(u04a1) Integrating Social Networking

Project: Reading Skill: Sequence.  Sequence is an important reading skill that my students usually have trouble in because they don't see it when they are reading,  through this re-teaching lesson I plan to reinforce their sequence mastery and make it easier to understand after hands on experience.  I've created a Sequence Prezi (embedded below) for my students to view and follow to achieve content mastery and test what they have learned. 


Project: Reading Skill: Sequence Lesson Plan

This Prezi presentation is intended to introduce and foster sequence of events in a variety of ways.  This lesson is designed to re-teach, reinforce, and strengthen their knowledge of Sequence at individual computer stations. 

Texas State Standards (TEKS)/Student Learning Objectives:

• 3.8.A.1-Sequence the plot's main events. (Obj. 2)
• 3.8.A.2-Summarize the plot's main events. (Obj. 2)
• 3.10.A.1-Identify language that creates a graphical visual experience. (Obj. 3)
• 3.3.A.1-Locate specific information in graphic features of a text. (Obj. 1-3)

Goals:
TLW:

• Examine sequence and its clue words through various projects. 
• Produce examples of sequence throughout the lesson while constructing graphic sources, and
• As a final test and teacher evaluation, students will reply on Edmodo under the Test Your Skill: Sequence Assignment, replying on a personal order of events in which they do daily, with  step by step instructions. 

Instructions/Directions:
The instructions and directions are clear on the Prezi presentation and Edmodo for students to follow  and complete with ease.  Below are the directions in which the students must follow to complete the assignment:

1. The student will view Sequence and take notes on information regarding sequence in their Reading Spiral.
2. The student will complete the activities that are embedded into Sequence and turn in at the end of the assignment.
3. The student will be assessed by posting a reply on Edmodo about a personal order of events in which they use daily. 
1. Edmodo Log in Information which I have also placed in their Prezi is:
1. Group Name: Perez
2. Access Code: zkmmck

(u03a1) Research & Analyze: Review & Contact

I've decided to contact StudyIsland on the issue of its reading section.  Although my students and I love to use StudyIsland, I do hear a lot of complaints that they don't like to use the reading section because most of the time they have to read very long passages just to answer 1-4 questions.  Because I ask them to do anywhere from 12-15 questions per area, this plays a large toll on them to complete and doesn't motivate them at all.  Every time I check my class progress math outnumbers reading greatly because of this time consuming passages.  I'm considering that StudyIsland create one paragraph stories instead of long passages, this way students won't feel exhausted and motivated to do and complete the reading section. I'll keep you posted on the feedback.

Contact UPDATE 4/5/11
Melissa Ray from StudyIsland contacted me yesterday on my initial concern.  She delightedly gave me thanks for my concern and feedback to their site.  She let me know that she would pass on my message to the development team for a possible future update to the program and consider the revisions for the reading section.  I hope to hear from the development team soon, but I know that they don't develop and make changes on an everyday basis!  Maybe I'll see a change next school year, but I'm pleased with the information that Melissa gave me up to now, I will surely pass it on to my students and tell them that their comments are being looked at.  =)

(u03a1) Research & Analyze: Human Filters

Human filters is known as what we use to strain, sort, and categorize what goes through our senses and how we perceive things.  Even though all our senses are of great importance and we use them differently depending on our situations, the three that are pertinent to me are hear, see, and touch.  Over the years I've noticed that when it is time for me to learn and attain content mastery I have to implement these three senses in order to fully understand.  The sense of hear and see most of the time work hand and hand together as I learn and aquire new information, yet there are sometimes in which they are used individually, to see I create a picture in my mind of what I hear, and for hearing I create sounds, music, or words in my mind of what I see.  Touch is a very important sense to me, because I'm a very hands-on leaner.  I have to touch and actually create or build what I learn to fully accomplish and understand aquired information.  A lot of information is hard to touch, especially in reading, but what I do to touch, is create and build projects that incorporate the content.  Furthermore, I have learned that when there is no presentation of hear, see, or touch, through the years I have learned to create my own presentation in my mind or as a project to better understand the new information.  I always find a way to have my favorite 3! =)

(u03a1) Research & Analyze: Web2.0 Sites

For my research I decided to analyze the following Web2.0 sites: Vocabulary&Spelling.com, BrainPOP.com, and StudyIsland.com.  I have always used and implemented these sites with my students, but I had never quite evaluated them fully using all the criterion within the Web2.0 for School Use rubric.  What I found was truly amazing, and it is to no doubt why these sites are great tools to use and have. Below is a summary of my evaluations:

 

Vocabulary&Spelling.com
This site is to no doubt a wonderful tool to have in the classroom and is overall effective for students and easy to use.  It received 15/18 in the exemplary category to make it a top notch tool in education.  Although it was very difficult to rate in the credits/citations/copyright criterion, after long though I gave it a substandard rating because it is unclear to determine and it is unknown, yet has its own copyright policy.  Even though Vocabulary&Spelling.com can be used by virtually any grade level, yet it seems to focus more on students who like to engage in games.

 

Overall Score:

• Exemplary-60
• Very Good-3
• Good Rating-2
• Substandard-1

BrainPOP.com
This is also an impacting site to use in the classroom.  BrainPOP is an awesome way to implement and present content to students visually and in a fun and exciting way.  BrainPOP is designed for the whole K-12 level, with concepts from all the content areas.  It even has a search option where you can look for videos for a specific grade level or course.  This can be used by teacher and students in any setting and is easy to navigate around.  It received 14/18 in the exemplary category, to make it a must use tool.  Although, it does not have an option for the classroom response system (clickers) in the quiz mode, it is still a great tool.

