REFLECTIONS

I am so excited that I am already at the end of this great 11 Tools training! It was really intense yet so useful and interesting!

One of my favorite tools was Microsoft’s Photo Story 3. I can see the great potential of this tool from documenting field trips to unforgettable places to creating books. Students can put together stories by getting images from the internet of anything that is meaningful to them. This book making tool will be tremendously appealing for kindergarteners. I would also like to create blogs with videos targeting specific topics for my students to review.

I would like to see my students using Skype to communicate with peers from different part of the world and share about their habitats, their homes, families and customs. Also, I would like to integrate the use of Wikis in the Writing Process, which in turn will create a shift on my students to make them more active participants with increased attention, responding more and improving the quality of their final products.

My thinking was totally transformed by being part of this initiative. I am sure that I can use these tools for many purposes in my classroom that I didn't even imagine when I started teaching many years ago. These tool will definitely help making my teaching experience and the student’s learning experience fun, exciting and relevant!

TOOL #11

It is truly amazing the possibilities our students have to learn with the use of technology, including the online world. As educators, we have the responsibility to teach and enforce the concept of Digital Citizenship with them. We need to assist them to improve their Learning and Academic Performance, while using any kind of technology, but we have also to make them aware of the Environment and Behavior in all digital settings. We need to teach and reinforce the concepts of Safety and Etiquette. We need to teach the children how use technology appropriately, and about how to protect themselves and their personal information.

In addition, we should explain that not all the information that appears in the web is always true. The World Wide Web can be a very dangerous place if the student does not understand how to navigate safely. Being a good digital citizen is recognizing when you are in a potentially unsafe cyber-situation too, and removing yourself from it or avoiding it in the first place.

I will explain and reinforce concepts of Digital Citizenship to my kindergarteners by modeling and teaching the appropriate ways to be safe and to protect themselves.I will introduce them little by little how to use each tool in an appropriate level for kindergarteners, which in turn might surprise more than one with their technological abilities at their young age.

TOOL #10

I do not have these devices, therefore I was not able to experience some and the mentioned applications. I think that IPods, IPhones and IPads are going to be very successful in our student’s environment. They are great for browsing the web, communicating electronically with others, use instructional games and many other applications. However, the small size of the devices could be a problem for an adequate monitoring. Some good applications for small children are ABA Phonic Animals Free Lite, Shape Builder the Preschool Learning Puzzle Game, ABA Flashcards on Fruits and Nuts. Other great free application for IPods for kindergarteners is iWriteWords Lite. The BrainPop Featured Movie is great too as well as BrainPop Jr.
I believe that or District is going to provide us with ITouches for classroom use soon. I think this will be one more great opportunity for our young learners!

TOOL #9

After reading about these two tools, I was pleasantly surprised on the variety of things you can do with them, not only for educational purposes but for personal use as well! I thought that
Skype was only used to make free phone calls to another person but I can see that I can actually help to work with colleagues, and for our students to share insights with peers around the world!

Jing can help educators to capturing images, videos, etc, that we may use them again and again as many time as we need to explain or review concepts with our children and share them in online conversation! It is very helpful to share all kinds of videos. It can help us to collaborate with each other as colleagues when working on a project together without having to meet.

Skype is a very useful tool too! Teachers and students can use it with equal benefit. Using Skype, you can help you talk to your colleagues, classmates and to friends across the world! The students can learn from the customs in other parts of the world by chatting with peers over the globe…and fro free! I can see that these tools will definitely empower our students!

TOOL #8

Here are two interesting videos. This two videos will help my kindergarteners learn the letters names in Spanish and the type of dinosaurs that roamed over our Earth 6 million years ago in a fun way!

1. Here's a link for a Spanish Alphabet video. It is great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avIcW0LSR4s&feature=related

2. Here's a video about Dinosaurs. It's name is "Let's Learn about Dinosaurs!"

TOOL #7

This is my first video! I had lots of fun preparing it. I think this is a great tool with tons of applications. It was a great experience to have learned how to use it.

I can use it in my classroom to prepare videos about our field trips, or on any special events in our campus. I am sure I am going to find many ways to use this tool during the following school year!

TOOL #6

The use of wikis gave me many ideas to use with my students. For example, my students can contribute to the Writing Process just as they do in the sharing stage when they all give their input on a particular topic. The students then will shift from being passive listeners, when they may easily tune out, to active participants with increased attention, responding more and improving their final product.

I believe wikis also stimulates discussion and students involvement. Regarding my team, I am sure it will help us to create documents in an easier and more effective way. It will help us avoid the unnecessary replication of emails, as we have learned. We can create our team’s lesson plans with the use of wikis.

I think that in the near future we will get used to viewing our wikis on a regular basis as we are used to checking our emails accounts now, especially for productive reasons.