Early Connections (Nov. 13)

In other classes I have been learning a lot about the importance of the way you set up your classroom in the primary grades. I knew it was useful for emergent literacy, but apparently it's important for technology as well. Some things to take into consideration when setting up your technology equipment would be to put the equipment somewhere the students can easily access it, but it's also good to put it somewhere against a wall so children don't trip over the wires, etc. Also, you want to put it away from the windows to avoid glares, and you want to put it somewhere that students are able to work together, but it needs to be in a place that it won't be too distracting to others in the class.

The article also talked about how using computers and other sources of technology can enhance communication and gives them opportunities to develop their language. The author of this article argues that children should always be able to work collaboratively on computers because this gives them the chance to share their ideas with each other, talk about what they're doing and assist each other.


The laptops were pretty neat. We would be able to use these laptops in the classroom much more easily because this way it would be easier to have one for each child, so you could use it much more often . I was thinking it might be fun to use the chat as a sort of classroom discussion...I'm not sure exactly how this would work but I think it could work for those who finished their assignments early or something. Also, there was internet which has obvious implications for the classroom. These are the two things we spent most of our time exploring.



IDEAS:
Digital Camera:
Take pictures of everything that starts with the letter A
Scavenger Hunt: A sign that has to do with safety, someone you can run to if you're scared and someone is chasing you, or something...

First thing to do when teaching them how to use a digital camera:
where the buttons are they'll need
Then help them make a plan first! This will help them stay focused and on task


How we used the digital camera: Kindergarten content standard 1, objective 1: Identify ways people look different.
We took pictures of different colors of hair. You could also do tall, short, eye color, etc. and each child could take two pictures in groups of say 4.

Google Earth Virtual Tour

I watched Hollie Bieri's and Aleisha Boehm's virtual tours. I thought doing time zones for this project was a creative and fun idea! This would really help kids visualize the difference in the time zones. Aleisha's tour was quite informative and I learned a lot. I especially enjoyed one of the videos she had linked. It was quite dramatic, but it really gave me a feel for just how bad WWII was. This is what I learned!

Google Earth

Well, before today I actually knew nothing about Google Earth, so I was pretty excited! My Mom is a Geography teacher, so I actually called her up and told her about this hoping she might be able to use it in her classroom (she tries to use technology as much as possible because it seems to keep her kids engaged better than other methods she's tried). One thing I was thinking of to use this for though, was teaching habitats to children and where in the world they might find them. I am very interested in habitats and think they are quite fun to learn about, but I think it's difficult for children to get a grasp on them since some habitats are foreign to them and they aren't anything they've had experience with before. So Google Earth could provide a fun, interactive and hands-on approach to finding out more about habitats!

Viewing of 3 other projects

I think what I learned most from watching is that you can really make these videos as good as you want. Just a little creativity goes a long ways! I thought one of the videos went a little long and I didn't think it was quite as creative as some of the others (still enjoyable though!) But some of the videos I really enjoyed watching and it seemed like the people who made them had a lot of fun with them and took the time to make their videos nice! I can definitely see how this could be a great learning tool in the classroom! I plan on teaching younger grades, and I was thinking this might be a fun thing for the younger grades to do as a class and we could possibly make up our own play and take pictures then make a video. Then for third grade, this would make a great book report! Book reports can really be a drag sometimes, but this would definitely be a fun alternative to the regular old book report. (I watched Esther Stewart's, Michelle Carlston's, and Hollie Bieri's).

Alphabet rap!

Here's our video!

Week 5 Reflection

I'm really excited about the digital storytelling assignment. This is definitely something I could see myself using in my classroom, and I think it's a great alternative to the regular old book reports.

Digital Story Telling