Check out some of the highlighted apps from tonight's presentation!
**Sorry if you tried to access this last night. There were some problems with links. They're all fixed!** Recommended Apps Lists
Click on the links to open lists of recommended apps!
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Tonight I will be presenting recommended apps at the PTO meeting at 6:30. One of the sections I am going to cover are those apps that we should be looking out for on children's devices. Many students have tablets or smartphones in their hands 24/7. They have access to the Google Play or iTunes store and can download the apps they want. What happens is that we are not wise as to what these apps enable our children to do or what they can expose children to. I am going to give a little sneak preview of tonight's session by showing some of the more popular apps. KRCG News actually did a story on a school that had to ban an app, YikYak, from being used. Check out the story here.
It may be their device, but you are the parent. I recommend having a "device check" at random times to check apps, history, and text messages. Also, one big thing I would do is turn off the location feature. This then means that apps cannot track their location. Some apps post this without kids realizing it is doing that. You can find this in the Settings icon of most devices. Apple devices have this feature in their Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Android may have it in the toolbar you pull down from the top of your device or in Settings > General > Location. It varies on all devices, but start in Settings. Talk with your children frequently about being safe online. It can be a lifesaver. Note: All handouts from tonight's session will be available on this blog at 8:00pm CST tonight, January 26. Some of your 2nd graders have probably come home saying, "I played Angry Birds in technology today!" Funny story, we did, but not in the way you may think. I have been working on teaching them coding.Learning coding builds life skills that are very important to our children. What is...Code? Coding is how people create software, websites, and apps. We wouldn't be able to play Trivia Crack, waste time on Facebook, or look at websites. Someone had to create all of these sites, and they do that with code. Benefits to Kids Coding Why am I teaching kids code? I actually have a lot of reasons for it. Using a site called Code.org, I am able to use lessons created by experts to best teach children code. This is why I decided coding is important.
The Tool I UseI use Code.org to get the curriculum. All of the lessons have been aligned with CSTA Computer Science Standards and ISTE standards as well as national standards in math, ELA, and science.
I have started with the basic lessons so they gain an understanding of directions and putting steps in order. They are learning north, south, east, and west through this exposure. The kids feel successful and many of them have found a skill they didn't know they had! You can also access Hour of Code, which is a way for them to just go through a stage to go through more coding lessons. It should take them about an hour to work through, but they can go at their own pace! Happy coding! With all the talk of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) floating around the world right now, I thought this would be a good chance to talk about WHY this has taken off in the world of education. With many students having access to a device of some sort, there has been a lot of chatter about Flipped or Blended Classrooms, as well. I am going to focus on Blended Classrooms because that is more what I'm seeing here at Hallsville. A Day in a Blended Classroom What would a day in a blended classroom look like? There are variations on this, but one way that students would be able to do this learning is that they would come in and there would be rotations. One of the rotations would be a computer station where the students watch their teacher on a computer, give the lecture. They would also be able to use their device in some instances. Now, this does not mean the teacher is not there, teaching. Wait for it, and I will talk about it! The other students are working in other stations. Some of them may be working on past work, getting caught up on lessons they needed more assistance with, working in a cooperative group, or they may be learning through an educational activity tied to the content they are learning. When the students move into their second rotation, those at the computers come to the teacher. They are now able to get the work time in a small group setting that they need. If they want, they can go back to the computer station and watch the lecture again or access another video on the topic. The teacher is also able to help because there is typically a very small amount of students in this learning group (4-6, in an average classroom). Helpful to All Most students don't struggle with listening to the lecture, they struggle with applying the skills afterwards. As a student that struggled with math and had parents that struggled to help me, this would have been a welcome learning experience for me! Anything that gets the teacher teaching in a way that supports the students, is a great way to spend their time. They can differentiate, making work more challenging or less challenging. This actually allows a teacher to be able to connect with all students in the classroom. They are going to see each child as they go through the application of the content. Teachers are able to create their lessons through a video, meaning they can personalize it for the classroom. This is key in the way that blended learning works. It is not a video teaching a child. It is the teacher getting to teach and then work in a small group solidifying the learning with all students. Benefits to Students Who can this benefit? Elementary students, middle school students, high school students...all of them! Yes, even elementary. The video below will showcase this. Parents, you can benefit because you would have access to these lectures. This is an instant help at home. Also, if your child is sick at home, they can still get to the lectures and see the lessons. Then they are prepared to talk to the teacher about struggles/triumphs when they come back to school! Wow, pretty awesome stuff, in my opinion.
Take a look at the video below. It is a great explanation of how this works! Please comment with any questions or comments and I would be happy to connect with you on them. This is a post that I did on my original blog page before Christmas, but I wanted to put it on the parent page as well. This is a cheat sheet explaining in a non-techie way how to change safety settings on different Internet resources. Click on the image below to get more sites you can change the settings for in order to keep your children safe.
Education is important - even for adults. Make yourself a better digital citizen by learning more about Internet safety. You can do this by going to NetSmartz for Parents. This website provides support for dealing with cell phones, cyberbullying, Internet safety, identity theft, and more! Watch videos with your child and then turn it into a conversation. They can then go to the Kids, Tweens, or Teens part of the website to explore it in their terms. There are videos, games, quizzes, stories, and more for kids to explore the same topics. |
AuthorA teacher turned techie with an obsession with Google, teachers that love learning, and students that love life! Archives
May 2016
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