Week
Three
Introduction
I will begin by stating that this
week along with the previous two weeks have proved to be a great learning
experience for me! I have learned a lot about the world of technology and am
excited as I look forward to the great amount of information that I will learn
in the weeks to come!
Eye Candy for the Parents
A good
teacher will constantly be sending home information to parents, and usually it
is in the form of a flyer, a word document, a brochure, or something similar.
Let’s be honest, parents are busy too, and it is a hard task to hone
collaboration between parents, students, and teachers, albeit it is a task that
must be crossed off the list for optimal student success! Most parents have a
short few minutes to take the time to sit down and read a message from the teacher
each day, it is important that as teachers we understand that and we don’t send
home a 3 page narrative about how to keep your student from getting the flu
every night. I say that because I want to draw attention to two points. One,
when sending something home to parents’, make sure it is important and
worthwhile. Two, when sending something home to parents, ensure that it is a
quick and easy read.
Let’s
continue on the path of being honest. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and
say it is probably not your greatest wish to receive something from your child’s
teacher every night or even weekly that is all text, single space, 3 pages
long! I wouldn’t! When sending information home to parents, if you want them to
read it, it better be appealing! Play up those important features such as
color, spacing, images, and size!
Below I
am going to post a brochure that I created to handout to students and their
parents at the beginning of the school year! I had intended to hand it out this
school year as my first official year of teaching, but sadly, I didn’t get
hired as a classroom teacher! Fingers crossed for next year! Now moving on,
when I created this brochure, my goal was to make it appealing. I wanted it to
be something that would catch the reader’s eye, and as you all known I am a “Chatty
Cathy” but I am proud of myself as I do think I kept the wording to a minimum!
Hey I fit it all into one brochure! What more can you ask for? I did revise
this brochure and add a few different features, and change some of the wording
before uploading it! I created this brochure in Microsoft Publisher using a
template! This was my first brochure that I have ever created on a computer! I
plan to utilize many more in addition to encouraging my students to create
some!
JPEG of my Brochure
**Assistive
Technologies **
What I’ve learned:
GPAT
GPAT, also known as the Georgia Project for Assistive Technology is a
program in the state of Georgia that works closely with the department of
education to provide publics schools with assistive technology for students
with disabilities to utilize. Their goals are to helps students’ achievement
and allow them to gain independence by educating the teachers and
administrators in assistive technology.
The
website is formatted in a very simplistic manner to allow for easy navigation
and optimal use. On the home page, there is a contact number listed in plain
view for anyone interested in learning more or who has questions about the
program. In addition there is a drop down menu at the top of the page that
allows the viewer to change the website to the language of their choice. There
are around eighty different languages to choose from! Furthermore in the top
right hand corner of the home page there is the option to follow the program on
Facebook or Twitter, which could allow one to stay aware of any updates, or
changes.
There are several resources along the side of the page that one can
view. Such resources include but are not limited to, definition of assistive
technology, devices, legal documents, implementation, evaluation and
effectiveness as well as many more resources!
Zoho
Zoho is a website that allows
for organization in the form of a digital world. There are numerous apps
available to utilize. Each application has its own link, and provides a
detailed explanation of the app along with other key information such as pricing.
This website is
available to allow business users an organized system that provides for better,
more efficient productivity. There are three different application types;
business apps, collaboration apps, and productivity apps. Each one of those
categories hosts a slew of individual apps. They have offices in five cities
around the world. It is virtually an online business that is up to date with
current technology.
How the resource can be utilized in the classroom:
GPAT
Considering that
GPAT is a program that is designed solely for the purpose of education and to
provide for enhancement to students of need, it can certainly be utilized in
the classroom. Special Education is not my area of expertise, although I love
to learn more about those special, unique children as often as I can! I must
say that after reviewing this website, I have learned a great deal, and can
even say that while I have never had a special needs student who requires
assistive technology devices such as Braille readers, or communication devices,
I have utilized some of the devices on my students who are strugglers!
When reviewing the
devices for reading, I learned that I have most definitely utilized some of
these devices, but not only that, I learned that there were dozens more that I
had yet to encounter. With that in mind, I would like to focus on reading
considering the school that I work at is a reading first school, and give a
couple devices with an explanation on how they can be utilized in my classroom.
