noodle and TRAILS, which is a tool that shows me how to use formative assessments to serve my students better.

2. Integrating Technology into the Classroom (www.edutopia.org)

This is a site ran by The George Lucas Educational Foundation. This site gives you all sorts of ways to use technology in the classroom. For those of use who are technology challenged and do not know where to start when it comes to integrating technology into your lessons, this is the site for you. You can view a 2 minute video that will introduce you to technology integration.

I chose this site because I use to be one of the technology challenged people. I am still not as good as I would like, but I am no longer afraid to use it in my lessons. I plan on giving this site's URL to my tech coach. She can use it doing professional development to help new and old teachers get over their phobias. I have viewed many of the videos to refresh my skills. I am so glad I did. I have found little tidbits of information that I can use in my classroom.

3. Interactive Whiteboard Promethean Applications (http://teachingtechnology.suite101.com)

Interactive Whiteboard Promethean Applications is a community of online resources for all content areas and lessons. There is an abundance of themes, lessons, resource packs and web-links available to teachers for embedding in lessons in support of interactive whiteboard integration.

As a new school that was supplied with whiteboards, this site is most beneficial to me. I have already downloaded several lessons, themes and resource packs. I have saved some for science, language arts and reading. My school uses Houghton Mifflin for reading. I typed Houghton Mifflin in the search engine and found oodles of this I can download and use for each story I teach. I am so excited!

4. Spelling City (www.spellingcity.com)

This site is a good site for spelling. You can enter your weekly spelling list and allow students to take pretests ( which will help them study), play spelling games, and take spelling test.

I plan to use this site in my classroom. I will be using it as a center. They will use it first to take pretests so that they can study the words they got wrong. Then they can play spelling games like hangman. At the end of the week they will take their spelling test online. I have found that this will grade your tests for you! All you have to do is enter the grades into your grade book.

5. 8 Tips for Teaching Grammar Without a Worksheet (http://theapple.monster.com)

This site simply gives you 8 tips for teaching grammar without resorting to worksheets to assess for comprehension.

These tips are most useful to me. It really opened my mind to the different ways to assess my student's comprehension besides using a worksheet. I plan to use some of these tips and compare which way is better for me. The 8 tips or worksheets. If I find that they both work then I will rotate between the 8 tips and my worksheets to assess comprehension.

BP1_2009101_blog_educational_use

As a kid that grew up in the late 60's to late 70's, I remember having to journal for my portfolio. No, not just any journal entry, but the best samplings of the many journal writings that I wrote over that particular school year. I also remember that portfolio followed me from the time I entered elementary school until the time I entered middle school. To this day I have always wondered what happened to my portfolio. Only God knows!

As a teacher, I have seen the very same portfolio surface with students who have transferred to my school. What do we do with them? Well, we usually put them in their personal files and send them to the next grade as they pass along. Do we do any sample writing? No we do not have time. Since the arrival of the "No Child Left Behind Law", teachers have to make sure students are prepared for state testing. We no longer have the time for creativity. What a shame. I believe blogs is a good substitute for those portfolios that I had to do back in the day.

While researching, trying to find the usefulness of blogs in the classroom, I came across a site called Teachers First. This site gave an abundance of ideas on how to implement blogs in your daily lessons (www.teacherfirst.com)

I will list the ones that I deemed useful in the second to the fifth grade classroom.

Ideas on How to Use Blogs in Your Classroom

1. Post a prompt- you can post a prompt that your students will have to respond to. It can relate to your lessons or it can be something personal.

2. Week in review- Appoint a weekly blog team to write that week's blog entry, describing the events of the week in room ABC. A great way to strengthen summarizing skills!

3. Response to reading- practice good reading strategies and check comprehension by asking students to respond to an assigned reading reflecting on how it applies to their own experience

4. Critique a web site- post a link to a web site related to a topic you are studying and invite students to give their personal evaluations

5. Comment current events- post a link to a current event or story and ask students to comment on its implications in your local community to their own lives.

6. Report on a vacation or long weekend- instruct them to use their five senses to describe it.

7. Post from and 'educational trip"

8. Report on a field trip-allows you to see what they learned

9. Write about historical landmarks- research and add pictures

10. Suggestion box blog- suggestions about how to better classroom, or lessons taught

11. Complaint box blog- instead of them complaining to you, they can complain to the blog!

12. Question blog- works like a KWL chart, but online! Good for assessing background knowledge of a topic before it is taught.

13. Continuing stories- start a story and allow students to add 1 to 2 sentences until the story is complete.

There you have it. My pick of a long list of ideas. I hope you visit this site and bookmark it like I did. I am sure I will be using this site in the future. Oh, by the way, this site will also show you how to set up an educational blog site that is safe and advertisement free. Happy searching!