Foundations+ed+tech


 * These are projects I did for foundations of Educational Technology. **

Since starting in this masters program, I have learned many new and challenging things. I have no desire to change jobs. I love my first graders. I get so excited by their successes. I can't imagine being anywhere else. My goal is to be a more informed teacher in technology areas where I know more about technology than my students. I want to guide their learning with the latest tools and programs available. My desire is to inspire my students to lofty heights. My greatest achievement would be to easily use technology throughout my day in every subject area. Like my student's parents, I wish and want only the best for them. The best way to do that is to make myself a better teacher and mentor.
 * Lofty Goals: **


 * Wordles: **[|Allen_wordle.jpg] [|i_view32.exe][|wordle_cloud.JPG]
 * Article Review: **[|Article Review.doc]
 *  Learning Theories: **[|Allen_Learning Theories.ppt]
 * Field Position: ** @http://blabberize.com/view/id/347527

@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NISdsoouE- This **Glogster.com/edu**tutorial was created by Traci Blazosky and viewed on youtube. Traci goes step by step on how to set up a glogster account that can be used by your classroom students. I could use it to create a end of the year poster about the different activities my class did during the year. Then all the parents could be given the web address for viewing. 2. @http://www.studyisland.com/demoAsk.cfm?action=TUOT&myState=ok - **Study Island****.com** is an enjoyable site for school districts to purchase. It is available in my district. Book a tour today. This user friendly site works with students building their reading and math skills. Teachers can monitor each student's progress. Help is available by phone, online, and by e-mail. Students use worksheets, games, and more test like formats as they build their skills. The work levels start with early education students and continue toward prep work for ACT, SAT, AP, and GED students. Study Island works with PASS Skills set by individual states. Study Island can be used with students working in computer lab time, at home, and in the classroom. 3. @http://animoto.com/blog/using-animoto/animoto-pro-2-minute-tutorial/ - **Animoto.com**creates videos using picture and/or short video clips. It's a very user friendly site. There are three simple steps: 1) down load pictures/video clips 2) select music 3) complete credit info. Video is completed in just a few minutes. Each video is very special. This would be a good site to use to create a video of a class fieldtrip. 4. @http://www.lasertyping.net/- My school computer lab has the Type To Learn program for teaching young students how to use the keyboard. This tutorial explains the names of the key rows and finger placement using color. Before my kids start on the Type To Learn program, I show this short video. Then when my class gets to their computer, I review the same information. 5. @http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/professional-development/activtips/ - **Promethean Planet.com**has several good tutorials to choose. Promethean Planet has lots of great templates you can use in the classroom. I checked out Enhanced Multiple Choice. The tutorial displayed several different ways a teacher could use the multiple choice templates to help teach the students about answering these types of questions. Kids love to use the Promethean eggs to answer questions. If fact, it can be used as an mixer at a staff meeting. 6. @http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour/ -**Wikispaces.com** is a wonderful way to save work for others to view and make comments. The tutorial shows how to set up an account and create your own e-port folio. This could be used to display work for parents to view at conference time.7. @http://www.eboard.com/resource/tvid.html - **Eboard.com**is a great site for teachers, parents, and students. Click on the introduction for a tutorial. It looks like a corkboard with sticky notes attached to it. Teachers can post information, assignments, and/or questions for students and parents. There is a place to post comments from viewers. This would be great for parent/teacher communication line. The teacher can post something and parents could check it information and responed with comments.
 * <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand; font-size: small;">Tutorials: **

