Tell Me a Story

I was privileged or I'd rather say I was blessed to attend TCEA's Tots and Technology conference this year. It was awesome.  I highly recommend this conference to all who teach children in primary and lower school. It is in a perfect location, Galveston, Texas. After attending the sessions you walk out to a beautiful view of the water. I also love that the meals are included and even some snacks.
I came away with so many new ideas. The thing that stood out  the most this year was digital story telling.  It is not a new thought to me, but hearing about it at this conference I finally got it. To use a reference from a previous post, the lightbulb finally turned on!  We learned of so many awesome apps that enable even the youngest kids to tell a story. I will list them at the end.
Examples of how kids were sharing what they learned with the purpose of teaching others were shown.  I was so excited to see these type of projects being done. I am looking forward to creating books and telling stories with my new class next year. Through these projects students learn that they have a voice and can  make a difference ...."no matter how small". Sorry, random lines of children's books just pop up in my mind sometimes and I couldn't resist.  (Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who) Anyway,  it is a project with a purpose and therefore meaningful and engaging. In the weeks since, I have been reflecting on things learned and processing it all. These thoughts carried over to my next endeavor and that is helping to plan our church's next children's vacation bible school. "Tell me a story" is the theme of VBS where I go to church.  It's a simple theme refering to one of my favorite three year olds request of his father. We want to share the stories from the bible with the kids that attend. It dawned on me because of the similar theme from the conference and now at  church tjis is more thsn a coincidence. It is important! Telling these stories from the bible help to learn the nature and awesomeness of God. In the very same way students need to share their stories to show how they are more alike yet distinctly different all at the same time.  This can be comforting to students who feel like no one understands them.  Having kids create a story with audio and pictures of a lifetime events such as a devastating tornado or tsunami told from a childs perspective is priceless. It gives healing; as well as hope for others that may have a similar struggle.

That is all for now. So go tell some stories.
Below are a few of the apps I learned about at the conference.

Felt Board
Toontasic
Doodlecast Pro
Educreations
Screenchomp
Story Buddy 2

How much Technology is too much in the Primary Classroom?

How much technology should you use in the primary classroom? This is the question that has been consistently been popping up in my head throughout this past school year. I love technology. I am a techie in my personal life always wanting the newest phone, gadget, etc..etc.. You get the picture. I guess this question has been puzzling me because I want to make sure that my interests are in the best interests of the children I am shaping. Young children need to have hands on experiences with their world. In my classroom in which I teach 3 year olds, we have 2 tablets, 2 computers, an interactive whiteboard and an iPod at a listening station. Mostly, they use them to sharpen Literacy and math skills with apps that I have downloaded. Recently though, I have been trying to move from only interacting to creating and producing with technology. I have been perplexed has to how to do this with 3 year olds. I brought in an old Smartphone that was not activated to use with the kids. I showed them how to use the camera and then just told them they could take pictures in the classroom. I left it at that, no task to complete or further instruction. It was interesting what followed. First they took pictures of me. (Not a desired outcome!!!) Then they began walking around the room taking pictures of others as they played. Next, I began to hear some of the kids that were playing with unifix cubes ask the person with the phone to take a picture of what they had made. Then the light came on, figuratively speaking. They were motivated to demonstrate their work and proud to share what they had created and they wanted to show others. This is the same motivating factor for older students it’s no different. This seemed to me like a breakthrough for how I could have my students create, collaborate, communicate and think critically. It dawned on me that what we already do in stations could just be enhanced with adding a video component and an audio reflection from the students as they work together in their literacy and math stations. This could be a formative assessment tool and motivator all at the same time! Unfortunately it is the end of the year and no time left to more purposefully plan these experiences with these students, but I am excited about starting a new year incorporating the 4 C's. How much Technology is too much in the Primary classroom? I believe that it is important to keep a good balance between technology use and manipulative, social, physical and imaginative play. It is also important to consider how you are using it. It should enhance curriculum/skill building not replace it. I know many of you are already doing this in your classroom. I would love some feed back as to the tools you are using and other ideas to incorporate these much-needed skills.

Necessity often leads to Discovery...

Recently I was asked by a teacher about how to share their pictures in a slideshow from the iPad. So, not having done this previously I thought as most of us do now, "There must be an app for that". Of course, there was and it is awesome. Photo Slideshow Director HD is a great app that lets you create slideshows and share them. It allows you to add stickers, text, slides and even effects that are similar to Instagram. Check out these photos of the app.It was worth the $3.99 that I paid for it.

Video: Photo Slideshare Director HD

Getting Started...

I felt like an introduction was in order for my first blog post. I love reading other peoples blogs and have gained so much helpful information. I recently have started thinking I should give back helpful information and not always wait for someone else to figure it all out. So here I am starting this blog. I hope I will be able to give knowledge, helpful tips and maybe even inspire relavent and meaningful learning experiences. A big thank you for reading this and please  add to the discussion by commenting on my posts.