Global Learner Project

What happened?

2011-12-13T13:33:00.001-07:00

This blog used to be vibrant! Refreshing! Insightful!

Why not now?

Doug

Free Amazing Resource

2011-10-06T19:53:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone,
Just because I am not in Adams 14 anymore does not change how I feel about finding and sharing amazing resources. The first resource helps secondary teacher s and the second helps all reading teachers in K-8. I bolded them just in case you do not feel like reading and just want to go directly to them.
The first one is SAScurriculumpathways.com. It has great inquiry based lessons for core subjects and aligns with the standards. It has won all kinds of awards.
Language arts teachers....I AM ABOUT TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!
Go to the writing reviser....copy and paste and writing and viola...it checks all kinds of grammar, tells you how many simple, compound, complex, compound sentences along with some great grammar that aligns with the daily grammar you do.
The other great find readworks.org that already has lessons formatted in the I-do, we do, you do format.
I will continue to follow the Global Learners Blog. I learn so much from everyone.
Penny

Change in Participation

2011-09-15T13:56:00.000-06:00

A month of school has already passed! My how the time has flown. I have enjoyed getting back into classrooms training and collaborating with teachers! Please let me know if you or your staff is in need of training.

The Global Learner Blog will be having new additions this year! Fifteen very motivated teachers joined me at the annual TIE conference in Copper Mountain during July. Each attendee is working on a project implementing technology resources and ideas from the conference. We'll post updates as they progress. Some projects include: iPad implementations, student film creations, Google Lit. Trips, student portfolios, and much, much more!

If you are working on a project (with or without technology), we would love to know about it. Please encourage teachers throughout the Adams 14 Family to read our blog, get ideas, and share they are doing with the world!

Ms. Springer's Blog: First Week of School

2011-08-23T08:23:00.000-06:00

Adams 14 Schools are in full swing this week. Check out Ms. Springer's students!

Ms. Springer's Blog: First Week of School

Recycled Fashion

2011-06-11T12:15:00.003-06:00

Check out our Recycled Fashion Fashion Show at Rose Hill with runway music provided by our 3rd and 4th graders. Click here to see the photos. I am having trouble uploading the music to this blog but I will post a link to the website when I get them posted. The top three outfits were displayed in the Aspen EcoFest.

2011-06-11T12:13:00.002-06:00

I found a great IPad tool that I used with our autistic third grader this year. Since our school is getting the SSN program this coming year I want to get more tools for our special needs kids. When we were doing our piano unit, I let this particular student use an app called Sound Prism which is built on a triad system, so pretty much everything you do sounds good! He loved it and would ask to play the "color piano".

Kindergarten Writing Rubric

2011-06-10T17:21:00.002-06:00

My colleague, Mrs. Nazarenus, developed an amazing rubric that my children found to be helpful as they wrote during writing time! Kate identified six focus skills that the kids need to work on in order to produce grade-level work. The skills include: conventions, ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency and voice. Kate included kid-friendly pictures and words so that they feel comfortable using the rubric as they write. The photo included within this blog entry shows a student referring to the rubric as she worked on her piece of writing!

THANK YOU MRS. NAZARENUS FOR CREATING SUCH A FUN, USEFUL AND PRACTICAL RUBRIC!

Kindergarten Graduation!

2011-06-10T17:18:00.001-06:00

The kids graduated from kindergarten and are ready for 1st grade! Yay! This year was an amazing year in kindergarten. All of the students who began the school year with me ended up ON or ABOVE grade-level! Congrats kiddos! The children learned how to read, write and spell so many words. I am so proud of the progress that they have made and I can't wait for them to succeed with the rest of their educational careers!

To celebrate the end of the year, the children decorated their own graduation cap, ate scrumptious cookies and put on a concert for their family and friends! Thanks to the music teacher, Mrs. Lewis, the children sang and chanted nearly 15 songs as they enjoyed being the center of attention!

Congrats to all of the kids for making this year one of the most memorable and fun years ever! Good luck in first grade!

Year Reflection ( a bit late!!)

2011-06-10T16:01:00.002-06:00

This year was truly one of my best and I owe it to this experience with Global Learners. Not only did it challenge my teaching but it challenged and INSPIRED my students. I became very comfortable with the Smartboard and motivated to continue learning/experimenting with film making with the students! The Film Fest was such an amazing experience and learning alongside my students throughout the process was unforgettable! (and a little crazy!)

