Monday, July 30, 2012

Tool 11

My favorite tools are:

  • Edmodo
  • Skype
  • Dropbox
  • Storybird

I'm planning for my students to interview with other Kinder classes and share experiences and information using the tools that we have learned.


I wasn't sure about the use of some of the technology tools in Kindergarten. However now I'm more confident about what can we use or adapt to our little hands and I visualize my students more engaged in the learning process with the use of technology. I don't think I have to make any major changes on my classroom, just some physical arrangements to accommodate tech workstations and planning classroom management for the use of the new technology.


My surprise was that the program wasn't as hard to complete as I thought. Also that there is tons of tools available for us to use, we just have to use them in appropriate way.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Tool 10


  • Three things I would make sure my students understand about being good digital citizen are:

  1. The importance of safely navigate and keep themselves safe from strangers, as my students are very young the sites they visit will need to be approved by me or a trusted adult . 
  2. Personal responsibilities
  3. Make them aware that not everything on the internet is true and they need to verify information with different sources.


  • I would like to use BrainPop, NetSmarthz Kids, CyberSmart Young Kids. These resources have a variety of age appropriate videos that will help them to learn about Digital Citizenship.
  • I would make sure my students understand the concept of digital citizenship by making a comparison of just being a regular community citizen and a digital citizen. We will review rules in our classroom. make connections with good citizenship in our class and find similarities and differences between the both. 
  • I plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with my students' parents as part of my agenda during Open House as well as during parent/teacher conferences. We need to educate the parents so they can help their kids to have a better understanding of this concept.


Saturday, July 14, 2012

Tool 9`


  • It is important to tie the technology to the objective because we are using it as a tool to teach and enhance students’ knowledge.  At the same time students are engaged and learning in a different but fun way.
  • We should hold students accountable as part of the rigor and relevance in our centers. It helps them realize that what they are doing is important and we are reinforcing concepts previously taught.
  • I liked Learning Games for kids because is very friendly for kindergarten and has a variety of interactive games in all subject areas. Thinkfinity also has a lot of educational games for all different grade levels and multiple subject areas; it also has nice pictures with describing words that can help my kids to build vocabulary in English. I'll use the interactive webs for students to practice their learning in their Language Arts, Math and Bilingual workstations. In order to hold the students accountable, I would have students work in pairs and check each other's work. Also students can write in their journals about what they accomplished or what sites they visited.  
  •  Some of the apps I would like to use are SHAPES, 1-2-3 counting app, ABC Letter tracing and iWrite Words Lite. Shapes and 1-2-3 counting will help to reinforce shape and number recognition, counting, labeling, number sequence and describing 2D and 3D shapes. This would be part of my Math centers and when they finished the activity they would have to draw the shapes and label them in their math journals. ABC Letter Tracing will helps students develop fine motor skills and learn to form letter properly as well as letter recognition. This could be part of a writing center where after practicing in the iTouch students transfer their learning to their journals.
  • Another way to use iPods will be as a listening center. I could get videos on Science or Social Studies from Discovery Education and use them during Bilingual Centers. I could have them videotape themselves reading or creating their very own story using their imagination. It also will be meaningful to them to create their own books using pictures of things they have done in the classroom.

Tool 8

Kinder is getting iPod touches and we are very excited and motivated to use them in our classroom. I created my iTunes account. I learned that by login to iTunes with my Apple ID, I can download content from the iTunes directly to the devices without having to sync the devices to the teacher laptop. I also learned that I can download the content to my laptop and then sync to the multiple devices, so I just have to download one time only.
I'm planning to do a lot of modeling in whole and small groups of how to use the devices as well as the appropriate behavior when using them. I'm going to organize the apps that I will use in my classroom and move the most needed to the first page. In this way my students will have easy access to them.

Tool 7


  • Content objective: Students will interview a class from Mexico and one other country around the world and ask questions about their holidays.
  • I plan to implement it during our unit of holidays and compare it with holidays around the world at the end of November and December.
  • I plan to use Skype and Edmodo to share a video about our holidays.
  • Students will have a conference via Skype with other Kindergarten class and share about their culture, food, holidays and how they celebrate.

Tool 6

I used Wallwisher to create an online word wall where students can write high frequency words and post on our literacy word wall. I also created a science and social studies word wall where students can add new vocabulary to the board during workstations. We even could create a board for different units of study and students can add vocabulary and find images to describe each particular term.




I could use Skype into my classroom to help students communicate with other students from around the world and learned about different cultures. As many of my students have family in other countries it will be relevant to them learn how they can communicate with their family using this tool.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Tool 5

Me gustan los animales by montoy2m on Storybird

I learned a lot about all of the different tools available, but the two I choose were Storybird and animoto. Storybird is a website where you can create your own stories using images provided for different artists .  In kindergarten, we can create stories using new vocabulary or high frequency words,  read it in whole group and then students can practice independently during workstations.We also could created our stories together as a class and emphasize on the different story elements.
I have used Smilebox which is like animoto to  make videos of students on workstations and use it for open house.  Parents love to see their kids in action, they also get an idea of what is happening in the classroom. I would like to use animoto to create videos to introduce different social or science units of study.

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