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This is Mr. Martinez's Blog.
You will find information about the 11 Tools
that will be applied during the following years.


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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tool # 11

Some of my personal tool I have in my personal technology toolbox are:

1. Skype
2. Google Docs
3. Edmodo
4.Drop Box
5. Flash Cards
6. Active Inspire
7. Blogger
8. Bookr
9. Storybird

One of the activities I am planning to do is have the students create blogs where they will do their projects. So, instead of using poster boards that will go on a wall, they can create books using storybird or Bkr and then post the links on the blog for anybody to see them.

Previously, I used to plan the projects using poster boards, trifold, manila paper, construction paper. There is nothing wrong with that. However, those methods can serve as a back up in case technology fails. My main resource for project will now be using technology. I will have to dedicate time at the beginning to teach students how to use some of these tools. I will have the students with more skills to teach or help the others with less skills. Then When time comes for the projects, they will apply their technology skills.

I had no surprises from this training. However, I did learn many things.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Tool # 10 Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is the same as regular citizenship. In both we have to be safe, courteous, respectful, honest and productive. To achieve this, I plan to make sure my students know how to be safe when surfing the Internet.
 First, I will make sure they know about cyber-bullying, how to stop it or avoid it and specially how not to be a cyber-bully. I will talk about the consequences of such acts. Personal safety is another issue I will address. I will teach them not to give personal information to anybody in cyberspace. The information they will need to be able to function will be my information. However, I will also teach them not to do it when they are alone at home. The third thing I will teach is to respect others work and not to steal anybody's properties. Of course in authoring that would be not to plagiarize. One of the sources I will try to use is Isafe. I will teach this by relating it to everyday life situations. Bullying is something that happens in our society. Therefore, I will teach them to recognize it and what to do about it. Second, personal safety is the same in everyday situations as well as in cyberspace. We do not give our personal information to anybody in the street, much less we have to do it via Internet. Here is not one but millions of strangers the ones who can view your information. Third, again I will relate stealing to everyday life situation. Nobody likes to have something stolen from them. In cyberspace is the same. Most of the material in it has an owner and to be able to use it we need to have some kind of permission or give the credit to the owner of the material. I plan to do the same with the parents and make sure they know they must monitor their kids when they are at home.

Tool # 9

1. It is important to to tie technology to the objective because it is important to plan ahead, because the students must know ahead of time what they will do during the lesson.

 2.The students must be accountable for what they in the station/centers because the time they spend in stations must be a learning time and not wasted time.

3.The websites I liked the most are:
a. Tutpop
b. Studyladder.com

I can use these as stations by having the students go to them and have extra practice when they have not mastered the contenet completely or when they have mastered it. If they already have mastered it, they will know it better and probably learn something new from another student in another classroom. But if they have not mastered it, they can learn it from other students until they master it.

4. NASA app, online pictionary app and SAS flashcards are three good apps I have found for Ipad. the The SAS app will serve for the kids as a motivator to memorize the math facts, practice addition, subtraction, division etc. The Pictionary is an awesome app for our bilingual kids with lower levels of English. While some practice at certain level, they can be using the pictionary to learn new words. NASA app can serve to do science projects.

How can I make the students accontable for these stations? First I will give them a goal to achieve. I will teach them how to create screen shots of their work. They will take  the screen shots and post them in my blog so I can see if they have finished the work they were supposed to do. Another way to keep them accountable is by using website controls for teachers such as completed work or work in progress, depending on the website.

5. They can also use this device to create their own blogs and to communicate with peers to do work that they do not understand well. For that they would probably have to make contacts with other students who understand better. How will they know who understands better? In our blogs we can create a list where students can put their name and in what areas they are experts. That way other students can identify them and use their knowledge to understand better. Students can also create videos of themselves explainig the things they understand well so others can see their explanation instead of the teacher's explanation.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Tool # 8 (2 or 3 things I learned)

1. I learned that I can go to I toons to get safe apps for my classroom 2. I learned how to shut dow the I pad completely. 3. I learned I can get the apps and the push them into the students devices, but to do that, I have to synch my laptop to the Ipads I will have in my classroom. I plan to look for the apps, download them so the student can use them. I am also plannig to create pages of apps so I can put them in a later page. Tha apps that can be deleted I will by going into Settings - general - usage, clicking on the app when they appear and clicking on delete app.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Tool # 7 Project

Content: Seasons of the year. Objective: Given a tool such as Skype, TSW see simultaneouly the different season in the Southern Hemisphere by communicating with a classroom in a South American country such as Chile or Argentina and seeing that while it is a season in the Northern Hemisphere it it a different season in the Southern Hemisphere. I plan to do this project the first semester of science. Tools to be used: Edmodo, Skype, Ipads, Activ Inspire and blogsster. The project includes: 1. the introduction of the seasons of the year. 2. communicating with a classroom in the Souther Hemisphere more or less with the same schedule as ours. 3. Have the students use the tecnology available such as Ipads, Activ Inspire and or bloggster to create a project that talks about the seasons, showing what they have learned and giving the opportunity to others to collaborate with their knowledge.

EDMODO.COM


BLOGGER.COM

Tool # 6 Skype

Skype can be used to create a conversation live with other schools or other classes within the school. We can do virtual study trips so the students can learn about other cultures, countries places, etc.

Blogger as we can see can be used to exchange information about different subject, place samples of the work a teacher wants his/her students to do, homework, etc.

Tool # 5 Click on the picture to go to Storybird


This is a great tool to write expository texts or narrative ones depending on the kinds of art you are able to find.