Letting the students take pictures

I teach special needs children and can you believe only 2 stuents in my class know how to take pictures . Hey do you have any ideas to share.

Digital Camera

I'm anxious to have the Digital Camera training. Although I can push the button and take pictures with a digital camera, that's about the extent of my knowledge. I often miss the shot I want because of the slight delay between pushing the button and the image actually being captured! For the pictures I do capture, they stay on the digital camera forever because I don't know how to download them. Pitiful, I know! So I look forward to learning all about using a digital camera as well as get ideas on how to use the pictures for instructional purposes.

My first document camera experience in the classroom

I pulled out the document camera and set it up, along with the projector. It took me an hour or so to get everything working. I then experimented with it on my afternoon class (picture taking, projecting their images and PCS on the wall, etc). The students immediately became focused and we played the 'who is here' game. They see the picture of their classmates on the wall and they yell out who it is. Before I had this projector and document camera, the students attention to task during this time fell steeply after they had their turn, but with the document camera, they stayed engaged for all of their friends' turns also.

Photo Story

February 21, 2009
Yesterday I visited the other classrooms that were having their Black History celebrations. I just finished creating a photo story and it looks pretty good. I had a little difficulty trying to transition with the start and the end but after I kept trying I saw the end results.

Today I used the ELMO during story time. It was really nice not to have kids squirming about trying to see. The ELMO helps alleviate that problem. Each curriculum unit comes with at least 2 Big Books and the pages are too large to display all of its contents on ELMO at one time. It takes some practice to learn how to move items on the ELMO so they are moving the way you want on the projected image. I'll definitely have to practice!

Valentine’s Day

As a treat to my students, I prepared a lesson using ELMO. It’s a simple story-telling of a Valentine story but with the use of ELMO and the projector, the lesson became very interesting for them.

It is also awesome to see how my students further hone their expressive language skills as they try to pretend to be somebody else in front of the ELMO camera. The presence of Elmo in my classroom really made a big difference!

Our third STEP training session

Yesterday was our third STEP training session. It seems like a lot of work but also a lot of 'hands on' use of different technologies in order to engage the students in the learning process. In other words, we are going to use grown up toys to get the kids more interested in doing their work! Let the adventure begin!

February 19, 2009
Today was the first day of our black history celebration. I visited the different classrooms and snapped many pictures of the students enjoying the experiences. I realized that I must go back and review the functions of the camera. Our students are move so fast I need the kid/pet feature for the pictures.

Digital Cameras

I can't believe we got digital camers. I am so glad I sign up with the step team. I can't wait to use it. I am going to make books, do lessons. The projects are incrediable. Using the digital camera will help my students capture pictures that can tell a story.

Letters from Home

As a follow up activity to the mailman, how mail travels and Valentine's Day, each child was provided an opportunity to show his/her mail that he/she received from home by using the document camera. The children were already so excited that they received mail from their parents but then to have the opportunity to show all of their friends at the same time showed when each child went up to the document camera. It was great to see how the document camera helped in building the self-esteem of some of the children.

Talking About STEP To Others

My roommates are all teachers from different schools in the county. We always find ourselves talking about the best practices in our respective schools.

When I told them about how my school got into the Year 1 STEP program, they were envious at this rare opportunity to be able to use the different equipment that will enhance classroom instruction. As I was explaining to them how I have actually used the ELMO so far, I also realized that along with being a STEP member comes the responsibility of creating meaningful lessons that the other teachers in the building could also use. And this is not only the ones required by STEP for us to submit. I’m referring to other potential lessons that we could all develop which could be collated for other teachers to see how they could use it for their purpose.