Tool #11 Practicing Good Digital Citizenship

There are 3 things that I will abide for when I am using this technology in my classroom. The students will need to understand that they will use technology resources productively and responsibly for school-related purposes and avoid using any technology resource in such a way that would disrupt the activities of other users.
Also, they need to understand they will not be allowed to access files, software and/or other resources without the owner's authorization. Only the ones the teacher gives access to.
The use of chat, wikis, blogs will be under supervision and must be used responsibly.

The most important thing is that I need to model the proper behavior using this new tools and then supervise when my students are using them. Once I put in place the correct procedures and expectations they will be able to use technology in the classroom in a safe environment.

Tool #10 Exploring Mobile Technology and Apps

So many different apps to chose from. I just recently bought an iPhone and I am still learning how to use it, but I am impressed with all the different features you can find in it. It is a great tool for learning, for either children and adults. They seem to have an app for every single thing in the world. I had the idea that it would be hard for students to use the touch screen of it, but after looking these 2 apps that I found in Itunes I just can't wait to have my students using it for learning.
This is for counting.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-ladybug-tree-kids-bug-catching/id315928997?mt=8

and this other one is about shapes. The first one is only $0.99, this second one is free. There are plenty of free apps.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toddler-puzzle-shapes/id353648395?mt=8

Tool #9 Sharing Information by Jing & Skype

Remeber those days in where students used to become pen-pals with students around the country?.... Would that be gone now?... Probably not for a while, but what these two tools offer you is a face to face communication with people around the world. With the supervision of teachers, students could share with other classes around the country or even world, different activities.

Tool #8 Video Resources

There a so many different videos on the internet that could be used in the classroom. Here is one that I would use. This is one story everybody knows.


Several stories and lessons can be found in all these websites. Some of them might have ads though. This next one is about life cycles.
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=169622&title=Frog_Life_Cycle

Tool #7 PhotoStory

This time I made a really simple PhotoStory, I am still not used to hear my voice on microphone, it just sound terrible.lol. I would use this and many different pictures to create stories for my students. This stories would help them with comprehension and listening.

Tool #6 Wikis

Wikis in the classroom can be used by students to create list of different things they are learning. For example in Early Childhood. List of word you have learned with beginning sound "a". Then taking turns they can access a master list in a Wiki to edit it and add more words they learn throughout the year. It can also be used for planning with colleagues. For example, planning a field trip or just a lesson with different activities included.

Tool #5 Tagging and Social Bookmarking

This is a great way to keep all your bookmarks organized. I joined diigo and was able to create a simple list of bookmarks that I usually check.
The first one I found was of course: Houston Weather. Who doesn't keep track of the weather. I used both words as tags to find this website.
http://www.khou.com/weather

The second site is from Venezuela because sometimes I like to keep track of the news and situation of my country.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com

This could be very useful in my classroom, because I could find resources online easily without searching all the web for them. I would have the links of my lesson's resources already organized in a list that I could access throughout the year.

Tool #4 Cool Google Tools

What a perfect way to share lesson plans and documents for everybody to edit and collaborate without the need to have several files to be updated. I really enjoyed learning about Google Docs and Google Reader.
This video was the perfect explanation of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muVUA-sKcc4&feature=player_embedded

I am now following some of my co-workers and sharing one of my documents which could be updated and edited by several people.

Tool # 3 Image Generators and Mashups

This was a neat way to make picture displays. I used www.bighugelabs.com for this.

In the next one I used Spell with Flicker. I think it turn out great!. My kids could use this to spell their names in different ways.

Tool #2 PLN and Commenting

PLN is the best way to keep up with the everyday technology updates. and share with others teachers and parents experiences and ideas by commenting in their blogs.

I commented on Ms. Estrada and Ms. Orozco's blogs because after reading them I agreed of what they have to say.

Tool 1: Blog Set-up & Registration

I spent a lot of time but I had fun doing it. I can't wait to learn much more about blogging.

This will be a good comunication bridge between students, parents, and teachers