Thing 12

I decided to not create a quiz since I just created a copyright quiz when I completed another thing.  I created a forum to gather information for an event that I am spearheading with the help of a few other.  The idea is the same, use Google Form to question and gather information and dump responses into one neat and friendly place.  I love using forums with my staff, church and friends to get information quickly.

Rubistar

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1429925&

This rubric will be a great tool for me to use in my Kindergarten classroom to see where children are with their reading development but also to use with parents at parent teacher conferences to show them here their child is and where they will journey to throughout Kindergarten as a reader.  Parents often ask for more visual information to better understand the expectations of child.  Placing rubrics on my classroom website this year is a goal of mine to hep better support parents and their understanding of curriculum expectations throughout the year.  

We use to use Pinnacle but since it is summer I am not able to show the program with students and how it tracks their data.  We are moving to a new system in the fall that is suppose to "talk" better to the system the ISD uses and will be more user friendly for staff and administration to track student data and analyze students as a whole.

Connections to Marzano Strategies: Reinforce Effort and Provide Recognition; Objectives and Feedback

Time Spent:  4 hours

Thing 11

Prezi

http://prezi.com/rwoejqsml8yz/help-your-child-become-a-reader/

 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1a Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

I do not see this tool being used in my Kindergarten classroom but rather as a tool for parents to know how to best help their child throughout the year.  Ideas for future Prezis for parents are:  What to expect in Kindergarten, Development of Reading in Kindergarten, How to Support Your Child in Investigative Math, Why We Don't Teach Spelling, Field Trip Basics, etc.  Parents who are new to elementary school often carry anxiety about many topics.  Using Prezi will help these families have answers at their disposal and provide a quick reference whenever needed.  I look forward to sharing these with my teaching partner and using these together to create simple, easy documents that help parents and not overwhelm them.  In comparison to Power Point, this tool is much more user-friendly and gives you no choice but to be clear and concise with the material you are sharing.  

Connections to Marzano Strategies: nonlinguistic representations, graphic organizers, note taking, and setting goals/objectives

Time Spent:  2 Hours

Thing 10

Photobucket

http://s1363.photobucket.com

Making our thinking visible!  A goal in my classroom is to help students make their thinking visible.  We use white boards, think pads, scrap paper, and hopefully this year incorporating the iPads and SmartBoard.  

 Photobucket

 http://s1363.photobucket.com/?postlogin=true


I see this tool being used during Writers Workshop, students could take a photo and edit it and use some of the unique features to emphasize an object, person or concept and use the edited photo with their published piece of writing.  Having kindergartners, I imagine this tool being accessed/guided with a classroom volunteer for time management purposes.   

Connections to Marzano Strategies: Nonlinguistic Representations; Identifying Similarities and Differences

Time Spent: 2 hours

Thing 9

Copyright Quiz

How are ideas protected?
Copyright
Patent

Which expands the scope of educator's rights to perfom and display works and to make the copies integral to such performances and displays for digital distance education, making the rights closer to those we have in face-to-face teaching?

Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia
Teach Act

Copyright protects expression, trademark protects names, and patents protect?

property
ideas

True or False:  A Creative Commons license lets you dictate how others may use your work?

True 
False

The right to sue for infringement requires claims of copyright to be registered?

with the school you teach at
with the district in which you teach
the Copyright Office 
all of the above


Can you use a portion of copyrighted material without the owners permission?

Yes
No

True or False:  Copyright only protects text on a website and not the photos?

True
False


Can a group share the copyright agreement of a collaborative project?

Yes
No


How many option types of license are available through Creative Commons?

1
3
5
6


True or False:  Author copyrights last a lifetime?

True 
False



Connections to Marzano Strategies: Generating and Testing Hypothesis

Total time:  3 Hours

Thing 8

bubbl.us

Here is my mind map of technology use in Kindergarten.  I look forward to using this tool with my colleagues in planning, talking about theory and some problem solving.  I also think this will be a fun tool to use with my students as we talk about what we think we know about things.  I am curious to see if there is something interactive for the SmartBoard in my classroom.  

Tagxedo

Tagxedo was a lot of fun to use, manipulate and showcase my my thoughts on kindergarten this year.  Students would love to use this tool but I do fear the amount of time they would spend on the details of this project.  I think it would be great to use perhaps with a time limit. 

