Family Communication with Technology :-)

Welcome!!

Website, Blog, Facebook or Pinterest page, etc...
what is or will be your go-to destination?

Options:

• Blogger   www.blogger.com  Free.  Create a site with current posts as the feature but also static side bars and secondary pages for easy info access.  Enables you to add dynamic, changing content that updates itself through widgets.  This means there will always be something to new to see with out having to do anything extra!  Update via computer or handheld device. 
• Wordpress  https://wordpress.com/  Free. Create a website or blog.  
• Google Classroom  https://classroom.google.com Free. As of now you must be affiliated with a Google Education School to use this service.  Check with your administrator.  You have a site where it is very easy to share with students, or in our case families.  https://primacyone.wordpress.com/
• Google Sites  https://www.google.com/sites/overview.html  Free. Create a nice looking, public, consistent website.  Great for creating a portfolio of work for the class. 
• Facebook www.facebook.com  Free.  Everybody's on it right? Best for creating a main information page and for sharing public announcements. 
• Pinterest  www.pinterest.com  Free.  I find this best for sharing your inspirations for projects and theme materials.  I could see using it in many ways beyond that. 

Tips:

• Carefully consider your domain name.  Make sure it is easy and matches your business/program/school name.  Consistency will help folks to find you.  
  
                                       **Think of it as creating a brand.**
• You may want one public page and something that is private so families can see their children's work and creations. 
• Pick the platform the makes the most sense to you and is easiest for you to work with.  If it isn't easy, you won't use it no matter how great it looks.
• Check with families to be sure it is working for them.  Many of these platforms allow you to track pages views.  This is surprisingly rewarding!!  
• Create a group email list!  Available for Gmail, Yahoo, or any service you use.  

Specific sites to share specific stuff!!

• Class Dojo- www.classdojo.com A Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports site.  Free.  Complete customization of goals.  The kids love it.  Takes attendance. Works on computer or handheld device for the teacher.  Parents can access with a share code.  You can set it up to automatically send a report home each week.  Excellent data collection and analysis.  Give individual or group points for positive behaviors.  Private. 
• YouTube- www.youtube.com Free.  A great way to share the songs, rhymes or stories you are focusing on.  Also share the children in the classroom, performing or working. Can be set to be completely private to program families. 
• Twitter- Try one tweet from one student per day! You can do it.  See some examples: https://twitter.com/doverprek  Also great to re-tweet interesting early childhood posts or topics of interest to parents. Go ahead and add NAEYC or the VT AOE, they should add you back!!
• Instagram-  Best to share pictures with a caption.  ex: Student work or a block building.  How to set post to private, click here 
• Goodreads- www.goodreads.com  Create book lists to share with families. 

Suggest using STARS incentive funds to purchase a handheld device for the classroom.  All of this work will help you with you TS Gold data collection too!
Create consistent accounts for the classroom that can be used by most staff members on that device.  This way everyone can help with the content.  
You can also log on and edit via the cloud later. I spent many a Friday night working on my blog!  Sad, but everybody (parents, siblings, grandparents, colleagues) loved it. 

Basic helpful sites for tech questions:

commonsensemedia.org

http://vita-learn.org/  Vermont Information Technology Association for Learning

Example of an internet release: http://www.state.nj.us/education/techno/idconsent/form.pdf

Here is the link for the YOU TUBE PREZI.
Click to follow along.
Below are some resources that have been mentioned along with many others..
Hope you enjoy and come away with some thing useful.

Resources and Links for Teachers

"Tech Integration for the Little Guys"

One of my specialties is integrating technology in to the early childhood and primary education settings.  I found the lack of technology using role models frustrating and so decided to become a leader for other teachers facing technology integration challenges.  My classroom is full of Dramatic Play, Blocks, Sensory Tables & Art opportunities.  Technology helps me improve every center, smooths transitions, provides deeper & differentiated content and engaging opportunities for every type of learner. 

First things first...     "Computer Hands"

The only mouse to use for pre-k through first grade.  Seriously, it will save you so many calls for help:

Chester Creek One Button Mouse - Optical - USB 

Open tech devices "responsive classroom style" and think about ease of use & safety for children when setting up hardware.
ex: teach universal icons on the first day and mount the Smart-board as low as possible.

Streamlined Family Communication...
I began using Google Blogger for my website/blog after 2012 VT Fest Tech Conference.  It has replaced my newsletter and is very compatible for viewing on mobile devices.  With some time spent on the front end, you can create dynamic website content that is very appealing leading to plenty of traffic.  The parents and grandparents love it!  My calendar updates as I change it. Easy for keeping families updated and for lesson planning
*Use the html code box gadget in layout (some directions call it design but layout is where it's at.  Don't be afraid, you can do it! Just keep checking preview till it is perfect.  The same process goes for any third party developer like Twitter...

Embedding a YouTube channel or video

Adding-a-calendar-to-your-sidebar

Get a gmail account (if you don't have one already) for free access to all their tools like:Drive (word documents, draw, forms, sheets...) Blogger, YouTube & Calendar

Vermont Tech Grade Expectations

Websites Worth Using:

Music:Best Youtube channels: KidsTV123, Harry Kindergarten Music, coolschool (the nursery rhyme videos), Sesame Street (check out the word of the day). http://www.pandora.comAmazon Cloud Player

Language Arts:

http://www.storylineonline.net/ the evolution of the listening center

www.meegenius.com 70 free books when you sign up as a teacher, listening center

http://www.starfall.com- very easy to navigate, freemium for math content and more
Twitter- Show and Tell in reverse for the families.  Turn tweets in to books!

Math:

www.ixl.com- math practice, differentiation, performance tracking, freemium

mathforum.org

Cross Curricular Resources:

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/www.abcya.com- literacy & math and more, performance feedback, differentiation 

https://www.abcmouse.com/- all skills, apps as well, can be tailored for individual students and performance tracking

www.bbc.co.uk/schools- social studies & more...

www.discoveryeducation.com- deep content for most subjects, subscription for the best

Make it yourself:

http://www.clker.com/- for clip art.  
http://www.fontspace.com/- look for the trace font

http://twistynoodle.com/- Make coloring pages with labels and custom books

Google image search of course!

Useful Tools:

www.classdojo.com- classroom management, auto-reporting to parents

http://www.online-stopwatch.com

Use the program "Paint" that comes with any windows computer to crop or modify images in endless ways. Great for use with Google Draw.

All around great ideas:
http://www.lorislatestlinks.com/ -great teacher tech tips
http://pinterest.com/ 

Appealing Apps:

Zoodles kid mode-  adds a "safe-mode" to any device, appropriate content, freemium

Endless Alphabet- super popular, letter recognition, sounds & vocabulary for iOS

Oceanhouse Media book apps- shiny, appealing classic books, free & $$, all but iOS

Intellijoy- literacy & math apps, free or $, all devices 
TS GOLD app- for iOS and android, free

Agnitus- iOS, Android & Kindle, freemium, education accounts available, all skills, can be tailored for individual students and performance tracking.

Toca Boca.com- It doesn't always have to be "educational". Creative, exploration!

App Tips: download a free version first take note of quality developerscheck the store for sales and featured apps

Smart boards & Document Camera...
Using the Smart-board as a classroom center...
Lori's Latest Links- Click the bottom link in the list for the step by step guide to creating choice boards.

Organization & usage tips from me:

• Use one file for multiple pages relating to one theme, subject or purpose
• Save your icons for reuse and frame to keep design consistent
• Always save a back up choice board
• Using universal icons will teach digital literacy skills and build independence
• Clone. clone, clone but only once the item is completely done
• This is the website I use to add all sorts of sounds to my lessons. www.findsounds.com
• Use screen shots & print out notebook page for proof of students work

Good tutorials links for getting started with the activity builder:
For the readers- Tech Tutorials & more- What is the activity builder and how do I use it?
For the visual type people- My Teacher Tech Channel on YouTube

Inserting videos in to a Smart Notebook Lesson- www.rce.k12tn.net
Multiple way to add sounds- Adding Sounds To Objects

Pre-k Survey for '13-'14

Our Fabulous Foray to France

Every year I do a long unit focused on a country.
We approach it as if we were taking a trip.
Students are exposed to the language, music & major attractions.

Some of the books we read to learn about France.
I also used videos from Discovery Ed. to supplement the learning.
They were an engaging way to learn about daily life and culture.

We read "Camille and the Sunflowers" to get students inspired.
Even though Van Gogh was Dutch, his paintings of life in France are iconic.
His use of color is also very appealing to this age group. 

Students selected wallpaper for their own unique vase.
Mrs. Seiz was a great resource as she was born in Lyon.
She shared many games and books.
One on castles was particularly interesting to the class.

The students' versions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Team 5 learned about Matisse's art work.
They traced me as the model for their mural.

Mrs. Wheelihan, our art teacher, is a wonderful and willing collaborator!
Here is the final product from Team 5's Matisse project & their Eiffel tower paintings.

Another main focus on our learning about France was food, of course!

I read "How to Make Bread" in Richard Scarry's "What Do People Do All Day?"

It was a perfect introduction to our learning about one of France's great contributions- bread. 

Parent Mrs. Staloff very generously came to help our class.
She showed us how to grind wheat into flour.
They were encouraged to use their five senses during the process.

Our class ground a very impressive amount of flour in 45 minutes!
Students compared grains of wheat and rye.

Miss C. on the right was very proud to share the flour making expertise.

Student sifted to separate the bran from the flour.
They liked how it smelled.

Using a recipe with picture clues adds a literacy element
to the math and science work involved in any cooking project.
Click here for a copy of my recipe.

Making butter is a great way to learn about states of matter.
The students observed first hand how the fats in the cream separated from the buttermilk.

The butter would never have been made if it wasn't for this young man.
He shook and shook until the butter was done.

Our bread and butter.  The whole class tried and loved it!

One student contemplates which is her favorite grape... green or red.

The class also tried brie and saucisson sec.
Almost every student tried a bite of something.
The saucisson was the favorite. 

Some other work to share:

Summer's Nana came to share about St. Patrick's Day with our class.
It is an important part of their family heritage.
We looked at where Ireland was in comparison to France and VT on a map.

The class loved the goodies she brought:
a cookie, coloring pages, a story, even a hand-made tee-shirt!
Thanks again, Nana!!

Team 3 students have now become masters at running our Circle Time. 

 A great block creation.

"Months of the Year" Song

Our awesome class sings "The Months of the Year".
Team 5 students have been singing it since last year. It is a class favorite.

We learned it by singing our YouTube channel songs at Circle Time.
The Special Helper of the day picks out 2-3 songs for the beginning of Circle Time.
Older students will sing the song as a strategy to remember the name of the month we are in. 

Space Odyssey

We spent several weeks learning about
our place in space. The focus was
the Earth, our sun (stars), the moon & gravity. 

We experimented growing grass seed in trays.  

One was kept in the sun and one in total darkness.

We took photos each week with our document camera to record the changes.

Students noticed that the grass with no sun was a yellow green.

The grass that did get sunlight was a deep green.

This helped students to learn about photosynthesis

and the importance of the sun.

Students were soon able to identify the earth when ever they saw it.

"The blue is the oceans and the brown and green is where we live!"

We watched some of Commander Chris Hadfield's videos
of experiments for students taken
on the International Space Station.  

Water in zero gravity is amazing!!

This 48 piece floor puzzle was a great opportunity for teamwork
& problem solving while learning about space.

Our sun print experiment showed the power of the sun's rays.
Pattern blocks were put on black constructions paper in our window.

We took photos each week to record the changes.
Here is a sun print after four weeks. 

I made a space check list for the Dramatic Play area.
 This builds early literacy and writing skills.
Students pretended they were in the space shuttle traveling the solar system.

The class was also very interested in learning about rainbows.
I brought in a prism to help them learn about this concept.
Here is one students work with excellent attention to detail.

Team 3's Space Facts:

CS- The sun is hot.

TB- The sun is bright. 

CA- I see the moon shine when it's dark.

GaM - The sun stays in one spot.

GrM- The sun is really big.

Some Team 5's Space Facts:

ElC- The planets spin.

LC- In space stuff floats all the time.

EV- The earth spins around the sun.

MS- There's no gravity in the space ship. 

We always do one paper mache project in Pre-K every year.
We dipped newspaper into warm water and flour and laid it on balloons.
Using the water table helped control the mess.
We used low, wide plastic cup so the balloon wouldn't roll away.

This year we kicked the planet project up a notch...

We painted them with puffy paint!!

The project took about 4 weeks from start to finish.
Most students were very interested in making them.

Students had to decide if they were making a sun, moon or planet.
We discussed whether it would be warm or cold.
Students chose colors accordingly

Our finished display.
Special thanks to Mrs Seiz for making the idea become a reality.
She is fearless when it come to supporting children with their art!

One Planet

One Sun

This planet looks rather familiar...

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