YouTube-Mathematics

YouTube is valuable resource for teachers.  There are so many videos that can help you teach a lesson.   Youtube makes it really easy to find videos that can be used in the classroom.  As a preschool teacher, I use youtube a lot.  Sometimes, it is easier to teach a concept to kids by letting them watch a video.  Talking about a volcano erupting isn't the same as seeing a video of it erupting.  By making a playlist of videos, you can easily find the videos to show your classroom.  This can make it easier for you to find the certain video that you are wanting to show your class at a certain time.  Your playlists can also be shared with your students so that they can watch the videos on their own to solidify the things that are being taught in the classroom.  

I have made a playlist of videos of math videos that kindergarten students can watch to help them with the math core.  If you embed the videos into your blog, it makes it so that students could watch the videos straight from your blog and not have to actually go to YouTube.



This playlist helps to meet the following standards for kindergarten:

Utah Core Standards:

Strand: OPERATIONS AND ALGEBRAIC THINKING (K.OA) 

Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from (Standards K.OA.1–5).

Standard K.OA.1 
Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, simple drawings, or sounds. For example, use clapping, act out situations, and use verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.

Standard K.OA.2 
Solve addition and subtraction word problems within 10. Use objects or drawings to represent the problem.

Standard K.OA.3 
Decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way by using objects or drawings. Record each decomposition by a drawing or equation. For example, 5 = 2 + 3 and 5 = 4 + 1.

Standard K.OA.4 
Make sums of 10 using any number from 1 to 9. For example, 2 + 8 = 10. Use objects or drawings to represent and record the answer.

Standard K.OA.5 
Fluently add and subtract using numbers within 5.

EdTech Standard: (if using in 3-6 grade classroom)

Standard 4 
Use general purpose productivity tools and peripherals to support personal productivity, to remediate skill deficits, and to facilitate learning throughout the curriculum. (3)

ISTE Standard:

Knowledge Constructor:
I critically select, evaluate and synthesize digital resources into a collection that reflects my learning and builds my knowledge.

Newsletter

I created a newsletter that could be printed off and given out to students to take home or could be emailed to the parents.  Being able to create a newsletter is an excellent way to keep communication going to between teachers and parents.  It is nice for parents to know what is going on in the classroom and be aware of upcoming events.  If you communicate with the parents, they feel more connected to the classroom.  I know that as a parent, it is really appreciated when you are aware of what is going on in the classroom.  My kids have had teachers in the past that were really good at sending out newsletters and some teachers that were not good at doing it at all.  I felt much more connected to the classes that had the newsletters sent home. As much as you think that your students will remember what they did in class, they do not.  When they get home, generally, the parents will ask what they did and the answer is always the same "stuff."

Teaching students to make a newsletter could be a good way to incorporate more tech skills in the classroom and allow them an opportunity to use their writing skills.  Making a newsletter would fulfill the following standards:

Utah Core Standard
N/A

EdTech Standard
Standard 5 
Use technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (3, 4)

ISTE Standard
Creative Communicator
I communicate effectively and express myself creatively using different tools, styles, formats, and digital media

Google Docs-Science

Google Docs is a great resource for both students and teachers.  Students can use Google Docs to type all of their assignments.  Google Docs could be used for journaling, writing papers, or anything that needs a word processor. This is a really easy tool to use.  It has the same features as any word processor program and it is free! Teachers can use it to type up lesson plans, make worksheets, make flyers, produce brochures, and many more ideas.  The great thing with Google Docs is that it can be a great collaboration tool.  Students can be working on a group paper at the same time on different computers. I love this feature.  It is nice to know that I can be working on the same paper as someone else and see the changes that they are making as they are making them.  It makes things go so much faster.  It is much better than having to email a paper back and forth trying to collaborate and work on a project.  Google makes it really easy to share.

I have used Google to make a sample worksheet for a science project to have the students do in the classroom. This will fulfill the following second grade standards:

Utah Core Standard

Standard 1 

The Processes of Science, Communication of Science, and the Nature of Science. Students will be able to apply scientific processes, communicate scientific ideas effectively, and understand the nature of science.

Objective 1 

Generating Evidence: Using the processes of scientific investigation (i.e. framing questions, designing investigations, conducting investigations, collecting data, drawing conclusions)

1. Framing questions: Observe using senses, create a hypothesis, and focus a question that can lead to an investigation. 
2. Designing investigations: Consider reasons that support ideas, identify ways to gather information that could test ideas, design fair tests, share designs with peers for input and refinement. 
3. Conducting investigations: Observe, manipulate, measure, describe. 
4. Collecting data: Deciding what data to collect and how to organize, record, and manipulate the data. 
5. Drawing conclusions: Analyzing data, making conclusions connected to the data or the evidence gathered, identifying limitations or conclusions, identifying future questions to investigate.

EdTech Standard

Standard 1 

Use keyboards and other common input and output devices (including adaptive devices when necessary) efficiently and effectively. (1)

ISTE Standard
Empowered Learner
I use technology to set goals, work toward achieving them and demonstrate my learning

Storybird-Reading

Storybird is a really fun tool that can help even the struggling writer find writing stories fun.  Using the available graphics, students are able to make up their own stories to go along with the pictures and write their own books.  My kids love to use this website.  My daughter came hoe one day from school and showed it to my son.  They really love to use this now.  It is great that the site gives pictures tot eh students that can start the students brain to think of good stories.  It is very user friendly and super fast for them to write a story.  My daughter loves that she is now a "real author" because people can read the stories that she has written.  Students can use this to help them get their creative juices flowing and write their own books.  Teachers can use the books to teach their content in a new and fun way.

I used Storybird to make an alphabet book to reinforce letter recognition for kindergartners.  This will fulfill the following kindergarten standards:



Utah Core Standard

Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 1 
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

d. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

EdTech Standard 
Standard 5 
Use technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (3, 4)

ISTE Standard
Innovated Learner
I solve problems by creating new and imaginative solutions using a variety of digital tools