Reflection using GoAnimate

I was a little nervous about this course because of my lack of experience using technology. When I was in school, the only technology we had was a movie projector and if you knew how to run it, then you were the technical person for the class. This class really put me at ease and gave me confidence to integrate technology in my classroom. The most use digital technology tools I encounter in this class were Movie Maker, Animoto, GoAnimate and Voice Thread to make digital stories. The blog is also a great tool to communicate with parents and even students outside our classroom. These tools will make my classroom more fun and enjoyable to my students because it’s something new and it’s very interactive. I have learned a great deal in this class, knowledge that gave me and understanding and confidence to discover new and expand ways to teach my students. I feel that my students and I could explore the many options in this digital age and how we could incorporate some of these tools into many other components of our curriculum. It’s going to be a challenge for all of us, but I now have the basics to expand my knowledge and explore many more digital tools that will benefit our whole class and support our learning.

We learned how to create questionnaires during our EDUC 584 class this week using Goggle forms. We as teacher work with many students who come from different backgrounds and we need to be sensitive too their beliefs and needs. Cultural Sensitivity is a set of skills that enables you to learn about and get to know people who are different from you, thereby coming to understand how to serve them better within their own communities. Please take this survey to reflect where you are:

Literacy Project

The overview of this unit consists of four topics.  The students will learn about the land, History -1500's to the present, people & economy and the environment of Connecticut.  The assessments will be quizzes, class participation and the end of the unit research project.  The project will be to research a Native American tribe form Connecticut using the cooperative learning model.  Students will break up into groups and research a particular Native American tribe that lived in the state of Connecticut.  As a group, they have to give a written summary of their research, create a bulletin board and give an oral presentation using the collaborative tool Movie Maker.    They need to present and record their presentation, and edit their work using the movie maker.    Windows Movie Maker is a presentation software program that comes already installed (in most cases) on all Windows computers. Windows Movie Maker is a fun and easy to use video editing program that allows you to make home movies, photo albums and business presentations.  It is a great starter tool to learn the basics of video editing.  It is also widely used in schools as a tool for class projects and allows students and teachers to create wonderful graduation presentations of all the goings-on that took place in the school year.  Still pictures, other video clips, sounds, music and narration can all be added to a Windows Movie Maker project.   I wish I started to use this tool earlier in the year because it wasn't enough time to create a better product, but the kids had fun. 

One Tin Soldier

This is my final draft for the digital story.  This time I created some narration to go with the images hoping it would enhance the impact of the story.  I had some difficulties adjusting the volume of both the song and my voice so my words could be heard.   My story is about a field trip my class took to the   Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.  This is the final piece of a History unit about Connecticut.  At the end of the unit, the students had to research a Native American tribe from Connecticut.    I've been trying to set up this trip for three years, and since we made it this year, wanted to capture the whole experience for my students.   The song that I sue as a background is “One Tin Soldier “. This is a 1960's counterculture era anti-war song written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. Canadian pop group The Original Caste first recorded the song in 1969. Here is the link to the museum's web site.  http://www.pequotmuseum.org/default.aspx

One Tin Soldier

This is my 1st draft of my digital story.  My students went on a field trip to the Machantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center as part of their unit on Connecticut's History.  As a performance assessment, the students were separated into four groups and each group had to research a particular Native American tribe from this region.  This video captured some of the images my students encounter during the trip.  A also wanted to create a story about the Pequot tribe and the consequences of their encounter with the Europeans through music by The Original Caste.  

http://www.pequotmuseum.org/default.aspx







  

Storybird Simple Gestures

During my EDUC 584 class, we worked as a team to create a story using Storybird. It was a little simpler than other programs because it is user friendly. The images are funny and colorful.  This a great tool to support different reading strategies, especially visualizing because the students will see the pictures then create the text. 

Family Animoto

This is my first Animoto video for my graduate class. The video is about my family and It was very challenging but I had a lot of fun creating it because it was personal. While creating this video, many ideas came to my head about the usage of such a program in my teaching. Examining my existing curriculum, I came to the conclusion where the use of Animoto will support my learning objectives. For example, Animoto could be used for the following ideas: * At the start of the school year, students could use Animoto to introduce themselves or their classmates. * Students can illustrate their own poetry using digital images they find on Internet or ones they take. * Animoto can be used to present research information to the class. * Students could illustrate step-by-step instructions for procedure writing. * Send students on a scavenger hunt, supplied with digital cameras. Have students assemble their digital images into an Animoto video to display what they found. I will try to get more familiar with the usage of Animoto so I could be ready for implementation during the next school year.

Richardson Chapter 3

Chapter 3

This chapter was enjoyable to read because it cleared some of my anxieties about blogging which I had after the first day of class. Many of the activities Richardson mentioned in this chapter are fun and engaging once the class gets comfortable using weblogs. I'm going try using weblogs in my teaching practice but I'm going to  start small as Richardson wrote in this chapter.  I'm going to post my homework assignments once we get comfortable using it as a whole class.  I will try for the next three weeks to work out the kinks so I could be ready for full implementation next school year. ( Juan Gonzalez)

 

 

Richardson's Reflection Introduction

Introduction:


Mr. Berners-Lee would be amazed on how close his vision of World Wide Web he developed over fifteen years ago is close to becoming a realization.  I guess in this informational age, millions of Americans are in some shape or form using the internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others or share files.
Richardson also wrote on how education is reacting slowly to the ever changing world around them.  Our students have been using technology in their homes that they are unable to use at their schools because of what ever reasons. Many districts including mine, don't have the resources to acquired technology because they don't see the importance and the benefit to the students.  In this day of standardize testing, administrators see these technological tools as a " risk instead of a solution" in our educational system. 

Teaching in an urban district has it's many challenges, and one specific obstacle is having access to modern technology in the classroom.  My school has come a long way from two years ago.  When I first started teaching in my school, I didn't have any computers or smart board to help facilitate instruction.  Things have change in the past couple of years.  I have six computers and a smart board available to me and my students. The school  created two computer labs for our use and many more educational tools.  I'm hoping this class will decrease my level of stress when it comes to using technology in the classroom. I was raised in a different generation, one that values the personal interrelationship instead of using computers or other interactive devices to communicate.