Internet Interview

For my internet safety discussion I talked with my Mom who is 46 years old. We talked about what she had done right in the home and how positive my experience had been while living at home. We talked about how the safe environment really did help me avoid many crap items that are out there. Talking about actually exploring the internet more in our home and having her learn more about what can be done was still pretty easy since she loves learning and wants to know more about technology in general since I have some very technologically savvy brothers whom she normally goes to if she needs help. She likes to be independent so this was a good conversation talking about different programs and applications that I have learned about from this class. Overall it was a very positive experience.

Reading about Safety

For my fourth article I read "An Ensign to the Nations, a Light to the World" by President Gordon B. Hinckley. With all these readings I found a great emphasis on strengthening our families and our homes safety so that we can teach the importance to our children and have that good back up for teaching our children then the importance of internet safety. There was a major emphasis on educating our children on all the positive things that we can do with media, and then demonstrating them for our children so that they can see that media in and of itself isn't the bad or evil thing, but that it is evil people that twist it to make evil of it. As a parent you need to be aware and educated yourself and using media so that you can model for your children and be able to monitor them and give constructive feedback on what they are doing with media and how that can make it a better experience and be safe. The point of my fourth article was not to fear media, but to be aware of it's power for good and to use it for such while keeping far away from its evil. I plan on becoming more educated about what I can do on the computer so that I won't be ignorant of what is out there for my future children. I also am going to be more aware of what I do with media and specifically the internet so that I can have the important good example now for my future family. I already have talked to some of my siblings and my parents about what they are doing good in the home with having the computer in plain sight and limiting the time spent on it. We have talked about the bad things that are out there but I told my parents that we could also start emphasizing all the good that is there as well so that it isn't shunned altogether. These were good readings, I enjoyed the gospel focus on this subject!

WHAT I LEARNED!

There was this really good idea about using digital cameras and going around the students environments to find shapes that they are learning about. They then combined these and used iClickers to assess if the children knew what they were talking about when the shapes were pulled up.
The whole idea of assessing with iClickers in the elementary schools was fascinating to me! I have never used one in my classes, and then they talked about using mac notebook to rotate, flip, and slide letter and objects in front of the children. This seemed to be effective and the students stayed engaged.

Technology for ECE

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ECE Literacy Technology

Standard 1- Objective 1- a.) Listen attentively

I found this activity on Poetry for kids website under "animated poetry" with this activity the children will be able to listen and see the words on the screen of the poem getting read and then can be asked parts of the poem as recall to see if they really listened. This is a fun hands on way for the children to learn to listen attentively!

ECE Mathematics

Standard 2-Objective 2- b.) Duplicate and extend simple repeating patterns with numbers and shapes.

I found this activity in Mathtools and for this activity you are given a pattern and then have to continue that pattern like I did in the above photograph. The children will be able to extend and duplicate the pattern that they are given. The children are able to use hands on learning to finish these patterns!

ECE Technology Inventory

The teacher I interviewed was from the BYU kindergarten. They had a whole bunch of technology options in their classroom, they had a digital camera, computers for the children to use, overhead projector, tape recorders, a VCR, and multiple teacher computers. She said that she was able to even ask for different things and have them easily considered if she did feel some type of technology was needed. 

The teacher did say that she wished that they had a more accessible computer corner since it was cramped and the computers weren't very easily seen. She said that they really had a lot of technological options so she didn't have too many needs. 

She used the internet a lot to find pictures to go along with lessons, also to find some lesson plan ideas, she uses the camera to record many of the activities and subjects they are learning in class to share with the parents, and to make books for the children with as well. She mainly used the computer games occasionally as an extra center during the classes center time, so that wasn't something the children regularly used.

The question I wanted to know is since she works in a public school how was the comparison of technology between her two jobs? She responded that at the other school they didn't have the digital camera for the classroom, nor did they have the same amount of educational computer games that the BYU kindergarten did. She said overall you have to buy a lot more things if you want them. So this made me think what I have of my own and how much technology I plan on using in my future classroom.

Digital Camera Use

Content:Kindergarten Standard 2 Objective 1 Describe factors that influence relationships with family and friends.

Technology and Pedagogy: this is hands on and experiencing for the children since they will have to take the pictures with a digital camera and compare their different family members like their moms and how they are different as well as pictures of how different they are as individuals.

The computers that are XO computers are neat since the children really would have the option of using the technology and use the art software, as well as a webcam and other items that are so neat and connect us to the world. I would use this to introduce how fun school can be since we use technology and it would also help children to see all the possibilities they have open to them.

My Notes

5 Effective Ways for Young Children to use Technology:

1. make and display a graph

- a physical graph with objects that are meaningful

- use the childrens interests

2. explore with digital tools

- important to explore things with new perspectives (magnified)

- save (pictures)  your experiences so the children can refer back to them

3. tell a story in pictures and words

- create art to go along with stories

- let children experiment with art software

4. write, record, and revisit

- record and document the pictures and turn them into an accessible book

5. share and document learning

- make sure you send the different pictures and books home with the children so that the parents can see the work and talk with the children

1. Social and Emotional: Using the computers is intrinsically valuable, the children enjoy using the technology and can engage the students and make school fun. Computers situated in an open area making social interaction more available.

2. Language Development: Oral language and interacting about their projects. Narrating and sharing their stories.

3. Physical Well-being: Make sure that the children are physically active with limited use and frequent breaks for the children to be active.

4. Cognition and General Knowledge: Manipulate things that can't be done in the physical world by using the computers, Use open ended practice instead of drill practice more like story boarding.

5. Approaches to Learning: Computers are good for assessing the skills and developing skills.

Using technology in the classroom can range from short and simple lessons to being an integral part of long-term projects.  Technology should be used in addition to hands-on learning, and should not take the place of important tasks children need to accomplish during their early years.

