Final Reflection

My experience with TPTE 486 was a wonderful learning experience.  It was informative, engaging, and fun!  I learned about many ways to integrate technology into a curriculum that I would never have known without the guidance of this course.  At the very beginning of this class, I was a little overwhelmed and was unsure if I would succeed in this class because I didn't think I would understand how to do all of the projects.  Although I was overwhelmed at first, I have really enjoyed this class.  The way that this class was structured made it easy for me to seek help from my professor and peers if I didn't understand what to do; as well as allowed me to work at my own pace.  Having this class as a requirement for future teachers is a wonderful asset for them because it teaches so many different techniques to aid in a more engaging teaching style.  Overall, I learned a lot about technology and how to incorporate it into my future classroom.   

Animoto

I really enjoyed learning about Animoto. This is a great resource for personal and classroom use. It could be used to document and share field trips or special class events. It could also be used for instruction. Also, for children who learn best with pictures and modeling, this is a really great resource.  This is a tool that I will definitely utilize in my future classroom. 

iMovie

Using iMovie was a really fun experience!  It was somewhat confusing at first, but once I began creating my digital movie it was easy to figure out.  I love that the application provides many useful tools that aid in enhancing the movie, such as: text, transitions, sound effects and an easy way to imbed your own music.  Using this in the classroom would be an engaging way to introduce new concepts to students!

Jungle Cats

Inspiration

Inspiration is a resource that I believe would be highly beneficial for the children in the classroom, as well as myself. I liked how easy it was to use, and the organization of the tool. One aspect that I found helpful was that an outline can be printed from the concept map. As future teachers, it's important for us all to realize the each individual student learns in their own individual way. Being able to provide two different ways to present information is a good way to accommodate for the diverse learners in the class. This is a tool that I will definitely utilize in the classroom!

Interactive Spreadsheet

After using Excel to create a spreadsheet that would serve as a quiz, I realized that this is a tool that would incorporate into my future classroom.  I had no idea that it could be used in a classroom as an interactive spreadsheet for any subject matter.  Interactive spreadsheets can be used in so many ways, from practice for students to measures of assessment. 

Opposites Scavenger Hunt

Google Forms

So far, I have been extremely pleased with the web tools that have been presented to us throughout this class. I have found most of them to be relevant in the classroom, including Google Forms. There are so many ways to incorporate this in the classroom. Creating and accessing the quizzes/surveys is easy, as well as reading their results. This tool can be used countless ways in the classroom! I can say without a doubt this will be a tool I will use in my future classroom!

Wordle & Tagxedo

I found that Wordle and Tagxedo are tools that would benefit the children in my future classroom. After hearing both presentations and exploring each of the tools, it was interesting to discover that the two tools were extremely similar.

Wordle is a great way to introduce things such as class rules and vocabulary/spelling words in a fun new way. It also would serve as a great tool for the children to create About Me presentations. Wordle allows users to choose a text and create a 'word cloud' that can be customized many ways.

I found that I enjoyed using Tagxedo a bit more than Wordle. I really liked how how the user was able to shape Tagxedo's 'word clouds' into animals, cartoons, objects, or even faces. I absolutely can see myself using these tools in my future classroom!

Twitter & Delicious

Although I did not have a Twitter account previous to this class, some of my friends did and they had shown me their Twitter pages. At first I didn't really see the benefits of implementing this tool in the classroom, but then I began to see how sharing ideas, opinions, photos and thoughts with students and parents in the classroom. I however will be teaching preschoolers and kindergarten age children, so I don't see this being a good tool to communicate with them, but definitely see how it could be resourceful to older students.

I think that using the tool, Delicious would be a great way to stay organized and keep all of the pages you bookmark in one accessible location. There have been many occasions where I have bookmarked websites on my personal computer and wanted/needed to access them from another computer. Having them all in one place would be beneficial to me.

Storybird & Smilebox

I am always looking for new ways to enhance creative writing for my students. Storybird would serve as a great resource for this! This really gives the children a chance to engage in a hands on creative writing activity that not only promotes ownership, but also keeps them engaged.

During my internship, my mentoring teacher created scrapbooks for each of the students in her classroom and gave them as "kindergarten graduation" presents. This is something that I absolutely want to use in my future classroom and Smilebox could a great alternative to her wonderful idea! By using this tool, the students would be able to keep their scrapbooks forever!

Picnik & Glogster

I think that Picnik and Glogster will be valuable resources in my future classroom.

During my internship, I loved taking pictures of the children during my lesson plans to document their learning experiences. This is also a great way to build a classroom community, as well as communicating with parents about what their children are accomplishing. The effects available on Picnik enable editing and altering of scenery, the color distribution, just to name a few. This would also be interesting to see how the children would edit the photos of themselves. This would also aid the children in the abilities to recall past experiences.

Glogster could also serve a variety of purposes in my future classroom. It is very easy and fun to create different posters. This is a great alternative to traditional posters for projects and presentations, for students as well as teachers. This would also serve as a great communication tool, and social media network within our classroom; which is another great way to build a positive classroom community.

I really enjoyed both of these tools and can definitely see myself utilizing them in my future classroom.

WebQuest

Webquest was a new concept to me, and I found it to be very interesting. Although I have heard of WebQuests before, I hadn't really seen or participated in them until now. I thought it was nice that we got to look at several examples, as well as critically evaluate them. I was not expecting how open-ended they were. I'm not sure if I'll utilize this in my future classroom, I believe that Kindergarteners would have a difficult time navigating them, even with the assistance of a more skilled peer or teacher. I have a cognitive and constructivist view on how children learn and I do not this that WebQuest promotes teamwork.

Reflection on Wikis

Prior to taking this class I had no idea what a Wiki was! I had overheard my peers talking about them in my other classes, but never really understood what they were talking about. I am not the most experienced with technology and get intimidated easily, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this web tool! I felt that it was pretty easy to navigate myself through the website. Right away, I was able to make suggestions that improved our wikis home page!

This is a tool I will definitely use in my future classroom! There are so many was that it could be incorporated into the classroom community. It would be a great way to have open communication with my students parents, which I believe is a vital part of a students success. This would also be a great way to post websites that would be helpful for students to further explore topics we discuss in class.

Website Evaluation

I feel that the website Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning is a valuable source for a teacher in my field (PreK, Kindergarter, and SpEd). Social-emotional development is a key concept for children of this age to grasp. The website lists several books compromised of ideas and activies designed around popualr children's books such as Big Al, Hands are Not for Hitting, On Monday When it Rained and My Many Colored Days. Examples of suggested activites include using rhymes to talk about being friends, making emotion masks to help children identify and talk about different feelings, playing games around what to do with hands instead of hitting and fun misic and movement activites to express emotions.
The list of books is a great resource for a new teacher (like myself) when looking to add books to their classroom library. I will use this resource in my classroom to provide hands-on ways to embed social emotional skill building activities into everyday routines.

Website Evaluation Tool

I found this tool from the Los Angeles County Offices of Education.
This tool appears to be helpful for teachers and students as a website evaluation tool.