Have you checked out TeacherTube Videos? It's a very cool website that has videos for teachers!! Really cool. I came across this video and it has really inspired me to use technology more in my classroom. The video is about 7 minutes long, and well worth the time.
It has got me thinking about ways to use technology more in first grade. These kids at 6 and 7 have ipods, cell phones, computers at home, TONS of video games and more. They are so engaged when doing these things, maybe there is a way for me to engage students more during the parts of school that they are not so interested in. For example, it seems that I always have a few little guys who don't like to write. What could I do for them?
Comic Life software
Google Docs
Animoto photo captions
Interactive whiteboards
Online buddy class that we write instant messages to about our day
Kidspiration software
Kidpix software
Microsoft Word!!
Drawing Pad app for ipad
Zaner-Bloser Handwriting-Manuscript for ipad
This is my story (and I'm sticking to it) app
Any other ideas?! I'd love to hear your ideas for using technology with young students to keep engagement levels high!
Hi Friends! I took a class this summer about reading and writing strategies from the University of Phoenix online. That was a first for me, taking an online class. The best thing about the class was all the technology tools that she introduced us to. One of them was Animoto. It's a way to produce short videos with pictures or videos that you have taken. Here's one I made very quickly to introduce Making Inferences (as a reading comprehension strategy)
**Update!! Educators can get a free 6 month subscription to Animoto Plus, which lets you produce longer videos.
I'm thinking that you could take pictures of your students and make a cute video for back to school night. OR, you could base it on a science topic like plants and show different parts of a plant, life cycles, ANYTHING!
In writing you could show a video and have the children write about it- descriptive words, the end of a story. Oh my goodness, the possibilities are endless.
What have you done with Animoto? Any other ideas for using it in the classroom?