I chose the Promethean board because it's a tool I have in my classroom. I still don't know about all of its functions. But I learn a little bit each time I try something new. A Promethean board is an interactive white board. The company that makes them has a website designed to enhance the learning experience for students and teachers. It's like this giant computer screen. If I can find it online, it can be seen by the whole class. Last spring my class watched the eagle cam from the Sutton Center. I was wonderful to watch the daily progress of the eaglet moving, being feed by its parents and growing larger. I found a place on the Internet that made the sound of an eagle and showing it fishing. It was amazing seeing our national bird in the wild. Well, until the baby fell from the nest. Even with this sad ending, it brought up a new topic of discussion. First graders are responsible for 200 site. To cover as many of those words as possible, each day I do an activity using these words. I never thought about the learning theories when I developed these activities. Each week the kids introduced to five new words. These activities are not done on the same day. The Promethean board comes with writing pens. So anyone can write on the board itself. In the behaviorist theory, I open my Promethean board to a blank flipchart. My students have a notebook for word wall words. Each page has one letter written at the top. On the board, I write the five new words one at a time. The students write down each of the five new words in their notebook on the correct page. I also place the new words on our big word wall under the appropriate letter in the room. Once a word goes up on the wall, the students must recognize and spell it correctly from then on. Once the students have recorded the words, we play "find the word" game. The Promethean board has the ability to cover over items. So next, I flip to a chart where I have ten words covered up. I divide the room into two groups. The winner of the last game gets to go first. A student from one group chooses two words to uncover. The team members must say the word that is uncovered. If they match, their team gets one point. Then the next team goes. This continues until all words are shown on the board. We say the words one more time. In the cognitivist theory, I have five flipcharts ready with one word written at the top of the page. Now first graders aren't really great at spelling, so they just do the best they can at sounding out the word they spell. For this game, the students will come up with words that are somehow related to the new word wall word. It can be from the same word family (like ot, at, ug). It can be the opposite. It can have the same vowel pattern. At the beginning of the year, the word can start or end in with the same letter. Once we get to October, the students can't use initial or final letters as their relationship to the word. I have at least five students come to the board and write their words. The student must also state how their word relates to the new word. By the late word, everyone has had a chance write one word. In the constrcutivism theory, I use the same chart with one word at the top. In my class, the students sit in four table groups. For this activity, the table groups work together as one (most of the time). I show the first word. The groups talk and decide on a sentence using that word. One person from each group will come and write the sentence on the board. Then the group that wrote the sentence gets to read it the the class. By the end of the first nine weeks, the students are getting good at sentence making. The only catch is all sentences must be different. I'm sure you are wondering, which of these activities do the students like best. It's making sentences with the memory game a close second.
 * <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Lesson Plan: **

Chapter 8 discusses a variety of resources from tools to people to classroom settings. A lot of my tried and true resources are not very high tech. But to get the students to interact and want to learn, everything plays a role. My classroom looks like a jungle. It has vines and leaves on the ceiling. I have three palm trees. I built two safari looking cars that the kids sit in to read. You can't have a jungle with monkeys. So, I have monkeys everywhere. If you have ever been around a classroom full of first graders, you know it can be a real jungle at times. All the kindergarten kids that tour the 1st grade classrooms, want to be in my room in 1st grade. These are my favorite tools, some of them I use on a daily basis. 1) My computer - It is the brain of my classroom. I do everything on it, starting with morning attendance. My computer activates my Promethean Board which I use throughout the day. It's my connection to the Internet and e-mail. 2) http://www.weather.com - Looking up the weather is one of my calendar activities. I put this website up on the Promethean Board. Each day we view the weather for Bartlesville. The class looks at the current temperature, the forecast, wind speed, and the weather map. The kids really like it. 3) @http://suttoncenter.org/ - The George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center has been located in Bartlesville for as long as I can remember. It was their work with the American Bald Eagle that helped the bald eagle come off the the endangered species list. Each year they have cameras above eagle nests around the country. So, anyone can view bald eagles in their natural setting. Last year my class watched the eaglecam for about five weeks. We saw two baby eagles in their nest outside of Stillwater. We saw mom and dad as they brought in food for them to eat. We saw the parents sitting in the trees near the nest and as they flew in the air. It was awesome to see. The sad part was that both babies fell from the nest and died. It was a very good lesson on how fragile life is for animals in the wild. 4) @http://animoto.com/education/ - As a teacher, I take lots of pictures of my kids. I have copies made and put them into each child's 1st grade scrapbook. I started a new project with these pictures. I select the best ones and make a video with them. On the last day of school, the kids get to see the video. I also send home the address of the video for parents to view. I did it last year for the first time. The kids loved it. 5) @http://www.dogpile.com/ - I don't really use a search engine very much. 1st graders don't do a lot of researching. But when I do, I use dogpile. It has every you could possibly want or need. I use it because the kids like the name of it. I put it up on my board when we need to search for something. 6) @http://www.merriam-webster.com/ - There are times when I need to look up a word in the dictionary. There are lots of big words 1st graders don't know their meaning. So, we go to an online dictionary for the meaning. I have the kids spell the word that's typed in. There have been times when it took a while before we found the word. But it really helps the kids learn to listen to the letter sounds and put them in the order they hear the sounds.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Favorite Tools: **