Week 3 - Twitter

I have to say that I was a little apprehensive about the idea of Twitter in the classroom. After reading the 9 reasons to Twitter from our textbook I can see it's educational value. I first acquired a Twitter account about 2 years ago and never really understood the point behind it other than it seemed like a list of look-a-like status updates from Facebook. When I first made my personal Twitter account I only followed a few close friends and highly famous people. After digging around I see that there are numerous educators and educational sites that are a part of the Twitter community. I finally created a teacher account on Twitter that allows me to communicate with fellow educators, but also educational sites that post numerous articles and links on a number of different educational topics. I find the biggest benefit of this tool is the ability to network with other educators. I came across an article on TeachHub that gives 50 ideas as to how to use Twitter in the classroom. My hope is to find a way to integrate Twitter in some way or another in the near future. Getting all of familiar with technology and access to technology is my first step. Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2010). Web 2.0: How-to for educators. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

Week 2 - Ch. 1 & 2 Reflection

After reading chapters 1 and 2 of Personal Learning Networks it is very easy to see that we as educators need to rethink almost everything we are doing at this point in the educational world. In other words we need to transform the educational system as a whole rather than reforming it. Many teachers that I currently work with are continually stagnant with the content and the way they convey that content to their students. The idea of technology use in their classroom is not present, which makes it somewhat difficult for certain students to stay current with the ever changing technology trends in the world around them. I think a huge component to teachers using technology is to first get familiar with it and in turn feel comfortable using it, and not just the basics. Teachers need to take the basic technology ideas and apply them in their classrooms. Only then will they be able to integrate the technology effectively. Richardson and Macabelli make it very clear that an extreme amount of learning can happen through the use of PLNs. These PLNs allow for large amounts of growth both personally and professionally. It seems as if when we are able to connect to one another easily we are more willing to learn and in a way that will benefit us as teachers. These PLNs also allow for us to take our learning into our own hands and make meaningful connections. Only then are we in control and have the option to learn as little or as much as we possibly can through these PLNs. I think PLNs are a great idea and according to the authors on page 41, schools with personal networks have seven common traits that stand out above the rest. These seven traits sound great in a perfect world where students have easy access to technology. However, for me that is not the case. I'm hoping that one day the district I teach in will be further along with technology and our students will have access at their fingertips whenever they need it. After looking at the list of tools in chapter 2 I realize that I am socially interacting with these tools, but I am only using a few of them for the learning interactions. I hope to change my interactions throughout the rest of this course and really allow myself to network and become the best teacher and student possible. Resources: Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

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.