Digital Storytelling in MY classroom

So this week we were asked to think more about how we would integrate digital storytelling into our own classrooms using our given curriculum.  I had to take a couple of days to think about how I could do this in my classroom.  I teach in a K-2 ESE (exceptional student education) classroom so I don't really have a main curriculum that I use with all my students.  I have to pull materials from several sources and focus mainly on my students IEP (individualized education plan) goals.  But when I think about how it could be incorporated in my students I think about how I could work with my students and their parents and create digital stories about the students themselves.  I would send home a survey with my students to fill out with the help of their parents that discuss information about themselves, their name, age, favorite things.  I would create one on myself that I would use to introduce the project.  This would be a very hands on project that both myself and my paraprofessionals would work with the students to manipulate the story to incorporate what the students would like.  I would use this for my curriculum unit on Community/All about me which is the first unit I teach in my classroom.  I am thankful enough to have access to 3 student computers and 2 iPads in my classroom.  By having all these different forms of technology allow me to be able to work one on one with my students that need the most assistance.  This also allows me to work with different forms of technology and introduce them to my students.

Personally I can see using digital storytelling to project different stories that I use in my reading curriculum.  Using digital storytelling I would be able to introduce more pictures and sounds with the stories that will keep my students more engaged in them.  I could also use it to make my own lessons on the letter of the week.  My students are very visual so using digital storytelling will work very well with my students.

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling on Prezi

Troubleshooting what's that?

So when I saw that the topic for class this week was troubleshooting it really got me to think about myself in regards to it. I will fully admit that I have become spoiled when it comes to troubleshooting, because I really don't have to do any of it! My roommate works for a computer company and is really handy with computers and networks and pretty much anything along those lines. If I run into an issue I usually just ask my roommate to look at the device, with very, very little troubleshooting done on my part!

This weeks assignments although many things were what I would consider "common sense" and things that I do with out calling it troubleshooting, were good to hear again! It's funny how many issues we have with technology can easily be fixed just by doing something as simple as making sure all the wires are plugged in all the way.

So in regards to school based technologies I wonder how many schools have a tech person on hand that can help them when they run into daily problems? Because I know I can run into at least 1 issue a week and it is difficult to get things fixed on a timely basis because our tech person is only at our school 2 days a week. What do you do in the mean time? All thoughts are welcomed!