Tool #9

1. Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective? Our goal it to get students to learn the curriculum. Therefore, it is highly important that we use technology to achieve our goal and in order for that to happen we must tie in our curriculum objectives into the activities that our students do while using the technology to learn.
2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers? Students need to be accountable for their learning if we want learning to happen while they are doing stations/centers. If we don't hold students accountable we can't really check whether or not they are doing the activities how they are supposed to be doing them to achieve our goals for them, to learn.
3. Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? I liked Tutpup. Students can use this for math facts and spelling. It can easily be differentiated to students' learning levels. I can create a chart where students write the activity they did with their partner and they write the "score" for the activity. I also visited Thinkfinity. I played coin box for a while and liked that activity for my students to practice money. Students can do the activity and at the end they can write in their journals a short reflection about what they did and how it helps them with the concept of money.
4. List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? I like ClockMaster for my students to practice time. Students can play and record in their journals a certain amount of clocks.time they practiced and write a reflection on why it is important to tell time accurately. I liked Read Me Stories for students to listen to and read English stories. Once they read/listen to the story they can do a story map, describe characters, write a reflection on whether they liked or not the story and why.
5. What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station. Students can use the iPod Touch to take pictures and create animoto's for projects.