In addition to learning how to seamlessly integrate technology into the classroom DAILY, I also realized just how powerful and beneficial collaboration can be. Working with all of you, especially my mentors Jon and Kelly, really inspired me and I appreciate all the ideas you shared!

Kelly and Dave, you are amazing! Endless thanks!
:)

End of the Year

2011-05-31T14:08:00.000-06:00

As the school year comes to end, I want to reflect on the improvements I have made with technology. In the beginning of the year I considered myself a novice when using Smart Notebook. I was still able to help other staff members answer basic questions about the software but unable to create fancy interactive lessons. Throughout the year I have been able to improve my lessons by adding links to lesson or interactive activities. I would get ideas from various websites like Smart Exchange and then attempt to add the features I found interesting to my lessons! I am also able to trouble shoot more successfully for myself and other teachers. Overall, being a part of Global Learning has helped me integrate technology into my classroom in meaningful ways. I feel more competent using technology and sharing ideas with colleagues.

2011-05-27T12:09:00.001-06:00

This year has flown by! I am very excited to be presenting a workshop on digital composition at UNC in two weeks as part of the Center for Integrated Arts Education. Our Recycled Fashion Fashion Show was a great success and the runway music is all composed by our 3rd and 4th graders. I will try to post some samples this next week.

A Map of My Pet: Creative Writing Lesson

2011-05-25T20:48:00.005-06:00

I recently did a creative writing project based on "My Map Book" by Sara Fanelli which was talked about during a writing workshop we did this year. The purpose was to move students to the Advanced designation on our Analytic Writing Rubric under the Word Choice category. Since so many students struggle with lackluster word choice we began the lesson by describing a picture of a dog using precise and colorful vocabulary. We put some words like "big" and "small" on the banned word list and generated graphic organizers with alternative word choices. The lesson plans are in the Smart Notebook file. Take a look at it here. The students had a blast and loved writing directly in Smart Notebook.

2011-05-24T15:37:00.000-06:00

My global learner partner and I decided to work on Google docs for our collaborative project. We intended to have students work on word problems in groups, then share their work on Google docs, and finally comment on each others work. The first block, we had students who were writing inappropriate messages on each other’s documents and decided to close the project down. The second block, I had students log in and wrote down their user numbers so that we were all aware that I knew who was writing what. This helped tremendously on minimizing inappropriate comments. Not every student finished posting their solutions on the document and what they did post was not what we have practiced on paper. There was a disconnect between how we solve word problems and explain what we did on paper versus what they wrote on the computers. I think that this can be improved over time. It makes sense that the first time technology is introduced that students will not produce as high of quality products as we can expect after some experience with the technology. We struggled having enough problems solved and posted in time for our students to comment on them. Over all, the first attempt was deemed a failure, but I think that there is much room for hope. The students were all excited and I think that they actually worked together and all contributed to the problem solving more for this project than they regularly do when we are just sharing out in our classroom. I think with a little practice and more time, we can make this a successful activity in our classrooms.

Our 6 Lessons

2011-05-24T14:03:00.002-06:00

Lesson 1

Reading Line and Bar Graphs (review)

Glet: 3.1.b. Read, interpret and draw conclusions from a line graph, bar graph, circle graph and frequency table.

Objective (This is an overall objective. There would be individual objectives for each day): Students will draw conclusions from line and bar graphs by correctly answering questions using the given powerpoint.

Formative Assessment: Questions from one line graph and one bar graph will be checked.

I DO: Demonstrate how to answer 2 questions from a line graph and 2 questions from a bar graph

WE DO: Answer 2 additional questions from a line graph and 2 additional questions from a bar graph.

YOU DO: In the computer lab, students will pull up the powerpoint off my website. They will then choose 6 graphs to complete the questions associated with it.

Vocabulary: Line graph, Bar graph, x-axis, y-axis, labels, titles

Lesson 2

Area and Perimeter of Parallelograms and Rhombuses

Glet: 4.5.b Solve problems involving area of polygons (square, rectangle, parallelogram, rhombus, triangle)

5.4.a. Use formulas and/or procedures to solve problems involving the perimeter of a polygon.

Objective: Students will use formulas to solve problems involving the area and perimeter of parallelograms and rhombuses.

Formative Assessment: clicker activity, and clicker quiz

I DO: Have students put notes in their MSB on how to find the area and perimeter of parallelograms and rhombuses. Model how to find the area of one parallelogram and one rhombus. Review how to find perimeter (have already covered perimeter in another lesson so this shouldn’t take long).

