photostory time!

This is my first time working with social stories, and overall it was a great outcome! From the More article, "Digital stories allow teachers to target culturally appropriate skills and create a unique opportunity to involve students and families in the creation process." This is a great way for families to interact with the school and their children. Digital stories can guide a student inside of the classroom and outside. Digital stories can help guide students in the right direction when situations or events occur. These stories can help prepared students ahead of time when they will be attending an event. I see nothing but positive outcomes from the story. Teachers or parents can include: where they will be going, what they are going there for, who will be there, how they should act there, and why they are going there. This is a great tool for field trips for the students to understand what will be going on and how they should behave. The story will be great for the students to get a visual and audio tour of what will be going on. From the Healing Threshold website, "The idea is that the child rehearses the story ahead of time, with an adult. Then, when the situation actually happens, the child can use the story to help guide his or her behavior." When creating a story it can be from many aspects of events that happen in the bathroom, lunch room, or even the gymnasium.

When I created my digital story, everything went well in the beginning. After I was finished my computer was not detecting a microphone, and i felt in a bind. My work schedule has been a little crazy so I really have to plan my time when I can work on things. I was ahead of the game until I did not know what to do about my voice software. I tried to record and upload from my phone and that did not work. My second computer which is my laptop has been acting up and has to be plugged in a certain way to turn on, it does not keep a charge. Finally after a few hours of playing around with it turning off and on, my laptop let me record my voice. My second issue was with uploading to you tube. I was saving the file wrong, which Dr. Budin explained how to save it the correct way. After all that, everything was fine. The program was easy to use, I think it would be a great tool in the classroom for the students to create their own. When working in a classroom, the students will have access to everything correctly on the computer and a teacher to guide them when they get stuck. The challenge I faced was no one was around to assist me, but once I was assisted things were fine. I selected my topic of eating at the dinner table because I think a lot of children who are out at a restaurant sometimes do not know how to behave. My boss owns four restaurants, and when his brothers children come in there, they run around and play and have no care in the world. But when I have taken them out to another restaurant they think and act the same way when that is not appropriate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkjhKBqgRVQ

photostory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkjhKBqgRVQ&feature=youtu.be

three great tools

Drop box is a wonderful tool to use. I have had an account with drop box for almost a year now. It is a very convenient place to upload information to access anywhere. I love being able to share files with my friends and co-workers. I use this tool a lot with my co-workers at my summer camp. We share files and pictures all the time. This is a tool I will use in my classroom.
The online-sign up was something I have never done before. It was fairly easy to create and it can go far with giving students an opportunity to use the computer and get their feet wet in the many things that can be preformed on the internet. It helps keep students up to date on all of the free tools you can use. The sign up would be a great thing to use for a classroom for parents and myself. Parents can go on with their students and sign up for projects or supplies to bring in. This will help with no duplication of activities or materials. This was also a good thing for field-trips. If all field trips are posted, parents can see which ones they can attend so hopeful all of the parents can attend at least one field trip.
The newsletter was very fun to write. It made me think of things I can do to inspire my students and information I should provide parents with. This is something I can do and parents can go online and read. This newsletter can also be printed out and shared with students in class and at home. My students and I would read over the newsletter so everyone is on the same page. This will open up an activity to post students work in the newsletter, or have the students come up with an article to post in the newsletter. Students work should shine and why not along side of their peers and family.

Google docs

I thought that using google docs as a shared assignment was great in many aspects. The document automatically saves every few seconds in order to insure you do not lose anything. It is automatically saved over the Internet incase your computer crashes you can access it from anywhere. That is another reason why I love the application Dropbox, which I found out we will be using. Sometimes students can forget their USB drive but with this website everything just be uploaded and you will not have to remember anything but your password. Google docs is a great tool, unlike making a word document and emailing it to someone that is in your group, everyone can just sign on. Emails get lost and some computers do not read certain document files. This is all thrown out the window with google docs. I think google docs will be great in a classroom whether class time is given to each group throughout the day. Once groups are created each group member will get a number and one's will go first then two's can edit and see what one's did. This can be a sticky situation if used at home. Students might not sign on at the same time, or wait until the last minute which will leave other group members out in the dark for collaboration. If used correctly by teachers and students google docs can be Great tool. It can be used over breaks from school so students can create power points together and not just one person taking charge and doing all the formatting.

taking a quest

This was my first web quest, and it was pretty confusing to me. The directions were very simple, but filling out the chart was difficult for me. Each link took you to another link and then another link. Then when you click another link it took me back to the same page. I found it difficult because many of the links I used were broken and the page could not be found. I chose the case study on Sarah, who is hearing impaired. I found laws of AT, and many ways to fund. I also found wonderful resources to use in the future. In order to use this in the future in my classroom, it would be an in class assignment. This way any broken links or questions could be answered immediately. This assignment can incorporate all subject areas, and will always strengthen the knowledge of navigating on the internet. I learned that AAC can support students participation for any age in many social and academic activities. AAC can only benefit all students at an early age. AAC can be used for students to communicate in their specific way. This will benefit myself as a teacher because I have been exposed to many tools that can help my classroom in the future. By building my knowledge early just as AAC does with students, I will be ready to take on any situation in my classroom.

