My Calendar

Richard Byrne: Free Technology for Teachers

First of all, I did not even know this site existed until this course! I am ecstatic! I decided to explore the iPad Apps for School tab, specifically apps for elementary school, and I am so glad I did. Moving up to 5th grade next year has me feeling a little anxious. When I first opened this tab, a free app called Ocean Science came up. This was a perfect place to start, since one of the units in science is on Oceans. The app covers 7 Principles of Ocean science and even if I just use my iPad to show the class, I think it will be a fantastic addition to our unit. From there, it suggested a few other apps I might like at the bottom of the page, and they too fit right in with a 5th grade science unit on the Human Body. One of them allows the students to take a virtual tour inside bones, called Powers of Minus Ten: Bones. Another app, called Virtual Heart, allows you to view the inside and outside workings of the human heart. Again, these would be excellent additions to my science curriculum. The final app I explored is by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called Solve the Outbreak. It challenges students to research the data they are given about a disease and determine what disease it is. This could easily fit into science or health, and would certainly me more engaging that reading a textbook. I can't wait to try these with my students next year!

 Here are the links for those 4 apps:
 Ocean Science
 Virtual Heart 
 Powers of Minus Ten: Bones
 Solve the Outbreak

TED Talk Video:

Science is absolutely my favorite subject to teach, and one reason is that I enjoy teaching about the solar system. One question the students inevitably ask is about aliens, or if there is life on other planets, or if humans could survive on any other planet or moon. I always kind of skirt the question, or say that scientists are always making new discoveries and that anything is possible. This video, and several others that I briefly viewed touch on this subject. I think it is fascinating that there are new discoveries made in space that indicate that there may have been life previously, or could be life in the future on some of the planets or moons. It's best for me to leave it up to much more qualified individuals to explain the possibilities to my students!

Article Review

I visited several blogs on the Top 100 Educational Blogs, and many were interesting reads, but the one I'd like to comment on is #3 Mindshift. I read the post from May 24, 2013, called Teaching Respect and Responsibility: Even to Digital Natives. This article discussed the idea of teaching students who are so technology savvy to be respectful and responsible users. It discusses the responsibility of parents and teachers to teach the students what appropriate and safe behavior with technology is, and to enforce that it is used that way. As the article states, the students need ethical guidance and the security of rules and guidelines for usage. It also encourages teaching the difference between private and public technology. What is shared outside of school is completely different than what is shared at school.

The article also says that parents who allow technology use at home, and educators who use technology with students must be aware that mistakes are going to happen. Rather than disciplining for those mistakes, we must teach how to correct them. Only if the mistakes are habitual, do we use consequences. That being said, there must be a similar code of ethics between home and school so that students do not have such difficulty determining what is acceptable in each place.

I found this to be a very insightful article. It is an issue I worry about as we get closer to having more technology in our students hands. Some students are not trustworthy with technology, but perhaps it's because they haven't been taught how to be.

I neglected to include the link to this article before, so here it is...
Teaching Respect and Responsibility: Even to Digital Natives

10 Picture Tour

This is Two Springs Elementary School, where I am currently teaching.

This is our playground in the back of the school.

This is Wake Robin Elementary, where I did my first 9 years of teaching.

This is Avery Elementary, where I attended 4th and 5th grade.

This is Logan Middle School, where I attended 7th and 8th grade.

This is Bellevue West, where I attended and graduated from. As you can tell, I am a Bellevue girl!

I earned my undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Wayne State College.

I earned my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction here. 

This is my sweet daughter Violet.  I ran out of school pictures, so she gets the last 3 pictures!

Violet loves trains and benches. This bench with the train painted on it is in old town Bellevue next to Erwin's Jewelry. She loved it!

This is Violet's crabby sandbox. That's what she calls it!

School's out for summer!

     My name is Amanda McKibbon. I currently work at Two Springs where I taught 4th grade the past 2 years. Next year, I will be moving up to 5th grade. Prior to working at Two Springs, I worked at Wake Robin for 9 years, where I taught 6th grade for three years, and 4th grade for 6 years. My undergraduate degree came from Wayne State College, and my Master's came from Peru State College. I am married, and have an amazing soon-to-be 3 year old daughter. We also have a 10 year old cocker spaniel named Angel.
     I currently use my mac and rover cart on a daily basis. I try to use the clickers from time to time, as well as netbooks (though they rarely work). My old HP computers were used a great deal be my co-teacher who was completing Nebraska History projects with all of our students. I have seen another colleague testing a class set of iPads, and I admit I am insanely jealous! I want them too! I absolutely hope and wish that Bellevue will do that for all of us ASAP. I have both a mac and a pc at home, and I love each of them for different reasons. My mac is my favorite computer for all things internet, word-processing, etc... It is great to be able to have my laptop, desktop, phone, and iPad linked together! I LOVE my pc for downloading and organizing pictures and videos from my cameras. I would say I am comfortable with technology, though I know I still have much to learn!


    I am ecstatic to be spending my summer at home with my soon-to-be 3 year old daughter! She is busy, busy, busy...and I love it! Despite her keeping me busy, it's a different kind of busy that I find healing to my soul. I also get to take time to further my education with a graduate course, and several courses through my district. I love to keep learning, so even though it's work, I find it therapeutic as well. Traveling with my family is wonderful as well, even though I don't love being away from home. I look forward to visiting family members, and taking my toddler to Mall-of-America for the first time. Toward the end of summer, I'll have to prepare myself for a new grade level at school, which I find to be challenging and exciting! I hope all of you have a wonderful break too!