Tool #11

1.       Being introduced to some of the brand new tools, and learning more about a great deal of them has been pretty neat. There are some tools that we will use constantly with our new technology. Google Docs is (in my opinion) by far the most useful tool that we learned about. The ability that the kids have to collaborate within projects, and even from class to class is great and allows for numerous possibilities of how to teach across different subjects. Poll everywhere is just something that I think would be fun to use, maybe not the most efficient, but definitely fun and different for the kids.

2.       I am very excited to get the technology into my classroom. I know that unfortunately it will take a lot of work upfront, with initially teaching the kids how to correctly utilize the devices. I think that with some leg work, and a lot of planning my classroom could really have a different look in the near future. I think that this year, for the rest of the semester it will be almost like a trial run, and once we are comfortable with the best practices and ways to get technology into the lessons everyday it will be awesome! I am fully aware that at the beginning the planning and thinking through the uses of technology will be different, but then eventually it should provide us with amazing new possibilities as educators.

3.       I was happy to learn about some of the tool I had not yet experienced. I was pretty familiar with a great deal of them already, but it was interesting to see how many tool SBISD has available for the kids to use.  With the amount of apps and programs that SBISD provides, our students will be far more technologically advanced than I am at this age. I am excited to get the tools, and get started already!

evel2 � / ' < ��� P� portLists]>·         Lastly, we have a big “no bullying” push on our campus. We have had staff meetings about it and it truly a point of emphasis here at SFMS. It is very important that our students understand that our stance against bullying extends into cyberspace. We as educators have to make sure we are monitoring chatrooms, or online forums that our students are working in to ensure that appropriate dialogue is taking place.

2.       Through the ED Tech website located HERE you can access a great deal of websites that have informative pages on how to correctly use the internet. I enjoyed a page called “Code for Best Practices” This page was created and is managed by The University of Rhode Island and was originally created for their school of communications and media. It talks a great deal about copyright laws, something that is important to this generation with all of the illegal downloading that happens constantly.

·         There is also a page called Cyberethics which interestingly enough is a .gov website. This website is great about how to correctly use the internet with safety and appropriateness in mind. They have a list of “Do’s” and “Do not’s” which is pretty good.

I think that both of these websites will be utilized within my classroom once the technology rollout takes place. Knowing how to correctly use technology is a fundamental piece to have in place to allow for successful 21^st century learning.

3.       I think that using some of these resources every class will need to have a discussion on what appropriate technology use in that classroom means. I plan on sharing the websites, with the students and their parents via blogs, or hardcopies and engaging in class discussions openly. I think that most of our students have experienced something on the internet through whatever social media site which impacted their outlook on things. Giving examples and role playing could be an effective way of demonstrating appropriate internet behavior.

4.       As previously mentioned, I can share the information with parents through my website or via hardcopies. I think it would be a good idea for the school to hold a “Parent’s education night” and send a letter home outlining good ideas, or expectations of our students here at SFMS. It is essential that everyone is on the same page when it comes to what is best for the students at our school. 

Tool #10

1.       I think that there are a great deal of reasons why we must teach our kids how to correctly use technology. We as educators must keep them as well as others safe while using the internet.

·         First of all I think that we have to make sure that our students know how to keep themselves safe. With all of the sexual predators, or dangerous/inappropriate websites out there it is too easy for our kids to unknowingly enter in personal information to a dangerous website, or stumble upon an extremely inappropriate website on accident.

·         Secondly, I know from experience, that our kids do not know how to correctly go about researching a topic. When we did our research project I was amazed at how many times I had to remind the students that I wanted them to get information from “Creditable” resources, and that askjeeves.com, or ask.com, or answers.com are unacceptable. I truly believe that some of our kids do not have enough online exposure to be able to accurately differentiate between “good and bad” information.

·         Lastly, we have a big “no bullying” push on our campus. We have had staff meetings about it and it truly a point of emphasis here at SFMS. It is very important that our students understand that our stance against bullying extends into cyberspace. We as educators have to make sure we are monitoring chatrooms, or online forums that our students are working in to ensure that appropriate dialogue is taking place.

2.       Through the ED Tech website located HERE you can access a great deal of websites that have informative pages on how to correctly use the internet. I enjoyed a page called “Code for Best Practices” This page was created and is managed by The University of Rhode Island and was originally created for their school of communications and media. It talks a great deal about copyright laws, something that is important to this generation with all of the illegal downloading that happens constantly.

