Emerging Technologies for First Grade: December 2013

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Grant Resources

After reading this week’s resources on grants and other funding, I have to say I feel very blessed to work in a district that provides the necessary resources for our students learning. Although we might not have it all, we definitely have a lot to be thankful for. Our district does a wonderful job at making sure we have all the necessary classroom resources we need. I do spend my own money on my class but usually it is for a fun extra activity. For example, every year I purchase various student prizes to promote positive behavior or different crafts for fun art projects. Never have I used my own money to buy necessities. I was astonished to learn that 92% of teachers buy essentials, which could include toilet paper, soap, etc., for their classrooms out of their own pockets. I am glad there are organizations available like the two I researched below that provide the funding for these teachers.

After checking out www.donorschoose.org, I was really amazed at how easy the process is for requesting classroom items. It is as simple as posting a request of what is needed and how it will benefit students. Then waiting to see if the request is totally funded. This changes my whole perspective on the grant writing process. All this time I thought grants required invested time writing a novel on how the items requested would benefit students.

If I were to use a grant resource, it would be the www.adoptaclassroom.org. I like the idea of how this website connects donors with teachers. Donors can make a contribution for the teacher to use and purchase the much needed resources for the classroom. A 100% of all donations are marked for the classroom teacher in a form of online credit. Teachers are then able to shop online from affiliated vendors that have partnered with the Adopt a Classroom organization. The best part about this organization is the effort put into building a relationship between the donors and teachers. The donors and teachers communicate throughout the year so the donors are aware of the difference they have made in the student’s learning. This is also a great way to show students the impact giving brings.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Collaborative Technologies

Finding ways to integrate collaborative lessons using technology in my first grade classroom definitely takes some creativity. It can be challenging to find stimulating ways to use collaborative tools first graders can understand and manage. One idea I thought about integrating was making use of Facetime to share a whole class celebration of a mastered skill with another first grade class in our building. For example, when all students mastered their skip counting by 5’s, we could Facetime our first grade friends from another class to share our accomplishment. Our “Facetime Friends” could also Facetime us when they had a mastered skill to celebrate. What an exciting way for students to parade their learning achievements. The other idea I had was using Google docs to create a questionnaire form to share with my class. This questionnaire form would be used to collect data on student’s favorite ice-cream flavor or favorite holiday. Students would begin with answering the questionnaire form and using the results to create a graph. Later, students could learn how to edit the questionnaire document to generate their own questions and then learn to use Google Excel to graph their results. I managed to create my Game Lesson Plan around using a collaborative Google doc form. I am not sure if my first graders can handle the task of creating these documents, but I will never know if I don’t make an attempt. I do realize the time it will take to give students well thought-out directions and plenty of practice. In order to accomplish this assignment, I created a classroom Google account instead of using my personal email. I’m not sure if I would need to create an account for every student or not. This is definitely something I would have to work out beforehand.

The two collaborative resources for teachers I have found to be useful is SMART Exchange (http://exchange.smarttech.com/) and Scholastic Teachers (http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/). Both resources I have previously used. I recently utilized the Scholastic Teachers website to get ideas on different lessons and videos on Pilgrims. The resources I accessed through this website were incredible. My students were able to take virtual tours on the Mayflower and the Plymouth Plantation which gave them a glimpse of what a Pilgrim might have experienced in the 1620’s. I was also able to download and print the lesson plans to go along with the videos. SMART Exchange is another resource I have used to find great Smartboard lessons which have enhanced a skill I have previously taught in my classroom. My class has used these lessons as a fun way to revisit, practice, or enhance a skill.

Additional Notes:

I recently created a blog list of all the links I would like to remember. Through this class and hours of researching, I have found some great resources to implement or explore further.