cyber safety

                                      THREE THINGS YOUR STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW 

1. Teach your students that whatever they say can and will be tracked back to them, so don't say anything that you wouldn't want people to know you are the one who said that. 

2. Don't click on the "free" trip to Hawaii- it's not real- any of it! 

3. Never put anything out on the internet that is personal- not your full name, phone number, address etc.  

Images from Google Images.

Lesson Plan in the Works

The lesson plan I have chosen is a game to help children accomplish the objective: a. Recognize and produce rhyming words [RF. K. 2A]. The game goes a little like this, The teacher has all the children sit in the middle of her in a circle, using a projector, she projects a word up on the screen, the children look up at the screen and say it is "bat", the teacher picks one child to act out a word that rhymes with "bat" or the word up there, say the child picks "cat", that child goes into the middle of the circle and acts out a cat and the children guess what he is.
The technology used in this lesson is the projector. The teacher is using the projector to project the word onto the screen that the children will use to rhyme with another word of their choosing. I think this technology is used in a good way, to get the word out to all the kids, but i do think there is other ways to get the word out to the children without using technology. The teacher could simply write the word on the dry erase board/ chalk board or the teacher could just say the word out loud. Technology is encouraged in this lesson, but not necessary.


In my new take of this lesson plan, I would have all the children sit at a computer, and project the word up on the screen and by incorporating typing, have all the children type on their screen what word rhymes with the word I put up on the screen (just so every child gets the chance to find a word that rhymes with the other word), and say 3....2....1... then they could stand up and act out the word they typed on their computer. The "new" technology that would be included would be a computer. The computer would be incorporated into the lesson for the children to type that word onto their computer that rhymes with my word that's being projected onto the screen.

Image from google images.

Blog 2: Digital Portfolios: Using Technology to involve families

Digital Portfolios: Using Technology to Involve Families 

1.  This article is about teachers in the classroom using digital portfolios, instead of the traditional paper portfolios. An advantage of using digital over paper portfolios that they mention is that digital portfolios allow parents to see their child's work without having to physically go to the school. This helps parents out tremendously because many parents have busy schedules but would love to see what their child is learning about in school. This article highlights how two teachers in South Carolina use a note- taking application to create digital portfolios. Ms. Hart, teaches kindergarten and uses this app and likes how the app has a "view" option along with a "modify" option where the parents can contribute by uploading images and recordings from home. Ms. Turpin, teaches 1st grade and especially likes how the app is especially helpful for showcasing writing development, where she can scan in a picture of the child's writing progress. The children do all their projects, and the teacher takes a photo of their work and uploads it to their profile online, so most of the technology is being used by the teacher here, and not the student. This would be placed under "create" in blooms taxonomy, because the students are creating their own work, while the teacher is just uploading their work to their online portfolio so their parents can see what they have been working on in class. I thought this article was very helpful, I will definitely use a digital profile in my classroom! This is such a convenience to the children's parents. In my personal experience, we would have an "open house" for the parents to come see what we had been working on, but this is just one day and parents are very busy with their jobs, with other children, and doing so many more important things that they don't get to go and they would love to. This digital portfolio is perfect for families like those who just can't be in more than one place at a time, parents would love this. 

picture and article from: Young Children Encouraging Families: Partnering in Meaningful Ways

Page 56 Digital Portfolios: Using Technology to Involve Families 

1. When I was a student in Kindergarten/ Preschool I remember bringing my Leappad to school to help me read. The Leappad would sound out words and letters for you if you clicked on them. When I was in middle school we would have the lap top cart and use those, or go to the computer lab to help us type and do vocabulary and some math games. In high school we all got our own Ipad's from Hoover City Schools and those were mainly used for games (which is why they no longer give their students Ipads), but some teachers used them for worksheets. We would download the worksheets and write our answers then submit them through our Ipads.
2.Technology related skills were taught to me through the use of computers and sometimes Ipads, we had a class called BTA (business technology applications)  where we learned to type, and use multiple different Microsoft applications. BTA was a required class, and learning how to use all of the Microsoft applications was highly emphasized throughout the class.
3. In my classroom, we will start using technology at an early age, we will start by playing educational games at first, to get them used to a computer, then start incorporating typing by having them practice their letters and sounds a letter makes on the computer, since I am early childhood education, they wont be typing words yet until maybe the end of the year, but we will start with practicing our letters. Using the Leappad helped me learn letter sounds better, so I will hopefully incorporate that, if it's still around by the time I'm a teacher.


Courtcourtwest  4 December 2014 Student Using Technology in the Classroom 
Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Student_with_computer.JPG