First grade teacher Karen Lirenman (@klirenman) has won the Kay L Bitter Award for innovative leadership in the K-2 classroom. She received this award at ISTE 2013 in San Antonio. You’ll want to see what the younger classroom can be by listening to what she’s doing. Wow!
Karen Lirenman is a grade one teacher in Surrey, British Columbia who loves to provide her students with choice in how they learn, show, and share their knowledge. She engages them globally through video conferencing, twitter, and blogging and uses technology as seamlessly as possibly to make this all happen. She started teaching in 1992.
Professional blog http://www.learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.ca/
Class twitter @MsLsClass. Class blog. http://www.mslirenmansroom.blogspot.ca/
Essential Questions
- You joined Twitter in 2011 and it changed your life. How?
- You have your first grade students create hashtags. How?
- How do you have your first grade students Tweet without problems? Doesn’t it make you nervous?
- How did your class communicate with an author over Twitter?
- You say that “your first graders are in control of what to share with the world,” what are some of the things they choose to share with the world?
- How do you use video conferencing? How do you pick whether to use Skype, Google Hangout or Facetime?
- Describe how your classroom technology is setup in the classroom?
- You describe your teaching style as one “that empowers students to choose the tool that fits best for them” how does this look? How do you give choice in the math class?
- What are your student’s favorite apps?
- How are your students writing fiction and nonfiction stories and how do they publish their work?
- How do you tie in your personal and professional blog in a way that protects your student’s privacy?
- If a teacher is getting iPads, but they are nervous, how does the teacher get started?
Show Links
- Skype http://www.skype.com
- Google Hangout: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/
- Facetime http://www.apple.com/ios/facetime/
- Draw and Tell: http://www.duckduckmoose.com/educational-iphone-itouch-apps-for-kids/draw-and-tell/
- iMovie http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
- Educreations http://www.educreations.com/
- Pop Words https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popwords!/id472853634?mt=8
- Word Wizard https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-wizard-talking…/id447312716?mt=8Popplet
- Skitch http://evernote.com/skitch/
- Bookcreator https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8
- My story https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-story-book-maker-for-kids/id449232368?mt=8
- Discovery Education app http://www.discoveryeducation.com/ipad/
- Pocket Zoo app https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/pocket-zoo-live-animal-cams/id371273282?mt=8
- Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/
Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly podcast by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network where the top educators around the world share what they are doing in their classrooms today. Each show is 10-12 minutes long and designed to stimulate your thinking with best practices and exciting ideas from educators who are doing it. Subscribe.
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