I am a Pre-Kindergarten
teacher at Our Lady of Refuge and with the growth of technology around our
world I try and connect technology into as many lessons as I could. With my
students being so young it is sometimes a little tough to connect technology
into a lesson, but then at times I am happy my students do not have access to
the different web 2.0 applications that are available to our society. I sometimes believe the different applications
that are provided through web 2.0 cause low self-esteem in students; they are
trying to live in an image that they are seeing on the internet. If I was a 4th grade or older
teacher I would definitely use the different web 2.0 applications that are
provided for us, it is very beneficial with communicating with parents as well
as students. With this being said since I am a Pre-Kindergarten teacher I am
going to step back into time and think about my student teaching experiences a
second grade teacher and think about how I could adapt web 2.0 using the RAT
method in my different lessons.
R
(Replacement)
– I am a 2nd teacher at McGregor elementary and today we will be
focusing on writing to our pen pals through our blog board. Although we use to
hand write our letters and send them off to our pen pals, I have decided to
switch things up and have the students enhance their keyboard and computer
skills. With the beauty of web 2.0 students are now able to communicate quickly
and efficiently with their pen pals through google blogs, students in the past
have seemed to really enjoy writing to their pens pals using the blog. Let’s be
honest who wouldn’t with the students being part of the Gen-Edge generation
they were born into a technology world and enjoy using these different types of
features.
A (Amplification)
- I
teach 2nd grade at McGregor elementary and am going to be teaching a
lesson on science, students are required to do a science experiment at home by
creating a volcano. The student goes home are realizes he lost his worksheet on
what he is supposed to do, he starts to panic because the project is due
tomorrow. His mother reminds him that
his teachers post all her assignments on her Wiki account and if he ever needs
help his teachers provides everything on this website. Jason screams with joy and accesses his
teachers Wiki account, he is now provided with all the details about the
project and what needs to be done, Jason now recalls his teacher reminding them
to causes her Wiki account to see examples as well as steps by step
instructions on how to create a volcano.
With the simple Web 2.0 applications Jason was able to complete his
project and get the full knowledge he needed.
T
(Transformation) -
I am a second grade teacher at McGregor elementary and just assigned a group
project on global warming, students have been working very hard but do not seem
to have enough time to complete their projects in class, and they are also not able
to get all the resources they need to complete their project. The students are freaking out because they
are not able to get together before the project is due; the students have come
to me and asked if they can have an extension to turn in their project at a
later time. I let the students know that they should not panic or be alarmed,
with the beauty of web 2.0 I have created a blog where students can communicate
and post their work at any hour of the day, with this blog group members can
share their ideas and work at any time; we know longer have to worry or stress
about not being able to work together.
Vanessa, I like the examples that you've created for the RAT method. Especially your example of Replacement. Would you agree that your final example of transformation is a bit of a mix between transformation and amplification?
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your post, I immediately thought of the website abcya.com for your Pre-K students. It's a completely free web 2.0 tool that caters to students in Pre-K through five. You will have no worries when it comes to the students seeing things they shouldn't on the site, there are no ads or clickable links that they can accidentally click on.
Great post!
Hi Victoria,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the feedback and the wonderful website you provided, I just browsed through the website and they sure do offer many wonderful things for Pre-K students but not only do they offer wonderful things for Pre-K but they always provide material up to 5th grade. I really like how there are no ads on the website because at times I get worried something might pop up that shouldn’t, I also noticed the website offers an app for tablets thank you so much for this website.
Your right now that I go back and look I do see the mixture of transformation and amplification thank you for pointing that out to me. I’ve never heard of the RAT method, I tried doing additional research on it since the article did not have lots of examples but it was really hard trying to find things on the RAT method I was left with nothing, but I do like how it is much more complex than the SAMR method.
No problem! It's really a great website for all elementary students that they can grow with!
DeleteThis is actually my first time hearing about the RAT method as well. As I was completing my graduate studies in Instructional Technology, SAMR was the way to go. Like you, I couldn't find much more information about the RAT model outside of the article but I totally agree, it is so much better than the SAMR model. Perfect example of simpler being better!
Yes the SAMR model seems to be much more confusing, it helps that the other students are giving examples of the RAT model this will help me grow a better understanding of this model and adapt these techniques in my classroom.
DeleteVanessa great post!