The first assistive
technology device I want to discuss is reading windows. I would like to utilize
this in my classroom to assist the struggling readers with fluency. This would
allow for the student to be able to focus on specific words, or sentences
depending on the reading level, instead of getting distracted by the entire
page! This can be especially helpful for my students with ADHD, ADD, dyslexia,
and those with a learning disability in reading.
The other assistive
technology device I want to talk about is EBook readers, perhaps even those
from TumbleBooks, which we learned about earlier! If the students didn’t have
to focus on reading the story, especially if they are struggling, and the story
was read to them through an E-Reader, I could gauge their level of
comprehension more effectively.
Zoho
While Zoho is a
website that is designed for the business world, I do think it could be
beneficial to the classroom. At an elementary level, I don’t think it would be
particularly beneficial. Perhaps some of the simpler apps could be of use, but
the majority of them would be too difficult for the younger students to
manipulate and understand.
When I begin my
teaching career in the upper grade levels; middle school and high school, I
could see utilizing this device. Especially in a business type class as this
website would allow for real world ideas, and technologies. In addition, I
think it would be neat to teach a couple of virtual classes at the high school level
utilizing this website and the chat apps. This would allow the students to gain
experience into what an online college class is.
My recommendations:
GPAT
This
website was an eye-popping experience for me, as I had no idea that technologies
such as the ones explained on the website existed! I find it amazing that we
can utilize these sources to help the students become independent learners and
enhance their education.
Without a doubt, I would certainly recommend this website resource to
other educators. In fact I am going to print this document out for future use
in my classroom, and email a copy to the other educators in my school! This
resource allowed me to understand that there are several powerful assistive
technology devices available to enhance our students learning. This would be
particularly useful for me considering I work with struggling learners as I am
an interventionist!
This
website is 100 % free of charge and readily available to the public. The links
work efficiently and the website is extremely easy to navigate! I encourage all
educators to take a glance at this website!
Zoho
As you can tell by
viewing my previous blog posts, I am a chatty Cathy, and am usually never at a
loss for words. However, try as I might, I couldn’t form enough about this
source. Needless to say, I am not a fan! I don’t care for this resource at all.
I can see where it could have its uses but it simply isn’t for me.
I will not be recommending this
product to anyone else, as I feel it is more focused towards the world of
business and it is simply nothing of use to me. Furthermore, while you can
create a Zoho account for free, not all of the apps are free. Each individual
app has a separate webpage that provides different prices! The website is a bit
much in terms of navigation as well, as there are a lot of links within links,
and a large amount of information!
**Online
Teacher Tools & Dimio **
What I’ve learned:
4Teachers
1.
QuizStar
QuizStar is a
website that allows you to create quizzes, manage quizzes and classes, and
utilize quizzes that others have created. QuizStar has two different login
pages; one for instructors and one for students. QuizStar will automatically
grade the quizzes and allows for viewing of graded quizzes online. QuizStar is
a free website, and it is very simple to login. You can create a virtual
classroom that houses your quizzes. Students can create an account and login to
find a specific class and or quiz. The website provides step-by-step
instructions on how to create an account. Once you have created an account
there are detailed instructions on how to get started creating and managing
classrooms, and quizzes.
You can create the
quiz in different formats, and allow for timers, immediate feedback, and many
other wonderful options. QuizStar also allows students to flag questions if
they are unsure of their answer and want to revisit it later.
2.
RubiStar
RubiStar
is essentially set up in much the same format as QuizStar. This website allows
one to create rubrics for any assignment. You can create a rubric starting from
scratch or you can begin by using one that is pre-written. There are tabs that
you can click on that will allow you to create a new rubric based on a template
in a specific content area. You can create an account or you can simply create
a rubric and print it. All of your rubrics can be saved for future use as well.
You can search for
specific topics in the search bar which will bring up rubrics related to that
topic that were created by other teachers. The website also has the option to
be formatted into Spanish if desired!
3.
Arcademic Skill
Builders
This is a website that
enhances student learning by boosting their engagement with educational games.
The website is another one of the websites from 4Teacher tools and it is as
equally as amazing as the other website that I have mentioned above! The games
that are available focus on Math, Language Arts, Geography, and Spelling in
grades 1-6. You can view games by subject matter or by grade level. The games
can be played on a computer, IPod or Ipad!