WE DO: Students will work with their elbow partner on solving the questions with clickers. If the majority of the class gets the first few wrong, pull back to the I DO.

YOU DO: Find the area of 1 parallelogram or rhombus and write in full sentences how they found the answer. Share to the rest of the class or maybe a partner. Find the perimeter of a parallelogram or rhombus and write in full sentences how to find the answer.

Vocabulary: parallelogram, rhombus, base, height, diagonal line, area, perimeter

Lesson 3

Decimal Operations

**This lesson was used as a fun thing to do after csap. It’s a good review game for 6^th grade but would be better used in a 4^th or 5^th grade classroom. There are some area and perimeter problems in this.**

Glet: 6.2.b. Use and explain strategies to add/subtract decimals and fractions in problem-solving situations* (common fractions with like and unlike denominators, mixed numbers, and decimals to thousandth.

Objective: Students will add/subtract/multiply decimals in the koosh ball game.

Formative Assessment: Answers given on the whiteboards

I DO: Review by modeling 1 problem where you have to line up the decimals when you add or subtract. Model one problem on how to multiply decimals.

WE DO: Students do 1 adding or subtracting and 1 multiplying decimals problem before the game begins.

YOU DO: The koosh ball game.

Vocabulary: line up decimals, add, subtract, decimal

Lesson 4

6^th Grade Math: Order of Operations

Glet: 6.2.a Apply order of operations, including exponents, with positive rational numbers.

Objective: Students will remember the order of operations by creating a rap that correctly states each step.

Formative Assessment: The rap with correct steps

I DO: State the order of operations. Go over one example of why the order of operations is important.

WE DO: Talk about the different ways to remember it. Use the hopscotch activity to help them remember. Watch rap videos.

YOU DO: Create rap videos in groups of 2-4

Vocabulary: Parentheses, Exponents, Order of Operations, math sentence

Lesson 5

Nutrition Facts: Fraction, Decimal, and Percent

Glet: 1.4.a Demonstrate equivalence of relationships among fractions, decimals, and percents in problem-solving situations (for example, two students out of eight is the same as 25%).

Objective (This is an overall objective. There would be individual objectives for each day): Students will determine the fraction, decimal, and percent of one serving of various nutrition facts on a type of food.

Formative Assessment: Each day there will be a certain number of slides that are due.

Overall formative assessment: Power Point with correct answers.

I DO: Using nutrition facts of Pringles, model how to answer 2 questions similar to the ones on their power point.

WE DO: Using nutrition facts of Pringles, answer 2-5 more questions as a class that are similar to what will be asked on their power point.

YOU DO: In pairs, students will choose a food item that they are able to bring the nutrition facts in for. Together they will answer all the questions on the power point.

Health Vocabulary: Nutrition Facts, Sodium, Total Fat, Iron, Vitamin C, Calcium, Protein, Sugar, Calories, Saturated Fat, Fiber, Serving

Math Vocabulary: Fraction, Decimal, Percent, Top Dog Division, Least Common Denominator

Lesson 6

Classifying 2-D and 3-D shapes by attributes

Glet: 4.2.a. Identify, compare, and analyze the attributes of two-and three-dimensional shapes and develop vocabulary to describe the attributes (for example, acute, obtuse, right angle, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, intersecting lines, and line segments).

Objective: Students will analyze the attributes of two and three dimensional shapes by classifying shapes into categories based on attributes.

Formative Assessment: Finished word document with all pictures cut and pasted into appropriate categories and explanations of why shapes were placed in each category.

I DO: Review attributes of shapes and teacher cuts shapes out of a word document and pastes them to another word document.

WE DO: With a partner, students discuss attributes, write down their ideas, and share out ideas with the class.

YOU DO: Student pairs will use a lap top to go to the class wiki and access a premade word document containing a variety of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. Students will then cut each shape out of the document and paste them into a new document where they create categories and explain why each shape is placed in a specific category.

Extension: Groups will share their categories and with the whole group, class will create a final document on the teachers computer/ smart board. Groups will discuss any disagreement in shape placement until there is consensus.

Vocabulary: parallel lines, perpendicular lines, right angles. Opposite angles, opposite sides, rectangle square triangle, rhombus, parallelogram, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, decagon, dodecagon, calendar, pyramid, cube, prism, vertices, face, edge.

