Technology Beyond the Blackboard

I decided to develop my Summary of Learning reflection through emaze to ultimately create a interactive and visually appealing presentation. I truly appreciated learning how to use this tool properly because I have never experienced it before. Emaze is a quick and efficient tool to use to create presentations as opposed to just using standard powerpoint. Within my emaze project, I included key elements of the course such as: PLN, Cool Tools, Major Project, Blogger.com and Reflections. Click here, to check it out!

As I continue to reflect on this course, I always fall back on how I can take this knowledge and actually transport it into a classroom. From the knowledge of this course, I feel more prepared to incorporate TPAK with my teaching dispositions. Learning in a Apple Distinguished school allows everyone to have the same technology opportunities as each other, which helps future educators have access to the newest teaching softwares and applications. As I reflect on my decision of attending Seton Hill, I just go back to being grateful that I attend a school so vastly involved with the newest technology pedagogy. Technology is the future and the ones that avoid get left behind. As educators, we always have to keep up with the times or else we will get replaced by newly certified teachers. So as we continue through this educational journey just remember to believe in the importance of technology! Thank you so much for following me through this inspiring and encouraging journey!

Major Project- Final Post

I can not believe that these six weeks have gone by so fast! I absolutely loved my topic for my Major Project! I learned so many new ways to introduce technology in a classroom environment. Before I took the Principles of Instructional Technologies course, I was very hesitate of having technology embedded into my future classroom. I kept telling myself that technology is so prevalent in our society that it will never go away. Especially now more than ever since we have children in schools that have never lived without these new advancements in technology. But through this Major Project I have learned and became confident with establishing technology curriculum in my future classroom.

As I continue to reflect on my major project, I noticed that I adjusted my topic lessons slightly from my original mind map. I changed my Social Studies and Science lessons from community helpers and animals habitats to hibernation and the First Thanksgiving lessons. As I was working throughout my Major Project I felt like it would be beneficial to adjust those two lessons for where I wanted to go with my 'students' and to keep up with the whole Fall Unit ideology. I used various resources to help make my project very tech savvy. Each week, I uploaded different thinglinks with all of the unique cool tool resources that I used to explain step by step each lesson plan. After creating my weekly thinglinks, I ended up creating blog posts of each lesson plan throughout this entire Fall Unit. I also only used photos from Flickr or from my own camera just to avoid going against any copyright or creative common laws. Here is the link of my overall thinglink account, if you want to check it out!!

Throughout my Major Project, I had the experience working with various types of cool tools such as Canvas, Speakpipe, mystory, Sock Puppets, Powtoon, and Time Teacher Lite. Most of these tools where very easy to use but some such as PowToon, Sock Puppets and ABCYA.com made it a little bit more challenging to incorporate into my lessons. For example, I created my First Thanksgiving movie using PowToon and I had to create it under google chrome instead of Safari since I could not add or change any of the pictures. Also whenever I copied the link from my published PowToon video into thinglink it only displayed the picture of the video not the correct link to the actual video. I even went to the solution center and they couldn't even figure it out. This was just one of those instances that I decided not to worry about it since this was out of my control. I ended up having the link embedded into my weekly blog post so people could have access to it. On the other hand, Sock Puppets, the iPad app, was applicable with my thinglink account except that the free app only could let you record a video for only 30 seconds. If I was using this app in my classroom I would just pay for the tool to have longer recording time. Lastly, I used two different games from ABCYA.com that I thought where appropriate for each lesson however they would only work in google chrome not safari. 

Throughout this whole process, I have learned how to be patient with technology and also be creative with it. I learned how to create and set up lesson plans that revolve around the usage of technology. This project truly opened up my eyes to how technology can benefit you and your students in a classroom. The world is quickly changing from all of these rapid technology advancements and one must keep up with the trend to not fall behind. Keeping up with the changing trends will have me connect with my students year after year. I want to be the kind of teacher that is always learning about new tools and resources to incorporate into my technology savvy class! I am glad to have gone through this beneficial and educational journey!  I want to thank you for reading this last blog post and following me throughout my Major Project!  

