Final Thoughts from a 1st Grade "Techy"

When looking back at this semester I feel that I have come 180* in not only my use of technology in the classroom but my level of comfortability using a variety of tools.

I have learned how to integrate technology to communicate better with my peers and colleagues (i.e., Google Docs and Wiki Spaces) as well as how to use a variety of tools in my classroom (i.e., Voki, iMovie, Popplet, Story Kit, etc.)

Using one of my favorite new tools, Popplet, I made a graphic organizer of the highlights (I'm sure I'm missing some!) from this semester. I hope this helps people to see (and potentially gain interest in) some of the amazing tools we learned a use for in this course!

Starting up a Class Website

One of the extremely helpful components of this class is getting the exposure to a variety of online tools. I came across Weebly and after becoming frustrated with other sites that made me pay to create my own site (arghhh!) I found this wonderful tool! I felt Weebly was very simple, clean lined, and user friendly. Here's a peek at my new class website. It's a complete work in progress but my goal is to get it up and running over the summer so that it is ready for the new school year. Please don't be shy, I would love suggestions!

Popplet - A Fabulous Web 2.0 Tool

Out of all the tools I have discovered and implemented this semester I have to say Popplet is one of my favorites. It is a really neat tool and is pretty much a glorified graphic organizer. I probably like it so much because I like organization tools and I like to use visuals in my classroom. Popplet is very user friendly, simple, offers text and picture options, and is a great way to modernize an old fashioned KWL chart in the classroom. I have a feeling I have just hit the tip of the iceberg with what this graphic organizer can do!

I have embedded a link to my Popplet describing four of the major landforms my students are learning about in our geography unit. They told me the advantages and disadvantages to type into each landform category and what I love is that I can go back and edit the page, adding as many sections as I want. I would definitely recommend using this tool in the classroom.

Experimenting with Voki - Web 2.0 Tool

Well, I feel a little silly, that Voki took me much longer than expected. It wasn't as user friendly as I thought. When I first went in I thought of making a quick introduction to landforms for my students. They all love video games and cartoons and Voki is a neat way to encompass all their interests. Yet...it was tricky because all the visual options I kept choosing were not available in regular Voki but instead required a Voki Classroom account which you have to pay for. Regardless, I figured it out and was able to create a short little clip to introduce landforms to my students and get them talking to their peers.

Here's a quick tutorial for Voki if you want to avoid my silly time wasting error!

1st Grade Story Kit Book - Literacy Project

It took some time to figure out exactly how Story Kit worked but now that I am comfortable with the app I think it is absolutely wonderful and completely user friendly. If you are hesitant about using iPad apps in your classroom this is a fabulous tool to start experimenting with. Here is a step-by-step tutorial how to get started using Story Kit.

To give a little background on why I chose to use Story Kit I really liked that it allowed students to have ownership of their own learning. My students have just finished up a persuasive writing unit and they were working on convincing people to either buy a toy/object or not buy it. They followed pretty simple steps to complete their work.

1. Students write story
2. Students illustrate story
3. Take a picture of their writing with your iPad
4. Record each student reading their story with the audio button
5. Write their name on the main page and ask them to color the background
6. Save work
7. Click the share button to email it to yourself

It's really pretty simple!

Due to time restraints I only used 10 of my students for this project. But boy were my students were so proud when I showed them the final product last week. They all love hearing their voice come out from those large SmartBoard speakers (even if they pretended they're embarrassed!). Here is my students completed StoryKit, enjoy!

And my Diigo library keeps on growing...

At first I was skeptical about the Diigo library. It seems a little daunting and not as "visually friendly" as I was hoping for (being the huge Pinterest lover that I am!). But...I'm happy to report that my appreciation for Diigo is growing. I really like using it now and find it helpful to store many of my "great (and sometimes random) finds". I like that you can label your finds and organize them for the future.

Here is a link to my Diigo account. Feel free to browse through my resources and "borrow" any that look helpful to you!

Photo Credit: Google Imageshttps://www.diigo.com/user/sgclar01

Literacy Project in Progress...

After finishing my first Digital Story I am motivated to keep working on my Literacy Project. I am still in the beginning stages of implementation with my students and am currently working on teaching them important geographical features and landforms in our new geography unit. I may change gears a little and move on using this StoryKit to showcase my students hard work in our persuasive writing unit...but I'm not positive yet.

Check out the first draft here. Tomorrow I am going to tackle adding sound and recording my students talking so this really is a work in progress.

Digital Storytelling...What Makes a Museum Academy Star?

Finally, the finished product! I tweaked it until I just couldn't look at it anymore. But I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself (for making this video from start to finish) and mostly of my kids (for being so patient with me). I am also proud of their work because it really was student created and authentic to their developmental level. I introduced the topic and let them take control of what they wrote and drew. I believe that all students need to have projects that have parameters but really allow them to express what they think.

This project reflects the overall mission of Museum Academy. We focus on creating students that show the four pillars of respect, responsibility, kindness, and safety in all aspects of their school day. Every month we showcase students from each grade who show these qualities in an assembly in front of the school.

Originally I was hoping to show my students this video as a reminder of what behavior is expected on a daily basis because we were having a case of "1st grade growing pains" in March. Now, after seeing the positive response from my students I am hoping to show this video to the school at our next assembly so that everybody can see that my 1st graders know what it means to show all four pillars of a Museum Academy Star Student.

The video also relates to the curricular standards in 1st grade because we do quite a bit of social skill practice in our Second Step lessons. All four of the pillars are woven into the Second Step lessons which students participate in once a week.