All games can be
played for free and you don’t have to sign up to play. However, you have the
option to sign up for Arcademic Plus, which allows you to customize game content
based on the student or the lesson you are teaching, and video lessons that can
be watched you teach your student about the content that they are having
trouble with in the games.
There are grants
available for schools to complete to help get the account paid for. In
addition, there is professional development that is offered to each school
which will allow the teachers and students to gain the most from the product.
Furthermore, 3 % of the money made by subscription purchases is donated to the
Boys and Girls Club of America! Pretty Great if you ask me!
Dimios
Dimio is the author
of the website, “Dimio”. He created several FREE software that can be utilized
by individuals as they see fit. The website is set up very simplistically and
allows for optimal viewing.
One of the software programs available is
D-Speech. This is a software program that allows you to quickly convert text to
speech. You have the option to choose different voices to allow for dialect.
The website clearly lists the features of D-Speech and also provides you with
resource to find voices to accompany the program. In addition there is a list
of other important components that need to be installed to utilize the
software.
Another software program
available is D-Shutdown, which provides one with the ability to shutdown their
computer of other computers when desired in a safe and efficient manner. The
features again, are clearly provided, as well as a direct link to the software!
There are four
other software programs available and they are, DSynchronize, DTaskmanager,
HDHacker, and DClearsystem. All of these are also FREE of charge and in much
the same way as the ones listed above, have features provided, as well as
directions for any additional components that need to be installed for proper
use. All of these systems can be translated into several different languages if
desired!
How the resource can be utilized in the classroom:
4Teachers
1.
QuizStar
Oh, I most
certainly can and WILL utilize this source in my classroom. It looks like it
can be a bit time consuming especially when you first get started, but just
think you can share quizzes with other teachers and even utilize your quizzes
from year to year. It is all virtual, and very simple to use.
If I were teaching
around 4th grade and up, I would try to collaborate with teachers in
my grade level to create student accounts for each student this way they can
add all of their classes to their account, and they only have to go to one
place for every quiz they take. I can see utilizing this website in all subject
areas as you are in charge of the format, and the content on the quiz. All too
often, you are presented with quizzes that are pre-made but just don’t have the
questions you want to ask. This way you can make the quiz all that you want it
to be!
Furthermore, my
school has classroom sets of clickers and I would love to do some of the
quizzes whole group through the instructor account and utilize the clickers.
This would save time, and allow for review and discussion of the quiz content
once the quiz is finished.
2.
RubiStar
Again, this is
another phenomenal resource for all of the educators out there! I have used
RubiStar before on several occasions! It is a great website that is fail proof
and easy to manipulate!
I have also had my
students become familiar with RubiStar in the past, in a whole group setting.
My school is focusing on creating independent students and self-evaluation.
During one of our lessons the students were to create a product. Considering
the students were in the third grade of course they couldn’t develop a full
blown rubric completely independently. Therefore, we developed a rough draft on
the SmartBoard of things we wanted to include in our rubric and criteria we
thought would be necessary. Once we completed this step, I logged on to
RubiStar and walked the students through creating a rubric. This way, they are
gaining experience of how to create a rubric and how to utilize the website!
In the future, I
plan to continue to use RubiStar to develop and create rubrics for my
classroom. In addition, I would like to gear towards student created rubrics
more, and work with the students until they are capable of creating their own
rubrics. I think it is brilliant when you can have students take ownership of
their work, and they are aware of their expectations before beginning any
project!
3.
Arcademic Skill
Builder
I can certainly see
myself utilizing this resource in my classroom. I love that the product is free
but I think I would definitely make the investment of purchasing the
subscription account for my classroom to spring for the extra, but highly
desirable features that come with the subscription account.
I would like to use
this website to engage my students and enhance their learning experience. It
would be idea to customize each students account based on their area of need
and the current lesson that is being taught each week! This would give them
time to master the skills that they are struggling with! This appears to be an
excellent source, and I can’t wait until I get the opportunity to utilize it in
my classroom.
Dimios
Dimio provides several
useful software programs that could certainly be utilized in the classroom. I
would love to touch on each of those, however, for the sake of time and space;
I am only going to explain how I would utilize one of the software programs in
my classroom!
