Reflection Blog

      As the semester winds down the amount of assignments due seems to build up. My blog has been pushed aside making room for papers, reflections, and project deadlines. This semester has been a full of new tools, ideas, and viewpoints on technology in the classroom.
      At the beginning, in January, I did not believe tech belonged in the classroom. However, after reading, discussing, researching, and using many tech tools this semester I can see where and how we need to integrate this into our schools and curriculum. My favorites include Storybird, Instagram, and Twitter.
     Storybird was discovered in the assignment where I needed to compile a list of 10 tech sites and tools for the classroom. It is free and so simple to use. I set up a class account as well as one for each student to use at home. The kids look forward to creating stories and selecting the artwork. It has been a huge hit and I plan to continue to use it. The class does not know it yet, but for the end of the year I will be ordering a copy of each child's story as a graduation gift. I cant wait to see how excited they are to see their work in an actual book!
     Instagram has been a social media tool I have been using in my personal life. I really enjoy sharing pictures and statements with friends and family. After reading how teachers are using Instagram to share daily interactions with families and branding their classroom I am excited to start using this tool next year. Because we are a private school there are a few steps I need to do first to check what I can and cannot post and how to make it a private group just for the families.
     I am still an early stage user of Twitter, still feeling it out and reading more than posting. I am excited about the network of teachers, educators, and thinkers I am connecting with. I am not sure that I will use Twitter as a communication or branding tool just yet, but I am excited to be a part of the community.
     In addition to learning about technology websites and apps I had the pleasure of working with a few peers on a project. I have never been a fan of group projects. As a child I usually ended up doing all the work or getting upset... too type A to not have my ideas produced the way I want I guess. I was hesitant how working with a group only online would be. Surprisingly, it went very well. I was put with two great guys how were ready to work and produce an awesome project. Sure there were ups and downs, but overall it was a cool experience to have. I can imagine how this skill is utilized by leaders to stay connected, work together, and share when they are apart.
     And with the close of this blog I wish everyone a happy summer break!!!

clip art source 

Too Connected?

     This post is coming a few days late as I  was trapped in Mexico over spring break. My original flight was delayed 4 hours only to find out that they had over sold tickets and there were no seats left on the plane for us. We were literally trapped in paradise. A day later I am home and am able to write last weeks post.
     A rule that I have with my boyfriend is that when we are on a date we do not use our phones extensively, only when needed. When I travel I try to disconnect from technology as well. I take pictures with a camera, not my iPhone, and I usually do not bring a computer or tablet. It feels so good to disconnect from it all and just enjoy time with friends, new sights, and a different culture. This trip was made even easier by the fact that I did not have an international plan. However, throughout my trip I saw families so involved with their technology that they were not interacting at all. Or kids playing in the pools shouting "look mom!" only to see that mom was too busy on her phone and waved her kids off.
     I do not doubt that technology is fun, useful, and has its place in today's culture, but I do wonder if we are TOO connected that we are missing out on life's moments with our face behind the screen.

Virtual Teams

     Throughout this semester I have been working with a virtual team to create a project. We have been using google hangout and documents as our main platform for collaboration and communication. We began our project by developing and implementing a survey to see the current reality of technology and professional learning in each school.
     The responses we collected lead us to create a Weebly website for teachers to read current research, tech tools, shared lesson plans, and ask for help. The greatest response came from a middle school we surveyed, so that school was our focus.
     Working together to create something was a new experience and a large learning curve. While we were able to utilize multiple tools it became difficult find times between our schedules to meet online. I suppose arranging personal face-to-face meetings would have been equally as challenging, but because this was new, I found myself easily frustrated with slow responses, lag time between edits, and difficulties in meeting.
     After lots of hard work I am proud of the work my team and I have created. I will remember the tools I learned and used for this project for future endeavors.
    Check out our website: The Teacher's Training Room 

New Age PowerPoint Presentation

     This week I made a PowerPoint presentation, which is something that I have not done in years. I remember in high school making presentations using as many animations, pictures, and colors I could cram into each slide. After reading up on how to make a professional presentation I limited my color scheme, avoided animations, and only used pictures when needed. Each word and graphic was used with purpose. I then downloaded Jing to capture an audio recording of my PowerPoint. After several failed attempts I made it through in less than 5 minutes and without jumbling up my words. I then shared my presentation on Screencast and it can be accessed below. 
     Screencast is a neat tool where you can share your screen with others. On mobile phones and devices you can simply screen shot your screen and share it as a picture. This essentially is what Screencast does for computers.
       My biggest hang up for this assignment was one error forced me to start all over again, It was a learning curve. After a few tries, deep breaths, and laughs at myself I got it. I think this tool could be used during staff meetings, to share stories with friends, or even as a way for students to complete projects.
 

