Technology and Butterflies

I believe that the site Explore butterflies! at http://www.ansp.org/museum/butterflies/new_interactive/butterflies.html is an excellent educational website for students to learn about butterflies and reinforce the kindergarten core curriculum standard II, Objective 2 to observe and describe animals in the local environment. This site has four sections to explore including: test your butterfly smarts, build a butterfly habitat, field observation, and butterflies and climate change. The site provides information, provides immediate corrective feedback, rewards correct answers, and encourages improvement. One section I particularly liked was the “build a butterfly habitat.” Students get 2 minutes to create a meadow habitat and try to attract five species of butterflies. Students must choose between host plants, nectar and host plants, and landscaping and add or subtract items from the meadow. As choices are made, the numbers of butterflies increases or decreases depending on if it was a good or bad choice. Hints are given so the students can make better choices.

I would use this as an interactive learning activity that should be completed at home with a parent to reinforce what has been taught in class concerning butterflies. This site is simple to use, it provides useful feedback, and graphics are well done. The problem with the site is that it does not include a narrative or sound of any kind, thus, making it necessary for an experienced reader to assist non-reading children. This actually could work as an advantage as it requires parental participation which has been shown to improve children learning. I would encourage parents to explore the site with their child to reinforce their child’s knowledge about butterflies. Another problem with this site is that for people who do not agree with climate change this site could be disagreeable to them.

Technology and Dental Health

In order to teach the kindergarten core curriculum standard I, Objective 1, indicator a – describe proper care of the body; the American Dental Association website located at http://www.ada.org/public/games/marty.asp would be useful. This is an interactive storybook titled Visit the Dentist with Marty. The option to have the audio on or off is available enabling this site to be used by readers and non-readers alike. Students can navigate easily forwards and backwards in the story by clicking the correct arrows. The story encourages interactions with the children because it makes a little twinkle on things you can click on. There is a page in the story which allows students to make choices about what Marty should eat for breakfast. Correct choices are read aloud; incorrect choices are read aloud with an additional “not a healthy choice” added. Students can click around the room to identify different things in the dentist’s office. Throughout the story there are little twinkles which the students can click on to make different actions, sounds, thought and labels appear.

This site is geared specifically for younger children and helps reinforce the importance of proper dental care. Students would enjoy “reading” along with the narrator and would like to click on all the twinkling spaces to discover something new. I would inform parents that this website would be useful in helping students learn about taking care of their teeth, eating health foods, protecting their teeth, and feeling comfortable about visiting the dentist. I would allow students to go to the website during class and also encourage parents to visit the site with their student at home. I like that the story includes many cultures and includes a female dentist in order to avoid stereotypes. I do not believe that older children would engage with the site as it is very simple.

Week 3 Reflection

It may be hard to believe but this was the first time I had ever been to the You Tube website. I had heard of it, but never explored it. Teacher Tube seems to be something that I may be more likely to use over You Tube. I spent quite a bit of time looking for videos to download that might be useful for kindergarten. During my search I realized that not only could I download something to show my students, I could used the technology in another way, and have my students create something to put on teacher tube. I could have my kindergarten students make a video about something such as the ABC’s and we could watch our creation when it was finished. I believe that the students would be engaged and excited to create something their parents and the entire world could see and learn from. I found it would be easy to spend hours looking for just the “right” clip. This could be a real problem.

I didn’t know that you could copy videos off the internet. During class, I took notes on how to use zamzar.com but I didn’t try it until I got home. It worked just as described in class. I can see that this technology tool would be useful as I could save a copy of what I wanted and then if the site every disappeared, I would not have to go without the video. Having my own copy would alleviate any fears of not having what I need when I need it. This experience made me realize that I just do not know what is available to use. There must be dozens of technology options available to help teachers meet the needs of their students yet how are we to know just what is available? I guess explore, better yet, I think I will continue to take technology classes when available to update my skills.

I really liked the National Geographic interactive site and will continue to look for sites to bookmark that I think will be useful when I become a teacher. These interactives will help me show students things they may never have a chance to see on their own.

Week 2 Reflection

Effective communication is a vital part of any successful organization. A successful classroom requires effective communication between teacher, students, colleagues, and parents and guardians. One method of communicating with students, parents and guardians is through a classroom website. Setting up a website that provides vital information concerning the classroom including a calendar, homework assignments, announcements, information about the teacher, school information, and provides a method of recognition for the students is an excellent way to communicate with parents and students in my classroom. Initially, the amount of time necessary to set up a classroom website is consuming, but once the major items were in place, it would be very useful to communicate vital information to all who need it.

Students could go to the website to look up homework assignments, see their work displayed, receive recognition, and connect to links that would take them to fun educational sites that correspond to what is being taught in the classroom. Parents could check on classroom policies, look up school schedules, check announcements, and stay connected to what is going on in the classroom. The classroom website is certainly a tool that will be useful in helping me meet my classroom objective of communicating information to my students and their parents and guardians.

