BP11_2009122_OneMinuteMessage1

One minute message video for web 2.0 tool pbwiki.

BP10_2009122_PeerReviewFlack

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

BP7_2009122_Tool#2wordsift

The second Web 2.0 tool I decided to explore washttp://www.wordsift.com. I enjoyed the tool thoroughly and can definitely use it in the classroom. During seatwork, the students have to visit centers and I would incorporate this as a website for them to use with their vocabulary intervention.

When you type in a word or words to the box and click on sift, the door is opened to the esl student. There are videos, pictures and the visual thesaurus is now on the screen with an abundance of examples on the sift.

As my lesson in the room, this site would help the students create flashcards and answer any questions they needed with more visual support. Any teacher could use this awesome Web2.0 tool in their room for every subject.

Img src=http://www.wordsift.com/visualize

BP8_2009122_Tool#3(pbwiki.com)

It is as easy as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich....
pbwiki.com is a place where you can create your own wiki for classroom use. For educators, there is a choice that allows for classroom use, removing banners and advertisements from the sidebar of your screen. There are many options for using pbwiki in the classroom. PB wiki can be used as a storage place for students to store their best work as an electronic portfolio, and family, friends, and peers can leave comments on their work.

I have used pbwiki in my classroom in the past and was very pleased to see it made the list of web 2.0 tools I discovered. Let me share with you how I used it:

Similar to The FLat Stanley Project that many elementary educators are familiar with, students created a gingerbread man and mailed it to another state to a family or friend. Students would write a friendly letter asking the receiver to take care of their gingerbread man, document the visit in words or with pictures, and report back to the creator (the student). Instead of just receiving mail via the United States Postal Service, we gave hosts the option to communicate what the gingerbread friends did on our wiki. I created a page for each student's gingerbread man that the student could upload images and sentences to, telling about their gingerbread friend. Those hosting a gingerbread man could post comments on what city and state the gingerbread man was in, what they did, and where they are sending them off to next. It was a great project. We also had a page for each student to post and share their individual work. The students loved this because Gramma, Grandpa, and moms and dads and split families could go online to see their student's work. They could post comments of praise and encouragement. Students would rush home to read their comments, and post comments on their friends' pages. It have them a real reason to use phonetic spelling in their young emergent reader lives to communicate with their peers and family members. From this project and the integration of technology into Social Studies with kindergarten and first grade students, I was awarded Outstanding Teacher of The Year from the FLorida Council for Social Studies. It was a great experience. The project was a success, and I would have repeated it if our school decided to not allow us to use outside servers and providers for school related projects. Now we must use iWeb, and they are beginning to branch into Moodle - a personal learning community that is growing within our district.

BP7_2009122_Tool#2(Spiffy Text Logo Maker)

http://www.spiffytext.com/

This web 2.0 tool is a logo maker called Spiffy Text. It allows you to choose fancy fonts and backgrounds for a word. Students could use this in the classroom for spelling words, oral vocabulary words, sight word practice, or for creating key words for projects.

This tool could be used for creating images for magazines, Pages newsletters, Keynote presentation images, or ComicLife publications. This creative tool would encourage students to think out of the box and be exposed to great vocabulary encouraging specific word choice with the tags that are written beneath the font and background choices. I am planning to use this tool in my classroom in January when I return after break. I really think it will work well in a word word center for practicing spelling words. Students could create flash cards through and really visualize the word when later taking their test. For spelling, this would be helpful for ESOL students and basic education students in all grade levels. First I would teach how to create the image, and save to desk top. Then I would show them how to drag and drop the images on to a word document, table, or powerpoint slide so flash cards could be printed. This is also something that could be assigned for homework, with parental supervision for younger students. I am very excited to implement this in my classroom!

BP06_20091201_AntiTeaching

I agree with the students that participated in the survey for the “Vision of Today’s Students” that most reading assignments I was given in my bachelor’s program did not seem meaningful or relevant, thus not making me motivated or engaged. Classes in which the material was relevant to my degree or career provided a more significant purpose for reading, reflecting, and completing an activity or project. Because I knew it was important for me to know and understand the material for my future for my own benefit, I was more apt to put my best effort into it.

