Week 9

YEA!!!
1. I really like all of the sites / resources that were introduced in the process. I will definitely be using them! I like Atomic Learning the most. I think it will be a great place to go when I am stuck on something with technology. I don't like sitting and listening all of the time, but when you are struggling, it is an awesome resource.
2. Some of the higher grade level things that I won't be able to use, but there really wasn't that much.
3. I am much more aware of sighting sources at the end of a presentation. Before I would have just made it without proper credit, I won't do that again.
4. I learned more than I thought possible doing it "on our own". I am very pleased. And I think my family might be getting a facebook account (never thought that would happen)
5. Really a lot of the new sites that were introduced. I really like google and google maps. I think my kids will really enjoy it. We will learn about addresses and different places. Really great resource considering we don't get field trips.
6. technology journey to the unknown and back to understanding
7. It was a great experience. I just want to keep access to the sites until I am able to get them on my favorites at school. I don't want to lose them.

Thank you for the great experience. I liked being able to do this from home and as you can see, at my schedule I have to do a lot of work when my baby is asleep. If done in class, it would have been impossible!

Week 8

Score of 79.17 percent. (it would have been a lot lower if I did this at the beginning)
Looks like I need help on communication and collaboration 50 percent, research and information fluency 75 percent and digital citizenship 75 percent......
I am advised to do Internet Safety, Extra, Extra! and collaborating to build a slide show presentation (which I do a lot of, so I am surprised....)
2 / 3. I want to learn more about photoshop elements, google earth and excel (which I have no idea how to use at all!) I will be using those programs in class to enhance my management and lessons. :)
4. What really needs to happen to make this successful is the time to truly learn these. I don't think it will be hard to implement because we use a lot of technology already, it is exciting and fun to use. Plus, the kids really like it!

Week 7

Thinkfinity- I really like the lesson plans on this site. I think it is a great tool, but for a little bit older students than mine.
Kid Pix Deluxe- I was impressed with the ideas that were given in the listings. I have used it for several of what was given, but I am excited about expanding my use even more.
Wordle- I loved it! I made one with my family's names but I was not sure how to save it without putting it on the "save to Internet" and I didn't want to do it with our middle and last names so I couldn't save it. I tried right clicks but it didn't work as I had thought.
TerraClues- I had a lot of fun on the beginner hunt. It was easy to use and follow. I liked learning how to use the satalite view as well as the other functions. It was cool!
2. Each teacher on our campus is responsible for deciding what / when to teach in the computer lab. We are given sites and tools we can use, but it is up to the teacher what they use. I use the lab on campus and in the computers in the classroom. I also write a technology piece each week to add to our Kindergarten curriculum. It varies from slide shows to recommending websites. It varies as needed.
3. I will be using these sites to add to curriculum. I will use most of them as a teacher demonstrating with the smart board, but I will also let the kids use Kid Pix Deluxe on their own. As the year goes by, I will add more that they can handle.

Week 6

Love the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives! I have a smart board and I am so excited to use this site with it! I love the spinners! I did not like the addition one, it seems confusing with the positive and negative number. I really like so many of these! Patterns, pattern blocks, geoboard, it is so cool! Love this site.
Not a huge fan of Kids Zone, but I can use it. We have to come up with a few vocabulary words with definitions each year (for the school) and after 10 years of doing this, it is a little stagnate. So I plan to write ones down that come up that I find interesting or that we have not done. I also like the polls, but my students will not be interested in it at this age.
Googlelit is a great concept, but this site is not as friendly as I would like to see. The books for K-2 are not great books, but good for studying other cultures and places. I would like to see better books listed as the site expands.
I really like the scribblemaps! It is really a great tool to teach the US, distance, mark places I would like to go and why. It seems very easy to use and definitely something I will use.
I tried to go to word sift, but the link or the site is not working.
I really liked the new sites introduced in this lesson. I will definitely be using these in class. Thank you!

Week 5

I really like Wikis and I am interested in using it in my classroom with organizing what books we have on each "theme"' for Kindergarten. Since it is a working document that all k-teachers have access to, it can be added to by anyone. I think it will be a good living document that will be helpful to our new teacher and remind us of who has what. Cool tool!
2. Both actually seem easy to use, but the difference seems to be that a blog clearly shows who is thinking what and a wiki can be changed by users and after it is saved does not clearly show who made what contribution. I know you can go back and look at it and republish from a previous save date, but I like how it is publication from all involved. I think both have their attributes and faults.

Week 4

I actually feel comfortable with this material. I have used photostory 3 to create many class projects, family anniversary slide shows, class musical big books. I have not seen animoto before and when I was exploring with it I didn't like how it constantly tried to get you to purchase the professional version....but they have to make money somehow! I liked learning how to customize my Discovery streaming page as well as the teacher options for lessons, but found it frustrating that it was organized by title and not grade levels. That can be very time consuming for those of us in younger grades. I love teacher tube! I will be using an alphabet video with my class and the one about slope is very entertaining and it sticks in your head! I wish I could use that in my Kinder class but it is a little above them. I think the clips on positive discipline will be a good reference this next year when I find that I need more tools in my bag. I did not like the advertisements before each video. I think if I hear the one about the lady and her marathon again, I could finish it for her. But overall, I really liked this lesson. :)

Week 3

I have used Google for a long time and never clicked on setting up my own page with personalized areas of interest. I found that I was a little overzealous with adding a lot of little apps. I like the Department of Education app, I am sure I will use it this next year. I am having trouble getting the song to stop playing in the background on my page, it has become very irritating, so I have muted my computer all together. Is there a spot to turn it off? That is a dumb question, I am sure there is. Can you please tell me where to make it stop?
I am having trouble logging on to Atomic Learning. I will try again tomorrow. I have used it before, so I know it is a great tool.