Flipgrid

 a. What did you learn from this course? Think about your course goals. What ISTE standards did you meet? I think one of the biggest things that I learned from this course is how uncomfortable I am creating and sharing content. I rarely use social media in my personal life, let alone my professional life and when I do I almost never share content. I didn't post when I graduated college or when I got engaged, I think I only even posted one photo from my wedding and it was because they were professionally taken and edited. It was a real stretch for me to create and post videos and content of my own. I did create content though and I was able to explore new tools that I otherwise probably wouldn't have encountered. 

b. What were the most useful tools? Why? Be specific and provide examples of how this will help you as an educator.  Personally I found the most useful tools to be Youtube and screen-recording. Working with littles, there are a lot of tools that are simply not age appropriate for them to use, so I struggle to find ways to incorporate them in a way that is at their level. Creating Youtube playlists and following Youtube channels was a game changer for me as well as my classroom. That was something I had been striving to do for years but had yet to figure out! I also love how it notifies me when one of my favorite channels posts something new, my students have been so excited to find out when there is new content from our favorite channels. 

c. How do you plan to continue to utilize multimedia tools in your classroom? I plan on incorporating screen-recording into my daily work routine for my kiddos! I loved using this as a quick way to record the directions for their worksheets and to give them examples to follow! I think it will be a great way for me to differentiate to my students and provide more supports for my lows. I also really want to try out flipgrid with my students. I think it would be an interesting way for them to share their answer to our morning meeting question! I also plan on trying to have a class blog/website next year! I ran into some trouble with it this year, but I am willing and interested to try again. 

If you're interested in contributing to the discussion to can join my flipgrid using the link below!

https://flipgrid.com/5902f0bb

Join Code: 5902f0bb

Curriculum Video

 This video is my curriculum video project which I did over number writing! In Kindergarten we spend the entire first quarter working on number writing through 10, and these songs are a big help!

Blogging about Blogging

 Blogging can have so many forms, but blogging about educational tools can be a great resource for all educators. It is a great way to share ideas as well and opinions about resources. This week I explored a blog called Free Technology for Teachers where I came across a blog post about how to record voice notes in various google platforms. The blog post connected to a post from Practical Ed Tech which also had quite a few very helpful video tutorials linked in it as well. I do not use google classroom or many other google tools with my students as they are too young and it is too complex for them, but Mote could be a game changer for both me and them. If I could record my voice giving them instructions, they would be exposed to so many new tools. Mote also offers that ability for students to hear they inflections in your voice, which communicates so much more than just reading words on paper. 

I considered making a classroom website with a blog feature for my class this year, and I actually did, but I found it too hard to maintain and I gave up on it. I think if I would have stuck with it a little longer, I probably would have gotten used to it and it would have been a great resource and asset to my classroom. That way I would share pictures and resources with parents, as well as communicate what we are working on in the classroom. I think I am going to try again next, year and better consolidate everything into one place!

Screencasting

 This week I explored screencasting, and a tool that I have used before and really enjoy because of how easy it is is screencast-o-matic. The program is so user friendly and it connects directly to your youtube account to upload videos there with just two clicks. I love that you can resize the screen and that you have the ability to include computer audio if you would like. I chose to make my screencast over introducing my Kinders math morning work for this week. I use these morning workbooks from Miss Kindergarten in my classroom every morning as a review for my students over various skills. This is a great addition to our guided math groups. Sharing this screencast with students would be really helpful to my students who this might be more challenging for, and would greatly decrease the amount of questions that students come up and ask me. I will definitely be exploring these more for the future. Below is an example of the morning work intro for April that I made!