As far as online security goes, when I am at school, I always use my school computer hooked up to the district network. Working in this network definitely feels safer than using my own personal source. Our district has different spyware programs in place to keep our network as safe as possible.
After taking this course, I see so many benefits to using online communication tools. Although I often feel like my kindergarten students are too young to use this type of program, I know there are ways I could incorporate it into my classroom. In my classroom, we have a Courdoroy bear that gets taken home with a different student each weekend. The students are to take Courdoroy with them everywhere they go (if it works out), take pictures of their adventures, and then journal about their weekend together. The parents usually end up doing a lot of journaling, with the kids' help. I think it would be so neat to use a blog for this type of activity rather than just a paper journal. The students, along with their parents, could create a blog entry each night of the weekend about that particular day. They could post pictures, and even videos, to share with the class about their time with Courdoroy. It would be fun to pull up our blog each Monday morning and share it with the class. This is just one small idea, but I know there are lots of ways to incorporate online communication tools into my kindergarten classroom.
Currently, I rely heavily on e-mail as my major online communication tool. I use e-mail to communicate with other teachers, parents, and administrators. It is very easy to use, and I love the convenience of sending an e-mail. For me, it is much easier than writing a handwritten note or making a phone call, although I often still use both of those when necessary.
I am so glad we were required to keep this blog throughout our course. It has shown me how easy it is, and given me lots of ideas to use in my classroom!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Week 7: Educational Software
When I first think of the word "software", programs like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, etc. come to mind. Granted, these are some of the biggest computer software programs around, but the options for different "educational software" programs seem almost endless.
There are so many great programs available to use as educational tools in the classroom. Most of these programs can be pretty pricey, so typically, school districts opt to purchase just the few that they feel will be of optimal use with students and teachers.
Our district has several great educational software programs, however, CompassLearning is one in particular that I really enjoy using with my students. CompassLearning is all research-based and assesses each students' understanding of various key objectives in math, language, and reading. Based on the results of the assessment, each student is given their own path of activities to help them grow at their level.
As a kindergarten teacher, I used CompassLearning with my students twice a week in math. We chose to focus on math this year because so many of our other programs, like Earobics, focused on phonics and reading. My students absolutely loved when we got to work on Compass. They were so engaged in the activities because of the great graphics and animations. Most of the activities were set up like a game, so my students were learning so much, and didn't even realize it!
Another aspect of CompassLearning that I really love is being able to use it as a whole group instructional tool. If my students were struggling with a particular concept, I could pull up some Compass activities to use whole group as a re-teaching tool. This gave me the opportunity to take it step by step and really explain what it was asking the students to do. This really seemed to help!
One of the biggest challenges I faced using Compass with kindergarten students was time. We only had twenty-five minute computer lab slots, so we really had to use our time wisely. My students really struggled this year with getting themselves logged onto the program and finding their spot. By the end of the year, most of them had it down, but I was still walking around to a few students to get them where they needed to be. I will definitely do more whole group modeling with this next year. I think because some of my students were struggling readers, they didn't understand when I'd say log in and go to the safari section. If they could not read the word "safari" they were totally lost.
There are so many great programs available to use as educational tools in the classroom. Most of these programs can be pretty pricey, so typically, school districts opt to purchase just the few that they feel will be of optimal use with students and teachers.
Our district has several great educational software programs, however, CompassLearning is one in particular that I really enjoy using with my students. CompassLearning is all research-based and assesses each students' understanding of various key objectives in math, language, and reading. Based on the results of the assessment, each student is given their own path of activities to help them grow at their level.
As a kindergarten teacher, I used CompassLearning with my students twice a week in math. We chose to focus on math this year because so many of our other programs, like Earobics, focused on phonics and reading. My students absolutely loved when we got to work on Compass. They were so engaged in the activities because of the great graphics and animations. Most of the activities were set up like a game, so my students were learning so much, and didn't even realize it!
Another aspect of CompassLearning that I really love is being able to use it as a whole group instructional tool. If my students were struggling with a particular concept, I could pull up some Compass activities to use whole group as a re-teaching tool. This gave me the opportunity to take it step by step and really explain what it was asking the students to do. This really seemed to help!
One of the biggest challenges I faced using Compass with kindergarten students was time. We only had twenty-five minute computer lab slots, so we really had to use our time wisely. My students really struggled this year with getting themselves logged onto the program and finding their spot. By the end of the year, most of them had it down, but I was still walking around to a few students to get them where they needed to be. I will definitely do more whole group modeling with this next year. I think because some of my students were struggling readers, they didn't understand when I'd say log in and go to the safari section. If they could not read the word "safari" they were totally lost.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Week Six: WebQuests
I was very interested in this week's assignment because I was very unfamiliar with WebQuests. I had heard a couple of my fellow teachers talk about them briefly a few years back, but never really asked a lot of questions as to what they were and how they were used by students and teachers. I had no idea how many ready-made WebQuests were already out there. I had a good time just searching through other WebQuests that I could potentially use in my classroom. I found lots of good information that I hope to use in the future with my students. There were lots of WebQuests created for kindergarten students. Many of them required parent assistance, but some seemed that they would be used in the classroom. If this is the case, there would have to be a lot of up front teaching and modeling on how to use WebQuests for this age students.
I decided to create my WebQuest to be used as an at home project with parent assistance. I am hoping to use my WebQuest with my students towards the beginning of the year since the objective is learning letter sounds. This is something we work on all year in kindergarten, but using this WebQuest would be a great way to jumpstart this learning.
