Tool #11 Self Assessment and Reflection

My favorite tools that I have learned about are Todaysmeet, Blogger, and the dropbox feature because they are the ones that I plan to begin with immediately this year.  I plan to meet some with teachers online and get plenty of their input on various topics through blogger.  I feel like dropbox  will be extremely handy for things that I need quick access to anywhere.  My thinking as far as digital tools had already been in the transformation stage because I am aware that that is where our learners of today are.  I am extremely excited about the progress I have made and the tools that I have learned about.  Some of my unexpected outcomes came early with the embedding of video and html.  I still feel like I need to work on those.

Tool #10 Digital Citizenship

I want to make sure students understand the following 3 things are essential when it comes to Digital Citizenship:

Respect
Appropriate language
Positive attitude

I am familiar with Brainpop, and I plan to teach the idea of Digital Citizen by modeling with students.  I meet and greet them daily and treat them with the utmost respect.  I plan to progress by finding more ways to connect with them with technology.  I plan to share with parents by using some of the the technology that I have learned with 11 tools training, such as blogger, online parent conference, and prior knowledge.

Tool #9 Tools for Learning

1,  I think it is very important to tie the technology into our kids learning because I feel like to maximize learning, the learner needs to be in their most comfortable state.  I feel like our students of today are most comfortable when they have access various types of technology.

2.  When our students are held accountable and standards are high, I feel like students will immense themselves in more critical thinking than if they were no accountability present.

3. I would use some of the applications for administrative purposes.  My main focus would be to provide teacher support and make suggestions based on the data.

4. With the ipad, I plan to use it alot more for evaluations, but it seems like it isn't as user friendly with eduphoria.

Tool #8 Looking at the Tools

One of the things I learned from the session is the ability to organize and move apps around based on category or content.  I think this will be very helpful with organization and saving time for teachers.

Another thing I learned from the session is the information on webcams.  I was totally unfamiliar with webcams outside of hearing people talked about and having a very basic understanding of such. The video was very audience friendly.  I plan to implement the use of webcams with members of the school community via skype or other applications.

Tool #7 Online Digital Projects

Online  Parent Conferences (English or Spanish)

I would like to collaborate with Senora Ellingson and create an online spanish parent conference for parents. This would be another way for me to effectively communicate with all of the parents at Academy of Choice.

Objective: The professional will communicate effectively with all members of the school community.

Plan: Meet with parents and get/create email addresses and explain the purpose of this project which is to communicate effectively with them outside of the telephone or direct email.

The tools that I plan to use are Google Reader, blogger, and the google docs that cannot be edited by other users.

I feel like this project will be an effective piece in communicating with parents in addition to our mandatory monthly meetings with parents.

Tool #6 Promoting Discussions using Web tools

I plan to use Todaysmeet and Polleverywhere this year as tools to communicate even more with teachers and maximize staff input. I feel like they will help with saving time and teachers can communicate with me from their rooms while they are planning their lessons or at home on a Sunday afternoon. 

http://todaysmeet.com/mrgraysoffice

Tool #5 Web 2.0

From my perspective, I am always looking for ways to improve Academy of Choice for students and staff. In order for me to get staff and student input,  I will probably use blogger, stupeflix, google earth, and the document creations the most.This will allow users to give me information and see how the rest of the staff feels about a certain topic.  The picture below is from the google earth app and the video below is a welcoming video for the Academy of Choice.

Tool #4 Cloud Computing

Google Apps


I am familiar with some of the google apps, and I plan to use even more of them for the upcoming school year.  I really like the idea of having the document in a central location and allowing others to access it.


I created a document and sent it to a couple of staff members. 


I created a form and sent it to some staff members as well. It was involving how to improve AOC.

Tool# 3 Online Resources

I thought the following video was interesting. It was at the TED conference and the focus was on global power shifts.  Being that my primary focus was the social studies instruction this past year, I thought this would be a good video to show students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuAj2F54bdo

I also found a video on Discovery Education that was focused on The Great Wall of China.

http://player.discoveryeducation.com/views/hh_httpView.cfm?guidAssetId=14ee053c-7456-4912-8249-5b5362d659ec&skin=DSA

Ethics and Copyright

I thought the video was extremely entertaining. There were some things that were understood through my experiences, but it was excellent to see something entertaining and informative.

I created a Dropbox account.  I think the dropbox will be extremely useful for as I will be able to access all of my files from anywhere.

Tool#2 - Building Community

Building networks for learning and communicating with other people with new or different ideas is where this tool has the greatest impact for me.  I feel like it is imperative the we grow and learn from each other because all of us have reached this point through different paths and experiences.  I plan to use the Learning and Laptops blog. I chose this blog because all of our students are issued netbooks and I want to find a way to maximize the benefit of this wonderful technology.
http://learningandlaptops.blogspot.com/