Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom Playing to Learn and Learning to Play Julie Simmons First Grade Teacher

Columbus Academy simmons@columbusacademy.org Personal Twitter: @BJacketsFan Classroom Twitter: @CAFirstGrade Presentation Blog: http://catechfair.blogspot.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/ Why Use? *Local and Global Connections expanding 4 walls of our classroom *Complements Curriculum *Provides an authentic reason for writing immediate feedback is inspiring, especially for reluctant writers *Parent Communication parents follow our Twitter feed and they get a glimpse into their childs school day How to implement with primary students? *Shared Writing whole class project on screen *Group or Paired Writing iPads or computers *Individual Writing *Gradual Release of Responsibilty explicit instruction and modeling is important

Skype Why Use? *Local and Global Connections *Share Learning Show What You Know! *Complements Curriculum Who should we skype? *Guest Readers parents, grandparents ANYONE willing to read via skype! *There is something magical about skype for young children Take advantage of this fact and skype student or adults within the school share learning with buddy classes, older students, younger students, principal, etc.

*Contacts from Twitter, Global Classroom, or other internet projects are often willing to skype. Our class had some terrific skype experiences with our partner class in the Global Read Aloud Project. My students still refer to this class as our friends from Georgia! Sqworl - http://sqworl.com/home.php Why Use? *Good way to bookmark sites ~ especially valuable to visual learners the link is a screenshot of the site *Easy to share collections of links *Teachers can make a Sqworl for a web quest or to provide choices within a station or center Voice Thread - http://voicethread.com/ Why Use? *Interactive Slide Show *Each student can have his/her own icon for commenting *Comments can be audio, text, or visual *Curriculum Connections (If I was Flat Like Stanley, I am Thankful, Questions about Global Marketplaces, Share Math Thinking, etc.) *Set your students up for success send the VT link to colleagues, students, parents who will leave comments on the VT. We have buddy classes and we sent our VT to our buddy class. Each 3rd grade student left a comment for his/her 1st grade buddy. Glogster - http://glogsteredu.edu.glogster.com/ Why Use? *Interactive Poster can include visuals, text, sound, and video *Can be linked or embedded in blog *Can be printed on paper How to use with primary students? *Pre/Post Reading Activity ~ Instead of listing ideas on a piece of chart paper, use a glog. (Night Tree example). Students shared their thoughts and helped me make decisions regarding font, size, wording, etc. *Share information with parents ~ (Phonics Dance glog example) *ANY time you would use chart paper or ask students to write a report, you could use a glog. For first graders we generally make class glogs, though it is possible to create glogs in small groups as well.

Blog ~ my classroom blog: www.1dkids.blogspot.com Why Use? *Parents access the blog to find out what is happening in our classroom. Students use our classroom blog as a resource. We post links to games played in class, share photos of 1st grade activities, and use resources always located on the blog: Cutie Pie Bob ~ our virtual class pet get your own virtual pet here: http://abowman.com/google-modules/ just for fun, but the 1D Learning Lions love to check in on Cutie Pie Bob. They named him and they have become attached to this virtual hamster. They love to check in from home to feed him, and while they check on Bob they often stay on the blog to do some type of learning activity. Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com/ ~ a virtual bookshelf *We keep track of every read aloud. The students take turns posting the titles on our shelf. Parents and students can use the shelf as a reference to remember what books weve enjoyed together. When you click on the book on the shelf, it connects you to a short summary of the book. Wordle - http://www.wordle.net/ or ABCya! Word Clouds - http://www.wordle.net/ *Students can type their very own names on the first day of school to create a class Wordle we keep this wordle posted on our blog all year. You could use for word work spelling, phonics, etc. These are also a fun way to list characters in a book, vocabulary words, etc. Answer Garden ~ http://answergarden.ch/create/ ~ Answer Garden is great for brainstorming short answers. The Answer Garden can be embedded in a blog and it is FREE! We have an Answer Garden on our blog listing where we see numbers. Visitors to the Answer Garden can also add their own answers to the Answer Garden. Photo Peach - http://photopeach.com/home ~ A no frills, quick load slideshow. It is free for a maximum of 30 slides per show.

Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship *Infinite Learning Lab ~ Cyberbullying ~ http://learninglab.org/ *Common Sense Media Video Staying Safe and Secure in a Digital World ~ http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/staying-safe-and-securedigital-world