Final Reflection!

I was excited, confused and frustrated as I used these tools. When things were complete I felt really good. But during the process I was pleased when something went well but frustrated when it didn't. My biggest hurdle was getting the sound to work for week 4. I liked using the Storybird program a lot. It was easy to format and create a finished project. I was able to use it last year when subbing for someone at school and saw the creativity of the students in the Special Ed room as they worked, it was wonderful. I'm hoping to revisit the weeks that I've completed and to use many of the tools or ones like them with my students and within my own lessons. I really like how the Smart Board will allow me to use these tools "large" in the classroom. I'd like to overcome some of the anxiety I feel with some of these tools this year. With the implementation of a new set of standards I feel this is a great time to experiment and add things to make the curriculum more alive for everyone in my classroom. I may or may not have explored these tools on my own, but Camp 2.0 made me plug on and complete the tasks. Thank you Camp 2.0 :)

Activity 4

The video I prepared for this reminds me of the flips I have seen used in other classes. I spoke about the different physical features in Minnesota that we would work on in class on maps. It's my hope that talking about the different features will make it easier for students to locate and illustrate them on their maps. So, today I tried loading Screenr and after 15 minutes it was still spinning and not loaded. This appears to be a very frustrating acitivity for me to complete. Even though as I stated above I loved looking at others and how they were used.

Week 9 - Fitness

Age Restrictions- Interactive tools are a great way to capture students imagination and energy. However, our first priority is following the rules that relate to our students. While I would use the 8th grade classes to produce the electronic posters with Glogster I would not do so with the sixth graders. I would have to look at similar programs ahead of time, since that's not an option. I would probably have students look up similar information on the web and then perhaps have them hand tool their posters. This is a prime example of why we need to look at the parameters of the tools we use prior to the day of use. Ethically it would not be appropriate for me to use the program with students under 13. I have used information and programs in the past which, under a dry run for myself worked like a charm, but when applied with students it faultered/failed/crashed and burned. In these instances I had to scrap the day and go to the next step and then revisit the plan when I worked out the kinks. Although, this may be frustating it helps me to learn how to monitor, adjust and plan more carefully. Scenario 6: Course Management Overload Ms. Carlson is excited to use Edmodo, a course management system similar to Moodle with her students. Although Edmodo isn’t officially supported by the tech department like Moodle is, she is excited to use it because she finds it much more intuitive to use and she likes the interface better than Moodle. Ms. Carlson is vigilant about the privacy settings, has informed her principal and parents of her instructional goals and objectives. Her students jump on board and post to the discussion at record numbers. Ms. Carlson is pleased to see such motivated dialogue on a novel that had previously felt like pulling teeth. Two weeks into the unit, she receives a parent complaint. The complaint is as follows: Dear Ms. Carlson, Mr. Miller, Mr. Hamilton and Ms. McIntyre, Although my son is a motivated and active participant in all of your classes, I am concerned that the school does not seem to have a unified course management system. He is using Moodle in Math, Edmodo in English, Schoology in Science, and Kidblog in Social Studies. Furthermore, all of these sites require different logins and passwords. As a parent, I am having a difficult time keeping this all straight and am requesting that the school discuss this issue and figure out a more streamlined approach. Thank you for your consideration, A supportive but confused parent This is a situation I could see as happening at any time. We have so may different passwords and criteria to get in and out of our "necessary" programs each day to just log in for student information. I think so many of these programs are so interesting and motivating, but too much of a good thing can be bad. When students are able to interact in a non-verbal manner we often engage those that are not overly zealous to participate orally. I find this very motivating and a positive tool in the classroom. In out own building we had so many different ways for parents to see their students work and each of us had a handout/syllabus. Now we have a much nicer and easier way for students and parents to stay connected with our teacher web pages and online calendars. We aren't all using the same programs but we are much more in line with each other than we were even two years ago. I would speak to the parent and try to have them understand/see the way the variety of tools works and why we use them for different classes.

Activity Ten

Here is the link to the Twitter account I created to connect with students and their families throughout the course of the school year: https://twitter.com/Mrs_Ifkewitsch This is way out of my comfort zone because it's so quick and spontaneous with so many people/students.

Activity Eight

I really like using polls in my classes. I have not had great luck with "clickers" for a variety of reasons, so these different tools seem really easy and useful to use for many check ins or votes we often do in my classes. Fun and quickly done, I like that and I think my students would too.

Activity Seven

Below is the link to my google drive. https://docs.google.com/a/moundsviewschools.org/document/d/1QguHYCf8seeKsRxTkUlGSy0uw-kfhIrgw_6MdQ0zF8c/edit?usp=sharing

Activity Six

The notecards are such a neat way for students to study in a nice way. Many students feel better when they compose/write on the computer. This gives students this concrete way to create but to add twists of creativity to suit their own individual needs for learning. I'd never worked with spicynodes before. I think they are creative and I like how you can add as much as you want and there is animation which helps to hit the different learning styles/needs of my 180 students.

Activity Five

I enjoy how you can just do anything you want or film whatever you want while walking through a park or a parking lot. It's so easy to upload and I think students could be let loose to work on their own works of creativity and upload to a class folder to share. Sometimes this would be so much nicer for them to do, they could listen to the posts of each other or me at their own pace and over again if they needed to.

Activity 3

I enjoyed using Storybird. You're a bit limited on picture choices but it's an wasy first way to write a book or story. I could use this for students presentations of their own bike trip or incorporate it into other lessons quite easily.

Activity 2

This is the popplet I created  about Minnesota using Popplet.






Popplet was so fun. It's so cool because you can use so many different resources online and tool them to your own needs. It's also pretty idiot proof! Yeah me!

Reflection Activity 1

It was fun to use the MNHS site as a link to the new standards I'm adding to my current curriculum. When I hit publish it was so cool to see it WORK!
Sorry, my expectations are low, so my achievements are so attainable.
:)

Activity 1

 We are covering Minnesota history in our 6th grade curriculum.
This is a wonderful link to use with students when trying to explain our regiments part in the war.

With new curriculum and a lot of history to cover I think the blog factor could be quite helpful. Students would be able look at posts and respond or add their own to help all of us in class to understand all of the great/important moments they are to be held accountable for this year.

My First Post

I want to become more literate in this area!   :) 
How to do the above and use it in my classroom.
My current level is hot and cold, depending upon what I put to use. 
I use a variety of tools- web, SmartBoard, etc....