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Blog Entry #8: Social Media and Collaboration

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  Source:  http://blog.whooosreading.org/the-pros-and-cons-of-teaching-social-media-in-the-classroom/ Social media in the classroom can be beneficial, but I think in other ways than what we generally think of as social media.  I use a social media app called ClassTag for daily communication needs with my student's families.  The app is set up similar to Facebook where you can share posts on your news feed and families can like and/or comment on a post that you have made.  I am the only one that is able to make posts on our class wall.  I share upcoming events, monthly newsletters, changes in our day, pictures of our class, etc.  I do have parents sign a permission slip at the beginning of the year that allows me to post pictures of their child on this app.  The great thing about this app is that it can only be viewed by those that I have invited to join our class.  At the end of each year I archive that class and create a new one for the foll...
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Blog Entry #7: Multimedia

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  Source: https://blog.skillsuccess.com/how-to-make-a-professional-looking-multimedia-presentation/ I have always really enjoyed using multimedia presentations in my classroom.  In the kindergarten classroom I will generally include images and videos.  I have also included links to different websites or images that were not directly placed in the presentation.  I have created several presentations for all subjects that I teach, math, reading, science, and social studies.  These multimedia presentations really just allow students to see what is being taught through many different aspects of the topic.   Source: https://www.easel.ly/blog/infographics-effective-classroom/ Real life visuals such as images or videos are a great way to bring the topic right into the classroom, when it may not have been otherwise possible.  I created a giant Holidays Around the World presentation that I have used for many years.  It includes 11 different c...
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Blog Entry #6: Digital Writing

 There are so many apps out there for helping students with many aspects of writing.  As a kindergarten teacher, I think the best apps I saw were Little Writer: The Tracing App for Kids and Book Creator.  The Little Writer app l ooks very engaging and extremely child friendly.   There are bright colors and fun images included, not as a distraction, but to help the child with practicing their handwriting.   The one picture shows a little crab at the top of the letter.   This is where the child should put their finger to start the next stroke.   They will then follow the string of pineapples until they get to the end.   It’s just a really great way to make it maybe a little more fun for the kids.   I also love that there are multiple options for what children to practice tracing, upper and lowercase alphabet, numbers, shapes, and words, making it an all-in-one app for handwriting practice.   What I liked about the Book Creator app  is...
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Blog Entry #5: Digital Graphic Organizers

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Graphic organizers are a great way to organize thinking and learning in the classroom.  Exploring the digital graphic organizers that were shared was fun.  It is so interesting to see how differently websites can be set up as well as how easy or difficult they can be.  For my two graphic organizers that I submitted I used bubble.us and Wisemapping.  Both of them were interesting and I think you could use them for many things.  The bubble.us app seemed to be a bit easier for the type of graphic organizer that I was looking to create.  However, I discovered that Wisemapping would be a wonderful app to use if you were looking to create a family tree.  (This is actually something that I have been thinking of creating for my family.)  Overall, I actually found that the Google Draw was easier for me to manipulate and use.  Again, I think it all comes back to what type of graphic organizer you are looking to create.  A few years ago I was train...
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Blog Entry #4: Digital Audio Tools

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Click here or on the image above to view Source: https://twitter.com/MrsMacsKinders/status/971801218874933248 Audio tools are great tools to use in a classroom.  In my kindergarten classroom I tend to use more audio/visual tools and resources rather than just audio.  I will often use Storyline Online for students to listen to a story during snack time.  I will also sometimes use YouTube to students to listen to a story if I am feeling under the weather or do not have the book to read myself.  The text mentioned apps such as Evernote, My Story-Book Maker, and Voice Recording.  I have heard of Evernote before, but have not used it.  Looking at it again it seems as though it would be a tough app for younger students to navigate.  There have been a time or two where I have had students use voice recordings for things in class, but not as often now as I do not have classroom iPads as I did previously.  Several years ago in my classroom I used an ...
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Blog Entry #3: Images

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         Source: https://tastecuvino.com/2017-12-15-thru-12-23-feast-of-the-seven-fishes/ Images help to make a visual connection to what we are reading or learning about.  As a learner, that visual connection helps to support my thoughts or feelings about a topic or subject.  Images can help strengthen understanding and can even help to clarify information.  We teach our students to look for details and pay attention to the setting.  When looking at a picture in books we are reading, I always model pointing out things in the picture that were not talked about in the text.  I share with them that we can often times learn more information from an image that was not included in the text we read.  As a teacher I can ask students probing questions that require them to look deeper into an image.  This allows for great practice so that they are able to do it independently as they grow. I find it very important to include images ...
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Blog Entry #2: eBooks

I was quite disappointed by the selection of eBook websites that were shared in the Lifewire article.  As noted in the headline, many of them were for the Kindle, which I do not have access to.  Many of the other websites were not kid friendly and difficult to maneuver through.  After clicking on several of the eBook website options, I finally decided to explore freekidsbooks.org.  This website seemed more kid friendly with the bright colors and pictures of the books.  The format of the website was easy to read and work with, until I began to notice an  excessive number of pop-up ads that covered much of the screen.   I then ran into some difficulty with finding a text that was actually available to  read online.  Six out of the eight books I clicked on to "read online" stated, "Online view not available yet".  However, some of the books were available in PDF form instead.  The three books I read in PDF form were Sami's Be...
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