Wordle

Wordle was easy to use and since it does not have many bells and whistles, the time I spend on the finished product was not nearly the time I spent on Tagxedo.  I think students will have fun with each of these and enjoy creating a visual to share their learning/understanding on a variety of projects.

I can't wait to use these with my staff.  I am a visual learner/communicator and I think these tools will be fun to explore in Professional Learning Communities, staff meetings, brainstorming sessions, etc.  Quick, easy representations of our thinking!

Connections to Marzano Strategies: Questions, Cues and Advance Organizers; Non-Linguistic Representations

Time Spent:  2 hours

Thing 7

The Burmese Mountain Dog Club of America

Official Site

http://burmesemountaindog.info

 Content:  The site does cover the subject in a comprehensive manner however, I struggle to find that the subject is even in existence.  It appears to give you all of the information you would find on a breed of dog however there is not a breed called the Burmese Mountain Dog.    The links on the page are not valid and lead to pages that cannot be opened.  This site does not appear to be on a legitimate subject.

Author/Credibility:  The site does site it's sources, however, the links are all dead.  The domain ends with info.

Bias/Purpose:  The site was created for dog lovers and to share information about this type of dog, again, I cannot find this type of dog, it is a hoax.

Usability/Design:    The site is easy to maneuver through and navigate.  The layout appears to be spread out and not consistent throughout the page.  The links do not work.


This website would not be included on my bibliography.

Funky Shoes

http://www.stephenswork.com/funkyshoes/index.html

Content:  The information presented in easily understood but there are no outside links to other website.  

Author/Credibility:  The site ends with html with a person's name in the web address.  I believe this is a personal page created with a hoax product.  

Bias/Purpose:  The site was create to sell products.

Usability/Design:  Easy to use and navigate, all areas are labeled correctly.  

This site would not be used in a bibliography.

Digital Citizenship is essential for all students to be exposed to, converse about and question as their digital experiences increase in and out of the classroom.  It will be taught in large group at circle time using the projector.  We will discuss each of these topics, how they relate to us, why we should know about them and how to handle each of them.  Students will also be exposed to these lessons in an authentic way as each opportunity arises from digital etiquette, digital literacy to digital security and digital rights and responsibilities.  

Connections to Marzano Strategies: Objectives and Feedback; Generating and Testing Hypothesis
Time Spent:  4 hours

Thing 6

Differentiated instruction is providing students with a variety of ways to take in information and make sense of their learning. 

Some things that I do daily:  provide opportunities for students to discover their learning and not just tell them what should happen or why something happens, hands on experience, variety of interests used to search deeper into the big ideas, question for deeper understanding, preteach lessons, extend lessons, reteach lessons, choice in learning material, and choice in demonstrating understanding or mastery of material.  Students own their learning and develop a purpose for learning.  Often times their purpose is not the same as mine but what a beautiful conversation can be had in discussing and providing reasoning for each of our thinking!  

SparkNotes are a great tool for struggling learners.  They can read the chapter notes prior to reading the next or post text depending on which skills they are working on improving.  For example, if you were working on predicting actions or feelings, reading these notes after the chapter would be a good review to see if your predictions were correct.  If you are working on  making connections or character development reading the notes prior to the chapters may be more beneficial.  Reading the notes before and after the task might allow students a deeper understanding of events, character relationships and promote higher level thinking and deeper conversation.  SparkNotes can help even the playing field for students and allow them to feel successful and resourceful.  

What a great reliable way to support student initiated learning to tie into your curriculum.  This would be valuable to all learners but specially to those who may not have the prior knowledge that many of their classmates do about the subject area.  

Nettrekker is a valuable tool teachers and students can use to access a wealthy of knowledge.  As I completed this assignment, I found myself spending a large amount of time on the lesson plans with all of the links to the common core instead of what the site had to offer the students.  

I loved the beautiful graphics in these easy reader nonfiction texts.  Students will love the photographs as well as the high interest information, perfect for my first graders!

This middle school activity was fun, interactive, and provided feedback like Marzano suggests in his Classroom Instruction That Works.

The high school activities were more plentiful and I felt were targeted for the average learner with the adaptability of having the text read to help the struggling learner and providing the advanced learner with opportunity to question and look further.  

vozMe

This site could be used to help all learners access information they are interested in that is above their reading level.  What opportunities it will create for the struggling learner as well as the curious learner!

 

Total Time:  6 hours