Technology can help children improve their social development, their language development, their cognition and general knowledge.

Technology can support educational goals and support content standards when used in a planned, guided manner.  It can help with students' language development and emergent literacy and mathematics.  Adult participation and guidance are important.

When selecting software for young children, it is critical to choose software that is DAP.  It should:

Encourage exploration, imagination, and problem solving

Reflect and build on what children already know

Involve many senses and include sound, music, and voice

Be open-ended, with the child in control of the pace and the path

Hardware that can be used in the classroom:

Tape recorders

Video cameras

TV/VCRs

Fax machines

Portable keyboards

Digital microscopes

Computers

For choosing technology to be used with younger children, the best choice for a particular situation may be no new technology, or just simple tape recorders and cameras.

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Hawaii	Watch and do Hula Dancing	Terrain, 3-D
2. Tonga	Watch and do Tongan Dancing	Terrain, 3-D
3. Samoa	Watch and do Samoan Dancing	Terrain, 3-D
4. Tahiti	Watch and do Tahitian Dancing	Terrain, 3-D
Details of image overlay / path / polygon: We are going to have movies at each of the islands demonstrating the different kind of dancing that is native to that culture.

Washing Your Hands

Digital Storyboard

The content that we chose to use for this lesson is the Kindergarten content core, objective 1a, which is where the students will describe proper care of the body, and we are going to focus on hand-washing techniques specifically. The pedagogical approach we decided on is observation since the children will be able to view the proper steps of washing their hands through our video. With using the digital storytelling the children really would be able to see a video about anything since you can make it about anything educational. They also could easily make one themselves in the older grades so it could be useful in assessment as well. Our video specifically will outline the proper hand-washing technique through a step by step photographed movie with a voice over of the steps, so it will be auditory as well as well as fun with some music! 

TPACK Questions

In our Science Lesson we focused on First Graders and identifying plants and their parts, as well as differences in leaves. The form of teaching we used was using very hands on and visual seeing as we used Paint on Windows to associate technology as well as the Blue Microscope so that the children are completely hands on with the technology which increases their ability to learn. We also used content that we, as teachers, went out and learned a bit about so that we would be knowledgeable, but we also were open to new learning as well!

In today’s world of iPods, laptops and being connected at the hip to your cell-phone (literally), 5 year olds better know how to master Mario Cart than they know how to read a picture book. Teachers have now had to start confiscating cell-phones, monitoring internet use during class time, and asking their students to help them with computer programs – why shouldn’t we take this “problem” and use it to capture the attention and renew a love for learning in these little technology addicts? Tech Savvy Teacher is a monthly column meant to inform teachers of the 21st century in how to integrate technology in their elementary school classrooms. At Highland High-Tech Elementary, team teachers Theresa Gervais, Krysten Clark, and Kamrie Littlefield have taken the leap to include technological gadgets in their 1st grade classroom. During a science unit where students investigated different types of plants and the environments in which they grow, their technologically competent 1st graders got to see plants up-close and personal! “With the use of a Digital Blue microscope, which takes pictures of the view in the lense and sends it to the computer screen, we created a lesson to teach our students about observing and drawing different kinds of leaves. We were able to find and classify different kinds of leaves (entire, serrate, dentate, needles, etc.) to examine under the microscope and show close-up pictures of leaves. This allows the students to get a much closer view all at once, rather than trying to pack an entire class around a single microscope, by observing the detailed characteristics of each leaf. The students were able to analyze the main features that that differentiate the leaves and further classify them by type. Then, to integrate technology even more, we would have the students use the Paint program (on a PC) to draw leaves, including different edges and veins within the leaves, assessing their knowledge of the content. The learning even extended outdoors as we became scientists and gathered samples of our own.” This is an example of using technology to teach content standards. This particular activity is geared toward first grade Utah Core Curriculum. It covers standard 3 objective 1.a, that students will develop an understanding of their environment by observing and drawing pictures of plants. Integrating technology into the classroom can make learning and assessment “fun” as well as increase their technological prowess. Look for next months issue of Tech Savvy Teacher for ideas on how to use Google Earth as part of your classroom instruction.

TPACK according to Me!

What I understood about TPACK is that it is incorporating A knowledge of how to use content, and technological knowledge to teach. You would know how to teach in all of this and bring all this together to come up with a good interactive lesson plan that continues to help the children learn and expand their knowledge as well as your own. It really was kind of hard to understand at first but I think I got it now...hopefully this is really what it is. It is necessary for teachers to have this knowledge so that they can be the most effective teacher possible and help the students broaden their horizons with what they can use and learn in the whole learning process.

The science/math technologies that I explored were the google earth app, I hadn't used this really before, it really was neat to see my house and its surroundings, and I was absolutely blown away with stellarium! I could go to where my brother was on his mission and look at what the sky looks like down there in Chile. Really neat that you can even control the speed of the visual image. Technology nowadays is AMAZING!

A peek in my head...

This RSS concept was completely new for me. I've never leaned or heard of this before so this was neat to see that I can receive updates instead of checking different sites EVERY time I get on the internet. I learned that I really can easily keep up with new ideas in education, the news, weather, and other really informational items so that I can keep learning and staying on top of the latest knowledge out there. It was also neat to see those sites such as Goodreads and delicious where I can keep information easily stored. I feel like it won't be so much of a hassle finding and looking up new things with these sites.

Theresa and Technology

The extent of my technology background on a daily basis is email, facebook, and other such online things. My dad is very technologically savvy and normally is the one I go to if I have problems. I can normally figure my way around different computer issues, and back in elementary school I used to clean and work on computers with my classes, but that was quite a while ago.