Module 1, Assignment 7

       For assignment 7, we watched three videos and thought about how to use an IPAD or IPOD in our classroom.  I have used my IPOD in the classroom for several years in some very low tech ways.  On my IPOD, I have all the audio versions of every Dr. Seuss book ever written.  During Read Across America, I hook my IPOD up to speakers and play the audio books during arrival and other times.  The children love this.  I haven't had as much experience with the IPAD. 
     I would love to have an IPAD, but I just haven't broken down and spent the money yet.  However, there are so many wonderful apps for small children.  An IPAD could be a center for children to use all by itself or some websites, such as ABCmouse.com, allow you to create lessons especially for specific students.  An IPAD could help with differentiation in this way. 
     In preschool, the only draw back would be that we are supposed to limit our student's exposure to computers to only twenty minutes per day.  In today's world, children have grown so accustomed to computers that they become easily upset when you try to limit their computer time to less than twenty minutes.  It's a very interesting balancing act, but we must expose them to technology.  Technology is a part of life, and I don't see that ever changing. 

 

Module 1, Assignment 4

     For assignment 4, we had to create a google doc and share it with Mrs. Bazak and several other people.  I could have created a simple grocery list or letter.  Who wants to see that?  I created a simple survey.  
     I have become quieter by nature as I've gotten a little older.  I rarely have time in my life to ask simple questions and get to know people that I see all the time.  This was just a survey to help me learn more about the people around me. 
    Those classmates that I shared with are free to share as little or as much as they wish.  This is just a survey for fun.  My answers to the question about what I like about teaching the best would be the children.  Preschoolers are the most enjoyable children on earth to teach.  As for what I plan to do on my summer vacation, I can not wait to travel of course.  I want to go scuba diving with the whales in Monterrey this summer.  My sister, and traveling companion, is completely opposed to this idea.  She keeps saying, "Melissa, they are whales.  You can not pet them like a dog.  Are you crazy?"  I'll keep trying to talk her into it.  Wish me luck. 

 

Module 1, Assignment 2

    In this assignment, we looked at an article and different blogs and thought about how we could use a blog in our classroom.  I liked the fact that you could share materials, websites, and ideas with parents to help them work with their children.  Blogs could get parents more interested in what is going on in the classroom and help children share their work.  Also, for children in upper grades, blogging would help get them accustomed to typing.  Now that most SOL tests must be taken on the computer, typing and computer skills have become a necessity for elementary students.  Blogging could give them real life, hands on typing and editing experience without it seeming like a chore. 
     I could use blogging with my preschoolers.  Preschool teachers work with their children on prewriting skills.  Some of your higher students that have begun to write could type some of their own posts.  For those children that are not quite writing yet, the teacher could upload student work and type dictation into their blog for them.  Then, we could read their blog back to them.  This would be a wonderful prewriting activity for very young children. 
     Some of the blogs I looked at and loved where, mscassidysclass.edublogs.org, teacher tom, and Miss Erin's Preschool Class.  I loved the individual blogs that Ms. Cassidy had set up for each of her children.  Many parents would love to see this, and they would feel more included and invested within their child's classroom.  Teacher Tom's is a male preschool teacher from Washington state.  The picture on the top of his blog is of him dressed as a superhero with a red cape.  He has many wonderful ideas and projects for preschool teachers to use within their classroom along with step-by-step directions complete with pictures.  On Miss Erin's Preschool Class blog, she had entire themes along with suggested books, posted work samples, songs, and hands on activities that could be used with your children in a preschool classroom.  I will definitely refer back to these blogs and sites in the future. 

 

Sorry, I loved this.  I just couldn't resist. 

Module 1, Assignment 1

     I saved 5 sites to delicious.  The sites I found were turtle diary, storyplace.org, 3dinosaurs.com, hummingbirded.com, and www.fun4thebrain.com.  I liked these sites because they were interactive in nature and could be used on a smartboard or as educational sites for the children during work time in the computer area.  There are so many wonderful sites you can use in class; however, you can only book mark sites that have a picture.  I found this frustrating. 
     My favorite sites that I found were turtle diary, storyplace.org, and www.fun4thebrain.com.  Turtle diary had many interactive educational games.  My little ones would love these activities and best of all it is free.  The site storyplace.org has interactive books that you can use with your class along with lesson plan ideas, things to print to go with the stories, and stories that give Spanish vocabulary and the English equivalent.  This site would be wonderful for my ESL children, and I plan to use it in the classroom.  The site www.fun4thebrain.com had many brain based games along with links to articles, other educational sites, and a blog. 
     I lost two computers due to the weather and bad electrical storms over the summer.  I wish I had known about delicious before then.  I lost many of the sites I use all the time on my personal computer at home.  However, I found other sites like Bristolvaschools.org, www.longwood.k12.ny.us, and www.rockingham.d12.va.us that had smartboard lessons, lesson plans, and interactive math manipulatives anyone could use from their websites.  I could not book mark these in delicious because no picture was available on their websites.  These sites had great materials, but I had to book mark them to my favorites, not delicious. 

Delicious

I created a Delicious account today.  I love this idea.  I lost two computers over the summer due to the weather and lost all information.  I will use this in the future. 

A Really Good Site

This is a really good site if you like to travel.  I added this site to my Delicious.  You can also get to this site by clicking HERE. 

Tagxedo

With tagxedo, we all contributed text to a document.  Then, we copied some of, or all of, the text, and copied it into the program to create a wordle.  We could change the colors, chose our own template, and create a picture JPeg.  This is my first Tagxedo Image. 

My first post

I'm taking the UVA web 2.0 class.  This is my first post on blogger, and my first blog ever.