Google Earth

The google earth tool is a fantastic tool to bring into the classroom. I wish I would have known sooner how easy and user friendly it was as I could have brought it into my classroom sooner. For example, we were learning about Montana about a month ago. I showed my students Montana pictures from the internet that I found. However, had I used Google Earth they would have seen what it is really like. It would have been more meaningful to them. It could also be a great ice breaker activity for students at the beginning of the year or for new students who have moved to the area to share where they came from. I always tell my students where I'm from, but being able to use google earth would show them where I'm from. They would be able to put a picture to the name. They could also do the same! It is a great way to show students the world! :)

Twitter

As I was reading an article about homework in the classroom, I noticed that the author of the article posted his twitter account to follow him. As an educator, I think it is important to stay up to date with the current and latest issues in education. Having a twitter account and following such organizations allows educators to know what's what, stay informed, etc. in education. This is definitely impacts your instruction as you are able to stay in tune and hone in on the current events in the educational world and bring that knowledge into your classroom. I will definitely be following such informative authors and organization that will benefit my instruction!

Wordle

I liked the Word Cloud tool. I can definitely see it as a great tool to make posters for my classroom that revolve around what we are learning. It can be a great visual representation for students to refer to. It can also be a great way to create posters that reflect the children in the classroom. The children can make the posters in class at the beginning of the year to share with students. This can be about themselves. It would be a great ice breaker activity for students to warm up to each other at the beginning of the year. This can also be done at home for students to bring to class as it can be an activity for students and parents to participate it. The learning opportunities are endless!

Google Form

I did this Google Form. End of the Year Bash Using Google Forms is a great way to get immediate feedback from parents and students. It is an awesome way to take a survey about your instruction, etc. in which parents have the opportunity to be give immediate feedback to the teacher. This will definitely affect instruction as you are able to see what works for your families. For example, you can take a survey to see what families may think about the homework process and about the homework itself. This will let you know whether or not it is working and whether or not you need to change anything. Of course, the surveys can be given to the students - with the age appropriateness taken into consideration. It is also a great tool to create assessments for students that are able to be customized to what the students are learning. It's a fabulous tool to use with students and families!

Elephants can't what?: A Digital Storytelling

Creating a digital story is a great and innovative way to bring literacy into the classroom. I must say that after thinking of a story for students, the hard part was finding the pictures to go along with the story as you had to stay within a certain theme. It was very fun to create my digital story. I am definitely going to share it with my students as I made it kid-friendly for my students. This simple story that I made can give students practice in all aspects of literacy. I can't wait to share it and get their feedback about it. I hope you enjoy it! Elephants can't what?

Real and Relevant

Providing students with an education that is both relevant and REAL is important. We must not only make connection, but also show them how to use and apply what they are learning to do something purposeful in the real world. This makes learning more meaningful for them. Creating an environment that is conducive to being relevant and real engages the students in their learning. It can and SHOULD be done at all grade levels. Being a first grade teacher and with the examples given in the book, it made me ponder on how I provide my students with real-world connections.  I got to thinking and I am glad to say that I do! For example, my students were learning about surveys in which they had to conduct surveys, organize data, represent data, and interpret data. This was right around the time that the presidential election was going on, so it was a great opportunity to incorporate a current event with surveys. My students "voted" for who they wanted to be president. I did engage students with relevant and REAL learning! YAY! :)

3 Social Networking Ideas in the Classroom

I teach first graders so I would not necessarily use social networking to communicate directly with my students. However, it can be used in other useful and effective ways. 1. I currently use social networking to get ideas from and network with other first grade teachers. This is really helpful in setting up lessons for my students. 2. Another way I could use social networking is to communicate with parents through a class facebook/twitter page. This would allow parents to be familiar about any upcoming events and what we are learning in class. It would be a great home and school communication tool with parents. 3. As a step further into parent-teacher communication, it could also be used to share material, online games, apps, links, ideas, etc. with parents that supplement what we are learning in the classroom. There are many ways to incorporate social networking with students directly. However, being a first grade teacher, it would not be the most effective and efficient way to integrate technology. Like I said, it would be a great way to network with other teachers and as a parent-teacher communication tool for my current grade level.