Field Experiences Spring 2011

Standard V- A & D  and Standard VI- A(Productivity and Professional Practice) - 6 hours
Assisted parents over several nights with technology. It started as a class for parents on Internet safety, but I realized that few parents had a concept of what the Internet really was and how to use it. Only one of the parents that came for the training even had e-mail but most expressed an interest in having this. Assisted with setting up of e-mail accounts through Google and showed them how to access after set up. Next meeting scheduled with the intent of checking e-mail and learning how to e-mail their child's teacher. At the next meeting, opened up a few more e-mail accounts for parents who did not attend the last meeting. I had found a way to change the home screen for set up into their native language (Spanish) which made the set up easier. then helped parents by providing e-maill addresses of teachers. Google offers a translating service so I sent a "test" e-mail to parents in English which they then "one click" translated into Spanish. I told them I would show the teachers how to do the same so they could send e-mails in Spanish if they felt more comfortable. This was successful but I think they are going to need to meet several more times to feel comfortable with this new technology. Several have smart phones and I want to teach them how to access their e-mail on their phones (hopefully will plan for a future date). Last class was on an Internet safety program they could complete with their students. This would provide a combined learning experience for both parent and child. I have tentative plans to hold parent classes this summer to allow parents more time on the computers and to address their individual needs. I hope this will provide another method for parent/ teacher communication.


Standard I (Technology Operations and Concepts) - 2 hours
I implemented VoiceThread in my classroom and then used this created VoiceThread in a staff presentation. Showed teachers the created VoicThread then showed them how to set up their own accounts. Discussed implications for classroom use. (1 hour) An additional hour was spent meeting with individual teachers on possible applications. Met with several ESOL teachers as well as 2 speech teachers about how this program could benefit the students  they serve.

Standard IV - A & B (Assessment and Evaluation) - 6 hours
Worked with team teachers on use of iRespond as well as how to access data provided in AssessTrax from benchmark tests. Tests were administered paper and pencil to all first grade students and then teachers input the results into iRespond. I then worked with teachers on how to access the data from AssessTrax. This helped us to plan both remediation and enrichment exercises for our classes. Also helped with collection of data team pre and post test scores. Worked with team to input test information into OAS (Online Assessment System). this was also a series of tests given to student paper and pencil and then results put into t a computer system to provide analysis of results. This is helping to guide our end of the year teaching to cover weak areas in retention of information taught.

Standard III A, B, & D (Teaching, Learning and the Curriculum) - 2 hours
Worked with another 1st grade teacher and her class to help teacher and students gain a better understanding of the IWB in the class. Explicitly taught students some of the tools provided in ActiveInspire and how to change between tools. Students began creating a flipchart they want to use to teach kindergarten students about the kinds of math problems they will do in 1st grade. Hope to meet with this teacher and class one more time to finish flipchart and then take the students to a kindergarten class to give their presentation.

Standard V (Productivity and Professional Practice) - 4 hours
Explored many educational websites. Joined several wikis related to technology in education. Also subscribed to several blogs through RSS feeds or Google reader to keep abreast of topic concerning technology in education.Joined Classroom 2.0, a Ning devoted to technology in education. Read at least on a weekly basis, about new tools or new ideas with old tools to improve student learning. Also found Webinars on educational topics. I was actually able to participate in one on the use of Flickr in the classroom. This is a new way of learning that I want to use more on a personal level to see if it has implications in elementary schools (especially Title I schools)

Web 2.0 Tools - Reflection

This has been a very enjoyable class for me. The assignments were clear and I liked the links within the moodle platform. You do have to be disciplined to stay on track. I think I enjoyed learning VoiceThread the most as it is so applicable in 1st grade. I do want to start early next year with a class blog. If I am still in first grade, I can start by introducing the blog and how to log on where all they may post in the beginning is a yes or no answer to a question. I am sure as the year progresses, so will their writing skills and the blog posts will become more reflective. I will continue to use VoiceThread and will start earlier in the year with that as well. Personally, I am going to continue blogging and will check in on the wikis I have joined (hopefully at least once a week), and want to build my PLN as well as introduce tools to my colleagues. I hope to continue to work with parents of our students learn more about computers and the internet. I may even teach a parent class this summer. I had one parent tell me he wants to learn about FaceBook and wants to create an account. Since FaceBook is blocked from school, my first thought was I could not help him, but then I realized i could do a screencast to show them and they could then go home and create their account. I can e-mail them the link to the screencast so if they have forgotten they still have access to it. I hope to keep using as many of these tools as I can so that I don't forget how.

