Technology Group Assignment
I believe our assignment was to pick an area of technology that we wanted to "study", "research" or "incorporate" into our classroom teaching practices. I have to say I really haven't selected anything specific because I have so many areas to learn about. Recently however, I have been working to incorporate powerpoints into my teaching. My teaching partner, Lynn began doing this last year with some power points used to reinforce reading skills that she would show using the LCD projector. This year she has created awesome powerpoints that incorporate all the "concepts of print" skills into a fun way to introduce our daily helpers. She shows them on the T.V. using that nifty little connecting cord that allows you to connect your laptop to the T.V. ( I know it has a special "tech-name", but you get the idea). So all of this inspired me to give it a go!
Lynn and I knew how powerful songs/music could be to help kids learn skills. It seems like in Kindergarten you can always find a song to go with about any skill. But just singing the song lacked the visual connection to the concept kids were learning. I decided to take a couple of our new math songs (Thanks, Jack Hartmann!) and make powerpoints to create a visual image to match what the song was teaching. I took clipart or photo images from google searches and real photos of the kids to illustrate the concepts. Needless to say the kids love them, "Again! Again!" is the resounding cheer when I introduce a new one! They really don't take much time and certianly do not have to be very elaborate. So far I have created ones to go along with our math objectives of counting by 10's and money identification/value. In the works are ones for counting by 5's and the months of the year. I am hoping to add a little more animation to those.
Probably the biggest obstacle I have faced is not always having access to a decent digital camera to get the photos done when I need them. Otherwise it has been a fun project to challenge myself with. If you are interested in seeing one, stop by sometime. I would be glad to show them to you!
posted by Kim @ 3:37 PM
3 Comments:
Way to go, Kim!
The Power Points are awesome! It is so much fun to come up with a good one. I'll try to work on our technical difficulty with the music!
Lynn
Kim,
This sounds like a really motivational way to use technology in the classroom. I understand the frustration with the digital camera issue, maybe it will be resolved soon. I've got my Linkin' Logs set up with all of my current ones (plus thanks for the new one for Jack Hartman). I want to take a power point class, but will probably have to wait until summer, hopefully. Thanks for the info & good luck on future movies. :o)
Kim,
This sounds like a really motivational way to use technology in the classroom. I understand the frustration with the digital camera issue, maybe it will be resolved soon. I've got my Linkin' Logs set up with all of my current ones (plus thanks for the new one for Jack Hartman). I want to take a power point class, but will probably have to wait until summer, hopefully. Thanks for the info & good luck on future movies. :o)
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