First Day of Kindergarten!

Kindergartners and their families enjoyed a story told by Mr.Hanley, our principal, called the "Kissing Hand." This story was about a raccoon who was starting kindergarten.
After the story, parents said good-bye to their child and gave them a kissing hand, a paper hand with a hershey's kiss in the middle!

My class did an excellent job; no tears were shed by my students but I did see a few teary-eyed parents out in the crowd! :-)

We started our morning routine and quickly moved on to the story of the "Gingerbread Man." As we were reading, a gingerbread man clue popped out of our book! We were then off on our gingerbread hunt! On our hunt we met all kinds of important people and places in our school. We didn't find the Gingerbread Man but in his last clue, he said next time he's back, he'll leave us a snack!

This is Mr. Povolo, our K-2 PE teacher reading us a clue the Gingerbread Man left behind!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Hi! Welcome to Miss Yan's Kindergarten Class Blog! I am very excited to start a new school year and have another wonderful class! I hope you all had an excellent summer (despite the lack of sunny weather!) and are ready to start kindergarten.
Kincaid will be hosting a back-to-school night on Aug. 18th from 5-7 for students to meet their new teacher. Please stop by and say hello!

Week 9, Thing 23

This Web 2.0 course was a lot of fun to do over the summer! It was very laid back, work at your own pace kind of course which I think we all need after a long intense school year! I found many of the explorations in this course beneficial to my work as a teacher. I am all about learning new tools, especially free ones, that I can use for myself, students, parents, and collegues. Many of the tools learned through this course I plan on sharing with my co-workers. I think they would benefit from these tools that are easy to use, when demonstrated during a staff meeting.

I felt surprised when I heard about neededing to checkout a text for this course and read 4 chapters. I didn't know that was part of the requirements; however, they did benefit the class. I might have missed it somewhere on the blog, but I didn't recall reading it as being part of the class. This also goes for commenting on other people's blog. But again, I do feel these requirements are important. It is always intereting to see what others have created or found through these explorations.

I would definatly recommend this course to others. I do wish they had one in particular for teachers in Alaska on mylearningplan.com (I haven't come across it yet, only the one offered in CA). This course has opened my eyes to even more technology tools that I can incorporate into my teaching. I am very excited to try some of it out this school year. Thanks again for a fun and beneficial course!

Week 9, Thing 22

Wow, I this was difficult for me to find an ebook to download/explore. I haven't read a good classic book for adults since high school and maybe one course in college! Most of my readings have been childrens books. I did find one of my favorites, Jane Eyre!

I went through the top 100 list from the past few days to see what books I recall being interested in or what new book I might try. When I went through the author list, I was beginning to recall many authors, Homer, Oscar Wilde, Poe, Twain, Austen, London, Hugo, Melville, etc. Some of the ebooks, I wish they were audio books instead, like the Iliad...personally, that is one book too long for me to sit through but I am willing to listen to while multitasking. The Bible was also in txt format. Little Women was one of my favorites but it only came as a txt download under Project Gutenberg.

I also did a google search on the top 100 classic novels to find one I'd be interested in listening to.

I also checked out http://www.ebooksabouteverything.com/ where they have all kinds of ebooks you can purchase!

http://www.archive.org/
When I searched for a couple of titles of books that became movies, I came across a lot of reviews that came in an mp3 format for listening to.

At http://librivox.org/, I was able to find a copy of Little WOmen in an audio version! I like the idea of volunteers reading, but I am not sure if I like how different people read different chapters. I downloaded Emma by Jane Austen and Three Men in a Boat, which I heard was a funny story. I also found a children's story (or so a website told me) called Wind in the Willows. I might download some of my other favorites, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Of Mice and Men, Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, Price and Prejudice...I could keep going! I kind of wish I knew about this at the beginning of summer when I had more time!

Week 9, Thing 21

Podcast
My favorite hobby: Scrapbooking!!
http://whollyscrap.libsyn.com/rss

I went to http://podcastalley.com and it was easy to search under games and hobbies for a podcast on scrapbooking! How fun! She goes over listener comments and constructive criticism. She uses skype and odasidy for her podcasting. I found the author's personal scrapbook site is http://angiepedersen.typepad.com/onescrappysite/! Listening to podcasts reminds me of listening to the radio. I can see myself listening to podcasts more often while I am working on craft things or filing papers.

http://www.epnweb.org
I listened to a first grader dedicate a book reading (that I believe she wrote) to her mom - it was SO cute! I think parents would love (and even grandparents) to hear their child's voice!

wwww.teachercreatedmaterials.com
Practice, Practice, Practice: The Value of Repeated Reading - Dr. Rasinski talks about the benefits of repeated reading. He compared it to athletes - they practice to get better, and reading is the same way. I do find it hard for me to just sit and listen. I feel like to need to multitask!

TechSavvyGirls
So I am not a big gamer (person who plays video games) but one in particular that I use to love to play in college was Dance Dance Revolution. And guess what I found? Dance Dance Revolution in Education podcast!
http://web.mac.com/tntnzing/techsavvygirlz/Podcasts/Entries/2006/8/12_Dance_Dance_Revolution_in_Education_.html

Chapter 3: New Tools

Some of the tools listed in this chapter we covered throughout this class. I thought I'd touch on some of the items that wasn't covered.

Calendars
www.google.com/calendar
You can see each other's schedule, cross-reference events/dates, and also get reminders. So far, it seems like it is a FREE tool.