I
think my favorite one, and the software that sparked instant ideas in my head,
was DSpeech! If I were to teach in a 3rd grade or above classroom, I
would like to have my students write their own Digital book or story! In fact,
I can see utilizing many of the technologies that we have previously discussed,
such as, word databases, slideshows, RubiStar, and others. I would have the students
begin by creating their writing in the manner of a rough draft. We would go
through the editing and revising process next. Once all of the writing was
complete, I would have the students create images to go with their writing if
they desired! After this the students would convert their writing from text to
speech using the DSpeech software. Last, the students would present their story
to their peers. If they have pictures they can display them on the SmartBoard
however they choose, and if they intend for it to simply be read, they can play
the story back to their peers through the SmartBoard speakers.
I
can see much potential with this assignment as it reaches many standards in
many different content areas at one time, and it could be manipulated to meet
the needs of many different lessons, and grade levels.
My recommendations:
4Teachers
1.
QuizStar
QuizStar is an
excellent resource, and I would certainly
recommend it to all educators! This resource can be utilized in all grade
levels starting in elementary and going through college! Navigation on the
website is extremely simple as it offers step-by-step instructions! This
website is a free resource that allows for both instructor accounts and student
accounts! Furthermore, this source can
be utilized in any subject matter and can be personalized to meet the styles of
each individual teacher!
2.
RubiStar
Considering that I
have utilized RubiStar in the past, you know I was impressed, therefore, yes,
you guessed it, I have told MANY people about this website already and will
continue to tell MANY more! I love it as it is simple to navigate, the rubrics
are beyond easy to create and most importantly it is FREE! Woo! There’s that
word again! The website is amazing, and is organized and formatted in a way
that allows for easy viewing by all! I love the fact that you can search for
rubrics that have been created by other teachers and are fabulous by the way,
or if you just can’t find what you are looking for you can start from scratch
or utilize a template! It is a win, win situation and too easy not to give it a
try!
3.
Arcademic Skill
Builders
Without a doubt this website
resource is going to be recommended by yours truly! I am beyond excited to
inform others of this awesome website! The games are free and can be accessed
with ease without having to create and account or log in. However, I do think
it would be worth it for teachers to subscribe to the website and reap the
excellent features that come with the subscription. It is only $5.00/ Student
for the entire school year, or you can get a classroom subscription of 20
students for $100.00. If money is a big issue, there are ways around it as you
can apply for several grants, or participate as a pilot school before
purchasing!
The only negative
aspect is the fact that they don’t have any games on a kindergarten level, at
least for me anyway, considering that I am currently working with the K-Kiddos
and my kinder babies want to play games while learning too! I would suggest to
the creators of this site, to try to add games for the Kindergarten grade
level!
Dimios
I would certainly recommend this website/resource to
other educators. In fact, as soon as I am placed in a classroom in 3rd
grade or up, I plan to try my assignment out and utilize this software! I think
the ideas are endless and they allow for creativity but most importantly
engaged learning!
What
is great about this website is the ability to easily navigate it and the fact
that all of the software programs available are FREE! I think it would be a
great idea for other, including myself, to develop a lesson plan using this
resource and some of the previous ones because I am sure that it would be a
plan of great value!
**Full
Measure: PowerTalk **
What I’ve learned:
Full
Measure: PowerTalk
PowerTalk is a program that can be utilized to provide voice to PowerPoint
presentations through Microsoft PowerPoint. The website is extremely easy to navigate
as it provides a list of the websites contents directly on the front page.
There are numerous features available which can be viewed directly from the
website. The website gives step-by-step directions on how to download PowerTalk
and what requirements you computer must meet before downloading the program.
Furthermore, the website provides a detailed explanation on how to use
PowerTalk and who to contact if you have questions concerning PowerTalk!
How the resource can be utilized in the classroom:
Full
Measure: PowerTalk
Branching
back to the previous Technology Exploration, DSpeech, I would like to utilize
this resource in much of the same way. However, I think this resource would be simpler
for students to use, especially those in the younger grade levels.
Again, I would like to utilize this
resource when students are creating PowerPoint presentations in addition to
when I create and use them. I think it would be a great idea, to ask my
students to create a short story and present it through PowerPoint and use
PowerTalk as the narration. I believe if you utilize this program it would also
be simple for the students to self-evaluate themselves, as most of them are
familiar with PowerPoint and know what is expected!