·         There is also a page called Cyberethics which interestingly enough is a .gov website. This website is great about how to correctly use the internet with safety and appropriateness in mind. They have a list of “Do’s” and “Do not’s” which is pretty good.

I think that both of these websites will be utilized within my classroom once the technology rollout takes place. Knowing how to correctly use technology is a fundamental piece to have in place to allow for successful 21^st century learning.

3.       I think that using some of these resources every class will need to have a discussion on what appropriate technology use in that classroom means. I plan on sharing the websites, with the students and their parents via blogs, or hardcopies and engaging in class discussions openly. I think that most of our students have experienced something on the internet through whatever social media site which impacted their outlook on things. Giving examples and role playing could be an effective way of demonstrating appropriate internet behavior.

4.       As previously mentioned, I can share the information with parents through my website or via hardcopies. I think it would be a good idea for the school to hold a “Parent’s education night” and send a letter home outlining good ideas, or expectations of our students here at SFMS. It is essential that everyone is on the same page when it comes to what is best for the students at our school. 

Tool #9

Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective?

·         It is essential to tie in the objectives or TEKS or “learning goal” when using technology in the classroom. Simply put, there are too many “silly” apps or websites out there that if our students don’t have a straightforward goal or purpose could prove to be too big of a distraction for some of our kids. Every time as a teacher I have something that I want my students to learn it is tied to the curriculum. There is just too much information to cover as a teacher to be spending time not teaching to the curriculum.

Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers?

·         Accountability is an essential skill to learn not just for the classroom, but for life. We must hold our students accountable for their technology usage, or they will not follow the guidelines set before them. It is imperative however, that  before we expect to hold them accountable for their actions, that we lay out the expectations clearly for them. It would not be fair to punish a student, if I as a teacher did not clearly describe what is expected of them.

Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?

·         Thinkfinity had some pretty good links to websites that could be used in stations. The way to utilize the technology as stations is to have for example 2 IPads/Dells at each station, working with a partner the students would have an objective to discover or review at each station. They would as partners attempt to complete the objective. I would then make sure to include time before switching to have the pairs discuss with the other people at the table about what website they used, what they discovered and come to an agreement as to what the overall discovery was.

·         I think that it is so important to remember that even though we have all of this great technology where the students can do everything on the computer, that academic conversation is ESSENTIAL to student learning. They need to discuss/debate topics to better understand them. I understand that this can be done in an online forum, or by vocalizing their opinion, but either way in my opinion it is something that could become “lost” during all of this technology push.

List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?

·          When we got our IPads I took mine home and looked through the entire app market for the free apps and found some great ones. However, the “best ones” require payment. I hope there is some sort of budget that will allow us as a department to purchase some useful ones. Some of the best free ones I have listed below…

o   Science 360

o   Periodic Table

o   The Water Cycle

o   3D Cell Stain

o   NASA

o   Sun Scale

o   Google earth

o   Brain pop

o   Science VL

Using these as stations would be a great way to hit multiple topics within one unit.

What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station

With the apps or programs that allow you to make virtual stories, or movies, students can create presentations on any topic to then present to the class. We could have them come up with raps about the human body system and record it onto the IPad, or they could take us on a virtual trip through the human heart. The options really are endless and the more I learn about the different apps out there the more possibilities there will be!

Tool #8

I am pretty excited for this technology roll out to happen already! Watching these videos just gets me more excited to get the equipment in here and get started. It is my understanding that we will get Dell Mini’s and I pads. While I am very familiar with both already, I did find some cool stuff about them just by viewing these short clips.

1. How to set up an i-tunes account on the devices… however I think this is something that needs to be discussed within departments and see what restrictions need to be put on them.

2. I was aware of the camera on the netbooks, however I was not aware of the capability to record video on some of the devices. This will provide possibilities with presentations, or skits/plays and other fun ways for students to express their knowledge.

3. One thing that I did not know is that SBISD has a link on the webpage that includes suggested apps for the ipad/Itouch. I recently picked up the first IPad for our classroom and already have gone to the website to download some fun apps for it! I am glad that I have the Holiday break to play with it so much to figure out what apps are best, and which ones I will install on all of my devices.
I have provided the link to the webpage below. If you click on the “App” names Tools, it will take you to the page to search through suggested apps by subject, type of tool, or age level.