Internet Safety

Internet Safety is something we need to always keep in the back of our minds, even after we have taught children as the internet is constantly evolving and changing, so what we might need to do to stay safe could change too. While checking what is out there, I found several good sites.

• Welcome to the Web  is a site that has several teaching lessons, not only about safety but practical tips on how to use the internet. It comes with downloadable worksheet that can accompany the site. I am going to use this to teach a parent class as so many don't know how to search or use the internet.

• The Virginia Department of Education has created Infinite Learning Lab  which has  videos, quizzes and application questions for several issues that could face our students today.

•  I also like Childnet. This is a site from The UK that has some short movies that show possible scenarios and how students should respond to them.

• Another is Whyville is is a "virtual city" where childrne can learn to navigate in safety. You can become a "citizen" of Whyville but have to earn certain rights by showing you know the "laws" for proper internet usage. this site will allow children younger than 13 to register but not without parent permission. There is also a tool that allows parents to keep track of their child in Whyville.

The earlier we start educating students on how to be safe, in the real world and online, the better equipped they will be to handle difficult situations. And if it is an ongoing discussion, I think children will be more likely to ask an adult about things they are unsure.

Thing 20 - Screencasts

Ok so I have already posted on this topic, but found to more resources for this when reading blogs and emails today. Originally when doing this assignment, I could not use my school laptop because I did not have the rights to download the Jing app.Well today I found 2 apps that will let you do the same thing without downloading a thing. I have not formally tried them yet but am hoping to tomorrow. they are Screenjelly and Screenr. I f anyone else has used these, I would love to hear how it went.

Ok here is the update. I used screenr.com today (at school) and it was pretty easy. I am sure having used Jing helped me. Here is what I did for tonight when I am working with parents.

Thing 21 - Slideshare

I was somewhat familiar with SlideShare as we used it last year when developing classes for parents. We offered Saturday School for many of our students and decided to conduct classes for the parents as well. Since we have many Spanish speaking families, we would have parent classes in both English and Spanish. Many of our original ideas would come from SlideShare and we would modify to fit our needs. We would also make the same PowerPoint in Spanish. I looked to see if I had any of these saved and I found just one. I uploaded it to Slideshare and here it is.

Helping your child with homework

View more presentations from cat1west.

I also created another for how to set up a Gmail account since we just did this with parents this year. I wish I had had the PowerPoint then, but we will use it as we get new parents that are interested. I will also try to create one for how to use e-mail to contact your child's teacher but want to check on using images from Google in the presentation.

How to set up a g mail account

View more presentations from cat1west.

Thing 20- Jing

This was a cool tool with which to play around. I can see multiple uses for this in schools. It is a great way to give step by step instructions without having to be there. Great way to share with absent students or even teachers. It could also be used to send homework assignments or information to parents. I decided to do a demo on Wallwisher. Here it is. Wallwisher on Jing
I hope to play around with this site some more. I am sure as I do I will discover more uses, both personal and professional.
I am going to try to embed it as well.

Thing Nineteen - Google Docs

OK, I wish I had known about this 4 or 5 years ago! My daughters would come home with group projects and so often, it would fall to one person in the group to get everyone's "part" and compile the project to be handed in. What a time and frustration saver this would have been.

