Blog Post 2

Original Post:

I Am All Over Digital Photography by Fran Kramer (Kindergarten Crayons)

If you know me you are use to seeing me with a camera. Yup, I am super sentimental and a compulsive photographer. I am also a digital scrapper. There, I finally admitted that.I have found millions of ways to use photography in my classroom. I know most bloggers are on board with this but maybe you use photography in ways I haven't thought of. Chapter two of Teaching in the Digital Age is all about this.

Here are some of the ways I use photographs in my classroom:
1. First day pictures which are used for labeling cubbies, making name charts, and cards for pocket chart work.
2. Often I use photographs to create thinking maps, sorting boys and girls, and worksheets to sustain student interest.
3. I use photographs to create emergent readers and Big Books ( Helpers At Our School and Stores In Our Community)
4. I use digital pictures to create Power Points of all kinds. Some of these are for building background in both Science and Social Studies. So I have one on the symbols of our country and use some animation to keep student interest high.
5. Often I make Photo Story 3 Movies so students can retell a special event in our classroom or a field trip wewent on. These can easily be sent to parents.
6.I use Smilebox and create simple little movies for the families I serve.
7. When I train teachers my Power Points are loaded with students doing specific activities and photos of their work. It really clarifies information.
8. Often I will email parents sight word PowerPoints or a simple movie of letters and sounds using my voice.
9. I take songs that the kids love and build a PowerPoint so they have the support of graphics and can see the text. Often I let the children work the computer while we all sing!
10. PowerPoint presentations can be printed out and made into books by just putting the pages into protective sleeves and binding.

11. The cutest thing I EVER did was take a video with my iphone of a child jumping rope successfully for the first time and I sent it to his mom. SHE LOVED ME FOR A LONG TIME.

Now technology is much more available to our students and I am thinking about some new possibilities:

1. I want to use photography more for anchor charts. Take a picture of expected behaviors at your various stations and post them.

2. Kids will have ipad cameras and will be able to use them in the classroom. I need to think about doing this effectively. This is pretty exciting stuff to me. My head is spinning!
3. Maybe I will want to take videos of students working collaboratively and show them to the class so we can have conversations and do some reflection.
4. All kinds of expository text can be created which is a big part of CCSS.

What are some of your ideas? Please join the conversation!
Read this chapter because it is full of great ideas. The author talks about using photography to build background which can be crucial for an English Language Learner. By the way, I love to print my pictures out. I don't just store them on my computer. Just sayin'

My Response

The book Teaching in the Digital Age sounds awesome.  I teach kindergarten, and I think it’s extremely important to create technology enhanced learning environments for our students.  This book sounds like it would be a great resource for me as I try to incorporate more technology into my classroom.  I love your ideas for using digital photographs.  Next year I’d like to create digital portfolios for my students using digital pictures.  I checked out the Smilebox website, and I think I could use Smilebox to create these digital portfolios.  I could take pictures of individual students as they complete different learning activities and then create slideshows for each student.  I could then send these portfolios to parents or even watch them together at parent teacher conferences.  I can’t wait to read Teaching in the Digital Age.  Thanks for sharing!

Link to Original Post

http://kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com/2012/06/am-all-over-digital-photography-in-my.html

 

Reflection #1

What attitudes, skills, and concepts have you gained from participating in the course so far?

Before this course, I did not realize that social networking was such a powerful tool for educators.  I thought Twitter was just a way to keep up on social media.  I truly viewed Twitter as a waste of time.  It had never occurred to me that Twitter could be used as a tool to share and collaborate with other teachers around the world.  I also had no idea that there were so many great educational blogs out there on the web.  As I started to create my PLN, I came across so many blogs created by kindergarten teachers.  As I read and responded to other teachers’ posts I felt a sense of community, a community where teachers can share ideas and learn from one another.  I’m thrilled to now be a part of this online learning community dedicated to providing a quality education for our students.

What have you learned in the course that you will not forget tomorrow?

I will not forget how technology can be used as an effective tool to save time and energy.  I will no longer waste hours surfing the web.  I wish I would have learned about Diigo years ago.  I absolutely love this bookmarking tool.  It’s a great way to organize the information I find online.  In fact, my group for the team project is even using it as a way to collaborate.  We created a group page to share our bookmarks.  Google Reader is also a great tool to save time.  Instead of searching the web for ideas, the ideas are now coming directly to me. 

How will you apply what you have learned to your teaching and future learning?

I will apply what I’ve learned in this course as I create my own technology enhanced learning environment.  I am excited to create an environment where my students will not only interact with technology, but interact with people through technology as well.  I will definitely keep in mind the seven spaces of digital life as I strive to create an environment where my students can learn 21st Century skills.  I want to create an environment where my students will become life-long learners by participating in authentic learning.

Blog Post 1

Digital Kindergarten-Alphabet Songs Post:

The internet, with all of it's infinite resources was a lifesaver last year when I had a BUSY class of 24 students and no aide in the morning. I used Tumblebooks, and learning videos to steal a moment to set up the next activity or clean up the last. As useful as they are to keep the attention of wiggly boys and girls while freeing me up for a moment, I only use videos and sites that 'teach' or reinforce skills in ways that are fun, engaging, and 'worthy' of my students' precious learning time

I use the terrific learning videos created by Have Fun Teaching frequently in my classroom.  There are currently more than 70 videos uploaded on YouTube by them, with alphabet songs, sight word songs, and more.

There are 27 videos in the alphabet song series- one alphabet song and then a song video for every letter. I credit the songs with helping my students understand the difference between consonants and vowels, not only from the practice of singing along, but I love the visual in the ABC song, with the consonants separated from the vowels

With the individual letter songs, the letter is shown among the whole alphabet, the letter sound is sung, words beginning with the letter are displayed and spoken in a sentence, and the students 'write' the letter in the air. Here's an example...

Besides the great alphabet and letter songs, Have Fun Teaching also has many Sight Word Song Videos on YouTube, as well as other subjects. I subscribed to their channel on Youtube so I get notified when they add new songs.

 

My Response:

Thank you for sharing this awesome resource for online videos geared towards kindergarten.  Last year was the first year that I started using YouTube videos with my kindergarteners.  I use songs and videos as transitions too.  I checked out the Have Fun Teaching website that you recommended.  I love that the videos are sorted by categories.  I think I will have to subscribe to them through YouTube as well.  I really like the sight word videos.  It’s great that the words are used in sentences in the videos to show the words in context.  I also like that the video shows the kids where to find the letters of the word on the keyboard.  The character videos looked pretty cool too.  I can’t wait to try these videos next year with my students!  Thanks again for sharing!

Link to Original Post:

DigitalKindergarten: Alphabet Songs