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.