I don’t think that PLE with CMS are the end all, be all, for fixing the relevance and significance issue. But I think using technology seems to increase motivation and participation in a lot of cases, so it would be a start to hooking the learner and possibly keeping them engaged. Using web 2.0 tools would assist interpersonal learners with collaboration abilities, social interactions, and building on group members’ ideas. They also may work well for linguistic learners who can use their words to express their learning, but kinesthetic and intrapersonal learners’ needs may not be met with these tools. Using a virtual environment would allow for social interactions, building on ideas, and collaboration that may not be present in a real classroom. Teachers could use the discussion approach or even the direct approach with a guided practice on a web 2.0 tool to integrate virtual environments to increase participation and motivation.

Editors for eSchool News state “Skills such as global literacy, computer literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation have become critical in today’s increasingly interconnected workforce and society--and technology is the catalyst for bringing these changes into the classroom.” I strongly agree that technology is the catalyst to encourage growth and change, and adding virtual environments, web 2.0 collaborations, and personal learning environments would create a toolbox for students to increase the above-mentioned skills. I think key components for a new school in the 21st century would be flexibility, access, equipment, and support.

1. Flexibility for teachers is important so teachers can take advantage of teachable moments, facilitate questioning, guide research and discovery, and chose their method of data collection and multimedia implementation.

2. Access is important because schools block a lot of sites and online tools that would be very meaningful and beneficial for students in fear of inappropriate sites, postings, and lawsuits. Students and parents given access would need to be held to a higher degree of trust that Internet activity remains appropriate and a plan of action for violations would need to be created and strictly enforces in order for blocks to be removed. For teachers to encourage global literacy, communication, and computer literacy, access is needed for students to communicate, share, and contact with peers and experts around the globe. Restricting access prohibits growth and learning.

3. Equipment is important, as well. Technology changes quickly and the equipment used in schools today that is between 3 and 7 years of age are not always capable of the actions desired or operate the most recent systems available. For us to create innovative, critical thinkers, students need equipment that is new or only a year or two old.

4. Support for teachers is also important and necessary in order for teachers to be supportive for students. Integrating a higher degree of technology use allows for extreme differentiation to take place for students, scaffolding on each individual’s prior knowledge and not stifling personal growth due to a learning curve. But differentiation requires planning time and also staff development. Administrators providing this support for their staff are sure to see the most impact to the students in the long run.

Now that I've been in the trenches and see the needs that teachers have, I think I would make a great administrator :).

BP5_20091201_Social Bookmarking (de.licio.us)

My username is melissacaruso00 and the url is http://delicious.com/melissacaruso00

If anyone finds any good challenged based learning or action research links, please share! :)

BP4_2009121_Tools#1(Game Classroom)

Game Classroom is a "one-stop destination for accessing high-quality educational games and homework help for students K-6." The games provided are created and organized by professionals with over 200 years of combined teaching experience. The site is free for students, teachers, and parents. The site is organized by grade levels kindergarten through six. Once you click on a grade level you have the option of choosing between homework help or games. Choosing games will navigate you to a window with games sorted by subject areas Math and Language Arts. The Math games are then sorted into different concepts: addition and subtraction, comparisons, shapes and geometry, problem solving, and numbers. Language Arts games are sorted into concepts reading and comprehension, words, grammar, stories, listening and speaking, letter and word sounds, and writing. This site is great for student use because it typically only has one area of banner ads instead of a border surrounding the entire game as other sites do. This would be a great opportunity for students to learn about internet safety and not clicking on pictures or ads without permission from an adult.

There are many educational benefits to using Game Classroom because the creators have aligned the games to state standards for purposeful engaging activities. I focused o

n First Grade activities since that is what I teach.

Drop and Drag could be used to review medial short vowel sounds or ending word families in a whole or small group. I would not suggest using it for an independent center as the game repeats the same pictures and words to match each time. There are not various levels or options to play.

The CVC Pop game would be a great game for independent review of medial short vowel sounds. It is a game where students

must click on the word they hear, before it floats off the screen. The words repeat a lot, but then change after correctly clicking a dozen times or so. You can choose which short vowel sound you wish to practice. It is

easy for students in first grade to navigate back to the menu to select a different vowel sound. I would recommend this game for independent work or homework. It also requires little to no

directions from adults so this could be done with minimal support at home.

Caruso, M. (2009).Screenshot30.png.[Frame]. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from http://www.gameclassroom.com/game/33436-3209/matching-oral-and-printed-words/drop-and-drag

Caruso, M. (2009).Screenshot31.png. [Frame]. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from http://www.gameclassroom.com/game/33883-3200/reading-common-words/cvc-pop

Game Classroom. (2009). What is game classroom?. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from http://www.gameclassroom.com/whatis