Did I Meet My Goals?

Well I do believe I met my goals for weekend #2. I became more familiar with Kidspiration and learned my way around Inspiration if I needed to use it. I enjoyed using Kidspiration and I know I will use it a lot more now. I probably won't use Inspiration as much because I work with younger children. I learned many more features of PowerPoint. I am very pleased with the things I learned which I used in my final project (a PowerPoint for open house.) I can't wait to experiment more with PowerPoint. The piece de resistance, however was the podcast! I cannot wait to make a podcast of my students singing our morning group songs for their parents!! Well, I'm getting ready to see a wiki (not an evil thing, Annette says!) Overall, this was a very productive weekend.

Technology Final Project

My final project is a PowerPoint for open house. The PowerPoint contains information that parents usually think about a few days later! Info about birthdays, shoes for the playground, contact inf, etc. The PowerPoint will be continuosly looping during Open House while I am talking to individual parents. I will also give each parent a handout with the slides printed to take home to refer to later. I think the graphics and sound effects that I have learned to insert will make the presentation informative and entertaining! I have had fun learning to insert the sounds and about animation and transitions. I had been a little afraid in the past to experiment with sounds and transitions so I have broadened my horizons! I have an extensive PowerPoint presentation that I put together for a parent workshop that I will go back and improve now. I was a basic "PowerPointer" previously. I feel more confident in my skills now.

Responding to blogs

I responded to Annie's, Sharon's, Margo's and Cyndi's blogs.

Kidspiration Schedule

This is a daily schedule for my class for the 2008 - 2009 school year. I will have this on my powerpoint that will loop continuously on open house night . I will also give each family one to take home. Playing with Kidspiration was fun. Experimenting with the options and graphics was also fun. Placement was the hardest thing for me. I felt like I was trying to cram too much together. The super grouper came to the rescue and Annette suggested that I use that in combination with color to emphasize the groupings.

Goals for Weekend #2

I have quite a few goals for weekend #2. I have never used Inspiration and have played briefly with Kidspiration. I would like to become familiar enough with these programs to use them for applications in my classroom. I am fairly adept at producing your basic powerpoint. I don't know anything about adding narration or video. I really would like to be able to add video of my students to my powerpoints. I need help with animation features as well. Now....podcasting...I'm open to learning something new!

Answer to question #5

5. How can technology assist students with special needs and extreme learning styles? If your school employs any assistive technologies, please integrate those into your presentation.

Technology is extremely helpful to special needs students and students with extreme learning styles. We brainstormed many many websites and programs that meet special needs or lean towards specific intelligences or learning styles. We felt that technology was beneficial in pre-teaching skills and concepts as well as presenting content, remediating and/or reinforcing.
In my specific case, I use a program in my special needs classroom designed for an Applied Behavior Analysis Program. The program is called Discreet Trial Trainer and allows students to work independently on pre-programmed skills at varying levels of reinforcement. Some of my students manipulate the mouse with finess but others use a touch window with the program. Other technology that is used in my classroom all of the time is BoardMaker by Mayer Johnson. This is used in a variety of applications from visual schedules to making social stories or just books to reinforce concepts. My students also benefit from websites such as starfall.com and pbs.org. They are developing refined computer user skills as well as acquiring basic skills and knowledge at the same time! We found that most of the programs and websites addressed all of the intelligences with the exception of bodily-kinesthetic. We did however note that the new Wii Fit which is taking the country by storm adresses the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence in a very fun way. Perhaps in the future another intelligence may be indentified that addresses the part of the brain that responds to technology!

Scrapbook Page and Final Thoughts on the First Weekend

This is one of the scrapbook pages that I put together using special effects. I really learned a lot this weekend. As much as I use digital photos in my classroom I needed to learn to use a photoshop program. I will use my newfound knowledge a lot in my classroom. I document growth and mastery using photos as well as make story books for the students. I will use a blog and upload photos to share and communicate with parents. Very useful knowledge!!