Friday, July 6, 2012

Tool 11, Reflection

1. I have so many new favorites that I don't know where to start. Skype, drop box and trading cards are only a few of my new favorite friends on this journey. As a team on our campus, we have decided to use Skype with a gingerbread man lesson. We will use it to contact other PPCD classrooms and look for the runaway gingerbread man!

2. I think that our campus is already doing a phenomenon job in incorporating the 21 century tools for students with disabilities. I am however, very excited about incorporating a new touch screen in our classroom. I think it will make our circle time even more fun and interactive!

3. I think the program was very self explanatory. the pace was great and there were no unexpected surprises!

Tool 10, Digital citizenship

1.The three things I would like any student to understand as important parts to a good digital citizenship would be: To find a balance between the cyber world and the real world. They still need to get out and be physical the way other students were years ago! Safety is of course one of the other major important parts to this. They need to understand how to protect themselves online. I would also love for them to understand that not everything out there is true! They need to learn how to check for resources and understand how easy it is to post something online, and the fact that once it is out there, it will be out there forever!

2.There is a website under PSElibrary.com that is full of great interactive books and resources for students of all ages. netsmartzkids.org I plan on using the more appropriate resources for my students in my drop box so it will be available for them to use!

3.Although this topic is a very hard one to be discussed with 3 and 4 year olds who have disabilities, I think we as teachers apply these skills in the classroom everyday! We make sure they have a balance between cyber world and real world all the time and we filter what they do online.

4.I think on our campus sharing the idea of digital citizenship will be shared differently with our parents. Their little ones with disability will not be researching online or sharing personal information with anyone. What I will definitely share with them is the fact that they should not be spending hour after hour on the Internet.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Tool 9, Incorporating classroom based devices

1. I think technology not only makes learning fun but it is also a very important part of today's culture. To tie the objective to technology, it is like promising to have technology embedded in the whole lesson.

2. I believe that students need to be held accountable at stations because with a few friends, it is easy for a center to turn into play time. Even in a PPCD classroom the kids need to understand that they are required to produce and learn something in every station.

3.I frequently use Starfall.com, and Jacob'slesson.com in my computer station. I like the fact that the kids can explore starfall by themselves and discover new things every day. Jacob's lesson is a great website for student with autism. it keeps track of their progress and you can print the progress sheet for your records.

4.I have plenty of appropriate apps for the younger kids in my classroom. The students get a lot of one on one time with the teacher and the assistants in a PPCD classroom setting. Keeping track of their progress is a lot easier. Although I use the iPad as a big reinforcer once they are done with their work at a station, they are still doing more work without realizing! They are matching shapes, doing puzzles, matching letters of the alphabet and spelling smaller words!

5.I not only use the iPad as a reinforcer once they finish their task, I also utilize it in my circle time, I use it at my communication center to help the kids use their words and I even use it in our fine motor station. The kids use their little fingers to trace shapes and letters!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Tool 8, The tools

In the fall besides student computers and the three iPads that I currently have in my classroom, we will also have a touch screen computer. One iPad has been purchased through our campus and I have two other ones that were provided through Special Ed department. I use the iPads as reinforcers a lot because students just love them! I also use them during circle time and in certain stations to teach new skills or to simply enhance a learned skill. I use them as fine motor skills, to write, and I use them as a quick feedback provider when a student has to match uppercase letters to lowercase letters of the alphabet. I am very excited to have the touch scren in my classroom simply because iPad is not compatible with some of the tools out there that I would like to use such as boardmaker or flash player.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Tool 7, Reaching outside your classroom

I love to collaborate with other tachers. It is always fun when you see the same thing going on in different classes. Using technology this can be more fun and meaningful for the students. Althought I don't do units in my classroom, I think it will be very fun to do a ginger bread man unit with Janice's PPCD class. We will use You tube to show the kids different versions of the story. iPads or flip videos can be used to record the students as they make cookies. Once they discover their cookies have vanished, we will use Skype between classes to search for the runaway cookies! I think using the videos of the students on their hunt can later be turned into trading cards and they can sequence the events of the day! This will be so fun! Looking forward to it!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Tool 6, web tools

I used Skype for he first time today! It was awesome! I am definately going to use it on a regular basis! The Wallwisher can be very usefull for classroom discussions or even for teacher trainings!




Tool 5, Production

For tool 5 I used Bookr and trading cards! Trading cards can be used as a fun activity to have the kids get to know each other more! It can be used to make trading cards for science or word walls. Bookr can help you and the students publish short and cute books to be shared with the parents. The books can be put in the drop box for the parents to read to their kids!



Tool 4, google docs

I loved how more than one erson could edit the google document at the same time! This would be great for writing a paper when you can't be with your writing partner!


Using google forms, you can create a questionner, send it to the parents and get the results in spreadsheet!!! It is just amazing!


tool 3, videos and pictures

For tool 3 adding videos was fun!I knew how to share videos with the share button present, but didn't know how to do it without it! So I learned that in teachertube's website I can go to embeded link, copy it and paste it in my blog under HTML!



I installed the free version of Dropbox on my computer. The plan is for my students to access the files in there from my iPads! As for the copyrights, you can use anything on the web as long as it is for education purposes inside your classroom. You have to follow copyrights rules when you try to publish someone else's work online !

Tool 2, Commenting

Almost done with tool 2! Woohoo! Tool 2 was all about commenting on other posts. It is fun to read other ideas but when commenting, always consider the fact that your comments are for everyone to see!

http://tceainteractivewebsitepresentation.pbworks.com/w/page/11866250/FrontPage

Post 1: Blogging

So we started 11 tools today! Easier than I expected. The only hard part was coming up with a title for the blog. Hopefully the rest of the tools are as easy as the first one. I don't know if I am going to only blog with my fellow teachers or if I am going to include my parents in my blogs!