Video Editing
Jumpcut.com
This site lets you make and remix videos, however, not all videos on this site are appropriate for a school environment (or home, ie. adult material) or even of any quality. It's more of a free tool you can use. I am not sure if there is a way to explore/search videos without having to come across inappropriate material. In its guidelines, it states: "Jumpcut does not tolerate content that includes pornography, illegal acts, excessive violence, or anything racially or ethnically offensive. This includes your profile photo. Please flag content as innapropritate if you come across something that shouldn't be on the site. If you think there's immediate cause for concern, you can report content and/or behavior to Jumpcut directly via our Contact page." However, when I wanted to look up videos on "dance lessons," adult material was everywhere! I am not sure how well they are doing about monitoring the materials posted on the site.


There is an option to create videos that you do not want to share with the public but only certain people. What you post public, people are allowed to take your material/clips and "remix" it. In it's policy, it states that you must be at least 13 years old, and if you are 18 and under, you still need parent permission.

eyespot.com
Eyespot is an "all-in-one solution for hosting, mixing and sharing your video on the Internet and over mobile devices. Anyone can use the site to watch video and share via links and email." It seems to be similar to jumpcut.com but I didn't come across as many adult matrial when I explored videos. The do have "commercials" or demo videos as they like to call them.



Education videos are limited; I came across many videos advertising their academys or debt reduction. There was a short movie about making rainbow fishes.



Grouper.com
This site changed into crackle.com.
"Crackle, Inc., a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company formerly known as Grouper, is a multi-platform video entertainment network and studio that distributes the hottest emerging talent on the web and beyond. Crackle's addictive shows reach a global audience across the Internet, in the living room, and on devices including a broad range of Sony electronics. Crackle, in on-going collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment and other leading partners, discovers and promotes the stars of tomorrow." You can watch comedy, horror, music, short films, etc. Before you watch a video, they make you watch a commercial for a movie or a product. Again, this site is limited on videos appropriate for the classroom. I did come across a short math lesson.

From Crackle: Want to learn math, maths, math?

Videoegg.com
"VideoEgg is the pioneering video ad network for online communities. We connect brands to consumers with video and rich media across a network of more than 200 leading video and gaming sites, social networks and applications. We are helping redefine the world of online advertising." I would not recommend even visiting this site unless you are using it to create ads....I was bombarded with "advertise here" on the homepage.


3D Modeling
sketchup.google.com
"Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create, modify and share 3D models. It's easier to learn than other 3D modeling programs, which is why so many people are already using it." They have links on how to use SketchUp for K-12 education. They have a free version and also SketchUp Pro which is free to educators but kept at a low cost for schools and its students. I checked out its K-12 Education gallery but only one illustratin was posted. I wish there were more examples from younger students using this tool.

eHub
emilychang.com/go/eHub
"She writes about web and user experience design, technology, and next generation web" like Web 2.0. At her site, she makes posts about new tools that you can use, ie., Kwik Surveys, if you want to create free and easy surveys. I found this listed on her site - a TO DO LIST at http://www.nowdothis.com/ Check it out. I am not sure if I would use it all the time...I noticed you have to list the items in order of what you want done first. Emily Chang's job sounds like fun!! With tags, she has her blogs categorized...I clicked on Education and then Kids and came across something useful for parents, zefty.com. Emily says Zefty is "a money expense tracker that allows you to track and manage your child's allowance & spending online. Your kids can easily learn about money management while parents gain quality time with their kids." AND IT'S FREE!!

Math Tools
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/tools/
One of the tools I checked out was Experimental Probability, which is one thing we cover at the end of kindergarten. One of the assessment questions is about probability with working with a spinner where there are two parts, and one is about 60% and the other is 20%, and the kindergartner has to tell where it would most likely land. This has the online tool where you can spin the spinner by clicking the mouse and it will tally where it lands so you are able to see where it lands most. They have other math tools with graphs, statistics, geometry, and so forth.

Photo Editing
gimp.org
Gimp.org is used for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can also be used as a simple paint program. Some of the options it has is: photo enhancing, digital retouching, you can save your image in different formats...I think it is almost like Photoshop but easier!

http://dotlrn.org
".LRN is a global community of educators, designers, and software developers who partner together to drive educational innovation." It offers these tools:
Assessment Forums
E-Mail/Bulk mail LORS Central (Learning Object Repository)
Calendar LORS Management
Curriculum News
.LRN Photo Album
.LRN Ecommerce Project Manager
Homework Dropbox Staff List
Edit this page Survey
Gradebook/Evaluation Syllabus
Expenses Tracking User Tracking
FAQs Weblogger
File Storage Slide presentations
There are no license fees for using the software!

http://www.squeakland.org/
This is a media authoring tool. They have an example project for 9 and up which involves students designing and creating a car and then making it "drive" or become animated. I can see this being incorporated into the classroom!

Week 9, Thing 20

Teachertube...My Favorite Video!



It amazes me that these young 1st graders help make this cute video with their teacher. I really like their message and the music that they decided to remake is one that young chidren in first grade can help put this together!

There are some other videoes that kids would find humorous...A librarian, if brave enough, could create a video similar to this one about library rules:



I guess sometimes kids need a goofy movie or video to learn!

I seem to have a buffering issue at home (when I have fast internet) and even at school when I am viewing videos...sometimes they do not come out clearly, like the "stutter" in its image.