Tool 7

I used Photo Story 3 to create a Photo Story about baby farm animals. I think that Digital Storytelling is an important teaching tool in the classroom. For example, Digital Storytelling can be used to introduce new vocabulary through Photo Story videos. The videos can show new words in written and oral form. Photo Story videos can help children to learn new vocabulary in Science, Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts. This application is especially important for children that are learning English as a second language.

Tool 6

In my case that I am a Pre-Kinder teacher, a wiki could be used by a team of teachers to collaborate in lesson plans, share ideas for learning activities, notify about meetings, discuss about field trips, suggest holiday’s crafts, recommend ideas to manage behavior in the classroom, propose fine and gross motor activities, share songs and poems, etc. For example, a wiki is created to be used by a Pre-Kinder teachers’ team. Teachers join the wiki and use usernames and passwords to access it. Then, teachers can create pages dedicated to different topics, such as: Language Arts, Math, Fine Motors Skills, Crafts, Songs, Meetings, Trainings, etc. Teachers can add comments to the wiki’s pages and receive e-mail updates of any changes to the pages.
Also, for Pre-Kinder, a wiki can be used as a parent information tool to notify the progress of the children and to post individualized suggestions to help each child at home.

Tool 5

I joined “Delicious” and used two “tags” to look for two useful web-sites for my classroom. I used de tag “Prekinder” and found the web-site http://prekinders.com/. This web-site provides activity ideas for Math, Literacy, Science, Art, Music, etc. Also, I used the tag “fine motor skills” and found the web-site: http://www.shirleys-preschool-activities.com/fine-motor-skills.html. This web-site offers fine motors activities to help children to write. Social bookmarking will be useful in my classroom because I will be able to search, share, and organize important educational web-sites.

Tool 4

I set my "Google Reader" and subscribed to the following "11 Tools Blogs":
Spring Daffodils, Waves, Polar Bear, Baby Goat, and 4forU-jimr
Also, I subscribed to the web-site "Sheppard Software Pre-school". My "Google Reader" will allow me to keep up with the updates of the blogs and the web-site that I subscribed. The use of the "Google Reader" will benefit my students because I will get informed of teaching ideas from the teachers' blogs as well as learning activities from the web-site.
The links of the online resources that I subscribed are the following:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/preschool.htm
http://greendaffodils.blogspot.com/
http://prekwithv.blogspot.com/
http://polarbearblvd.blogspot.com/
http://thebabygoat.blogspot.com/
http://4foru-jimr.blogspot.com/

I used" Google Docs" to create a spreadsheet where different teachers will post ideas for teaching each CAP's skill. I shared the spreadsheet with a teacher of my team. This "Google tool" will allow me to communicate teaching ideas with other teachers .

Tool 3

I used "Big Huge Labs" to create an example of a personalized Mother's Day card. My students will fold their cards and put letters inside that they wrote to their mothers.

I used "Image Chef" to get a picture of a child's name. Pictures of children's names can be used in different locations in the classroom and will help my Pre-Kinder students to get familiar with their names at the beginning of the school year.

Tool 2

Tool 2 :
The thing I like more about building an online educational community is the fact that I can learn at home and that the community does not have boundaries. I like the idea of participating in my own PLN (Personal Learning Network) because I will have the opportunity of interchanging ideas, asking questions, receiving knowledge from people with experience; and applying the acquired knowledge in my teaching.

The point that stood out from the comments advice was that teachers will be updated with new teaching skills through an online education community.

The five blogs that I selected to make comments were: Polar Bear, The Baby Goat, 4 FORU-JIMR, Rainbow Ray, and Hammer's PK.