     Check out my presentation 

GoNoodle

      As I was exploring my twitter and other technology accounts this week I noticed a lot of posts about GoNoodle and how it is changing classrooms. GoNoodle is an interactive website that gives students a brain break throughout the day. There are soothing games to calm a class down and movement games to wake a class up.
      I created a free teacher account in minutes and selected a GoNoodle Champ who will grow and change as we complete activities. The brain break games are organized in a thoughtful way and even display how long of a break it will give your class. The brain breaks range from 1-10 minutes, so you can select a game for the time you have available. As I was testing my account I played a kids Zumba game and ultimate champ training game on healthy foods. I could see my class loving this website! I cannot wait to introduce this to my class this week!

https://www.gonoodle.com/

First Computer Experience

      
     Flipping Leadership Doesn’t Mean Reinventing the Wheel by Peter DeWittis all about the how and why we need to shift our thinking and refocus how we communicate at school. DeWitt use his personal experiences in how he flipped his school and became a connected leader. This book is a short, easy read, with lots of useful tips.

     I enjoyed the “reflection” box within each chapter, sometimes occurring multiple times. It engaged me as a reader to think of my own experiences while reading about someone else’s. My favorite reflection was in chapter one, “What are your earliest memories of utilizing technology? What was your first computer?”  (p. 7).  My earliest memories are from first grade in my elementary school in the library playing “Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist” and “Oregon Trail” on floppy disks. It was so exciting to play on a computer. 

                                       

     What about you? Can you recall how old you were and what you were doing on your first computer? 

Writing with Technology

      There are many great resources out there for bringing technology into the classroom. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am having a difficult time finding ways to use technology in my kindergarten classroom. This past week I was assigned to develop a list of 10 technology resources that would benefit teachers. As most assignments begin I started with a broad Google search and weeded through the results. I found an article listing tech resources and the pros and cons for each. I was working on the assignment when I found the resource Storybird.com and was immediately entranced.
      Storybird is "visual story telling for everyone...Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds. We curate artwork from illustrators and animators around the world and inspire writers of any age to turn those images into fresh stories." The idea is to take preexisting artwork and find the story withing.

      I set up an account, free, and on Monday presented this to my class as a way to do group writing. The kids were very excited and engaged. They waited patiently while their classmates wrote their pages and listened carefully as I read them the stories. On our first writing session we made two picture books and one poem. I was even able to print the poem out and have them illustrate their writing. I shared the website with their parents and several students have started their own projects at home. My director was so impressed she has agreed to purchase one story/child as an end of year gift. This week we will begin individual picture books. I am so glad I found this resource!

Picture found at https://diannelaycock.wordpress.com/tag/camtasia-studio/

Introduction to Weebly

      Ok, I am sure that I am showing how green I am with using technology in the classroom with this post, but a classmate recently introduced me to Weebly. If you don't know about it follow this link to the Weebly  homepage and get started today!







     My classmates and I are using weebly as a platform for an online learning tool room for teachers to use and share in three different schools. They will be able to easily find tools, apps, and read trending articles and research. They will also be able to share and upload lesson plans and ideas.

     I am personally using weebly to establish a class website, and possibly class blogs for my students. I am not sure how functional it is for a kindergarten age student, but it would be neat to post projects, spelling words, and other assignments they complete.

Online Professional Development

When I was given the assignment to attend an online professional development (PD) seminar I wasn't too excited. I have not had very many positive experiences with PD. The topics were usually irrelevant, the speaker was not captive, or the experience was a bore as a whole.

haha if only...

Teachers First a part of Ok2Ask had an online PD Monday, February 23, 2015 entitled Inspiring and implementing: Sharing and Solutions for Technology Coaches/Trainers 

The description for this seminar read:

      This session is for anyone (regardless of title) working as an instructional technology coach, technology integration specialist, technology facilitator, or working alongside teachers to help them integrate technology in support of effective teaching and learning. Explore resources to inspire your teachers and practical ideas to help them envision and implement effective use in their classroom. Share and exchange problems/solutions from your coaching experience. This session is appropriate for teachers at Intermediate+ technology comfort levels.

      Although I did not hold  a position listed, I registered and attended the PD. Upon entering the session I let everyone know that I was a kindergarten teacher and sitting in on this PD for a masters class assignment. The speaker was welcoming. I was a little apprehensive that my technology skill set would not match the requirements for this course but I was able to follow along and gain from this seminar. The seminar was a little over an hour long, and ended with a brief question and answer portion. Overall, it was an engaging PD and offered some interesting and new insights on using technology in the classroom. 