I understand the importance of communicating with my class members and know that effective communication will be essential here in our cohort as well as with my future colleagues. Emailing is an effective way to discuss things with others in my many groups and my pod. I send out questions and receive replies to help me along the way. Hopefully, I can be helpful to others as well. The discovery of the ability to share documents on line and carry on discussions in our pods has come in handy already. With so many group projects, it certainly is an ingenious way to manage all the projects in a convenient manner. This mode of communicating with my classmates will apply to my future communications with colleagues as well.

There are many pros and cons associated with using technology into the classroom. One pro is that it provides different options to present information that might reach students. Technology can be used to motivate and engage students who are accustomed to working with technology daily. Technology provides a convenient mode of communication. Technology allows for collaboration among colleagues as well as among students. Technology provides a wealth of information accessible with a few clicks of a mouse. However, with so much information available, a teacher or student could become overloaded and never find their way out! Another con is that although most people are embracing the use of technology, a few may not have the resources, knowledge, or even the desire to use these new technologies. Another con is that there needs to be a balance in all things. A human touch is still better than dealing solely with technology; it would be a cold and inhumane world if we resorted solely to technology over human interactions.

In regards to the video clips, although I could not get the link to “Mr. Duey Fractions” to work, I simply googled the name and it connected me to the site. I thought that Mr. Duey is an awesome teacher who has gone to great lengths to provide a creative and fun method to teach his students fractions in this case. Looking at his website further, he makes CD’s for purchase on numerous topics and takes requests from teachers for more. I believe teachers need to be creative and ingenious in order to engage students in the learning process. The Web 2.0 appears to be a way to communicate and collaborate using technology to engage and motivate students. Going to the Digital Sandbox site, I found that they are encouraging teachers to integrate new technology into the learning environments in order to engage students and allow for reaching additional learning styles as suggested by Howard Gardner.

Ideal Classroom Reflection

My kindergarten classroom is something that I have been envisioning for the past 15 years. Beginning with the physical description, my classroom will be a large and spacious rectangular room located in a beautiful brown brick building. There will be an abundance of natural sun light illuminating my room. The walls are covered in neutral wall paper and host a variety of whiteboards and bulletin boards. Neutral industrial carpet covers 2/3rds of the floor and the rest of the floor is covered in neutral linoleum. There are plenty of shelves and cupboards to store all my puzzles, manipulatives, supplies, games, puppets and more. Neat little student cubbies line the wall between the reading corner and the glass door exit to our exploratorium outside. Near the glass outside door we have a drinking fountain and of course there is a child-sized restroom accessible right from our classroom. There is a large child-sized counter along one wall with a little sink for washing hands. In the middle of the classroom, on the carpeting, there are 4 large round tables each surrounded with 5 student-sized red chairs. There is a teacher’s desk, counter, and filing cabinets in one corner. There is a horseshoe desk with a teacher chair and five student chairs near the teacher’s corner.

Although the walls are neutral in color, I have decorated the many bulletin boards with colorful displays of the helper of the day, our word wall, birthday chart, calendar and weather watch, student all about me board, and student best work. Of course, I have large and colorful alphabet and numeral cards up on the walls, along with a colorful train which we add to daily counting up to our 100th day of school. I have a nice rocking chair which sits near the large colorful rug which the students sit on during story time and morning time. There is a small portable easel with a dry erase board on which I write the message of the day.

I have the following as centers in my classroom: computer, writing, block, math, puppet theater, housekeeping, science, listening, and reading. All of the centers are stocked with high quality supplies and located strategically throughout the room in order to create order and an appropriate learning environment. The science center and paint center are located near the sink and counters on the linoleum floor. In the science center there is a butterfly habitat where we are observing the formation of chrysalis. The paint center has five little easels all in a row with a coat rack designed for hanging our paint smocks while not in use. There is a very cleaver device that holds our paintings with clothes hangers on a line while they dry. Our reading corner had a variety of books to accommodate the interests, levels, and languages of all our students. Tiny colorful beanbag chairs are surrounded by child-sized book shelves which encircle the reading corner.

My classroom will have a smart board with all its great technology, five student computers with learning software, a teacher computer and printer, an overhead projector, a CD music player, and five student tape recorders. I will have my very own laminator and book binding machine for assembling class created books.

We have a wide variety of student personalities which brighten and enliven the day. Our students’ parents value education, love their children, and appreciate their students’ teachers. The colleagues that work at the elementary school are as varied as the students which they teach; yet they all have chosen to be teaching professionals, love their careers, love their students, take every opportunity to expand their personal abilities and work together like a smooth running machine.

I will employ the most up to date theories and practices to teach the state core curriculum to the students. I will use a variety of strategies and methods to give the students ample opportunity to find a learning style which works for them.

My goals include: creating a safe learning environment that accepts and embraces diversity; ensuring each student, guest, and parent feels welcome and appreciated in my classroom; filling every learning opportunity with wonder and enthusiasm; and instilling in each child a knowledge of their personal worth and ability to succeed.