Tool 9

1. Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective?

We have so much to cover in a year. Technology should be our friend. Once an objective is taught, technology can be used to reinforce the objective taught. Technology needs to be used as a tool to enhance student learning. When technology is tied to an objective it helps the students learn and remember. It keeps them alert and wanting to do more. They never have a chance to get bored with learning.

2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers?

Students need to know they are not just playing. The stations/centers serve to review objectives taught or to explore and learn new things. After completing a technology activity, they need to be able to explain what they did and how it might have helped them. All time is very valuable and needs to be accounted for.

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 visited several sites. I liked Tutpup because it was a way for students to compete in fun with educational games against other kids. Students tend to be very competitive and love a challenge. This site had many ways to compete on quick recall of facts. I can see our kids really getting into this. You must register for an account. Students could use this in a station to practice quick recall of their facts and then record who won the game. They must also tell what set of facts they practiced. They could come back to this site and see if they made improvements. Then record that information too.

I also liked Learninggamesforkids.com. This site had leveled math games. In fourth grade it included algebraic terms, data and statistics, geometry terms, and math terms. What a great way to review geometry terms. Geometry terms have to memorized and students sometimes fail to take the time to do it. This would be a fun way of reviewing the terms and helping to remember them. After using this site in a center, the students should write what they learned. This will reinforce those terms again.

I also noticed several of the sites given under tool 9 were set up to be used with white boards. What a wonderful way to introduce an objective.

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?

Wow! There is so much out there. I went to the Ed Tech site to look for approved apps and found many that I liked. It was nice to have a list of those that other educations liked. You can spend hours looking. I'm glad our district has a place to share findings. Here is what I liked:
ABC Cursive- Kids can trace cursive letters for practice. Somehow cursive handwriting gets left out. Kids want to learn and they usually learn the letters incorrectly. This is a wonderful app for forming cursive letters correctly. After using this app, students could write a short paragraph in cursive showing what they learned.

I found several with Everyday Mathematics.

Baseball is used to practice multiplication facts. It can be played with another player. This app walks you through what you need to do. It has a total of 3 innings and will create outs so the other person has a chance. They score is determined by how large the product is to the problem that was given. Lots of fun. Once again students get to compete with a classmate. Once finished they would need to write what they did and record who won.

Top It deals two cards to each player. Then each player must find their sum and compare their sum to a partner using greater than, less than or equal signs. Scores are given for the correct sum and the highest sum. Great way to practice two skill: adding and comparing.

Equivalent Fractions is played alone. You must compare fraction cards to find a set of equivalent fractions. Points are given when a pair of equivalent fractions is found. I like that students can move cards side by side to see if they have a match.

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.

When looking around at many apps, I found a stopwatch. I thought this would be great for teachers to use when giving DRA. Sometimes our stopwatches on the clipboards did not work correctly.

I loaded many familiar games like: Uno, Hearts, Checkers, Solitaire, Farkle, Tic Tac Toe, Bowling, and Sudoku2 just for fun. They are games that keep the mind sharp and are fun to play.

I can also see students using the ipad as a research tool. They can use it to look up information and create products with it. I also found a Dictionary app. This will come in handy to look up words student don't know when reading. There are so many uses for an ipad in the classroom.