sandybeach

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tool 11 assessment

I am happy to report that I took my assessment for the 21st century learner course and passed!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Tool 11

Tool 11  Reflection

First, after being overwhelmed, the nuts and bolts about digital learning is a new beginning on a life long adventure. I plan to learn alot more with ongoing trainings found in Atomic learning...my major resource. Also, I will use resources found in the course to refer to in a pinch.
After it's all said and done, I do plan to use I Pad apps as stations and daily drills. The notebooks will be perfect to provide safe experiences for students to collaborate and create projects and research sites for a specific project or with other students in our world. I like the Animoto for student presentations too.
I now have accepted technology as my future for learning, which is completely open ended and exciting.

Tool 10

Tool 10 is a very important tool to communicate to students and parents alike that digital citizenship is crucial for learning.
I like the matrix I found so appropriate to share with my students and their parents. It covers literacy, safety, strategies, and etiquette about digital citizenship. I think I'll incorporate this on curriculum night.
The three safety issues for students will be to understand that they can only access technology in Spring Branch schools, are using school property, and they and their parents will sign a digital right code.
The resource I found particularly helpful in Ed Tech site is  cybersmart kids. This is an excellent and appropriate website .for third graders to learn about safety

Tool 9

Tool 9 clearly is all about teacher and student accountability. For the teacher, be clear about your curriculum and make sure the learning objectives are congruent with the Web 2.0 tools.
Providing  students with a variety of ways to demonstrate understanding will promote motivation for students to take responsibility for their learning. Also, enlisting the support of students as techies will promote ownership of taking care of the devices for learning. I like the idea of using technology for daily reflections or the web cam for students to explain what was learned or what they liked about a particular lesson.
I plan to implement technology as stations for ongoing practice and use sites such as Learning Games and Kids, TES i board for math, and Mangahigh to provide rigor and higher level learning in math.
There are so many apps, however I found ABA flashcards to review science concepts, Arithmetick math flash cards will be a daily practice station as well as ZDOKU, the app for Sudoku.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Tool 7

For Tool 7 I plan to collaborate with Ms. Palla for a social studies video project.
My objective:  the students will demonstrate mastery of good citizenship by creating an Animoto to identify three or four characteristics of good citizenship.
I plan to implement this project next fall 2011.

I will use Animoto, Skype, Google Docs as my devices for the students to communicate about the project.

My procedure will include:   Students will  use Skype to interview another third grade class and document  evidence of good citizenship and use their notes to present their findings by using Google Docs to create an Animoto video.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Tool 8

Tool 8
I learned about the parts of  Dell 2120 Notebook. The Notebook is similar to my laptop and is enhanced with a projector connection and several USB ports in order to operate a digital camera or headphone jacks. The web cam is inside the computer at the top of the screen and used for collaboration or the use of skype. I also found the log in information for both teachers and students.. The purpose of the notebook is for research, learning, creating, and collaborating.

The I Pod is a touch pad where I will join I Tunes, set up my own account in order to download content apps which will be tied to my SBISD email account. I found the steps for setting up the SBISD wireless network account.

In the fall, I will need to prepare procedures and guidelines for using my devices. First, I must check Skyward for a list of students who's parents have read, signed, and returned the SBISD AUP policy, found in the student handbook.
I plan to assign classroom helpers (techies) who will be responsible for setting up the classroom devices daily, returning and connecting to power found in the docking cabinet.
I will set up consequences and guidelines for the use and care of the devices, rules and procedures for when we use the devices to collaborate either in partners or in table teams.
I plan to use the devices in workstations with directions for who gets each device and how to use the technology during station time.
I will create a team of troubleshooting techies to solve problems and share what they have learned.
Finally, there must be an accountability with consequences (positive and negative) for using the devices.

Monday, November 7, 2011

word wall to create announcements

welcome to the seawall

I used the Wall word program to create a website  for classroom announcements or messages by using sticky notes. Any student can post comments on my wall.
Let's have fun adding to our wall.

twitter

Students and parents:

You can now follow me on Twitter at waterrobin.

twitter

Robin

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tool 6

Tool 6 is awesome because it gets students talking to each other about what they've learned and can save this as evidence of learning. I would use a student blog for open house or as a technological portfolio. The next tool that I would incorporate is skype so children can actually view other classrooms outside their own. How exciting for students to create pen pals or explore different learning communities. What a fantastic tool to learn that students can travel around the world or think outside the box.

Tool 5

Tool 5 is my very favorite tool..... children can greatly benefit from creating their own video production based on any content learned. When children design and create a video to demonstrate what they've learned and share it to benefit students, the learning community widens. The motivation to learn and share increases as does each student's knowledge and how to communicate it with their peers or parents.

The wordle is a fun mosiac that motivates learners of words to create pictures..or even frame them.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tool 4

I enjoyed making a document in Google docs and a Halloween quiz for the children.

Now, I've completed tool 4!!

This is an awesome tool.

Robin

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Flicker account

Now I've completed Tool 3, by adding a woordle to my blog and by creating an account in Flicker.
Searching the beautiful photos and being able to select one of them and save it...is fun!

Robin

Tool 2 - commenting on my blog

Tool 2 is now complete, at last.

Sometimes when I am using the 11 tools, surfing blogs, or trying to create a wordle....my computer freezes. This is so frustrating, because it delays me completing my assignment and prevents me from moving on....

Robin

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Wordle

Wordle: shells

Tool 2 - commenting on my blog

1.  My thoughts about building an online educational community and participating in a personal learning network (PLN) leave me with mixed feelings. This opportunity opens up another world where I must get out of the box and begin to join the 21st century learners. Change often creates anxiety for me and more technology involvement that encourages me to connect, share my thoughts, and contribute. I accept the challenge of learning new technology skills in order to remain marketable, however perhaps this road will  also open up a new world where on-line educators and students learn from each other through dialogue.

2.  Many points stood out to me from the commenting advice, but my favorite one is to blog when you truly care or share from the heart. I am hoping this will make blogging authentic and sincere.

3.  The 5 blogs that I selected for my comments are: The Cool Cat Teacher, Blue Skunk Blog, Always Learning Blog, 2cents worth blog, and The Fischbowl Blog.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

blogging again

Tonight, I finally pasted my Voki to my blogger page and I am satisfied.  Success!!

I created my very first blog, this being the second one to verify that I set up my blog site, named it, created a Voki, found the introductory parts of my blog such as the dashboard, setting, and design modes.

I plan to register this blog with 11 tools for the 21st century to earn credit for completing Tool 1.

Yea ~

Robin

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Brand new blog

I am so thrilled to have set up my very, very first blog and my Voki!
Join me ~

Robin Swanson
Nottingham Knights