Blog Post #7

This week's assignment was to assess my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to what preparations and skills I currently have or do not have involving Project Based Learning and technology in schools. Then view several videos that introduced ideas for technology in the classroom.

After much thought, I came up with only a few strengths and weaknesses, but they are still important to consider!

Strengths
Quick learner
Good with basic Apple products
Experience with PBL in high school
Good understand of how to use YouTube, Twitter, Blogger, etc.

Weaknesses
Not familiar with most programs being used in schools
Not very creative when producing my own PBL lessons
Do not know the full capabilities of a SmartBoard

1. "How to Make an Audio QR Code" - Michele Bennett from Gulf Shores Elementary School explains the steps to make a QR code that has a link to an audio recording that you can make yourself. To begin with, you can visit Record MP3 to produce your audio recording. After that, you would take the URL from your recording and paste it into QR Code Monkey to have the code generated. It is a very simple process that can be used for easy communication with students, parents, or coworkers.

2. "iPad Reading Center" - An iPad Reading Center is demonstrated by Ginger Tuck, a kindergarten teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary. Her center involves students setting up their iPad and videoing themselves reading so that they can play it back and listen for mistakes to correct. I think this sounds like a really fun idea for the younger children, and it is doesn't even use any confusing apps - just the built-in front-facing camera.

3. "Popplet with Ginger Tuck" - Popplet is a free app that Ginger Tuck uses with her kindergarteners to make notes based on the books that they read. Students can take pictures from the book and type in important things to remember. This could be very helpful for study guides or in lessons about characters, setting, plot, etc.

4. "AVL and Kindergarten Students" - In this video, Ginger Tuck once again shows us a resource she uses in her kindergarten classroom. The Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) is a database with search engines to give students book, magazine, newspaper, website, and other sources for their research. Every week Ms. Tuck gives her students a list of words under a category that they are studying and allows them to use AVL to find out more about them. Then, her students are to draw a picture of their word and write a sentence including something new they have learned about it. This is fun for students and introduces them to doing their own research on different subjects.

5. "Tammy Shirley's Discovery Education Board Builder Moon Project" and "Mrs. Tassin's 2nd Grade Students Share a Board Builder Project" - Both of these videos highlight students in the first and seconds grades at Gulf Shores Elementary using Discovery Education in her class for projects. Discovery Ed has a "board builder" that is similar to a virtual bulletin board. Kids can pin facts and pictures to their board to aid them in presentations.

6. "Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten" - The purpose of this video was to show a conversation among Dr. Strange, Michele Bennett, and Elizabeth Davis. Ms. Bennett discussed students in kindergarten using iMovie trailers to make movies based on the books that they read. They're able to work on creativity, writing, comprehension, and more while having fun making movies. Ms. Davis talked about the Alabama Virtual Library which was much like Ginger Tuck's explanation in an earlier video.

7. "We All Become Learners" - While using technology, students and teachers teach each other. In many cases, children are more technologically advanced than adults are because they have been using these devices their entire life. On the other hand, there are still, of course, things that teachers have more knowledge on. We are able to use these different strengths to work together and succeed in giving our students a great education.