I subscribed to “Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.”
It had a lot of great articles I read an article titled, “6 Great Web Tools for
Teaching Reading.” Although I am not a reading teacher, I found these
suggestions very useful because in my science classroom the students must be
able to read directions in order to complete labs. Therefore, I would like to
be familiar with resources to continue to integrate different ways in which I
can help students improve their reading skills in the science lab classroom. Some
of the web tools suggested in the article sounded very familiar, I have heard
some of my colleagues discuss using a few of these. They had Reading Rockets,
ReadWriteThink, Reading Rainbow, Reading Bear, Starfall, and Reading Eggs. I
was very impressed with the Reading Rainbow site because if you are a
subscriber they have tons of books and videos available for you to use. You
have the option to sign up for a free trial. One thing that I liked about this
site was that they had “video field trip” I think that would be something neat
to include in a reading lesson.
I also subscribed to “Free Technology For Teachers” and read
“How to Create Simple Comics on Pixton.” They have a tutorial on how to get
started as far as creating an account and creating a comic. I thought this
would be something fantastic that you can use in the classroom and that I know
that students will enjoy. It allows the students to completely create the comic.
From the characters to the setting and the students write their dialogue in. It
suggests that teachers can use Pixton to engage the students in creative
writing which is a great idea, but I think it can be used for much more in the
classroom. I think it would be interesting to have students work as a group to
create a comic about a specific topic or you can assign the students to create
a story of a particular genre. I like the idea of incorporating Pixon into my
science lab lessons.
I am still getting a hang of how to use Feedly, but so far I
like all the different blogs on there. The blogs I subscribed to how been interesting
to look at and I have gotten several different ideas that can use in my science
class with all different grade levels.
That is very interesting. I had never heard of most of these websites until now. Last year that I was in kindergarten I would always use Starfall for letter sounds. Now that I was moved to second grade I no longer use it. I liked the idea of using Reading Rainbow in the classroom, especially since it has the virtual field trip. My kids would be super excited to use it. I also liked the comic maker, I believe that they would be ecstatic to use it. I an definitely going to subscribe to these.
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ReplyDeleteMs. Nieto,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your feedly subscriptions. I also subscribed to the same blogging site as you coincidentally. I have used Pixton in my classroom, and while it is neat for the kids to create their own comics, the program presented many problems for my students and often kicked them off of the system. It was very tedious for them to use the program, although the end results came out nice. So, I only recommend you use Pixton is time is not a priority in the classroom. I ended up sending the students home with the IPADS so they could continue to use the program at home. On the plus side, the program does have a lot of really cool features that can be adjusted with the characters.
All the best. :o)
-Melissa Holt-
I like to know that teachers like you are worry for looking for new, better and interesting ways to teach their students. Like Pattsy, this is the first time I heard about this kind of websites. It is fantastic know that there are great resources in the internet, such as Pixon, that we can use to improve our teaching experience. Actually, I plan to use them for my toddler.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Maria
Claudia,
ReplyDeleteIt is great to hear how you are striving to incorporate the development of your students' reading skills into your science classroom! Many times on my campus we discuss the importance of connecting each content area together in our teaching, but seldom is there any true effort to do so. At a school with a large number of ELL students who need the extra reading support I will definitely mention the programs you use in your science class (Reading Rainbow, etc.) to my colleagues as we continue to try to find ways to support our ELL students' reading development. Thank you!
Claudia,
ReplyDeleteI have heard about this "video field trip" before and it sounds so cool! I think students would enjoy being a part of something like that. Since I do not have my own classroom yet, I am also wondering which reading programs are the most effective to use, so thank you for sharing. It is incredible how technology allows us to integrate these kinds of programs into our class and in my perspective, makes it a lot more fun and exciting to practice reading on.
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ReplyDeleteClaudia,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog this week. You selected resources that I had not and they could be very helpful for my classroom. I agree that adding reading to your lessons is important because in order for students to be successful in any subject they must have adequate reading comprehension skills. I particularly liked your information about creating comics. My girl scouts are doing this now on paper but how awesome would it be for them to use technology?
Claudia,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog this week. You selected resources that I had not and they could be very helpful for my classroom. I agree that adding reading to your lessons is important because in order for students to be successful in any subject they must have adequate reading comprehension skills. I particularly liked your information about creating comics. My girl scouts are doing this now on paper but how awesome would it be for them to use technology?
Hi Claudia,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post about how you used the technology tools you read about to find ways to use it in your classroom. The fact that you are planning to use some of these tools in your science class while integrating a way to improve reading skills. Thank you for sharing.