AHA Moments

These past eight weeks have gone by very quickly. I have been introduced to many new Web 2.0 tools that I was not familiar with in the past. My AHA moment was when I realized how using these technology tools can make your lessons so much more interactive and user friendly. I use all of the technological "gadgets" in my classroom such as document cameras, wireless keyboards, and interactive white boards but I had never incorporated Web 2.0 technologies because our district blocks so many of them. By doing some research for this class I have found many technologies out there that our district does not block and some others that are blocked that I am going to ask the district to unblock. I would like to play some more with sites such as Animoto and create some more podcasts using Jing. Even though my students are only in First Grade they are still capable of using many of these technologies that I had always considered to be for the older students. I will now use the computer lab for more than just pre-installed computer programs and actually let my students get on the Internet and use some of these cool tools....with appropriate supervision-of course!

Reflections from Google Week

This week I chose to use Google Dictionary for my kids to use to do a project. I chose this program because I work with First Graders and they are not familiar with many computer programs on the Internet. I am going to attempt to do my lesson with the kids in my class. I think that as long as I assign the partners and make sure that each group has a responsible student in it that they will be able to succeed in this project. By now the majority of my students are independent readers and will be able to read and comprehend the definitions. My students are familiar with looking up words in the glossary so I think they will be understand the concept that I am trying to teach. They key phrase that keeps recurring in our technology TEKS is "with appropriate supervision".

As I work through the assignments in this class I am finding more and more ways to integrate technology even with my First Graders. Hopefully I will be in a library soon and I will be working with different aged students so I am keeping my eyes wide open for activities to do with all grade levels. I work at a school that encourages technology use and they are pretty good about unblocking sites that I request. I use technology almost daily with my students but this class is exposing me to a lot of sites that I was not aware of that will be great for students of all ages.