Reflections on the year

2011-05-24T10:34:00.002-06:00

The year as a global learner is coming to an end. In this post, I'm just going to reflect on my growth as a teacher using technology in the classroom. I was able to incorporate some blogging, movie making, and videos with my 5th graders during their reading group. I was able to use my SMARTboard daily with all of my groups. Technology proved to be so motivating for them. I wish I could've incorporated more, but I think I got a good start this year. It is tough in the special ed classroom to take time for experimenting with technology. I have some plans for the future, however:

1. I am trying to take a class in "Digital Storytelling in the Curriculum" as one of my electives for grad school.

2. I am becoming more familiar with technology in my own life. For example, I am running the Denver Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon for the American Cancer Society. I made my own blog for fundraising and for my family to follow my training. I think becoming more familiar with this on my own will help me be better about using it in the classroom.

Welp, folks, that's it for now... have a great summer!

Kelly

The Wildlife Experience Powerpoint project

2011-05-22T23:12:00.006-06:00

My second graders recently took a trip to the Wildlife Experience in Parker, CO. As part of our project we learned some vocabulary prior to going, practiced documenting with video and still cameras, then I set the students loose in teams at the Wildlife Experience to learn and photograph the parts they were most interested in so that we could create our PowerPoint presentations.
We decided to use the Smart Notebook export to PowerPoint feature for our PowerPoints. It is definitely easier for my second graders than making slides in PowerPoint. One draw back, as you can see in the attached SlideShares of our presentations, is that when you convert files you get some strange font size changes. We messed around with it for a while trying to fix it. Ultimately by the last Powerpoint we found that if we took a screen capture of the page we had built in Smart Notebook and then deleted the original page it uploaded all the content as an image.
The lesson is posted here.
The slideshows we made are on my classroom blog.

Technology in the Classroom

2011-05-20T14:46:00.001-06:00

As the year comes to a close, I am reflecting on what technology worked well in my classroom this year.
As always, the smartboard is a favorite! Both my students love it and so do I. I don't know how I would teach without it! It keeps students actively engaged and there are so many amazing lessons out there to use. Creating lessons is fun, too! I also had the luxury of using a Smart Slate this year. This helps save time from students having to get up and come to the Smartboard when we are in a hurry.
Other technology things that I tried and liked this year were the use of 4 additional laptops in my classroom (last year I didn't have any) and Toondoo. Students LOVED Toondoo and it was useful as a reading center.
I am open to hearing about any other sites that were used as a reading center, so if anyone has any, please share!

Voicethread

2011-05-20T14:42:00.001-06:00

I created a project to go along with one of the stories we read in Storytown. The project went along with the story A Chair for My Mother. (Yes, 2nd grade teachers I am just getting around to uploading it now!) The students in my ELD class, (I have the English students) created a picture about something they would save money for just like the girl in the story did. I then had students record what they wrote. I don't know what it is about Voicethread, but I always have problems with it. VT frustrates me to no end, I don't even know why I use it! I guess because the kids love it! Anyways, here is the link to our project. It would not let me embed.
http://voicethread.com/share/2039863/

Enjoy!

Blabberize/Collaboration--Trials and Successes in Technology

2011-05-19T14:42:00.002-06:00

Just today I finished a project with my classes that I had been collaborating with Kelly about. I have been collaborating with Doug and his high school students for most of the year on a collaborative blog and my students have been pretty good at writing short constructed responses to a variety of prompts, but I wanted to experiment with outher kinds of digital products.

After talking with Kelly, I decided on using blabberize as a vehicle for their writing. This site allows students to upload pictures, animate them, and have them speak by recording their own voices. We have been studying classification and animal adaptations in 6th grade science and I thought this would be a fairly neat way for students to demonstrate their knowledge by uploading animals and having the animals (in the kids voices) describe traits that help them be successful.

So on day one Kelly came by to help me get going. I had created a notebook file to guide the students through the entire process of developing their speech and showing them how to create their digital animal. As I was doing the I DO portion of the lesson, blabberize essentially quite working. I was extremely frustrated as here I Kelly available to help me out and the technology portion of my lesson was essentially dead on arrival.

Funny thing was this was actually a blessing in disguise in that it allowed me to have the students spend more time on their writing and doing additional research (they already had done some research previously).

So today, I figured out a couple of alternatives and planned on using a voki if the site didn't work out, but voila everything functioned as it should have. It was still chaotic helping students get the recording volumes of their microphones set and helping them animate the mouths, but in the end this whole project was fairly impressive and I am excited to try it again next year.

When I do, I think I will collaborate with a language teacher to do a better job on the writing and plan on formalizing the whole process, but for essentially a beta test it worked well.

Here are two exemplars from the day....

