Tool # 10

Teaching digital citizenship to AIM students will involve incorporating our social skills lessons and using what we have learned about navigating the social world to navigate the digital world.  The number one thing that I want to teach my students is to come to an adult and tell them if they encounter something that they feel uncomfortable about online.  I also will teach my students that they are never allowed to give their personal information to someone they do not know online.  I also feel that it is important to teach my students about online etiquette and the importance of being nice and respectful even when you are not interacting with someone face to face.
I really like the Hector's World videos on Cybersmart.  http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/Young%20Kids/Hectors%20World.aspx  I plan to use the videos about protecting your personal information online from this site to supplement my instruction on the topic.  I also like the Brainpop video about digital citizenship.  My students respond well to Brainpop and I like the supplemental materials that go with the video.
I will teach digital citizenship to my students during our social skills lessons.  I will use what we have already learned and help the students generalize the concepts into the digital world.  I will supplement lessons with videos such as the ones mentioned above.  We will discuss what to do when we encounter a situation in which we do not feel comfortable.  We will also discuss what to do if someone asks you for personal information.
I will talk to the parents of the students in my classroom about discussing digital citizenship with their children at home as well.  I will share some of the websites that I am using with the students to help facilitate discussion at home.

Tool # 9

1.  It is important to create congruence between your objective and the technology you use to make sure students are able to demonstrate understanding of the objective.

2.  Students should be held accountable for what they are working on in centers so that the time they spend in centers is meaningful and learning is taking place.  

3.  I explored several of the sites listed on the 11 tools blog.  I really liked Studdyladder.com and Tenmarks.com.  I like that you can set up classes on each of them and customize learning for your students based on their needs.  

On Studyladder.com you set up a class and choose activities for your class based on their needs.  You are able to create a class with any number of students.  There are many math, and literacy activities as well as some science, art, music, health and other topics.  It is set up by grade level, but each grade level is assigned a color.  I really like that feature because it allows me to assign activities based on the needs of the students without worrying about assigning activities that are typically for a lower grade level.  The students then log on to their personal site and work on the activities that have been assigned by the teacher.  I like that it gives the student some control over their learning since they get to choose what to do in what order, but the skills are controlled by the teacher.  

Tenmarks.com is another site that you can set up a class (or classes) and then assign activities for students.  In order to make a class on this site you have to have at least 5 students.  The nice thing about this site is that you can individualize instruction and activities based on individual student needs by assigning activities to individual students instead of the entire class.  Tenmarks.come is only for math instruction.  It has many math topics or "tracks" that you can customize based on the grade level of the students.  On this site you can only work on the "tracks" for the grade level you specify when you add your class.  

4.  It was fun to explore all of the apps.  It is wonderful that you can search by grade level and subject.  I searched for apps for my 5th grade math group since I am able to do more center work with them.   Some apps I found for my students are:
       Flashcards + - an app that allows you to create your own flash cards or choose flashcards from a variety    
       of sets.  I could use this in a center to help the students study for upcoming quizzes in all subject areas, or  
       to study math facts.

       Math Ninja Free - an app where you try to defend your tree house from a hungry tomato and his robot
       army using math facts.  The nice thing about this app is that you can turn on what types of facts you
       would like students to work on.  I would also use this in a center as independent work on math facts.
5.  I would also use the ipod touch and the ipad with students for research, note taking, to dictate ideas for stories without writing, to organize homework and assignments and their due dates.  

Tool # 8

This tool was all about the wonderful devices we will be receiving in our classroom.  I am so excited about all of the new devices!  Here are 3 things I learned when watching the videos:
1.  I learned that apps need to be downloaded to the teacher laptop first and then synced to each device.
2.  I learned how to make a web page act like an app by making a webclip and adding it to my screen.
3.  I learned how to access the Spring Branch list of approved apps.
I plan to teach appropriate use to my students in small groups before allowing them to independently use the devices.  I will also set up rules for using the devices at school and discuss how school use is different from the way you use the devices at home.  I will reinforce correct use of the devices frequently in the beginning.

Tool # 7

Objective:  The 5th grade AIM students will be able to collaborate with middle school AIM students to develop social stories to create awareness of the middle school environment and facilitate the transition between the Elementary AIM and Middle School AIM programs.
Implementation:  I will begin to implement this plan when we return from Winter break in January.
Tools:  I will use Skype for communication between the 2 classes.  We will share videos of social stories and what to expect in middle school via Youtube.com.
Description:  In January we will begin talking via Skype with the Middle School AIM classroom in our district.  The students will get to know peers in the grade level above them through communication via Skype.  The Middle School students will share their experiences with the transition to Middle School.  They will talk to the 5th graders about what to expect when they transition.  The Middle school students will make video social stories about some of their experiences in Middle School and the videos will be shared through Youtube.com. My 5th grade students will also make videos about themselves to share with the Middle School students and teachers.

Tool #6

I see many opportunities for using Wallwisher.com in my classroom.  I have been trying to find an independent activity for my students during a transition that is a little chaotic.  This would be a great tool!  It will be even better when I get my Activ Board!  I would love to put a social topic that pertains to what we have been learning in our social skills group on a wallwisher wall and have the students respond to the question when they walk in the room to ease the transition.  Here is my wall:

Tool #6

Skype
I love Skype.  I use it frequently to communicate with my family that live in other cities and states.  It is so fun to watch my nieces and nephew grow up and watch my kids interact with their cousins through the computer.  I think that Skype has helped my kids form a stronger bond with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins since they are able to see them frequently even though they are separated by miles.  It was really amazing when my Mother in Law was in China and we were able to talk to her via Skype for free.  The only thing that was difficult was figuring out a good time to talk.
Skype can be used in so many ways in the classroom.  You can conduct a virtual interview with community helpers when you are studying community helpers in your classroom.  You can have parents that are unable to come and read to the class during the day take a few minutes to read to the class via Skype. You can find a class in another state or even country and become virtual pen pals. There are so many possibilities!
I really like the Skype in the classroom page.  I enjoyed browsing through the various projects that teachers have posted on Skype in the classroom.  There are many great ideas of projects that can bridge gaps between various populations of learners.

Tool #6

Today I tried poll everywhere.  It is so simple to use and can be used for so many things.  I like that it is stored online and so students can access it at different times and over time which is a feature that is helpful to me since I have students coming in and out of the classroom at various times throughout the day.  I ended up creating an account so that I could save my poll.  This can be use for academics or various other things.  It is also so simple that students would be able to create their own polls as well.  I created a poll for my students of their favorite free time activity in the classroom.

Create interactive meetings at Poll Everywhere

Word Clouds

I really like the idea of using word clouds with my students.  I think they are a great tool for describing themselves and also to use for academics.  I think it would be fun to have them use a word cloud for demonstrating the main idea and supporting details of a story. I think that adding the main idea more than one time is something very concrete that would help solidify the concept for my students.  The only thing that I didn't like is that you can't go back and edit once you have put in your text.  I would recommend having students type their words into a word processor and save them so they can be modified more easily.  I tried wordle and abcya and I found that abcya was simpler and I feel that it would be more user friendly for the population of students that I serve.  Here is my simple word cloud using  http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm.