Finally done!

After a lot of hard work, my Electronic Portfolio is finally complete!

Here is the link: Jenn's Electronic Portfolio

I must admit, I am already seeing the benifits of this technology as I was able to send this link to a potential employeer in Mexico; talk about convienient!

Something else I noticed will working on this project was that the University of Regina server was incredibly unpredicatble as I was uploading my website. It took me way longer than it should have to get the contents of my portfolio up and running. Thank goodness it finally worked out ok!

It's me!

Have you ever wanted to know a bit more about me? Check out this "visual DNA" I got from a site called Imagini. Comment back with you own! :)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Now THIS is what I'm talking about....

I felt a little pessimistic after my post last night, but the subject of podcasting today sure made me feel a lot better. I think it is wonderful that students can post their thoughts on the web without having to be fluent readers and writers. Although they might need modeling and practice so they create meaningful audio recordings, it is no doubt that their spoken grammar would be much better than what they could write.

I got to listen to an example of this here:



After seeing this example, I am so excited to get back into a classroom and try this with my future students. I think this is a great technology and it provides so many options for educators. Also, I think students would be incredibly motivated to practice the writing process and edit their parts of the readers theatre after hearing their voices back.

What do you think? am I getting a bit to excited? I just don't see any downfalls to this one :)

The Early Childhood Learner and Technology...

I have to admit something. Sometimes, as I am sitting in not only ECMP, but also my various other courses, I have a reoccurring thought; if I get placed in a Kindergarten or Pre-school setting, how in the world will I use a lot of this content and make it meaningful for my future students? A lot of content is created without the consideration of non-readers in mind, and this can be very frustrating.

For example, a type of learning tool which I feel neglects this age group are Web Quests. The following webquest is supposed to be appropriate for Grade 1-2 students.

Animal Habitats Webquest

Now, I understand that a teacher could stand in front of the class and explain the process to complete this activity step-by-step, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of using technology? Aren't students supposed to be more independent when using this type of activity?

Even though this can be frustrating, I realize that an important part of being a teacher is being creative and sometimes reinventing the wheel. I hope that a peer and I are going to address the issue of Webquests being appropriate for young learners by creating a Webquest that we believe we be suitable for Grade 1 students. It's major feature will be sound clips to help non-readers discover the information for themselves. This is still in progress, but I'm sure I will want to show it off when it is completed.

First conquering Webquests, then the world!!

Hot Potato!!

No, I don't want to play some "Hot Potato", but I do want to tell everyone about the amazing free software I was introduced to today.

You can download this free software here:

Hot Potato Software

This software comes with 5 programs that can be used for educational purposes. They allow teachers to create matching activities and crosswords among other options. The best part about this software is that it is self-checking. Students can use these activities and be given immediate feedback on their responses. Talk about powerful! :)

I made a crossword puzzle suitable for Grade 1 and you can view that here:

Five Senses Crossword Puzzle

Tellecollaborative Projects

I was pleasantly surprised today when I easily found a very interesting tellecollaborative project after we were sent to search for one to discuss. The project I found can be viewed here: Square of Life

From the website, the basic description of the project is:

Square of Life: Studies in Local and Global Environments is an Internet-based collaborative project in which students will investigate their local environment and share that information with other students from around the country and the world. Participants will:

• Identify living and non-living things in their school yards.
• Share their findings with other participating classes.
• Look for similarities and differences in the reported data.
• Prepare a final report or presentation based on their findings.

I found that I could use this project at any age, but since I interned in a Grade One classroom and this is an internet based activity that could actually be done in an Early Childhood Classroom, I will discuss how I would implement this in that age setting.

Both "Plants" and "Animals" are core Science Units in the Grade 1 curriculum and I think this project would supplement both units wonderfully. Students can not only view plants that are native to their environment, but they can also view these plants at different stages of growth and compare the plants they found in their environment with those found around the world.

I also think that if students were able to look for living creatures in their "square" that this could be a powerful way to convey animals and animal life to students. They can realize that an animals habitat can be as small as a square and that these animals can get everything they need to survive in this tiny home.

Finally, classifying is a large part of Grade 1 skill development and simply classifying things into living and non-living would be a worthwhile task for students of this age level.

All in all, I know my Grade 1s would have gained so much from doing a project like this during my internship. I can't wait to try it out when I get my own classroom!

Myspace for the Early Childhood student?

As I caught up on a couple blogs this weekend, I was really interested by a post I found on Weblogg-ed. Here is the link to the post:

Social Networking for Kids

Linked in this post was a short audio clip from a podcast, so I should probably link that as well:

Listen to this podcast (Introduction to Social Networking for Kids)

Now, as someone who is self-admittedly addicted to various social networking sites, I have to look at the pros and cons of this new development through both a personal and professional standpoint.

If children are being taught, by their parents, how to properly be a member of these various social networking sites at a young age, perhaps instances of cyber-bullying can be lessened. Students may be better prepared for Myspace; which in my opinion is a very big positive for these sites.

However, I have to ask myself, is it already too late for this type of action to be taking place? During my internship, I found that students in my Computer Club were already well aware of other networking sites geared towards elementary students. The site that seemed to be most common was "Club Penguin" You can check out this site here:

Club Penguin

Students are far ahead of us; they have already found their niche on the Web and I don't know how responsive they will be to having their parents push a new "safe" site on them. Why would they be when they know there is another place that is unregulated that is even more easily accessible? As a teacher, I'm not sure kids will go for this; it will have to be presented in a very positive light for students to take notice. What does everyone else think?