My recommendations:
Full
Measure: PowerTalk
I
would love to recommend this resource to other educators as it is excellent and
can without a doubt be utilized in a classroom setting. I love the fact that
this text-to-speech is in a program that I am familiar with. Microsoft
PowerPoint is an amazing program that already provides many spectacular features,
with PowerTalk also available it sets the bar even higher. I am even more
thrilled that this is absolutely FREE! Hmm… Who knew that all of this amazing
technology existed and more importantly that they majority of it is FREE!
**WebQuest
& ReadTheWords **
What I’ve learned:
WebQuest.org
The
homepage of this website is formatted efficiently and in a manner that allows
for optimal viewing. They have listed announcements that are current and below
that go on to give a detailed explanation of what a WebQuest is. The left side
of the website has interactive tabs that allow you to explore, create, and
search for WebQuest among other options. You can search for free WebQuest
through different search engines presented by the website, such as,
QuestGarden, Google, or the SDSU database by curriculum and grade level. You
can also create your own WebQuest in much of the same way; by utilizing the
various resources that are provided on the website! You can also share
WebQuest, view useful resources, and stay up-to-date on recent news concerning
the WebQuest.org website!
ReadTheWords
ReadTheWords
does exactly as its name states; it reads words aloud taking them from a text
format to an audio format. The website is amazing and offers many different
uses, tutorials, and testimonies. This resource can convert text, documents,
web pages and more. You can choose different voices and characters to read the
text if desired. The service can be offered to the public, students, and/or
teachers!
You
do have the option to test try the program, by typing 100 characters and
listening to the feedback. However, in order to really gain benefit you must
purchase an account and log in. You can even embed your text into websites!
How the resource can be utilized in the classroom:
WebQuest.org
This
is an awesome website that covers all areas of WebQuest and provides for great
resources to create and or find WebQuest to utilize in the classroom.
I
think that WebQuest are great at engaging students, and enhancing learning
through technology! They also allow students to become familiar with the World
Wide Web and computer databases and programs!
I
actually have a food chain WebQuest that I retrieved from here that I love. It
is very engaging and requires students to utilize higher order thinking skills.
WebQuest can be used in many different grade levels and content areas! Teachers
simply need to dig into to their creativity reserve to dish out amazing
WebQuest because creating them is as simple as it gets with the amazing
resources and templates available!
ReadTheWords
ReadTheWords can
certainly be incorporated into the classroom, and across a variety of grade
levels and content areas! I can think of multiple examples to use this product.
In my current situation as a Kindergarten RTI teacher, I would like to utilize
this product to help students segment and blend CVC words. I would like to
create small files and have the students segment and blend the word on their
own, then press the play button and see if their answer is correct.
I also
think it would be neat to do a sight word review where I will utilize the voice
and slideshow pictures. I would like to take a picture of each sight word flash
card and display it through a slideshow. It will have a delayed effect and say
the correct word after 5 second. The goal would be for the students to beat me
and say the word first, but they would still get to hear the correct word even
if they missed it.
Furthermore, on the website one third grade teacher said that she lets
her students use the website to hear their stories and writings being read back
to them. This helps them in the revising and editing process and allows them to
hear grammatical errors, and other writing errors. I think this would be an
excellent idea to incorporate into all classrooms grades 3 through 12.
My recommendations:
WebQuest.org
I
really enjoyed this website, and all that it had to offer. The resources
through this website including the WebQuest are FREE of charge! Yes, I said it;
FREE! After exploring some of the WebQuest created by others, I will admit that
I was amazed and inspired! I want to create my own WebQuest in the very near
future! I recommend this website to others and encourage them to not only
utilize some of the awesome WebQuest that are readily available but also spark
their own creativity and create some WebQuest of their own!
ReadTheWords
I
would recommend this product to others and I would encourage them to not only
utilize it but to provide opportunities for their students to take part as
well. The website is easy to navigate and everything is organized in an
efficient manner. There are four different accounts; the bronze account which
is FREE, the silver account, the gold account, and the teacher account. With
each different account the benefits are different. The more expensive the
account the more benefits included. The silver is 40/year, the gold is 70/year,
and the teacher account is 100/per year. I would advise that you thoroughly
compare and analyze the accounts because I am not so sure that there is much
difference in the benefits of the gold account and the teacher account besides
the price!
Website Sources Utilized:
