Animal Adaptations Project

Here are some website that might help you in your research

Kids National Geographic

Animal Adaptations

Virginia Beach Public Schools

Animal Adaptations Physical and Behavioral

Tool # 11

YEAH!! I have finally made it to tool #11
I have a couple of favorite tools I know I can't live without. First is Dropbox. I use this all the time. I have it set up on my personal as well as work computer. It allows me to update documents cohesively. I also have not used my thumb drive in a couple of weeks. This alone is great. The other item i really like is diigo. I use it to drop favorite websites that i can go back and reflect on. It also makes it easy to lead a class project. Google docs is also a must. We are starting a project in science about adaptations of various animals. I want the kids to use some of the useful tools i have learned about. I will propose to my students to use storybird and glogster. It will be exciting to see what they choose to use.
I have really changed my thinking about 21st century technology tools. At first I was not to happy about all the time this learning would take. But the cool thing is I am able to see how my kids can use this as well as how much more they will get out of it. I know there needs to be a lot of initial leaning from the students, but i also know they will want to explore more options for their own leaning.
I need to figure out how i will implement the use of the new tools ie, computers. We have a cabinet set up for storage but i need to see how to keep them powered up and also i need to develop a way to give out he technology and always account for it. All that technology out can be quite tempting to take for some.
The most unexpected outcome of this training is that i really enjoyed it. I am able to walk away with great ideas that i can implement immediately with my students.I also see how this technology can help those students who have trouble expressing themselves in class. Technology is ever changing. What i have learned over the past couple of months will continue to evolve. I guess the best thing is that I am not scared any more to try new things. WE could all use a little breaking out of our boxes.

Tool #10

1. Discuss at least three things you would want to make sure your students understand about being good digital citizens. Students may think they know how to find information, but what they really need to know is how to target the specific information they need. A teacher should not just put up a website on their whiteboard. We need to show the student how we got to that site and why it is useful in teaching the objective. At the UPPER level, kids need to be taught how to access credible sources, either through searching databases, advanced searches on google or other good search strategies

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2. Share at least one of the resources mentioned above or on the Ed Tech website that you plan to use instructionally. Brainpop has a video on digital citizenry that i plan to use.

3. Explain briefly how you would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to your students. Students are believing everything they read. Where is the skepticism? The investigation? The desire to double check things? It should be instilled as a part of what they learn, but specifically relating to Internet sources. Such things as verifying sources and basic literacy skills must intentionally be included in our curriculum at all levels. It should be modeled as part of what we teach.  

4. Explain briefly how you plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with your parents. I plan to add links to digital citizenship to my webpage and blog for parents to review. I will also send home a hard copy of students expectations in regard to digital citizenship.

Tool #9

1. Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective? Anytime you teach content you must tie it back to an objective. This helps keeps students on track and also gives a checkpoint to assess if the student has learned the objective. Just having technology and letting the kids use it does not mean they will walk away with the information they need to learn.
2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers? Their are 25 students and one teacher in a typical classroom. A teacher cannot be everywhere, therefore the students need to know how to use the technology as well as how to take care of it.
3. Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? I liked BBC Home: Human Body and mind, because anytime you can have students use an interactive website to show how the body works it makes more sense to them. They need to not only read about the body but also see how it acts and reacts. Brain Pop is also a tool i regularly use. It would be neat to have the students use this on their own at stations.
4. List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? I would use the apps as stations around the room. The apps that looked cool for science would be the Discovery channel for the iPad. The options with discovery are almost limitless. I would like to use the Ecosystems app. We will be starting this in the spring and it would be neat to have the students visit each of the 8 ecosystems. To hold students accountable i would have questions set up at each station so they would also have a guide to their learning. This would help to keep them focused on the objective.
5. What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station. I am not sure how to use the iPad in other ways besides the apps and also as a internet tool. I will learn from other teachers with what they come up with.

Tool #8

3 things I have learned for implementing classroom technology
1. Set up iTunes account
2. Syncing Ipad to computer
3. Using Webcams

Planning the implementation of the various technologies will take the most time upfront. Teaching the kids how to use the equipment properly. Also setting up rules and regulations on how to set up and put up equipment.
I think using skype with other classrooms that are studying the same thing would be fun.

Tool # 7

I visited all the websites that were on the 11 tools site. I must admit it seems quite daunting to collaborate with another classroom on a project. I did like the CIESE Website. There were quite a few projects that looked interesting but the planning time involved to set these up with one of my classes was too much for me at this point. This type of collaboration takes a lot of planning and also it needs to be connected to the TEKS. I think the easiest way to step into collaboration will be for me to have my 2 pre/ap classes collaborate on a small project.


When you plan to implement - after thanksgiving
What tool(s) you plan to use - Google Docs, Edmodo, Diigo, Poll Voting,
A brief description of the project (plan - two or three sentences) Students in 2 pre/ap classes will collaborate on research and ppt. presentation on a animal and its adaptations. They will work together to come up with information about a specific animal and the structural, behavioral and physiological adaptations.