You can find my WebQuest here : http://questgarden.com/127/66/5/110608193200/
Thank goodness Dr. Goldberg prepared us by telling us this would be a time consuming project, because I had no idea how much time it took to create a complete webquest. Time and knowledge were definitely my two biggest challenges going into this week. I had to read the websites on how to create a webquest multiple times to really get a grasp on what I was supposed to be doing. Even then, it was somewhat of a trial and error process for me. I did a lot of creating and then going back to edit what I had done to make things better. I also thought it was a big challenging to find good, educational, online activities that were interactive for students to complete in the WebQuest. After getting started and feeling like I had the hang of it, I enjoyed putting it all together. I was glad we used the quest garden website because it was very straightforward and took you through step by step for what needed to be done in creating a complete WebQuest. This assignment was a great learning experience for me, and I look forward to learning even more about WebQuests and creating more of them in the future to use in my own classroom.
I decided to create my WebQuest to be used as an at home project with parent assistance. I am hoping to use my WebQuest with my students towards the beginning of the year since the objective is learning letter sounds. This is something we work on all year in kindergarten, but using this WebQuest would be a great way to jumpstart this learning.
You can find my WebQuest here : http://questgarden.com/127/66/5/110608193200/
Thank goodness Dr. Goldberg prepared us by telling us this would be a time consuming project, because I had no idea how much time it took to create a complete webquest. Time and knowledge were definitely my two biggest challenges going into this week. I had to read the websites on how to create a webquest multiple times to really get a grasp on what I was supposed to be doing. Even then, it was somewhat of a trial and error process for me. I did a lot of creating and then going back to edit what I had done to make things better. I also thought it was a big challenging to find good, educational, online activities that were interactive for students to complete in the WebQuest. After getting started and feeling like I had the hang of it, I enjoyed putting it all together. I was glad we used the quest garden website because it was very straightforward and took you through step by step for what needed to be done in creating a complete WebQuest. This assignment was a great learning experience for me, and I look forward to learning even more about WebQuests and creating more of them in the future to use in my own classroom.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Week Five: Online Communication Tools
Before researching the different methods of online communication for this class, I had no idea how much was available. Some of the tools I had never even heard of. One I am very familiar with and have used daily as a teacher is e-mail. Although this is not something I have used as a teaching tool with my students, I use e-mail as a main source of communication with parents and co-workers. Many parents would prefer to receive an e-mail rather than a phone call if I need to get in touch with them. Also, in an attempt to "go green", I have started sending out many classroom documents through e-mail, rather than paper copies, to those who have a working e-mail account.
When I taught third grade, I did get to use an online communication tool in the classroom with my students. Instead of doing pen pals, we Skyped with another third grade class in Japan. We had a Japanese lady come to our school and teach us different things about Japanese culture and their schooling. She then made a trip to Japan, and while she was there, she got us hooked up with another third grade classroom. My students LOVED it, and were so engaged. It was so neat to hear the types of questions they wanted to ask the students in Japan, as well as the questions the Japanese students asked us. I think it was a great experience for my students, and definitely something I hope to do in the future. That same year, we used Skype another time. For a persuasive writing piece, my students were trying to convince their parents to get them a certain gift for Christmas. To show them what it meant to "persuade" we Skyped my husband, who teaches at another elementary school, and I did my best to persuade him to get me the gift I wanted that year. They thought this was really neat, and it gave them some good ideas for how to convince their parents!
Like I said, Skype is a program I definitely want to use with my students in the future, but I also think it would be great to teach them how to use e-mail. This is such a real life skill, and I think it would be a great learning experience for kids, even my little guys. I think it would be fun to use e-mail in place of hand written letters to write to penpals at another school. It would be kind of the same concept of how I used Skype, except each child would have their own e-mail buddy to write back and forth to. This would give the students lots of exposure to writing e-mails, which is something they will all be doing in the future. It would also be a good opportunity to teach appropriate ways to speak using the computer, rather than "texting" or "instant messaging" language that so many kids use today.
When I taught third grade, I did get to use an online communication tool in the classroom with my students. Instead of doing pen pals, we Skyped with another third grade class in Japan. We had a Japanese lady come to our school and teach us different things about Japanese culture and their schooling. She then made a trip to Japan, and while she was there, she got us hooked up with another third grade classroom. My students LOVED it, and were so engaged. It was so neat to hear the types of questions they wanted to ask the students in Japan, as well as the questions the Japanese students asked us. I think it was a great experience for my students, and definitely something I hope to do in the future. That same year, we used Skype another time. For a persuasive writing piece, my students were trying to convince their parents to get them a certain gift for Christmas. To show them what it meant to "persuade" we Skyped my husband, who teaches at another elementary school, and I did my best to persuade him to get me the gift I wanted that year. They thought this was really neat, and it gave them some good ideas for how to convince their parents!
Like I said, Skype is a program I definitely want to use with my students in the future, but I also think it would be great to teach them how to use e-mail. This is such a real life skill, and I think it would be a great learning experience for kids, even my little guys. I think it would be fun to use e-mail in place of hand written letters to write to penpals at another school. It would be kind of the same concept of how I used Skype, except each child would have their own e-mail buddy to write back and forth to. This would give the students lots of exposure to writing e-mails, which is something they will all be doing in the future. It would also be a good opportunity to teach appropriate ways to speak using the computer, rather than "texting" or "instant messaging" language that so many kids use today.
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