Book Character Parade

Thank you parents for sending your child dressed as a favorite character today. It was a wonderful way to celebrate a successful book fair week at RCE! The children were absolutely precious!

Dewberry Farm

We had loads of fun at Dewberry Farm! Thank you such much to James Dudley, Mitch McGee, Mary Chamberlain, Audra Marye, and Rachel Walker for joining us on our trip. Below are some snapshots taken by Audra Marye (thank you!). If any other parents have pictures they took, please email them to me and I will include them on our blog, too. Thank you again!

Watch Us Work at Literacy Stations!

Today I took a few snapshots of the children at Literacy Stations. As you can see, they are busy learners! Assessments are complete and next week we will begin our small group reading instruction during this time each day. I will be pulling the children to do letter sounds, word work, and guided reading. We are READY to roll!

Lucas and Jake work at ABC

Jeewon and Isabella create at the Art Station

Corbin and Maddox do Tumblebooks at Computer!

Cullen at Listening and Erin explores at Science

Tatum and Owen Sort Sounds on the Active Board

Henry and Preston are busy writing!

Trey and Henry explore with the iTouches

Michael and Alayna create a book at the Author's Area

Back To School Night

Thank you so much for coming to our classroom last night. It was wonderful to see you. If you have not signed and returned the blog permission slip, please do so. Also, please return the blue contact cards. If you were unable to attend, these items are coming in your child's folder today. The room moms and I will create a volunteer calendar for you as soon as possible. Thank you to all the parents that signed up to help in the classroom...wow! I hope to start Handwriting next week on Tuesday to stay tuned for information. Lastly, I appreciate all of the friends that took items to donate to the classroom. You all are the BEST!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome! It is going to be a great school year. The children are precious and are busy learning the routines of the day. It hasn't taken them long at all...they are EXCELLENT kindergartners! I am one lucky teacher. Please come back and visit our classroom blog. Smiles, Mrs. Timmreck

Tool #11

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools. I am very excited to try a lot of the tools next year! I will jump right in at the beginning of the year by embedding videos into my flipcharts. I will use worldle and ABC Wordya with the list of words my students generate. I can just type the list on my activeboard and create these cool projects with my class. They will be so ready to do this on their own in the lab or at literacy stations. I plan to use Storybirds to generate stories with my students.

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner? I have changed my mindset from how can I use this technology, to what technology can I use to drive the curriculum. I will have to expose my students to a variety of tools so my students have choices on ways to demonstrate their knowledge of the curriculum.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Honestly, I surprised myself. I was able to watch the tutorials and with trial and error, figure out a lot of new things I never thought I would be able to do.

Tool #10 Digital Citizenship

1. Discuss at least three things you would want to make sure your students understand about being good digital citizens. I want my students to know the importance of staying safe online in an unfiltered world. I want them to know to hide passwords, be NICE on the internet, and ask parents/adults before visiting websites.

2. Share at least one of the resources mentioned above or on the Ed Tech website that you plan to use instructionally. I plan on using the video clip and online quiz found on Brainpop about digital citizenship. I also loved the Cybersmart Young Kids website.

3. Explain briefly how you would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to your students. As mentioned previously, I will use Brainpop to introduce what digital citizenship is. Then I will use Cybersmart to teach the acronym of THINK...tell an adult, hide passwords, interesting...but check with mom/dad, be Nice, keep passwords safe.

4. Explain briefly how you plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with your parents. I will share the importance of this at Back to School night and I will also share sites to the above resources so parents are also in the know about digital citizenship.

Tool #9 Incorporating Classroom Based Devices

I want my students to use technology, but I do need to make sure it is tied to the curriculum. When my students are using technology at stations, I need to hold them accountable. Why? First of all, I want them to be on task. Secondly, I need to know if they are mastering the objectives and ready to move on.
I checked out a few interactive websites that I can use during stations with my mini's. My favorite was Tutpup. I will definitely use this during math stations. I think my students will LOVE playing math games against other children from far away places! I had my own daughter practicing her math facts with this and she is hooked! I plan to use Studyladder during literacy stations. I could differentiate homework for higher level students with this, too.
I plan on using my I-Touches during both math and literacy stations. I love the Brainpop App and I will definitely use this....kids can watch short video clips and complete a quiz. I will use their quiz to show mastery. I will have the kids use various Apps to work on sight words (1000 sight words free) and math facts (math fact master lite) . Both of these apps record the students' scores.

