PaTtErNs are everywhere

This week we are learning about patterns. We use every moment as a teaching moment...AND we love snack time, thanks for sending it each week.

All of this technology is so much fun. WOW! Im not sure what would have happened if I had all this in high school or college. Because having it now, keeps me from cleaning, doing laundry, going to the grocery store, and anything else I should be doing,,,Very addictive!!!

W o w I j u s t p o s t e d t o m y B l o g o n m y p h o n eà"

Seeing how this works

Now on Twitter

I recently started twittering. It is addictive, and now my 2 little girls are twittering also. They love it. I am still trying to get the hang of it. We have had a good summer. We are taking Nicholas to Alvin CC on wed. to move in to his apartment. You will be able to hear me crying from wherever you are. I know he is going to do great, just not sure about me. Emily has already started volleyball, her second year on varsity. Libby and Ellie are taking piano lessons. As for me, I have been tutoring this summer and it has been lots of fun. Wish summer wasn't coming to an end, but I, I mean We are ready to get back on schedule!

Tool #11--REFLECTION

1. I had lots of favorite tools....iMovie, google docs, iTouch, and delicious ranked very high. One of my most favorite tools is the iMovie. I absolutely LOVED making the iMovie that I did at the end of the year for our kindergarteners, and most importantly they LOVED watching it and being able to take their own copy home. It is such an easy tool to use. I hopefully one day will get a mac of my own. I had used photo story last year to make a slide show and it was fun to make but I had the hardest time downloading it and publishing it. iMovie was so simple. My soon to be 1st grader, was able to work on iMovie. I think this would be a great tool to use in the classroom. My students could take pictures and download them to the mac to create an iMovie on something they are learning, what a great center to have in the classroom. We could post their iMovies on our Kindergarten blog, for their parents to see.
I also liked google docs. Google docs is going to be great to use on my team to help edit our newsletter that goes home each month, and letters that go home to our parents. We are so used to passing around a paper document and having each other check off their name when they had reviewed it, and then pass it to the next person. But...how many times did I loose it on my table somewhere...LOTS! This will also help us GO GREEN...a little more!
The iTouch is something I can not wait to have in the classroom. They are going to be great to use as a center. After reading a blog that I follow, I got the idea about using them in a guided reading group. How fun would that be for the students, to use the doodle application to write a sentence.
2. Having delved into some of these tools I just have to use them in the classroom. Children LOVE technology and are so unafraid of it. It is almost an injustice if we don't expose our children to some of these tools. Technology is so much a part of their world and their world to come.
3. What surprised me(but not really) is that there is so much out there for us to incorporate into our classrooms AND many of those things are so easy for young children to learn. I just need to familiarize myself with them and make sure I use them in the classroom.

Tool #11

Digital citizenship seems to me the same as manners in the techie world. Just like we teach in our classrooms citizenship-respect, obedience, trustworthy, etc, and how to be good citizens in our world.O ur children need to do the same while using technology. Having teenagers, I think one of the most important things to learn is that you have to be very careful of the things you put out in the cyber world for EVERYONE to see. Writing things that are not inappropriate, things that are hurtful, and pictures that inappropriate, are things that you can not take back once you have typed them in. I tell my children, that if you wouldn't want your grandmother reading what you wrote, then DON'T type it. (a hard lesson they both have learned....)That goes along the same lines as not giving out information, that others should not know. It is so scary as it is that we can find out whatever we want about someone, without them giving us the information personally. Being careful who you "talk" to is also so important. Just like we teach our children not to talk to stranger. It is our responsibilities as teachers and parents that we provide a safe technological world for our children, and give them the tools to be able use this WONDERFUL technology, but in a safe manner, for themselves and for others.