Activity 2-Pimp My Presentation

I used Popplet to create a presentation for my plants science unit. I looked at the key parts of this unit and quickly created different popplets to display the information!



Popplet was relatively quick and easy to use. I was able to upload photos and YouTube videos very quickly. I ran into a few things that I struggled with/ did not like...One was that with this unit I typically use BrainPOP videos and I could not embed or link them into my Popplet presentation. I also did not like that the picture options were limited to flicker, Facebook  and images saved on my computer. In addition I think I will check out Prezi to see if I can incorporate some of the things I feel Popplet does not allow me to do . Overall I really liked Popplet for how quick it was to create and use. I see myself using Popplet for many subjects/units!!!

Activity 1-Blog Bling

The video below is one that I have used when incorporating an author study into our science lesson! We had read many books by Eric Carl and the students were getting ready to plant flower seeds. The students really enjoyed having a book read to them though the video!

 
I think blogging could be used in a number of ways: First- It would be a great way to share tools and ideas among teachers! Second- What a great way to communicate with parents. Blogging would be a way to get parents interacting with me and with each other, which can be so important with new kindergarten families! In addition it would be a way to get parents blogging with their children to interact positively on the web with other families. Third- Setting up a classroom blog would allow for students to learn about being responsible digital users. I think I would use Kidblog to provide my students with a user friendly blog. After teaching the "How to" I think students could do a lot with many subject areas, but really within literacy! Allowing students to blog about a book, an experiment, an activity, etc, would touch on soooo many academic subjects, all while having writing being the base skill!

Kickoff

I am so excited to be working with web 2.0 tools this summer. I have used some web 2.0 tools in the past, but because they are always changing I am hoping to be introduced to new and different tools! I hope to learn new and interactive ways to engage my students. Ideally I would also like to find some kindergarten/kid friendly tools that students could use in my classroom, as well as easy tools for my parents to use at home! I feel fairly comfortable with most technology; however, when problems arise it is often difficult for me to work them out on my own. Since becoming a Kindergarten teacher my web tool usage has decreased. In the past I have used glogster, wordle, as well as a few whose names have escaped me. I can't wait to get blogging:)