Tool 8: Using video resources

Videos are very useful in the classroom. I have been using videos in my classroom for a while (approved and provided by the district of course) as a complement to, and to enhance my lessons. It is a good way to reach students of all ages and provides them with many experiences that otherwise they would not encounter in their daily life. Videos are an excellent tool to improve students’ oral language. It allows students to focus their attention during an instructional activity. There are thousands, if not millions of videos in the web that are allowed for educators to use in the classrooms from sites such as Teachertube, Watchnow, and Edutopia
I will use these two videos to help with our Plant Unit.

Tool 7: Digital Storytelling

It was fairly quick to create the photo story after I worked through learning the Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows XP. It did take me a little while to chose the pictures and audio I used for it. You can get very creative with this program, it can help me create lessons that will meet the needs of each individual student in all the content areas. Students can also use this to make a record of a trip, put together a story with the help of their bilingual pair, write their own biography, make a number book, a shape book etc...

Tool 6: Creating Wikis to store and share information.

I can use a Wiki as a an interactive tool to use with my kindergartners. We must remember that is easier to learn by doing, which is exactly what we are doing right now. I can use a Wiki to store student electronic portfolios, which will be easier for me to check and give students feedback of their work. We can have group photos of activities where each student can record what they have learned etc. I can also use a slide show Wiki where students can retell or sequence how the project was done. As a Team, a Wiki will be an excellent and more effective way not just to plan as a grade level team, but also use for vertical planning with colleagues in the upper grade and pre-kinder levels.

Tool 5: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I joined the Delicious and Diiggo Social Bookmarking sites and tagged these two interesting Sciences websites. The first one, What is Science, is a series of videos explaining what science is; and the other one, Interactives, provides the site visitors with strategies, content, and activities that can assist learning in a variety of curricular areas.
From now on I will be able to track and share websites from any computer with other people including my team members, other colleagues, and students.