Lessons 4 Little Hands

As a student, the most exciting multimedia presentation that I created in elementary school was a Jeopardy game.  I do not recall what the subject of the Jeopardy game was, but it was exciting creating an interactive presentation (via Powerpoint) based on one of my favorite television shows!  My classmates and I even had an opportunity to share our Jeopardy games with each other.    Now, as a teacher, I have found many different ways to weave multimedia opportunities throughout my school day.  Prior to the pandemic, I did not use technology to support my teaching as much as I do now.  While we were fully virtual, the teachers of our district collaborated to create multimedia presentations to instruct our students in a virtual manner.  We primarily used Google Slides, and within the slides, we integrated text, audio, clickable links, and videos.  As we transitioned to hybrid teaching, I continued to use our multimedia presentations for both my "roo...

I was really surprised with how many apps and online resources there are to aid students in the writing process.  I teach kindergarten, and a few apps stood out to me that I would like to use with my young students.  Handwriting is a really important part of our kindergarten curriculum, so I was really intrigued with the handwriting apps.  I definitely enjoyed exploring the app, iWriteWordsLite.  I found it more engaging than some other handwriting apps that I investigated.  It included fun sound effects, encouraging verbal cues, and immediate affirmation or correction to facilitate proper handwriting strokes.  Practicing handwriting via this fun app would be a fun and engaging way for kids to reinforce their paper-pencil handwriting skills.  This app allows kids to practice letters, numbers, and short words.    Tracing Letters was another handwriting app that I was able to explore.  I didn't like it as much as iWriteWordsLite because it...

 https://study.com/learn/lesson/compare-contrast-graphic-organizer-overview-chart-template.html Graphic organizers are such a great way of presenting information in an organized manner!  They can be very useful for all students, however, I feel like graphic organizers would be especially beneficial for visual learners.  After creating or viewing a graphic organizer, these learners may be able to recall the information more effectively due to its visual representation.  I didn't realize how many online tools are available for creating these graphic organizers.  Every person may have a different preference, however, I feel like using an online tool to create graphic organizers may be a bit easier than creating them using the paper and pencil format.  For example, when I was creating different graphic organizers on my computer, I was constantly changing, moving, and adding information to make them as visually appealing and organized as possible.  If I had...

There are so many different ways of incorporating audio elements to enhance a classroom environment.  I use a variety of audio tools in my  classroom, often to assist with transitions, quiet time, and read alouds. I project timers on my whiteboard at the front of the classroom to give students a timeline for their learning.  I may use a two minute timer to encourage students to start wrapping up an activity.  I use a calming ten minute timer during snack time to show the kids how long they have to eat.  Since the kids can see the timer clearly in the classroom, they understand that when it ends, they must be done working or eating.  It is a lot simpler than just telling them to clean up after a given amount of time, catching them off guard, and making the transition take longer. The timer below is the one that I have been using for snack this school year.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxu0qH...

What do you see when you view this image?  Is it a rabbit turned to the right, or a duck turned to the left?  Which animal did you see first?  Did you see both animals without prompting?  Educators can use images in a multitude of different ways to help teach their students, convey an idea, and influence their students' feelings and thoughts about a topic.  As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words." As cliché as this sounds, displaying images can sometimes convey more than what teachers are able to convey verbally.  Illustrations and images are also unique because, similar to our duck-rabbit, each student may have a unique interpretation of their meanings or messages.  Visuals can be used as an open ended question or concept that facilitates higher order thinking skills.  Simply asking "what do you see?" will inspire many different perspectives, attitudes, and values within a single class which can spa...

In our ever changing society, people have books literally at their fingertips in a multitude of ways.  These may be physical books upon a shelf, however, they may also be eBooks accessed online or via an app.   I had the opportunity to explore a variety of books on different platforms: The Tale of Peter Rabbit on Project Gutenberg ( gutenberg.org ) wasn't very interactive.  It featured illustrations (both in color and black and white) and small text.   Aesop's Fables and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were both featured on manybooks.net .  These were text heavy books without illustrations.   A Tale of Summer Holidays was found on digilibraries.com .  It featured some small black and white illustrations, but was very text heavy.   Finally, I explored Bax and His Bubbles: All About a Kid and His Thoughts from centslessbooks.com .  This was a cute story that could provide support for an SEL lesson.  It had a good message and bright illustr...