Major Project- Social Studies Lesson (Week 5)

Good Afternoon Parents and Guardians! This is my last blog post within our fall unit! It is hard to imagine that we have completed all five weeks in this unit! Time surely flies when you are having fun learning!! This week our social studies lesson was focused on the importance of the First Thanksgiving and the journey that the Pilgrims endeavored. I started out this lesson with a video that I created on PowToon about our First Thanksgiving. I broke it down into five basic events that all tied into how the Pilgrims left England seeking religious freedom and ended up in North America. I loved watching the kids reaction to the story! It was Priceless! At the end of the video, I asked them a question concerning 'what do you think would have happened if the Pilgrims never met the Native Americans?'. Some of the students came up with the most logical and creative answers. After our fun problem solving art activity, I brought out our class iPads and introduced a new game called "Build A House". This is a interactive game that I found on ABCYA.com. It offers different features to make a house such as doors, windows, chimneys, and outdoor accessories! This social studies lesson ties up our Fall Unit, now on to our Holidays and Culture Unit! Of course, I have another thinglink with more information about what we learned this week! Please feel free to contact me with any questions! Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is an example of our problem solving art activity!! 

This is a picture of the website that we learned how to build our virtual home! 

Major Project- Music Lesson (Week 4)

Good Afternoon, Parents and Guardians! We are now in the fourth week of our Fall Unit!  After a lot of reflection about last year's fall unit music lesson, I decided to use the same lesson except incorporate technology within it. This week, Ms. Dispenza's 1st grade class dove into this fun and exciting lesson. I started out our music lesson with playing different Disney cover songs through the sock puppets app. I actually used my singing skills to create all of the videos. My favorite sock puppet video was when I sang "I see the light" from Tangled. I turned these videos into a hands on and interactive guessing game. As I played these different cover songs the students had to look around the room for the Disney movie picture that matched the song I was playing. To end the lesson, I allowed the students to use our class iPads to make their own video on the sock puppets app. Every child had the option to work in pairs or alone on this project. We have been working with this sock puppets app for most of the school year so I had full confidence that every child would be able to complete the project. Of course, I would answer any questions that my students might of have! I also started using this fun turkey hockey pokey video to help transition from each aspect of the lessons that we completed throughout the week!

Again I have another thinglink for our music lesson. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Major Project- Science Lesson (Week 3)

Good Morning Parents and or Guardians!! This week we dove into learning about hibernation! I wanted to briefly introduce hibernation this week, but whenever we officially enter Winter I will retouch this process. I started out my hibernation lesson with an audio recording that I made on speakpipe.com reading The Leaves Are Falling One by One by Steve Metzger. I had the students stand near the windows and listen to the recording and look for any colorful leaves or animals. I wanted to introduce different learning styles with this recording by how auditory learners were listening to a story, visual learners could look outside to count the leaves, and lastly kinetic learners were able to stand up instead of sitting in their desks. After the audio recording, we went on a nature walk outside to take pictures of how the trees are starting to change colors. I also talked about how we might not see any animals because they are starting the hibernation process soon. Lastly, I created an infographic providing the definition of hibernation and how trees become dormant. I had two examples of animals that do hibernate and two that do not hibernate. The children really loved learning about this concept.  Of course, I have another thinglink where all of these resources are provided regarding this lesson. As always have a wonderful day! Contact me with any questions!

Major Project- Math Lesson (Week 2)

Good Afternoon Parents and or Guardians! This week in our fall unit, our class focused primarily on gaining the skills to acquire the concept of reading and telling time!! The students really enjoyed this lesson since I added a new app to our class iPad collection! I have another thinglink that is here to serve as a guide to help your child be able to complete and master telling time. Within this week's thinglink, I have four buttons that elaborate what we discussed and learned in class. The first button is an instructional video describing how to tell time by rhyming with analog and digital clocks. Secondly, I created a hands-on activity in class that allowed each students to decorate his or her own clock and then we practiced moving the big and little hand around the clock to help visually show how a clock works. On the third button there is a link that takes you to a really cool website called ABCYA.com where there is an interactive time travel game. This just gives the kids another opportunity to master telling time. Lastly, the fourth button is a picture of the main menu for the new app on our class iPads called Time Teacher Lite. If you have any questions please contact me through my email or our class blog! Have a wonderful evening. Happy Fall!!