The Unchanging Classroom

This week I sat through a presentation for my masters program about the history of education, and there was a very astonishing fact brought about. In the history of education the classroom is ultimately unchanged. Lets take a look at what I mean...

 school in the 1800's- desks in rows with a teacher's desk at the front

 school in 1937- desks in rows

 school in 1988- this is when I was born. Desks are still in rows, whiteboard and teacher at the front of the room

 school in 2006- when I graduated High School. desks are still in rows, whiteboard, and ceiling mounted projector

 school in 2015- desks in groups in rows, whiteboard and teacher at the front

It was shocking to see exactly how little the school classrooms have changed in over 200 years! Why hasn't there been a greater change? Grocery stores, dentist offices, and even jails have gone through changes over the years. The professor,of the presentation, made a point- if you walked into an dentist office operating like it did in the 1800's (see picture below) would you stay for the procedure? Absolutly not! So, why do we expect better results, deeper thinking, and higher learning from schools designed in the 1800's?

 dentist office in early 1800's (yikes!)

New Tech Tool

This week I am encouraging you to check out new tech tool: OSMO

This is an iPad accessory that takes gaming to a new level. The attachment comes with a tangram, spelling, and newton games. You're thinking cool I have those apps already. No, this takes the learning off the screen. OSMO's technology bridges virtual and real life playing. One or many children can play on a table and it reflects onto the iPad gaming platform. It takes the student away from touching the screen to physically touching and manipulating pieces with their hands. I have never seen something like this. I am new to technology in the classroom, but this is amazing and I want one for my classroom now! 

Want to know more?! Check out their website and see how this tool is being used in the classroom. 

Kindergarten Technology

      I continue in my journey of learning about technology and how it is being used in the classroom. This week I read a book iStudent by Mark Barnes. I also successfully created a Delicious account and figured out how to send tweets to different groups.
      I have been exposed to many resources, ideas, and suggestions on how to use technology in the classroom. They have me excited and wanting to try new things. However, most of what I found are for grades second and higher. What about our youngest grades? How can I use more technology into my kindergarten class?
      I found a great article on www.4teachers.org that answers that very question! So for all my fellow kindergarten teachers, take a minute to read this article and learn how we can use more technology too!

http://www.4teachers.org/testimony/gathers/index.shtml

Please share additional ideas or comments in my comments box below!

Calculator fail

This week in my kindergarten class our math lesson was about the calculator and how to use its basic functions.This lesson is one of my favorites because many of my students have never seen a calculator prior that moment. One child even exclaimed, "wow its like an iPad!"

Flashback to 1994 when I was about 6 years old and at Radio Shack with my parents. I spotted the coolest electronic in the store: a teal calculator with colorful buttons that even allowed you to play addition and subtraction games! I was in love with it! I asked Santa for it for Christmas and everything. When Christmas morning came around I opened many gifts, and I am sure I was happy to have new things, but the calculator was not there. After everything had been opened my dad pointed to one last gift wedged way behind the tree with my name on it. I ripped open the paper and found my beloved calculator. I was the happiest child in that moment.

Flash forward to 2015 in math class, I demonstrated how to turn it on/off and how to solve addition and subtraction problems. The students returned to their seats ready to try out their calculators on some tough problems I has created. After a few minutes one child came up to me proclaiming that her calculator did not work. I asked her to demonstrate 2 + 2 =. She touched the 2 and nothing appeared, she touched the + and nothing appeared, she touched the other 2 and nothing appeared and looked at me with a "see I told you it was broken" look. It took me a moment to keep from laughing. She was not pushing the calculator buttons she was touching them. This child lives in the touch screen generation and did not realize she needed to physically push the buttons down in order to use the calculator correctly.

The more I thought about this I couldn't decide; Is my math lesson outdated? Should students be taught how to use the calculator app instead of an actual calculator? Do students have too much access to touch technology or is this just the future for learning?

Learning How to Blog

Hello!

This week has been a huge learning curve for me as I began building my Personal Learning Network (PLN). This week's activities included:

• setting up a Twitter account... follow me at @acollepardi
• joining Feedly.com and began following education, educational leadership, and educational technology feeds
• learning how to link my Feedly account to my blog... see link at the bottom of my blog
• learning how to follow all my classmates blogs 
• downloading the podcast app and subscribing to educational, kindergarten technology, and educational leadership podcasts 

Needless to say, I have learned so much already. From learning just how to use these different programs to reading and exploring the content available- there is so much out there! I am very excited for this class and all the things I will learn about technology and how I can use it more in the classroom. 

Hope everyone has a great week and stay tuned as I learn how to be a tech-savvy leader! 

Here we go...

Hi classmates!

-Angie Collepardi