Overall Score:

• Exemplary-56
• Very Good-6
• Good Rating-2
• Substandard-1

StudyIsland.com
StudyIsland is an effective tool to use in the classroom, because it reinforces skills taught in class that will be assessed in state assessments.  This tool can be used for tutoring, intervention, and for content mastery.  Educators can see the progress of their students, and students can see what they need to work in.  It is very detailed and shows students what they have to work on to attain the mastery level.  Teachers can set different mastery levels for all students, to help them achieve individual success.  Not only can it be used individually, but as a whole group instruction with the option of using a classroom response system (clickers).  Students also have a game option, where they can play games if they answer correctly, this is a great motivator, because students see it as having fun, when they are actually learning! 

Overall Score: 

• Exemplary-48
• Very Good-12
• Good Rating-0
• Substandard-2

 

Here is a link to my Web2.0 Evaluations with the complete scores and charts to compare each site by criterion and by overall rating.   

(u02a2) Media Library Link

Here is the link to my EDIM514-CC media library http://www.diigo.com/user/seperez/EDIM514-CC. 
I've chosen a variety of clipart/images, audio, and video links that can surely help educators and students in their assignments under the creative commons licenses.  I read each of the sites terms of use policy and they all meet free for educators and students to use, and although none have a creative commons licesnse their copyright restrictions fall under what is known as the Creative Commons (2001) license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs , CC BY-NC-ND.   

References

Creative Commons.  (2001, December 19).  About the Licenses.  Retrieved March 23, 2011, from Creative Commons:  https://creativecommons.net.

u02a1: CC Your Work

I've selected to use the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license for my blog.  According to Creative Commons (2001), this specific license lets others:

·         Remix, tweak, and build upon my work non-commercially, and

·         Although their new works must also acknowledge the primary parties contribution/work, and

·         Be non-commercial as well, yet

·         The new party doesn’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Being an educator, I see that with my work I’ve help other educators and used other’s work, or build upon other’s work to meet what I need to implement in my classroom.  Furthermore, I see my work as non-profit, because I’m not selling it I’m using it myself and if it can help my colleagues then fabulous.  Therefore, I chose this license because I feel that my work is free for others to use and build upon non-commercially and implement their new work non-commercially, since I didn’t sell it in the first place.  Plus as long as they acknowledge that their new content/work came from my previous idea or work I feel that they are not plagiarizing or taking all the credit, and crediting me for my efforts.  I’ve always lived by the motto my teachers taught me long ago, “Always give credit where credit is due, because you’d always like to get that same credit back for your own work.”

As a teacher I would encourage my students to look into and choose this specific license for their personal work because of the first three key points and explain to them what would occur if someone wants to use or build upon their original work through this license.  I would tell them how the CC BY-NC license plays on their work as follows: 

·         Students work is non-profitable, thus non-commercial, so if they are not making any profits those who want to build upon their work shouldn’t either, and 

·         Because the primary party is the major contributor to the new parties work, they should acknowledge the primary parties initial ideas (Creative Commons, 2001).

References

Creative Commons.  (2001, December 19).  About the Licenses.  Retrieved March 23, 2011, from Creative Commons:  https://creativecommons.net.

u01a1: Blog Your Results

Hello and Welcome!

Once again, I'm Sara E. Perez, and I am a 3rd Grade Teacher at Valley View Elementary where I attended as a child myself.  This is my third year teaching 3rd Grade and I absolutely love what I do!  I feel that incorporating technology in the classroom is very important and here is a link to a video I made on supporting technology in the classroom, hope you enjoy it!

I'm known as the tech-geek on campus, by native and immigrant digital teachers. I implement a wide range of technology from my classroom, and most important to me is my Smart Board and CPU, I just can't live without. I use PowerPoint’s and videos from Discovery Education to introduce new concepts weekly. My eInstruction clickers are one that my students love, they say it’s like the Wii, and I use them to assess my students’ progress through an Internet program called StudyIsland. I also use many links already customized for each concept and grade level by www.internet4theclassroom.com. Furthermore, I use BrainPOP(www.brainpop.com) and BrainPOPJr. (www.brainpopjr.com) to motivate my students, they truly like to watch Moby, and there's always a neat quiz after each clip! Finally, to have fun with my students I create Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire like games on target skills weekly, and we both achieve success, they have fun and I assess!

Why do I choose to use all these types of digital media? It's quite simple, I'm a media person myself, and through my learning experiences I've realized that I learn better when there are different types of teaching methods, but technology is always the most interesting, and I feel extra focused to learn. I know that children in the 21st century are extremely exposed to digital media and well, they just can't live without it! I feel more comfortable teaching when I have so many resources of digital media to help me through my curriculum and help my students succeed! By instigating all these types of digital media in my classroom, I always have 100% participation, 100% attendance, and great classroom management. In my past two years in 3rd grade I've had 100% of my students pass the state assessment (TAKS) in both reading and math, and the use of digital media has assisted me in my accomplishments! I feel the students are more engaged and they have fun and like to attend school, which is something I'm proud of! Saying so, I'd never change the structure of my teaching, I love it and it works not only for me, but for my students!

This is my 5th class in the Instructional Media program at Wilkes University, I'm half way done, YAY! :)  All through the half of the program I've enjoyed all that I've learned and have implemented it in my classroom quickly and easily.  My students have enjoyed all the new techniques and tools that I have brought to them, and they ask for more!   =)