Great New Find

2011-05-19T13:26:00.002-06:00

I recently found a website called "Hoodamath" (hoodamath.com), and my students and I are in love with it! It has games, tutorials, worksheets, and movies, but my students love to play one game in particular. The games are in separated in geometry, arithmetic, and logic games, and the logic games is where you will find "Sugar, Sugar." It is a problem-solving game where you have to direct falling sugar in cups. Sounds simple, right? And it is for the first couple of rounds, but it becomes increasingly complex, and I even had to replay a couple of rounds in order to successfully pass them! This has been a great addition to teach problem-solving and perserverance in those spare minutes or as a reward!

Our Collaboration Project Didn't Go So Well

2011-05-18T07:05:00.001-06:00

My mentor and I tried doing a collaborative project using google documents. We really liked how we all shared our thoughts on one document at the last global learners training. Our goal was to have students answer problems and then comment on how other students solved a problem very similar to their own. We knew there would be troubles using this same idea with middle school students but didn’t anticipate it going wrong in every way possible.

We decided to break our students into groups of 4. We made one document for each class that had all the problems on it. The problems were organized by number and teacher. Each group was given a number. Before we got out computers the students had to solve the problem and explain their answer. This part went really well. In my first block the wireless didn’t work in my room for the laptops. Instead I decided to have each group come up individually to type their answers using my computer while they took a quiz. Well my mentor’s internet didn’t work either so the students were unable to comment on each other’s work.

Then in block ¾ I was able to get the computer lap. After solving their problems on paper they were allowed to get on a computer. Well they started to write inappropriate things on the page and I didn’t know who was typing it. Then they would erase the word problems and mess with the other students answers. It turned out to be such a waste of time and most students didn’t take commenting on another students’ work seriously.

For block 5/6 I made sure to figure out which group was which anonymous writer. Even knowing this, it was too hard to track every inappropriate thing that was written and erased rather quickly. Many of the same problems occurred that happened in block ¾ and I was able to catch more of them but not all of them.

I tried gave a talk about being respectful using the computers and writing only appropriate things. I demonstrated exactly what they would be doing once they got on the computers. I’m not sure what else I could have done to make this project go better. As of right now, I’m never doing it again. Has anyone tried this and have it be successful? If so, please let me know what you did!

2nd Grade Collaboration Project

2011-05-17T13:04:00.001-06:00

My kids wrote story problems for Sara's class to solve. We shared the problems via voice thread...my kids read first and Sara's answer back!

Enjoy :)

Collaborative Geometry Riddles Voicethread

2011-05-15T20:52:00.005-06:00

This is a collaborative project between my second graders and Ms. Chamberlain's first grade class. We made some geometry riddles that describe different plane and solid shapes and posted them to Voicethread. Ms. Chamberlain's class is responding to the riddles. In this lesson I used the smartboard to review attributes of geometric shapes and to build an attribute table (see lesson).

One of the fun aspects of this lesson is the independence that my students have in using technology. I know I can just give them the video camera and they will film it and check it to see if it came out clear. We lost a file when they had to upload it to the computer but with a little help they found it. I don't know if it was a good idea but I gave them my username and password for Voicethread so they could upload the video themselves. Who could imagined that they would have this level of autonomy in second grade!

Our voicethread is below:

GT Wiki

2011-05-15T19:30:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure how many of you are aware that our GT liaisons have created an amazing wiki with all kinds of useful tools, article and lessons around teaching Gifted and Talented students. If you're interested in this resource, it can be found here. It is constantly being updated (although, perhaps not too much during the summer), so check back frequently for new information. Also, please share if you have something you've used with your high achieving students--a lesson, a strategy--whatever! We are always looking to expand the wiki to be more useful for all subject areas and grade levels. Please also comment if there is something you are looking for and cannot find. We are also in need of feedback on how to make it better.

Thanks!

http://adams14gtresources.wikispaces.com/

Virtual Labs

2011-05-15T08:44:00.000-06:00

During our 6th grade plant and animal unit I ran across a virtual photosynthesis lab Virtual Plant Lab
that I was able to use with quite a bit of success with my 6th graders. It was a great way to allow students to make predictions and get investigate the properties of light and their impact on plant growth. I started this lesson by building a notebook file that essentially walked them through the key components of the scientific method. As a class we worked from a testable question to a hypothesis and finally into the actual experiment.

I had the students work in pairs on laptops to setup the lab and collect data. We graphed the data in class and wrote up an analysis of the lab when we were finished.