The first thing that needs to be done is to secure the devices with passcodes for “Admin” usage. It will be essential that before our couple of “trial runs” with the equipment that we go over proper use of technology as to ensure that everyone is on the same page with what is appropriate. I am glad that we will be requiring the students to read and sign a SBISD technology agreement before allowing them to use the devices. We do a great deal of station work in my class and once the understanding of technology is there we will implement these into daily use with our stations. Just in playing with the IPad for the last couple of days I have been so amazed at all of the information readily available at our fingertips. The possibilities of what an amazing learning tool this could be are endless. I can't wait to get this technology.

Tool #7

I was able to check out a lot of the websites for this tool and looked at the “Science” projects on the websites. There were some real neat ones like “Eradication of Malaria” and the “YouthCan Evnironmental Project”. I think these projects, and other similar ones could be a great thing to do as an extra credit project that is ongoing throughout the year. It would be difficult to pick one of these projects to do as they are not in line with the TEKS, however like previously mentioned, I think this is something that some of my kids would jump all over on their own, as an “out of class” assignment. I think that this is something that could be possible or another project that could be connected within the school using our technology.

An idea that I had was that we were doing an adaptation project, in which the kids picked an animal that was not familiar to them, did a great deal of research on it, and ultimately gave a presentation on their animal’s specific adaptations. One of the students mentioned to me that in his English class they were building off of what we had done and were writing about their animal in the other class. I think with the right planning, we could have bundled the projects together, having the students work in Google Presentation, Google Docs, Today’s Meet, or Skype to be researching the same animal, however use that information to complete two different projects.

I think that with the correct type of planning and communication between departments this type of “cross-curriculum” teaching is a real possibility. I know that in Science we are always trying to stress the importance of writing correctly, and do a lot with math. We as a school are already helping the other departments out with what we are currently doing, however there is so much more we could accomplish with the technology that will be coming our way here soon!

21st Century Tools, Tool # 6

Due to the exposure to the great deal of technology that I have gotten to experience through the GT certifications, and with checking out the couple that were new to me it is cool to see how many different opportunities we have now to integrate technology into our classrooms.

We are currently doing a Project on Animal Adaptations in which my students (if they choose to) can present using the cmoputer. Many of the kiddos have decided to do powerpoints, or use google docs. The great thing about Google Docs, is that they can all have the project open at the same time, and be editing it together! Another great tool of Google docs is that the students can "Share" the documents with me and I can check their progress on a daily basis.

I additionally I have created a Diigo account, which is good to back up  your "favorites" and share them with others when necessary.

I have a Wikispace located HERE, where ther kids can go on and print off homework, or see what is upcoming in ithe week.

I have also created a Twitter account, you can check me out on http://www.twitter.com/ @CoachHarveySFMS.
I haven't used the Twitter yet, I am trying to figure out how I could best use it as an educational tool. Anyone who reads this with any ideas would be greatly appreciated!


I have been using, and will try to use much more often GoogleDocs as I see it as the best and most useful tool we have seen yet. I am excited about all of the possibilities about keeping all students involved, that Google docs provides.

One tool that Is brand new is Poll Everywhere, If you click the image below, you should be able to go to my Poll and vote on your favorite Christmas Song!

Replace your audience response systems with Poll Everywhere

21st Century Tools, Tool # 5

Tool #5 for me was the least exciting tool to experiment with so far. I was able to go in and create things using Storybird and Mixbook however I feel like this tool is less useful as an educator than the ones we have experienced before. Both of these tools seem to be fun things to use at home, but not so useful in the classroom. With the storybird program I can understand how I could have the students create a cartoon similar to what I have created below to explain the process of something which they might enjoy, but with the Mixbook application, that is simply an online photo album creator.

I was able to link my Storybird story here however I was unable to get a link for the mixbook photoalbum that I made.

In conclusion, these tools seem fun and I could use Storybird in the classroom, however I do not see an educational use for Mixbook in my classroom. Possibly in a "newspaper" class or "Yearbook" class they could be useful?

I look forward to getting to tool #6 and seeing what new exciting things that I can learn about next.