From a teachers standpoint, I see many uses for Google Docs.We have a data team for each grade level at our school. As a team, we choose a standard that has weaknesses across the grade level and come up with a pre-test to assess the students. Using Google docs would allow us to collaborate on the creation of a test without having to be together. We could also use the spreadsheet to collect the results. I really like that then I could access this information from home (which is where I am most of the time when I am writing my lesson plans). This would also be a great way to share information with parents and students. If you give homework or even class work that has been teacher created, and a student is sick, you can have it posted so they can access it from home. I created a slide show from our recent field trip and thought you could allow other teachers to add photos and comments. If you had parents on the trip and they also had pictures, you could allow them to add pictures as well.

I hope to have more time to play around in Google docs and see what other applications it could have in the classroom or within the school. Here is a link to a small sheet I made for Math. Volume Question.

Thing - Eighteen Social Networks

I enjoy getting on Facebook and keeping up with friends, old and new. I also looked through several other sites including Classroom 2.0. I found this site awhile back and did join but had not used it much. I am trying to make it a point to check it every few days with the hope of checking daily for comments that interest me. While teaching first grade, I do not see too many uses for this type of network for students. However I do see uses for helping me develop as a teacher. Finding sites where people are struggling with the same issues I am will help me - 1. not feel like I am the only one struggling and 2. get and share ideas with others as to how to improve the struggle. Sometimes there are links to other pages or resources that can also benefit me as a teacher. I guess my biggest struggle is how to keep track of all of it in a timely and useful manner. I know the more I do and explore, the more comfortable I become, and would be willing to share or teach others to do the same.

Thing Seventeen - Videosharing

While working on the assignment for video sharing, I came across this video and just had to laugh.

I found quite a few on YouTube that I would like to access from my class. I was glad to learn about the safe mode search. Zamzar provides a way to get some of these videos in your class. Many that I found and liked were phonics based jingles or songs with the letters shown visually. I think this is a great way to teach and reinforce reading and writing skills in the early grades. There were also quite a few that worked well in teaching vocabulary for ELL learners. Video sharing from the classroom could be a great way for students to showcase what they have learned. It could also provide a way to go back to review concepts as they are learning new ones. Because videos are on the web, it can allow access from home for children who are sick or have missed school. Teacher Tube is accessible from school, but the ads are quite annoying. (I should have set the timer like Dr. Moore suggested. Notice I am posting this at 2:40 am when I should be asleep.)

Thing Fifteen - Podcasting

Podcasts are interesting. I have had an iPhone for about 2 years now and had not done much with podcasts. After reading the chapter in Richardson's book, I decided to explore a little. I found some interviews with authors under Reading Rockets. I downloaded one with Mem Fox and one with Lois Lowery. I enjoyed listening to both of these and thought that might be something I could share with my students if doing an author study. The author interviews did have a video component with them which I liked. I am more of a visual learner so just audio pod-casts are not something I think I would personally get into the habit of using. I also found one called Curriculum 21, the same name as a book by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.This has interviews with educators on how to improve curriculum and instruction in the face of changes in the 21st century. Last summer I got to attend ASCD's summer conference and got to hear from Heidi. She is such a forward thinker and definitely promotes technology.
I did add Grammar Girl to my reader and then went to listen. One of the things I saw was an app, stitcher.com, for smartphones that allows you to get pod-casts without having to connect to your computer. If you use iTunes, you can subscribe but you still have to hook up your iPod or iPhone to transfer the podcasts. With stitcher, they come directly to your mobile device. On stitcher I did find several podcasts that I might be interested in - "The Accidental Creative", "Tech Stuff", "PRI's The World in Words" and my daily horoscope. I will blog more later as to whether I get into the habit of listening to any podcasts.
I can see several uses for podcasts in education. Teachers could run podcasts of important lesson introductions or even of daily classes so that absent students could still have access to lectures. You could also add a podcast to a blog page to give homework or class updates. Since I enjoyed the interviews with authors, you could create a podcast of "mock" interviews with historical figures. Using podcasts may allow an introduction to public speaking without having to get in front of a large audience.

Thing Fourteen - Delicious

I like this site most for its portability. No matter what computer I am on I have a way to get to familiar sites quickly and easily. I also like that you can "follow" other people and the bookmarks that they have. Searching by tags is another great feature. Following and tags will allow me to search for relevant material when exploring new concepts or topics both for my 1st graders and also for myself. I will probably spend the next couple of weeks exploring the ins and outs of Delicious to see what else I can discover.  I am http://www.delicious.com/cat1west if you want to see what I have found so far.

