Be the change…

Thanks to everyone who stopped by! I learned so much from all of you!  I am having attachment issues  –please visit my google site for the information that was on my wall

https://sites.google.com/site/janiespage/home/iste-2011

We use the four computers we have in the classroom on a daily basis.

They are used to reinforce academic skills and to practice computer hardware schools (e.g. mousing, keyboarding).

Some of the sites that we have been using lately are:

www.abcya.com I like this one because it has math and language arts activities and it has levels from kindergarten to fifth grade.

www.switcheroozoo.com This site is mostly fun (with the need to be able to control the mouse thrown in); we have been using it as a springboard for our discussions about animals before our trip to the zoo in the Spring.

www.netrover.com This site has many activities to help the children practice their Dolch words.

With all of the time I have had off to recover from my surgery, I have been thinking about how I teach. I think I want to write a book. I think I want to use more technology with the kinders. I need to get a better handle on dealing with the two very different sections of kinders–maybe 2 plan books rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes (or PM plans into AM templates).

Tags: kindergarten

As I start to prepare everything I will need to present at MACUL, I am not yet overcome with nerves–can it be that I am really going to be okay?

Now that I have been accepted to present, I find that everything I do at school I view throught the lens of “Would this be interesting to add to my talk?” I won’t add everything–no one wants to listen to me go on for days!

Tags: MACUL

I get to present at MACUL in March!  I am excited and nervous at the same time.  I think it will be very fun to talk with other teachers about how I use technology with kindergarten students.

Tags: kindergarten, technology

I have submitted propsals to MACUL and ISTE in the hope of presenting at their annual conferences next year. I was really inspired when I went to Washington this summer. I enjoy sharing technology with other teachers, so this is the next step. I should know if I have been accepted by the end of the year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed

Tags: technology training MACUL ISTE

I have finished the classes necessary for my Educational Technology certificate (yay!) and have returned from the National Educational Computing Conference in Washington DC (wow!).  I wonder what is next?

I think I want to work up a presentation to do at MACUL in March’10.  I really don’t like public speaking in front of adults–give me a room full of 5 year olds instead!  But, in looking at some of the presentations I went to I realized that I already knew what they were presenting, or that I knew another, useful, aspect of their topic that they did not address.  Hmmm, maybe I have something to share with someone else.

I volunteered at NECC, and really enjoyed being more than just a visitor to the conference.  If I could get over my stage fright, I think presenting would be a good thing.

Tags: kindergarten, technology

I have learned a lot in this class.  I have been teaching for over twenty years, but this is the first time in a long time that I actually thought about why I was doing what I was doing.

In researching effective ways to integrate technology into my lessons, it became apparent that the most essential part of instruction is still good teaching.  Just adding more “bells and whistles” will not improve a lesson.  There needs to be quality pedagogy involved.  I learned that it is important to make use of technology that will enhance the instruction in a way that could not be done otherwise.

When looking for the right technology to use with my kindergarten students, I needed to find something that had quality, did not have a lot of advertisements, and had enough variety to keep the children interested.  I needed to make sure that the technologies I selected were worthy of the student’s time.

I was able to meet most of my own personal goals for technology integration.  I was able to find good software and websites to use with my students.  I was able to find information about what other kindergarten teachers were doing.  I was not able to find a lot of research that had been done with using the Internet with general education students.  I have learned more efficient ways to search for information on the Internet.  I am hoping to take this information and apply it to other areas of my curriculum.

A new goal I have set for myself is to share what I have learned in this series of classes with the rest of the teachers that I work with.  I would like to increase the amount of technology integration that my students experience in my classroom.  I would like to obtain my NP endorsement in the hope that someday I will be able to teach in a computer lab in an elementary school.

To meet these goals I will:

• add a technology lesson for each story that we read in reading (starting August 2009)
• add a technology lesson for each chapter in our math program (starting August 2009)
• apply to the Master’s program at MSU so that I may continue on with the classes for my NP endorsement (October 2009)
• Be on the agenda to present technology information at our monthly staff meetings at school (starting August 2009)

Tags: kindergarten, technology

I really enjoyed working on this project.  Too often, I have used technology applications in my classroom without doing any in-depth research.  I have always been able to say why I was using a given application, but I did not have any data to back it up. 

In the future I will look for research (using google scholar or monstercrawler as a starting point), that way when administrators, interns, or other teachers ask why  I will have information other than just my own experience.  I (foolishly) didn’t realize that there are probably tech solutions to a lot of the issues I have with my kindergarten class–it is easier to search for a solution/suggestion than to reinvent the wheel.  I will also be able to help other teachers on my staff find ways to deal with their educational concerns.  One of the most helpful things I learned was about the educationally focused search engines.  It was also a good thing to be reminded about the meta search engines–I am all about multi-tasking!

As I already said, the biggest lesson I learned was that other teachers are dealing with the same educational concerns that I have.  Children are children, and developmentally a five year old in my school is not that much different than a five year old in another classroom.  Since we [teachers] all have to deal with ever higher expectations for our students, it is encouraging to be able to work together–even virtually.  I will share the resources I have found with my teachers, as well as ways to search more efficiently to find the needed information to help solve a problem.

When I do this same project (“Using Technology to Enhance the Learning of Short Vowel Sounds in Kindergarten”) again, I will start earlier in the year.  The children learn the consonants quickly, so focusing on the vowel sounds in the computer lab will be a good use of their time.  I will also look for a few other quality sites, so that the children can be working on the same objective several times during the week, but not necessarily doing the same activity.  having a variety of programs will help with the childrens’ attentions sapn, concentration, and different learning styles.  I would like to adapt this project to other objectives that I know the children struggle with every year (e.g counting by twos, differentiating between dimes and nickels), I truly believe that more individual practice will help with these issues.

This has been a terrific project-after 20+ years in the classroom, it is good to have to re-evaluate hwo I am teaching, and what I am teaching.  It helps me and it will ultimately (and more importantly) help the children.

Tags: techquest