Social Media in a classroom?

I think using social media in the classroom has pro's and con's. On the positive aspect, most people around the world are on The Facebook, no matter their age. This will let teachers connect with their students at home any day, even when they are on breaks. I also see this as a good thing for the district, students can be involved in "groups" of their classroom and others that are in the same grade as them. This can be helpful over summer or really long breaks, it would not have to be an assignment, as not everyone is on Facebook at home. Most teachers know that their students are on Facebook at least twice throughout the course of a day. Parents can also be involved in this process and staying up to date on what is going on in the classroom.According to the Facebook page, Facebook pages can be both personal and professional, "by maintaining a page is a great way to establish a presence as a teacher without blurring the line between your personal and professional lives. You can interact with parents, students and colleagues via your page or group" (Teaching Digital Kids). According to the Educator's Guide of Facebook, it can be "Student-Centered: which shifts the learning responsibility to the student, requiring students to take a more active role in their own learning process and emphasizes teachers as providers of help as needed to overcome difficulties" (Phillips, Baird, Fogg, 2011). I believe this could be a good thing for students to also get to know fellow students who are not in their primary class but in their grade. As I know I went to school with a lot of people but do not even know some of the names of students i graduated with. Teacher's can use Facebook by posting review questions or homework assignments if the student has misplaced their original. A weekly task of commenting on something they learned in class or how they feel about something can also be done on Facebook. The teacher would have to set aside some class time in order for students to complete as some are not able to on their own time. Guidelines would have to be craved in stone as for what students can and cannot post. "Acceptable Use Policies:  Jeff Johnson, technology coordinator for the Glendale-River Hills School District, in Wisconsin, prefers to call these "Responsible Use Policies" because he "expects students (and staff) to be responsible school citizens" (Poole, 2011). Students can create videos on Facebook and post to the class, or change a piece of artwork and share with everyone. This is a way for students to stay connected to each other even when they are not together. "So many educators on the front line are seeing this great opportunity where kids are no longer just creating work for an audience of one—which might have been, in the past, a teacher—but they're able to produce work that can be shared in a much broader way," said Cindy Johanson (McMullan, 2012). Another great way that social media has helped is through text messaging, if students are somewhere and they relate it to school, they can easily snap a picture and attach it to the classroom Facebook page for all to see. Students think they are having fun on a social website but they might not understand how many skills they are acquiring through this process. One teacher in particular has reached out to his students to make sure they are putting all efforts forward, "Mr. Delmatoff would send text messages to wake chronically absent kids up before school or send messages like, “I see you at the mini-mart” when they were running late. She called the program “Texts on Time,” and it improved chronic absenteeism by about 35% without costing the school a dime (Kessler, 2010). To keep on the topic of using social media, students can find pictures, video, or audio that represents a historical event and post to the page for all to see. Teacher's can also team with a teacher from around the world and have a group where both classes interact in a variety of ways. I do not think there are many downfalls other than this being something the teacher will have to spend a lot of time monitoring to make sure everything is following policies on the classroom page. I will use a social networking site and social media in my classroom, it is just how society has changed.


http://www.facebook.com/safety/groups/teachers/

1.       http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/poole/poole018.shtml

http://facebookforeducators.org/educators-guide

http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

https://www.facebook.com/education

StoryJumper

At first, I selected the Web 2.0 tool called Mappy Friends, but that application is being transferred to another site name. I thought this would be a great way for students to share places they have been with classmates. Students can write reviews on place the class has been together or places they have been with their family. This will let classmates get to know each other and where they go on their free time. This can also open up the student's eyes to places they have never been before or have never even heard of.

My second choice was the Web 2.0 tool called Story Jumper. This application let's students create an online book, which could be purchased for money. This will let student's be creative with their writing and see their story come alive. This application gives templates that you can use or you can create your own. This application can definitely work in an inclusive setting. Students of any age and ability can create a story. The story can have multiple sentences on each page or consist of one word. This also lets students use personal pictures or search for pictures within the site or on the internet. This project can be ongoing and parents will get an opportunity to purchase and actual book. Students can also share their online book with the class by using the smart board. This is a great application that goes along with the video "Do You Know." This is a perfect example of how print is being left behind and technology is increasing. Students can read other students story online digitally and as a class, rather then in their hands and individually. With putting the story on the smart board, the students in the classroom can see the images and text as the author reads. Students will not have to glance at the photos as the teacher would normally show them when sitting on the rug. Using this application, students will work on their writing skills, their creative ability, their speaking skills, and their knowledge of technology.

Here is a link to my story, I used the templates as the base of my story to see how easy and accessible the website was.

http://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/5956642/beanz148# 

Here is the website if you would like to create your own free account!
http://www.storyjumper.com/