Thing Twelve - Online Tools

While checking out the online tools, I really liked Blabberize. This site allows you to take a photo and add a mouth and voice. Below is one I did of my dog. This would be a great teaching tool for younger students who do research on animals. They would write the important information down then turn it into a speaking part for the animal to instruct others about it.

More Than Anything Else

Ok so after we learned how to embed something, I wanted to see if I could embed my class Voicethread. They loved this assignment and I am hoping to do more like this. After I embedded it, I did get a comment that some people may not be able to see it. If you happen to check this out and you can't view it, please let me know. Thanks.

Thing Eleven - Slideshow

So I went to Flickr and found some pictures of plants in different stages and decided to feature tomatoes. I followed the growth of tomato from planting the seeds to a plant with fruit. Three of the pictures are from the same person and show the growth over time but I also added some other pictures to help show more growth. The pictures came from the following people.

Tim Patterson 1
Tim Patterson 2
TimPatterson 3
Deb Roby
Greencolander
Nociveglia

Reflections on Finding a Wimba/ Elluminate Class

 I went exploring through one of our links in class or a reading not sure which, but found a website, Learn Central, and perused through some of the information on their page. I found they were going to have a Wimba on Flickr so I joined the site and registered for the class. I sure am glad we had our Wimba class because it made it easier for me to understand the screen when I got in. It was only 30 minutes, and I missed the first 10 as I was having trouble getting logged on but did like that I was able to get in and learn some new things about Flickr. I also joined a Wiki that was the "host" of the class. that Wiki is 1 Tool at a Time. They say they do at least one of these classes a month and to check the Wiki for the upcoming topic.

I also found another great teacher resource when learning about Creative Commons, OER Commons, an open educational resources site that has lesson plans as well as some other cool teacher tools all under Creative Common license. Hope you will check these out.

Thing Nine - Creative Commons

I can say that I have never noticed the Creative Commons logo before doing this assignment. I am glad that we were given the task of exploring more about Creative Commons. Last semester we did have to learn about copyright and making sure to cite sources. But we also learned how to find photos marked for reuse. I did not think there were different levels of reuse until doing this assignment.
I think it is important that we instruct students not only on copyright but also on Creative Commons. Since there are so many photos, videos and soundbites that can be used, students need to understand how to find those things that they don't have to always seek permission from the owner of the copyright. If students understand these uses, they may be more careful with what they post to the web, both through school assignments and also in personal use on social network sites and blog pages. I have used images in my teaching, but to be honest, am not sure if I may have violated any copyright or Creative Commons licenses. I certainly hope not.
Some potential negatives to using CC in postings may be the understanding of the minor details for reuse. For example, a teacher creates a presentation for a class using photos in that presentation that are marked for attribution, share alike and non-commercial use. A colleague sees the presentation and suggests that the teacher seek to present at a local conference where she will receive payment for presenting. Would this then violate non-commercial use? There could be other possible violations without people even being aware of it. Overall though, I believe that CC provides an easier avenue for teachers and students to build products for presentations in class.

Thing Ten - Photosharing

I really enjoyed exploring Flickr. I love travel and enjoy seeing pictures of places I would like to go, but as far as teaching purposes, I had to back out of scenic shots and think, how can I use this to teach.

We are working with plants in 1st grade science so I did a search for plants and found several pictures that could be used to show the growth of plants or even plant parts. One of these was this one by Sound Native Plants which can be found at Photo by Sound Native Plants at Flickr. I am going to try to create a slideshow that can be used in my class and possibly even move it to VoiceThread to allow students to record observations about the pictures. When we grow our own, I will post those pictures in VoiceThread for commenting as well.

I look forward to hearing other ideas for use in the classroom and finding ways to ignite students desire to learn through alternate methods (outside of paper and pencil).

