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Assignment #4~Integrated Technology

1. [|All about Me]  - This lesson can be used with grades K-2. The students will use Kidspiration software to write about themselves using pictures. This is a good way to get to know students at the start of the school year. It is also a good way to introduce a new program to them that they could use throughout the year.

2. [|Weather Vocabulary Words Power Point]  - This is neat way to introduce weather vocabulary to students. It is a power point that has neat pictures for the students to understand along with the word typed for them to see. This can be used in the K-2 classrooms that talk about weather. It could also be used by the teachers who work with students in ELL. The picture and word support are helpful in this case. It can be used to introduce vocabulary and also for review.

3. [|Cloudy with a chance of... what?]  - In this Lesson students will enjoy reading about a town where no one ever goes hungry because the sky provides food while learning about weather, healthy and unhealthy foods, and creating a database. This unit is suggested to be used with grades 2nd - 4th. The students are asked to invistigiate many different learner targets in unit. They will be creating a spread sheet for recording and collecting data, using story mapping skills, and talking about the food pyramid. This unit is said to talk about 3 weeks to complete.

4. [|Abraham Lincoln]  - This site was created by a first grade class. It has facts and activities that are all about Abraham Lincoln. This site includes a picture gallery, quiz, treasure hunt, and classroom activities. This lesson would be good to use with K - 2nd grade students that are learning about Abraham Lincoln.

Assignment #5~Blogs

My Blog can be found at []

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">1. Teaching Today - Blog Basics <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Not sure what others are talking about when they mention blogs? Read this article and you'll soon know what all the talk is about.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In this article the author talks about how blogs are a creative way to communicate with students outside of the classroom. It also talks about how it reaches all types of learners as they are all able to participate, but have more time to think and respond to questions. This article also talked about a few things to think about when creating a blog. Some of those things are to be sure that you are following the district policies regarding the internet and publishing of student work. Another thing is that you are sure that students understand that anyone can see and read what is put on a blog. This article was a very good introduction article for me to get a good idea of the benefits along with a few things to be cautious about. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[]

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">2. Love To Know - Use of Blogs in the Classroom

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In this article the author gives a good description about what blogs are and some of their many different uses. They also talk about how some school districts are going in this direction to try to help save money and the environment by going more paperless. The article also brought up the point that blogs are faster when a student or parent has questions regarding an assignment. The parent or student can go into the blog and get a response that night instead of waiting until the next day at school. The other point that I thought was interesting was that the blog can connect people all over the world. This could be very helpful for older students or people in fields where they are required to stay in contact with people around the world. This article also gave some good information on different types of blogs to set up. You could set up a public blog that anyone could see or a specialized blog which could be used more for educational blogs.

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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">3. Love To Know - Educational Blogs for Elementary Students

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In this article they really point out that using blogs with elementary students is still in it early stages. The biggest thing that they are worried about is safety for the young students. They suggest a few different blog sites that may be safer for these younger students. Blogmeister and Kidzblog are the two that they suggest. These sites give the teacher the ability to read and edit material that can either be posted or sent back to the student to fix. Kidzblog is also password protected by the teacher. This article also states that the teacher should know the AUP of the district and be sure to follow it. The last main point is to be sure that the students understand the rules that go along with blogging.

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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">4. Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In this article it focuses on three different ways to use weblogs in the ESL classroom. When I was reading the article though I realized that I could use a blog for my beginning first grade readers as well. In the article the author shared three ways that weblogs could be used. The first way was as a tutor. In this way the teacher could provide the reading material that is relevant to the student. The teacher could also link new vocabulary words to other pages that would be helpful to the students. Another way that blogs could be used is as a learner blog. The student would be in charge of this blog. This could be used in the reading and writing areas. The third way that blogs could be used for ESL students is a class blog. The blog could be a space for students to post ideas for others to respond to. It could also be used to work on class projects that everyone could have input to.

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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">5. How to Create a Primary Classroom Blog

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In this article it talks about how primary teacher can set up a blog for communication with parents and students at home. It talks about posting classroom fieldtrips, classroom news, and homework and assignments. This page also talks about student’s involvement with the classroom blog. I found it interesting that there was a posted reply to this article that says: "I don't think teachers should be setting up blogger accounts with primary kids when the terms of service set out by Google is clear when it states "You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age to use the Service." The author of the article replied that this site was not promoting student use of their own blog, but as a part of the classroom page. This tells me that some parents may not feel that it is okay for younger students to be a part of the blogging environment. This information will be interesting to remember when I am thinking of what to do for my own blog.

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Assignment #7~Favorite Websites

1. My favorite website to go on with students is Starfall. This is an interactive website which allows the students to work at their own pace and have fun learning. This site can be as basic as identifying the letters and sounds or it can allow students to read different types of stories. It also has printable books and books that can be read to the students. All of my students enjoy this site. I not olny use it in my classroom durning the year I also use this in my summer school class! [|www.starfall.com]

2. Another site that I like to use is Read Write Think. This site has many student games and learning activities. Some examples of my student favorities are ABC Match, Construct a Word, and Picture Match. Everytime I visit this site I see more and more I could be using. []

3. This is one site that I started using this summer in my summer school class. What I like most about this page is that an actor or person that some students recognize read a children's story outloud. Not only do the students get to see the pictures in the story they also get to see the person reading to them. This site does have limited books, but I continue to check back to see if the title list has gotten any bigger. []

Assignment #8~Educational Game / Tool

The site I found that I would like to start using with my students is a math fact practice page. This site allows the students to practice math facts in fun ways. This site also seems to follow how we teach math facts. I am very excited to start using this site with my students. []