Classroom Website

Mrs. Parsons' Classroom Website

Above is my link to my classroom website. I think of this as a communication tool and resources where my Learning Coaches can go for resources information and forms that they may need.

It is a work in progress, but I have multiple pages working right now. If they are not I tried to delete the template information and note that it's "coming soon".

Online Application Review- Google Documents and Sumo Paint

Google Documents

I have used Google Documents before, so I know how it works and it's benefits. I used it as a type of survey to send out to my Learning Coaches at the beginning of the year. This helped me get their beginning of the year Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) started. It was nice because I could sort it into an excel file and then mail merge it into the document. It saved me so much type of cutting and pasting or retyping the information.
You can also send out a document to others that can be shared, changed, edited by the people you share it with. It can also be protected so others can't access it, if it's private.
So, I think it has some great benefits and uses. I personally use DropBox more than I use Google Docs because I like how easy it is for me to access the documents I have shared with my teammates. But, overall I think Google Documents is a great tool to use when working with collaboratively with others.

Sumo Paint

 I played around with Sumo Paint for a little bit. It was fun to see what you could create. It kind of felt like Kid Pix for adults. I am not much into painting or graphic design or anything like that so I don't see the big benefits of this application or how it would benefit me in my current job. (Kindergarten Teacher). I am not sure I would bother using this to edit my photos either. I really like to just use Instagram because I can easily edit photos and post it to Facebook, which you can't do with Sumo Paint. I feel like it is geared more towards  paint and image design. So it is fun to play with but not very useful in my opinion.

Concept Maps

This is an example of a concept map I would ask my Kindergarteners to make.
We learn about the 4 seasons and they get just an introduction to what happens during these seasons. We focus on what animals do, what is the temperature like and what happens to the trees.
So they would have to focus on these 3 things for each season and create a concept map.

I have done something like this in Kidspiration with 1st graders, so ideally I would do this in Kidspiration because then my Kindergarteners could use pictures and words or just pictures, depending on the student.

Using Jing and Screencasting

This is a video for my parents or 'Learning Coaches' on how to navigate the most important parts of the OLS (Online School). This is a video I would use for new families or at the beginning of the school year as they are learning how to navigate the OLS. I highlight just a few of the things. Jing only allows 5 minutes. So I could send out quick videos on how to do other tasks as well. This is something I have done before as well. I have another video on how to access a student's courses if their plan is not working correctly. This happened about a month ago so I created a Jing video similar to the one above. I put it below here. They are similar but I thought I would share both of them.

Lesson Using Google Maps Engine Lite

 My Kindergarteners learn about their community in Social Studies. So creating a map of their community ties into this unit nicely. The above map is an example of a map that they would create. This is where I grew up. I included 5 main places that my students will have to identify in their maps as well. My students are located all over the state of Michigan, so this will be a fun way for them to identify certain parts of their community and share it with their classmates. The assignment is to create a map of their community and include: 1) Their House 2) Local Grocery Store 3) Favorite park or place to play 4) Favorite restaurant 5) Your choice: This could be a place of significance in their community or one of their other favorite places. (Grandma's house, etc.)

EDT5410- Podcasts

 Early Childhood Education: Balancing Expectations and What Young Learners Really Need

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/1/3/3/133b85fcfdda94d1/wcpodcast-101013.mp3?c_id=6254509&expiration=1392950697&hwt=e082f355ade410f776641a52c8715bb6

This podcast is about early childhood education and explores weather we are asking too much of our young learners. There are so many tests and such a focus on academics. But what do early learners really need? More time to play and explore? This podcast has multiple experts weigh in on this topic.

Adding a You Tube Video to Blog

 My 1st graders used to love doing this video for a "Brain Break".

 I added this video just by  clicking the "inset video" Icon. It seems to have worked very similar to how I embedded the first one I did.