Thing Seven - Wikis

I am not sure if I see a wiki in my class this year but I do want to explore the options for future years. I read Vicki Davis' blog (Wiki-wiki Teaching) about her first experience with using a Wiki in her classroom. This was amazing and I loved how the students had a vested interest and started the "buzz" in the school. other classes and students wanted in on the idea. However, I do believe this was in a high school. Working in an elementary school provides a few more challenges for using a wiki.I am thinking that VoiceThread may be a better way to start with younger children so they can record and then transition into typing.
 
I looked through quite a few Wikis with 1st grade in mind. There was one actually listed as a 1st grade wiki called Schools in the Past. I did enjoy reading this but feel it would have to be read by the teacher to the children. I do like how it is broken up in sections that students would find interesting. I wonder if there is a way to make the font size bigger for younger kids and possibly add pictures or drawings that help explain the differences.

Another Wiki that I looked over was Primary Math. I thought this site came a little closer to meeting the needs of younger students. Most of the pages had pictures which I think appeals to younger students, plus it provides a visual representation which is very beneficial. I did notice that all the "Teacher Tube' videos that were embedded did not work. It would just take you tho the Teacher Tube page, not to the specific video that the creators wanted you to see.

The Let's Go West Wiki was one of my favorites! There is a lot of information on this site, including time lines and pictures that help the lesson come alive.I also like how they had their first name included under the headings of the sections they worked on. I Think this might be a good Wiki to use as a teaching wiki on how to post and also how even young children can learn to cite sources. With elementary students, it might be good to create a new wiki with each year, but show previous wikis to help them get started.

As far as professional learning goes, I enjoyed looking at Grazing for Digital Natives. I think this wiki is close to what we will probably create as our class wiki. I am not sure I have seen everything on her wiki as of yet but am finding some of it hard to maneuver. I think I tried to click on her embedded blog about United Streaming and ended up finding a wiki (and PBL) about plants. I am teaching about plants right now and this looked similar to a web quest. I feel there is so much to learn and not enough time. I am also having trouble remembering some of the sites I have happened upon but did not bookmark or feed to while browsing. I hope I can become more comfortable with use of these tools so I can share with others.

Thing Five - RSS

While working on this assignment, I have increased feeds to my reader, but I think I will enjoy those feeds. I also went and deleted one and am considering deleting a couple more. I just need to set a specific time to look through my reader on a daily basis. I hope I can turn that into a habit. One of the neat things I found that was part of our assignment was from the blog, Instructify, the specific page I read was Create 3-D pop up books with ZooBurst. Since I teach 1st grade, I just had to check out this site!I looked through a couple of books and think this could have great potential. I have not joined yet but will look through this more. From the same blog was another post, Check sites for viruses and malware with URLVoid. This might be a good source to teach students about, especially when they start exploring the web more and more. I think of the times I see posted on Facebook a link that someone says we should check out.

Another blog that I really enjoyed reading and happen to agree with is TeachPaperless: Philosophy of Learning by Mike Kaechele.

I could find myself addicted to my reader and that may not be a bad thing.

Thing Four - Student Blogging

Criteria	Unacceptable	Acceptable	Target
Blog Posts by Students	Blog post not done or entry does not relate to topic	Blog post simple and on topic Does not include resources or links	Blog post thoughtful and on topic Includes links and/or sources used
Comments or Responses that students leave on other student blogs	Comments not written or do not address the  topic of the blog	Comments address the topic but do not make the blogger rethink his or her own post	Comments address topic and lead to further postings on blog  by author or others.

I created as simple of a blog as I could for 1st grade and would expand on it as their use of blogs improves. I read through many sites to help, most were for higher grades but gave me ideas of how to start. One of the best starting points for me came from looking at Meg's Blogagogy

Meg's page referenced a list of Do's and Don'ts from Susan Hyde Suite 101 - Grading with Assessment Rubrics

When I expand it, I think it should look something like the one found on this page, Blogging Rubric by Clarence Fisher 

A side note, I did find a page that has links for numerous rubrics for just about every subject and grade level. 

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators