eMaze:Health & Safety

eMaze was one of my favorite tools to learn how to use so far. This tool is so much fun to use and extremely easy to navigate. One of the best parts about using this tool is it is absolutely FREE! I used eMaze to teach my first grade students about health and safety. As a class as we talk about the different benefits of being healthy we get to be engaged through this powerful eMaze that will help students connect images to ideas. Not only do the students have something fun to look at eMaze helps us interact and have great classroom discussions as we go together through the maze.
eMaze will definitely help bring something new into the classroom, this tool is similar to using power points in the classroom but defiantly changes things up a little bit. This tool will allow me to teach my students in another new and interactive way. The children will have the opportunity to either participate as a class as we go through the presentation, or even work in groups to create their own presentations. This tool will not only help me as a teacher present information in a fun and interactive way but will help the students in years to come as they continue their eduction and have other opportunites to use it themselves whether in school or even at work.

Integrated Core Standard 1: Students will develop a sense of self.

Objective: Describe and practice responsible behaviors for health and safety.

a. Practice appropriate personal hygiene (e.g., bathe, wash hands, clean clothes).

b. Describe the benefits of eating a variety of nutritious foods.

c. Describe the benefits of physical activity.

d. Describe substances that are helpful and harmful to the body. 

e. Practice basic safety and identify hazards. 

ISTE: Global Collaborator
I strive to broaden my perspective, understand others and work effectively in teams using digital tools.

Educational Technology Standard 8:
Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities. (5,6)

eMaze: Health & Safety

YouTube: Math

YouTube is a great tool to use to help present the information you are teaching to your students in a new and interactive way. This tool also allows students to access different materials to help them grasp a better understanding on certain subjects when struggling. I use YouTube to learn new things all the time whether it is school related or not. Learning how to use YouTube and using it in the classroom will definitely help our students in future years. Below are a few examples of educational videos I found on YouTube and plan on using in my classroom to help teach my students about math. The first three videos I have below are used to teach addition and subtraction to a classroom full of first graders. The Climbing video is a song to help first graders count by 10s. This video will be used to help students understand two digit numbers and how they refer to ones. This last video I have shown here is a video that one of my service learning teachers used in her class while teaching math. When learning a new mathematical standard or when given a "harder" math problem the teacher would say "Who is ready to be thrown in the pit?" The students got excited and she showed them this little clip from Emperor's New Groove. After the clip was shown the class talked about problem solving and working together to find a solution. So the students were given a problem and were instructed to work  together to "get out of the pit" or in other words to solve the problem. I loved how she used this video to teach students how to work together to solve math problems. The students go excited about math and it gave them confidence in the ability to solve "harder" math problems.

Mathematics Standard 1: Mathematics grade 1 Standard 1.0A.1

Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve world problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions. For Example, use objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

Mathematics Standard 1: Mathematics grade 1 Standard 1.NBT.2
Understand that the  two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases:
a. 10 can be thought of as a bundle of tens ones, called a "ten"
b. The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.
c. The numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 ,80, 90 refer to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine tens (and 0 ones).

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

Educational Technology Standard 8:
Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities. (5,6)

Infographics: Science

Piktochart is another easy tool to use. Within Piktochart there are many
different templates you can choose from to create the perfect Infographic for your class. It didn't take me long to figure out how to use this tool and I am not tech savvy at all so if you're anything like me and aren't super good with using technology you too will be able to use this tool. Another reason why I like this tool is because the templates are already super cute so you don't need to spend a lot of time just trying to make your infographic look good. Another reason why I like this tool is because you dont have to use everything the template has, you can delete, add, or make your infographic as long as you want, the template is their to just help guide you and help you know what does look good.
I used Piktochart to create an infographic to teach students in the first grade about characteristics of the weather. On my inforgraphic there are questions, pictures, and facts that help students learn about the characteristics of the weather. We will use this infographic in the classroom to talk about the different characteristics of the weather as a class. The infographic will stay hung up on our bulletin for the children to refer back to. The students will then have the opportunity to create their own infographic on paper demonstrating what they have learned about the characteristics of weather and the different types of precipitation.

Science Standard 2: Weather Changes
Science Grade 1
Objective 3: Identify characteristics of weather, e.g., types of precipitation, sunny, windy, foggy, cloudy.

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

Educational Technology 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)

Teaching Ideas: What do you know about the weather?

Google Docs: Characters in a story

Google Docs is a tool you can use through your google account to create all sorts of different things. I used Google Docs to create a worksheet for my students to use to show what they have learned about our lesson on describing characters in a story. I have created a template and will use this template I have created in Google Docs to print and hand out to each student in my class. First we will be reading a book as a class, after we have finished the book being read aloud to them in class I will hand out this worksheet and they will be given time in class to work on their worksheet. Once the students have finished their worksheet I will have a chance to look through them during recess, this will allow me as the teacher to see what each student understands and what I might need to reteach. It will also allow me to see which students need more time to finish their worksheet or extra help with learning this standard. Like I said briefly before Google Docs is a great tool to use to create lesson plans. One thing that I really like about Google Docs is that you can share your lesson plans with other teachers. You can even choose to share them with your students and their parents. As you can see Google Docs is a great tool to use for easy sharing and easy access for self and others. If you don't have a google account make one, its free and easy.

Reading Literature Standard 7: English Language Arts Grade 1
Objective: Use Illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, settings, or events

ISTE: Global Collaborator
I strive to broaden my perspective, understand others and work effectively in teams using digital tools.

Educational Technology 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)

Teaching Ideas: What do you know about the character?