ReplyDeleteI can definitely connect with you about it being difficult trying to implement Web 2.0 tools with the Pre-K learners because I teach Kdg.(Sp.Ed) as well. Overall, you made great connections and examples using the RAT model. I especially like the Replacement with using the blogging to communicate to pen pals.
Thank you Almareka, yeah that seems like it would be really tough to implement Web 2.0 in a kindergarten special Ed classroom. Although, its nice when the students receive a handwritten letter from their pen pals, using a blog would allow students to connect and communicate more efficiently.
DeleteHi Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog this week. I especially like the way your set up your examples. Reading through the comments that you have already received, I just wanted to make mention that www.abcya.com is not add free unless you pay to have it that way. I do use the site frequently and love it! The adds that do show up are usually not a big deal but, your little ones may occasionally get lost in a sea of new tabs. Just teach them how to close the tabs and everything will work out fine.
Your replacement lesson using a blog instead of writing sounds like a good time and I think your students would enjoy less wait time hearing from their pen pals. I think a Google Blog may be to difficult for your 2nd grade students. Do they have email addresses? I did use a blog a couple of years ago while I was running the school library. Students could discuss books that they enjoyed and learn about other authors and stories from their classmates. I used Kidblog. Kidblog allows you to set up accounts and passwords for each of your students and monitor comments before they are published. Your students can even set up their own blog inside of the blog. This option is very user friendly for 2nd grade students. It is also a great way to avoid any issues with inappropriate messages from pen pals (you never know what someone else's students may be sending to your kids).
I am not a classroom teacher at the moment (I teach in a computer lab) but, I am a little worried about your transformation scenario. These kids are 8 years old and should not be stressed or freaking out about a project that is supposed to be completed in school. The proper resources should be available to them in the classroom and they should not have to meet up outside of school to complete their work. If this is something that you want them to do outside of school, maybe you could make the blog the project. Students could report on their findings and each be responsible for a specific part (ie. one student could be responsible for images and captions, one student could list the causes, and one student could list the what is being affected). I think the topic is great for this age group, they should be aware of their responsibility to the environment.
I was incorrect in saying that there are no ads. You're right, the free version does have ads. I guess I haven't noticed because of the lack of inappropriateness of the ads. Thank you for pointing that out.
DeleteI do agree that the transformation scenario may be a little too intense for second graders. However, in my particular school, students from the grades two and up all have email addresses and have been taught how to use Google Classroom. It wouldn't be a bad idea to allow the students the OPTION to work on their assignment online and at home. Many of my students log on from home to complete their work, including second grade students.
Hi Victoria,
DeleteI just read your post on my blog about using Google Classroom with 1st-8th. That is awesome! I think I read Vanessa's blog and thought that she was only using it for this project. I must have had blinders on. If students are already utilizing Google Docs there is no reason they couldn't use it for a collaborative project. I just worry when projects stress students that are so young. I feel like we sometimes push too hard or have unrealistic expectations. I will admit that I have been guilty of this a time or two (perhaps, a few times more).
I meant "ad" not "add"
DeleteDoes anyone else wish there was an edit button on these blogs?
Hello Kathleen,
Deletethank you for that information regarding abcya.com I haven't actually used it with my students yet but I look forward in using it soon.
I understand your scenario about having 2nd graders using google docs, but I would make sure they were introduced and trained on it prior to just throwing them on it. Also, when I was student teaching my lead teacher required all students to have an email address regardless if they were only able to access it from school. Although, I do like this kidblog you have mentioned I will have to look into this. I at times push my students and have high expectations from them but once I noticed they are really struggling I tend to reflect on that for the near future.
I completely agree and admire that we are worried about stressing our students. Sadly, small children are expected to do/know more and more these days. I guess an appropriate saying might be, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss,you'll land among the stars."
DeleteI love that saying :)
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is a lack of vertical (K through 12) alignment of technology expectations within a district. It should be clear what competencies students enter each grade with, so as a 7th grade teacher, I would know that the vast majority of my students can do X, Y, and Z on a computer. The problem is everyone expects kids to know everything (digital natives, right?), and/or don't want to be bothered with teaching it themselves (because they can't or feel that they MUST cover ALL of the content). That leads to pushing everything down so that after kindergarten we expect all kids to be able to do scatter plots and regressions ;-)
ReplyDelete