Tool #8 Taking a Look at the Tools

After watching the videos/tutorials I learned several new things. First of all, I will need to name each of my I-Touches in my classroom. I will use the suggestion to name them with my room number and A-E. I will put this on the actual device so I can better manage each one. I also learned that I can have up to 11 pages of Apps on each I-Touch. I didn't realize Brainpop had an app where kids can watch short video clips and do a quiz. My students always love brainpop! This would be a great station using a rockstar and headphones. I am worried about how to keep 5 I Touches charged. I wish I had a device to charge 5 at once using a wall outlet. I need to look into that. Then I could have that be one of my helper jobs for a student.

Tool #7 Reaching Outside Your Classroom

I was impressed with Class2Class. On there I saw a project using M&M graphing. This is a math activity we do each year. Typically, we just have each child graph a bag of m&ms. It would be great to take it further by using technology and then reaching outside our classroom to another class. The objective I would be teaching is having students construct a graph using real objects and then pictures in order to answer questions. We would implement this in late September/early October using Class2Class. It would be fun for each of our Kindergarten classes to construct individual graphs using m&m candies, eventually compiling the data together. Then we could compare to classes outside of Rummel Creek. I have a friend that teaches kindergarten in Austin. I'm excited to tell her about this opportunity. She could get her team on board, as well.
I would also like to Skype with another kindergarten classroom about our cylinder gardening we do each year, as well as Skype with the master gardener that will be helping us with this project next year. We could even use google spreadsheets to collect data on our plants that are growing. The possibilities to reach out of our classroom using online digital projects are pretty endless.

Tool #6 Using Web Tools to Promote Discussion

I had a little trouble imagining ways to use these tools in a kindergarten classroom. However, I do like the idea of Todays Meet. I think students that might not feel comfortable responding in class, could respond via this tool. I think advanced kinder students could "chat" with each other on a specific topic using this, as well. It would take a lot of teacher direction but it could be done.
Probably the tool I could imagine us using the most is Skype. I think the experts we could connect with are endless....whether we are studying insects, plants, workers in our community, etc. there are many people that could give my students knowledge. It would show my students the world beyond our classroom.
Listen.
What do you think will happen to Jack and Annie as they search for the treasure?
Mrs.Timmreck at 6:25 PM, 12 Jun 2011 via web
Today will be a wonderful day.
Mrs.Timmreck at 6:23 PM, 12 Jun 2011 via web
Good morning, friends!
Mrs.Timmreck at 6:23 PM, 12 Jun 2011 via web
today.io/26dq transcript | projector
Talk.
What's your name?



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Tool #5

The first web tools I tried were ABCya and Wordle. I thought it would be neat for my students to use these tools in the classroom at a literacy station. We are often generating lists in the classroom...lists of word family words, lists of things that are a certain color, etc. So, I tried to make an example of how we could use ABCya to make a text picture of things that are a certain color and a Worldle of a specific word family.

Next, I made an account with Storybirds. I think this would be a great way for my students to create their own stories. Instead of relying on paper and pencil, my students could use art to be inspired. I think this might help my students that don't always have ideas for their own writing. More advanced students could collaborate on a story together. This would be another great literacy station.

11 Tools #4

I found this tool to be pretty user friendly. I could see a million ways to use this at school. I would love to use google docs with my team...we could collaborate on our newsletters and other documents we send to parents prior to doing so. We could also use the forms to make decisions as a team quickly. I think the kids would love to "vote" using the forms. I shared a newsletter in progress using google docs and I created a survey to find out what is your favorite nursery rhyme and fairy tale.

11 Tools #3

I was able to embed a video. I liked school tube and Blinkx because I could look at lots of videos pretty quickly. I learned about copyright and fair use. I learned that as long as I am in a secure location, I am good to go. Also, as long as I don't copy entire works, I am okay. I am excited to add pictures and videos to my flipcharts.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty

11 Tools #2

Well, I am feeling a little better about this! I was able to view other blogs and comment...hooray! I like the way some people put ideas for me to use in the classroom. Kat Smith found great ideas for a document camera. I am excited to try them! I think building an online community will be great!

My Experience

Hello! My name is Lou Ann Timmreck and I teach at Rummel Creek Elementary. I am in a class this summer called 11 Tools. The first "tool" is creating a blog, which I have previously done. I am still learning, though!