Tools Reflection

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox?


My favorite tool was # 3 I can see a lot of potential use in this one for my kindergarteners. Such as “Word it Out” and “Spell with Flickr”. For my ESL students this will be very beneficial to improve their English.
I also liked tool # 7 I think my students will enjoy creating a PhotoStory as much as I did!
Digital Story Telling will be a great tool for students to record, document and present a little project for Science or Social Studies. Having them hear their own voices will be exciting to them!


2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom?

All this training has change my thinking in the sense of how I perceived technology in education before. Now I have a different perspective I want to be a proactive technology facilitator in my classroom. I want for my students to feel safe and knowledgeable about technology.


3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I would say that maybe the time since I have had a busy summer. But, now that I’m almost done I can see that it was worth it! I cannot wait to start applying all these tools into my teaching. Many of the tools will benefit my teaching and my students will be engaged and even more motivate it to learn.

Wow! It feels great to now be completed with all the 11 Tools assignments.

Tool # 11 Digital Citizenship

I think that early childhood is just the right place to start teaching good “Digital Citizenship”. The same way all the teachers go over safety rules and procedures at the begging of the school year likewise; I will talk to my students about appropriate and inappropriate use of technology.
First, I will ask and guide my students to brainstorm and create what rules we could and should use when using technology. For example; not sharing personal information, such as address, phone number, etc. Then I will post these rules near the computers where they can see them and remember about it.

I will also like to explain to them that using the internet is a privilege that should not be abuse and if for some reason somebody decides not to follow the rules that person will lose that privilege.

Definitely, our students using technology in the 21st Century need to feel safe in the virtual environment, knowing that they need to be responsible for their decisions and actions. And if we start doing this at a young age they will be better off in the near future.

Tool # 10 Mobil Technology and Apps

Many students are already utilizing all this technology. Most of them have seen mom, dad, big brother or sister using either an iPhone, iPad, or iTouch every day. I am glad to bring it into the classroom and motivate them more.

I have looked through some of the apps that were listed. Some of the ones I liked were:

“Read Me Stories” I think this app is great for kindergarteners. It has new talking picture books everyday and teaches children new words, how to say them, and also new concepts! I love it!!!!

“Hangman” This could be use as a workstation for my bilingual learning centers. The bilingual partners can work together on spelling words. This would be great for my English Language Learners!

I see using it on my classroom for the following: Counting, numeral ID, letter ID and letter sound practice, also for listening to stories.

Tool # 9 Sharing Information through Jing and Skype

1. I can see how Jing would be helpful in a Kindergarten classroom to teach the kids a set of directions or procedures for a work station or a "how -to" to log into some computer activities instead of always having to ask me or ask other students. This tool is ideal for recording lessons and making them accessible to students for later review. I cannot wait to try it!




2. My family use Skype a lot it makes easy to see them and talk. I can see the benefit of Skype for teachers and students by visiting each other to carry on verbal conversations with other students in different schools here in Houston or across the USA. Also, it will be nice to use it when a student moves away to a different town during the school year to keep contact with him and his new class.
I’m thinking also that it would be great to use with parents as a new way of communicating.

Tool # 8 Video Resources

I have seen in my own class how videos can help students to understand and retain concepts better. We have been using United Streaming videos from Discovery Education for science, math, and social studies and the students just loved it. Not only can children be interested in the videos, but can better understand the topic through visual memorization.

The first video that I found is from YouTube and it is about counting the numbers. The title is:
Counting to 10 for young children.
This song presents the numbers 1-10 as words, numerals, counting frame, and cuisiniere rods. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPfPyYp84E&feature=related

The second video is a cute interactive quiz about shapes. The video goes on and explains the shapes characteristics. Not only will my students learn the name of the shapes, they will also know their characteristics and the vocabulary used to identify each shape.

Interactive Video. Educational Shape Quiz for Children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u747CFl8HuM&feature=related

Tool # 7 Digital Storytelling

I had fun doing my PhotoStory is about the four seasons I added some music and put the name of the seasons in English/Spanish.

I am sure my students will enjoy doing it since is very simple and fun to do it. They can use it to show understanding after a lesson. For example the water cycle, parts of a plant, the seasons, etc.

Tool # 6 Wikis

Wikis will be a good way to show the same document to a team where everyone will be able to work and edit it instead of emailing each team member. Having a Wiki will help us to collaborate better by adding more ideas, suggestions, and editing for our final document.

In Kindergarten we start the school year creating lists. This tool will show my students that we can all use the computer to create a list and we all be able to add, edit and save our information.