After 11 Tools: Reflections

1. My favorite tool has to be number ten. Using the iTouch, the students would actually have fun when learning something new. Not that PreK kids don't already get excited over ANYTHING new they get to learn. I would love to see them use them during math time! They have great math game apps for free!
2. The learning that will take place in the classroom is definitely going to include more technology. This is good because teachers would be up to date with the latest gadgets!
3. I was surprised to see how much time I actually spent on each tool! Everything was so interesting and I could not stop myself from spending hours browsing through sites!

Tool #11

I think that in our classroom, it would be beneficial for us to teach the parents about being a good digital citizen. Since I work with PreK, it might be hard for the kids to understand why keeping information private is important, when they don't even know how to spell their name yet. By teaching the parents about being a good digital citizen, they would be able to keep track about what their kids do when they are online.

Three things I would teach the parents about being a good digital citizen would be:

• Digital Etiquette
• Information Privacy
• Online Safety

Online Safety could be taught to the kids just as you teach them about not talking to strangers. Making sure their parents understand the importance of those three subjects would be very beneficial tough.

Tool #10

1. Some one my favorite educational apps were 123 Counting, Shape Builder and Glow Coloring.

• 123 Counting would be a perfect math game for PreK because they don't have to necessarily know all their numbers to play the game. They can tap on the picture and the number is read out loud and written automatically.
• Shape Builder has easy to move shapes that snap into place on top of silhouette puzzles. This encourages cognitive thinking and fine motor skills.
• Glow Coloring could be used as a fun way the kids learn how to spell their name.

2. I spend plenty of time playing with my iPhone. I don't like having a billion apps on it though so I usually try out apps which have high ratings. I do, however, download plenty of apps to try out on my boyfriends phone! I know I can easily delete the apps I do not like from my phone, but I still don't like doing it.

3. Since I work with four year olds, they would have to use an iTouch with an adult until they get the hang of it. It would be a fun way for them to learn new things. If adults find these devices interesting, I can only imagine how eager the kids would be to use one!

Tool #9

Screencast would be very beneficial to students because not everyone learns at the same pace. Some kids need things to be explained several times before they fully understand something. By using Screencast, those students would be able replay any specific lesson the teacher has provided a video for. It would benefit the class as a whole because some students understand things the first time around and get bored when having to hear the same thing over and over again because some of their classmates just don't get it. Since I work with PreK, it would be hard for them to use Jing by themselves. We could make a video as a classroom project though. The class as a whole would have input as to what the video would contain.
Skype would be a cool way to show our students what other students, in the same grade level, are doing in their classroom. This would be good to include in social studies lessons. Using Skype as a way for the teacher to communicate with their students when they have to be out of the class for the day could be beneficial. The teacher would be able to tell the students what he/she expects from them while she is out. That would show the students that even though Ms._____ is out, she still cares about their learning.

Tool #8

The first video talks about the correct way to sneez which is great because many of our kids sneez up a storm without covering their mouth.

The second video would be great to show after reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to the children.

Tool #7

The PhotoStory I created is for me personally. It includes some of my nieces pictures. I had fun creating it!

Teachers can use PhotoStory to introduce a new subject to their students. Since I work in a PreK class, we would have to work together as a whole group to create one. We could make videos of their work as the year progresses and then look back at all of the videos at the end of the school year. They would be able to see how much they learned that school year.

Tool #6

Students can use wikis to work on a group project in a more organized way. They would be able to see how much they've completed and not have to worry about another person in the group working on the same thing.

In the class I work in, we could use wikis when trying to coordinate any specific activity. It would be helpful when working together to plan out a class field trip. The information each person gives could easily be edited by anyone involved in the planning process.

Tool #5

Social bookmarking would be useful in the classroom so the kids could get to any specific site the teacher wants them to.

The tag I used to find these links was "PreK games"

1.   http://abcteach.com/   
            - here you can find free printables and worksheets for the class.
2.   http://www.first-school.ws/   
             -here you can find many fun activities for the class.

Tool #4

Google Docs would be great to use when creating a document that you need someone to help you with. In our class, the teacher I assist might need a second opinion about a certain letter that is going home. Creating that letter in google docs would make the process of getting it done faster. Two heads work better than one!

Google Reader is definitely time friendly! There is no need to check a certain page if there aren't any updates made to it.

Tool #3

In PreK:

• Captioner would be cool to use in the class to create a "message of the day" on a picture.  
• Wordle could be used to create a class poster with the kids name on it. The kids would be able to point out their name once they learn how to spell it.

Tool #2

I think that building an online education community and participating in a PLN is beneficial. It can help us by giving us new ideas as to how to go about doing certain things that we didn’t know how to before. Not everyone does everything the same way we do, so having the opportunity to learn from other people is helpful. Getting to learn about things that actually interests us is a major plus! This can help us be more open minded about things.

I think that commenting on something is just like responding to someone when having a conversation face to face. We should know that if we don’t have something nice to say, then we shouldn’t say it at all. Sometimes, however, it is hard to keep your thoughts inside so agreeing to disagree is the only thing we can do. So, with that being said, point number five and seven stood out for me from the commenting advice.

Tool #1

Having to set up the blog wasn't too hard. As we all know, we read to learn which helps make life a little bit easier :) Reading through the steps made the process of creating this faster. In PreK, blogs may be used to communicate with parents.