Organizing Tools Article

I just finished reading the Organizing Tools article, and I must say I was inspired. At this point in the school year, I don't see the benefit of starting a blog/website for my class, but will definitely spend some time this summer setting up a website devoted to my class that is beneficial to all parties involved (myself, students, and parents). Should be a fun way to get more organized, and eliminate the need to send so many things home w/ students on a daily basis. A very cool tool that all teachers should implement! As the article stated, "if you're not on-line, you're not relevant."

Visual Ranking Project

For my most recent project, I put together a visual ranking activity for my elementary special needs students. Tomorrow, we are reading/watching an interactive story called the "The Great Race" which is about the Chinese Zodiac calendar. For this project, I set up a list of all the animals within the story, and the students will be required to put the animals in the correct order. This is a great high level thinking skill especially for my students.

Visual Ranking Link to my project

Team Id: Mr. J's Kids
Password: ruthie45

ISTE NETS Standards covered:

2 a. - design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

b.	develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
c.	customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
	provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. 3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers: a. demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. d. model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

Podcast on Planets

Hey everyone! This was an interesting activity, I've always listened to podcasts about sports, music, etc., but never considered actually recording one myself. As I work with elementary special needs students, this may be a bit of a stretch for something that I could incorporate into MY classroom, but a very cool technological tool to have within my teaching arsenal. I chose a subject that my students are interested in which is the solar system. As I teach mainly RLA & Math with my students, I always look for ways to incorporate Science & Social Studies into my curriculum as much as possible. I gathered most of my script from here.

Link to my Podcast!

Software used to record podcast

Standards Covered:

3. A-D

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my podcast!

My Prezi Presentation

Short Vowel Sounds on Prezi

Hey guys! It feels like it's been awhile since I've posted something, but nonetheless, I'm back with my Prezi presentation for all those who missed me. I've been trying to enjoy this Spring Break as much as possible but have spent a large part of both days at school catching up on paperwork. I played around with this presentation for a few days, and found it to be very interesting, frustrating, but yet effective to utilize within the classroom. I downloaded the software from Prezi's website. I'm not sure if it was the newness of this presentation software, but I'm definitely a PowerPoint presentation type of guy through and through. I wish that you could move things grouped together more easily, as I wanted my presentation to have the look of the Olympic rings, but after moving things here, there, and a bit of everywhere. I decided I would just have to be content with the placement of my paths. One great tool that I feel Prezi could be used for would be to develop word/story webs. It's a great tool like PowerPoint as you can present knowledge in an interesting format that will attract students, but I just felt it didn't have the flexibility that comes w/ PP. But it's undoubtedly, a great tool to have in any teacher's presentation arsenel.

ISTE NETS Standards covered:

1. A-D
2. A-D
3. 3 A

A video that I downloaded and posted...

I was able to download a video on training boxer puppies from YouTube. I downloaded through the file through a software program titled YouTube Downloaded, which I found here.

When saved, the file became MPEG-4 movie that plays through my Quicktime program.

This is a great tool that I could use to show videos to my students that would be relevant to a lesson we are covering because unfortunately access to YouTube is blocked by my county.

ISTE-NETS Standards covered:

3 A-D

I believe this activity demonstrates my fluency in technology systems and how to transfer current knowledge to new technologies and situations. This tool could also be utilized to collaborate with fellow teachers, students, and parents.

Photo Story

I also took the personal route on our Photo Story assignment. I chose to document the life of my white boxer, Sampson, through the first 1 1/2 years of his life. As you can see from the video, he has grown alot over these eighteen months, and continues to get bigger and bigger! He truly lives up to the mantra of a "man's best friend." I hope you enjoy seeing his growth and development of the course of my video. Thanks for taking the time to check out my video.

For this assignment, I used the Microsoft Photo Story 3 software. It can be found here.

YouTube Link

ISTE NETS Standards Covered:


1. Faciliate and inspire student learning and creativity

A. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking.
C. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students'
conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
D. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students,
colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

A. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to
technologies and situations.

My directorial debut!

I utilized the Windows Movie Maker program which I have used before to make home made dvd videos of my baby (my boxer) to send to extended family as Christmas gifts. I felt this activity was fun yet practicle. Below I've included the links to all the various places on the web that the video can be viewed from. Please feel free to provide me with any feedback.

YouTube Link

ScreenCastLink

GoogleDocs Link



Standards Covered:


1A & 1B

2 A-D


Honestly I'm not sure there was any ISTE standard that utilizing a film to present a lesson wouldn't cover. A very cool feature! Thanks for viewing!