Got rhythm?

Here's one of the best parts about having a blog... networking!!! Thank you to all who have been reading and leaving comments. It's awesome to hear from others that embed technology into their curriculum.
All of the comments have really made me reflect all the more on the use of technology on the learning of our little ones. Research out there states that our digital natives learn in a much different way than when I was a kid and that their visual cortex is larger than ours as well. This alone has made me rethink how I approach certain topics/subject areas. I think our new generation of kids has moved beyond the "boob tube" and needs to be powered on and engaged in new ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=941e6RnP4EQ

As I think about some of our secure goals in first grade I know that the simplest of tasks such as knowing the days of the week can really be a struggle for some. Repetition may be a part of that learning, but how we bring about that repetition may be a big key. I had about 1/2 my class who struggled with this target. I found several YouTube clips to help bring a little fun, funk, and rhythm to our learning. I embedded these videos right into my SMARTboard calendar routine. I even play them at the end of the day on occasion as an extra dose while we are packing up. The kids love it and sing along. At this time all but 1 of my students knows their days of the week.

Now obviously there are a lot of variables on what or if this is what brought about their learning, however, interestingly enough, my son is one who also struggled with the days of the week. He is not in my class but he comes to my room everyday after school. He's heard the songs as well and loves the one above with the train. Funny thing is, when we were practicing the other day, he started singing the days of the week train song that he's heard in my room. As a mom and a teacher, I'm thinking there's something to this phenomenon.

That being said, THANK YOU Mrs. Adcock for the recommendation of the YouTube video, Coins In My Hand. This will be a fun and funky motivator for my few that are still struggling with coin identification.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUlWyJihbOI

My new best friend

Have you ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you've deleted something you've spent hours creating?! Well that is exactly what happened to me tonight as I went to update my lesson plan template only to find that I must have accidentally deleted it!!! In my crazed state, I remembered that I had emailed a copy to myself at school so that I could print them off there if I needed to as well. The only problem was that it was in PDF format as I wanted to maintain the fonts that I use from my home computer that we do not have installed at school. Well, I now have a new best friend!! I googled "pdf to word converter" and came up with several hits. I tried this site http://www.pdftoword.com/ which made the process super easy. I simply uploaded my file, picked the file type I wanted and then put in my email address. Less than 3 minutes later, my PDF file was sent to me as an editable word doc!!! What a life saver!!! The format was maintained as was all of the text. I did lose a couple of images and some of the fonts did not transfer through but the time it will take me to change those few things FAR outweighs the time it would have taken me to recreate the entire document. I especially liked this site as no download was required!!! Hmmm.. knowing how easy it is, I'll be curious to see what else I can do with this site. In the meantime, I am one VERY happy camper as I can spend my extra time creating rather than redoing!!

iPod touches rock!

I can only wish at this point that I had a class set or even 4 or 5 iPod Touches for my classroom but in the meantime, I am loving using my own touch and am finding so many great uses. I've downloaded the Robert Munsch collection of books from Tumblebooks that my kids are using during Listen to Reading time. They absolutely love them... although I'm sure part of it is just that they are using Mrs. Malchow's touch... oohhhh.... ahhhhhh...as we have many books on tape and books on CD available in our room.

Today as I was listening to one of my students read I on a whim decided to record her so she could hear herself and have some accountability into how she sounded as she was reading so I pulled out my touch and used the Voice Record app to quickly record her and then played it back to her so she could hear for herself how choppy she sounded. We then practiced reading fluently and I rerecorded her again. She was proud as a peach when she was able to actually hear the difference. :-) What an eye opening moment for this child. So often the kids are so tuned in to their decoding and the story itself that they totally lose sight of what they sound like. This was a a great way for this particular student to self evaluate herself.

I've also found several great apps for my 1st grade son, which I have also implemented into my classroom for individuals with various struggles.The biggest thing is remembering which app was good for which skill and being able to get it into kids' hands quickly without wasting precious learning time. Again, it goes back to my philosophy of having an intended purpose rather than using it for the sake of using it or just for the coolness of it. This summer, I'd like to take screen shots of the various apps and then list what skill(s) each is good for so I can easily access the app and the target skill. Off hand I can't remember the name of the app, but there is one that has been helpful for my kids that struggle with counting by 5s and 2s.
One of my all time faves is Teach Me 1st grade (there is also a Teach Me Kindergarten). I like it because: it covers several skills, I can adjust the settings for what I want my kids to work on, I can set it up for 4 different children, and it will track their progress.

Yes!

Ah yes, the dreaded blue screen! It seems like everytime I take my class into the lab at least one computer has "the dreaded blue screen" and the child sitting at that computer is almost instantaneously raising their hand saying their computer isn't working. Obviously this takes time out of our lab time as I am running around helping kids to login sooooo.... I finally had enough. I am proud to say that all my first graders today learned how to navigate through "the blue screens"!!! I put together a bulletin board on one of the lab walls last week and used it today to actually teach them how to do ctrl+alt+delete and then how to type in the generic username and password that our district uses for K-1 students. It was awesome!! All but 5 got it on their first attempt and the 5 that didn't get it the first time just needed to remember that the capital I wasn't a lowercase L and they were all in on their  2nd attempt. I am still pumped about how well they did and how quickly they did it. We have computer again tomorrow and I'm excited to have them all log out (something else they learned today) so they can do it again tomorrow for practice!!! Sometimes it really is the little things in life that make your day wonderful!!

Digital Storytelling Tools

Wow! What a great find by accident tonight. This site http://only2clicks.com/pages/joycevalenza/331334 which stems off of Springfield Township's Virtual Library is great. This page is filled with quite a variety of digital storytelling tools. I'm looking forward to digging into these when I get some free time. I've heard of several including Blabberize, Comic Creator, and Mixbook and have even used a few such as Animoto. If you have an interest in digital storytelling, check this site out. It sure appears to have something for everybody. While you're at it, check out the main site as well. It is phenomenal and has a wealth of information

Ongoing ponders...

When does one integrate technology on a regular basis with first graders when the technology isn't easily accessible? My district is very open in regards to technology and what we are allowed to access. It's wonderful, but at the same time it makes a person want to just dig in all the time. Don't get me wrong, I want to dig in, and I'm trying to dig in...my students are definitely interested and more engaged when we dig in as well but it's difficult at this level to really do some of the things I want in the time frame that we have available. I know the key is to embed the technology into our current curriculum versus doing something just for the sake of doing it, but boy it's just not that easy. I'm hoping that it will become easier as I am in the grade level longer and know the curriculum better as this is my first year in 1st grade and that alone brings its own set of challenges. When I taught 2nd the kids were just so much more capable and we WERE digging in. I'm convinced that a year can't make THAT much of a difference and so I am bound and determined to make my 2 passions (1st grade and technology) mesh together more seemlessly. It's happening with my SMARTboard as I can honestly say that I can't imagine teaching without it and 2 years ago and coudn't imagine teaching with it on a regular daily basis. My how times have changed- I'm even ready to completely say goodbye, adios, and au revoir, to my "that's so yesterday" overhead- although I want to keep the cart (storage is always a postive). Ok, I'm rambling with this post, but I'm hoping that as I come back to this post in 6 months, a year, or even two, that I will giggle and wonder why I was having such a difficult time. All good things come in due time right? Bring on the integration!

Edited: Interestingly enough, I found this article which ties in nicely with my philosophy of technology in education. It still doesn't answer my question, but does reaffirm what I know about technology, kids and engagement.