Week 7- Animal Adaptations Infographic

Here is also the link to my glogster infographic on animal adaptations which is a topic that I teach in my science class.

Animal Adaptation Glogster Infographic

Digital Story

My digital story was on the topic of my heroes, who are my parents. I created my story using Windows Movie Maker. Up until this point, I had never created a digital story and had never used Windows Movie Maker. This took a lot of work and effort on my part to get it all flowing together. However, I had such a great time doing this and would love to introduce this idea to my students. This topic brought up many memories and definitely tugged on my heart strings. I hope you all enjoy it.

Digital Story Link: My Heroes: My Parents

Week 5

I was asked to reflect on the Digital Storytelling Process thus far and how it relates to the Writing Process. I was then asked to discuss the highlights and struggles, if any.

I have had to create a few digital stories for other MET classes, but this was the first one that I was able to create on myself and not on an actual lesson that I would normally cover in class. Before I began this project I watched a number of digital stories on Youtube and wondered how in the world you could incorporate voice, text, and picture and time it accordingly. Many of the stories that I watched were executed wonderfully. The process for digital story telling is very similar to that of the writing process. I always have my students start out with some sort of prewriting activity such as a graphic organizer. This allows them to sort out their thoughts and figure out what it is that they are actually writing about. Once I finished my organizer I then started my rough draft. I am so glad the writing process calls for rough drafts because I think they are crucial. When I chose my topic I had a hard time limiting myself to 3-5 minutes. I needed many revisions and could still revise at this stage. The only struggle I've had this far was writing about my topic. My topic is on my parents being my heroes. Talking about my parents always tugs at my heart and brings up many emotions for me. I'm excited to complete my digital story and see the finished products of others.

Week 3

The Pearson text states that all teachers are teachers of reading and I completely agree with this statement. It is safe to say that reading is covered in all other content areas in some way or another. I am hopeful that I will learn new and exciting ways to incorporate literacy into the content areas through the use of technology. One thing that the text mentions is to use technology with fluency instruction. Even in fourth grade I still have students who struggle to be fluent while reading. I plan on providing my students with the opportunity to use audio recording sites such as Audioboo and Audacity this year as a way in improve fluency. These sites will encourage my students to push for excellence since their reading will be heard by others. I also want to enhance student vocabulary through the use of technology this year. The text claims that there are many direct and indirect ways to do so. I am currently seeking out interactive ways to improve student vocabulary. I hope to find new ways to incorporate technology to enhance literacy through the content areas. My thoughts also go hand and hand with the text. I too feel that collaboration and communication are key in today's society. By using technological tools these two components will become increasingly beneficial.

Wiki Evaluation

I find the use of wikis very beneficial in the classroom. There are a number of ways that teachers and students can use them. I find the best way for students to use them is through collaboration work with other students. I spent a great deal of time looking for literacy-focused wikis. Two that I found were Fonde Fourth Grade and Stewart 4th Grade Wiki.

The first wiki that I came across was Fonde Fourth Grade. This wiki seemed to be well organized from the initial click of the home page. I went to the reading page that provided a good amount of resources for main idea and drawing conclusions. These would be not only beneficial for the students, but possibly the parents and other teachers as well. This wiki page also provided a few links to Reading Street resources. These three links provide a number of resources geared towards this specific reading series which would not only help the students, but also act as a support tool for other teachers. There are endless opportunities with the Reading Street links. This wiki definitely catered to these specific students and also to the certain elements that were covered in this school and the specific reading series. Once negative aspect that I noticed was when you tried to view the individual teacher pages there was nothing other than a blurb directing you back to the reading page. There were a few aspects that I found valuable, but overall this wiki was lacking.

Another literacy wiki that I evaluated was Stewart Elementary Wiki. This wiki was pleasing to the eye from the get go. Once you viewed the reading tab the links were a little sporadic  throughout the page. However, it wasn’t so cluttered that I couldn’t navigate my way through the links. On the reading page there was also a number of links and tabs that correlated with the Treasures Reading Series that my students are currently using. So this automatically catered to my specific needs as a fourth grade teacher. There was also a page for writing on this wiki. This writing page provided a number of links, prompts, generators, and ideas for students to use in writing or during writing time. three more tabs became available after choosing the writing tab. The grammar, poetry, and vocabulary pages also had a number of links available for student use. Overall this school’s wiki seems extremely beneficial in a number of ways and provides students with many different options to further their learning.

Week 2

After reading chapter 2 in the Pearson text it seems as though technology tools are crucial to support literacy education in this day and age. There are a wide variety of tools available and this chapter looked at some of them more in depth. I find that within my own classroom I am in fact using many of the tools that are currently available. At this point my students use a word processor which is a productivity tool. They also use Accelerated Reader which is a well-known educational software item. My students use a number of internet and communication tools numerous times as day such as Tumblebooks, XtraMath, and Study Island. Not only are my students familiar with internet and communication tools, but they are also accustomed to using multimedia and visualization tools. Some of these tools are the promethean board, a powerpoint presentation, and movie maker. Even though I am incorporating these tools within my classroom I realize that I need to work on integrating more emerging tools within my classroom. One of the tools that I am excited to use is the wiki that I created last semester. My goal is to integrate these emerging tools at a slow and steady pace. I don't want to overwhelm myself and end up overloading my students at the same time. My hope is also to get administrators as well as parents on board with the technology that I will be presenting in the near future. They need to understand that while these "new" ways of learning aren't the "old" paper/pencil ways, they are the current approaches that will allow students to thrive in the current world they are living in.  

Week 1

After reading the assigned texts I realized that the common theme is that we as educators must provide our students with the essential skills and prepare them with the proper tools in order to survive in the digital world. I for one know that I feel more prepared now than ever after taking numerous educational technology courses. However, I am unsure whether the students I teach are prepared enough to survive considering the lack of technology that currently exists within our district. The Pearson text mentions that even though the contructivist theory does not correlate with technology, the theory does remain the foundation for the use of technology. With this constructivist foundation problem solving is the key, students have choice, and the learning is collaborative. I came across an article that questions both teachers and students whether or not they have the necessary skills in order to survive in the 21st century. It was interesting for me to read and hopefully it will be for some of you as well.  My goal for this class is to take away a number of tools to incorporate literacy in my instruction at my current school through the use of technology. I'm hoping that as time goes on I am able to use technology with many aspects of student learning.

Intro

I'm Lindsey Polk and currently a fourth grade teacher in the Fox C-6 School District. I am proud to say that I have officially enrolled in my last four classes leading up to the completion of my Masters in Educational Technology degree through Missouri Baptist University. I have a love for technology in the classroom and hope to learn as much as I can through the MET program. I created this blog as a way to communicate through my course called, EDUC 573: Technology to Enhance Literacy.