I also set up a blog entry on my collaborative blog to allow students to post their reflections and feedback on the lab when they had finished collecting an analyzing data. The blog entry is here Reflections on Light.

I only had a few groups get to the point of being able to post, but I feel that the entire experience was very worthwhile and is definitely something I would like to continue to do in the future.

Voki

2011-05-11T20:35:00.000-06:00

Where have I been? I finally tried a voki with a few students. Not only was it so easy but they loved it! Our last district writing prompt for the year was to explain about 3rd grade. It was interesting. I loved reading what they wrote! I chose two exemplars to turn into vokis as a trial run. I loved it and now that I know how easy they are I plan on using it more next year! Check out the two on my blog www.mssealysclass@blogspot.com

thanks global learners !

2011-05-04T12:55:00.002-06:00

Hi all. As I retire from ACSD14 after 20 years, I would like to acknowledge and thank all global learners for their contributions and collaboration. I would especially like to thank Joe Miller, Dave Tarwater and Kelly Berry for their leadership! Good luck to all of you. See you in cyberspace!

Doug

2011-05-03T09:01:00.002-06:00

Hello there everyone... I'm a little late on my April post... but here goes...

My fifth grade students made a sight word video for my younger students the week before spring break! They had a blast using the document camera and windows movie maker to make the video! They made all their own props and recorded all by themselves after I modeled for them. Here's a sneak peek:

What kind of technology should students use at each grade level?

2011-05-01T14:34:00.003-06:00

About a week ago, at Global Learning Professional Development we discussed what kinds of technology we would like to see used at each grade level.

For kindergarten we would like to see students being able to use the two types of mice-desktop and laptop.Students should be able to collaborate and create(with teacher) digital story, voice threads, and a digital story. We want students to know how to navigate forwards and backwards on slide-show or web page, be able to close documents, and be able double click.

Every grade level would build upon the previous year. Just imagine what students will be able to do if they start using technology in kindergarten!

We are hoping that if we begin exposing our students to technology at such a young age that they will be proficient or advanced at using 21st century technology by the time they finish high school!

Text to Speech on a Blog

2011-04-30T18:17:00.000-06:00

So I usually don't promote commercial sites, but this one looks interesting and seems to be free for basic use.

The site I came across is http://www.odiogo.com/ and it says it converts text to speech on blogs. I have yet to try this but thought it looked interesting. I think it could be useful for making blog entries more user friendly for all of our students. I have a blogging assignment coming up soon and will try it out and post a followup but thought I would put it up here as well.

Info from the site:

Bloggers

Your posts where and when your readers choose! Turn your blogs into audio-to-go!

Your readers like your blog posts but may not have time to read them online?
Reach hundreds of millions of iPod, MP3 player and mobile phone owners... anywhere?

Odiogo empowers you to convert your blog posts into high quality audio files. Check the demo out!
Odiogo is compatible with all blog engines that publish RSS feeds such as Typepad, Blogger, WordPress or Overblog. Enroll in the service now and we'll let you know when the audible version of your blog is ready. The generated MP3 files are stored on our servers. You don't need to worry about technical integration tasks or bandwidth.

Social Media

2011-04-28T10:22:00.002-06:00

As social media continues to rise, how do we as educators embrace and strategically begin to use it. We had a great discussion yesterday about creating a district-wide blog for our students. What should our next step be to getting that process started? Here is a thought provoking video:

Persuasive book reports

2011-04-27T14:52:00.002-06:00

I just published my students' persuasive book reports on my blog:

http://mrscogginsclass.blogspot.com

It not only helped students become better writers, but improve their presentation skills as well. Having them persuade each other to read their book and really explain why was a challenge at first, but my teammate and I kept revisiting and modeling and I think we came up with a pretty decent product. They also were engaged in completing a quality paragraph and poster, along with practicing their presentation. Check them out!

Plans for next year

2011-04-27T14:32:00.002-06:00

1. I have found that some of my students don’t do the warm-up problem unless I walk around and check. To solve this for next year I am going to have all my warm-ups on clickers. I will have a whiteboard outside of my room that tells my students if they need to pick up a clicker or not for the day. I will prepare multiple warm-ups over the summer so if one morning I don’t have one prepared, I have some to use. This will ensure that every student must do the warm-up.

2. I hope to have stations every day for the first 30 minutes of class. The class will be divided into groups of 4. Half of the groups will be doing story problem groups. The other half of the group will be on tenmarks.com. This will allow me to gather the data I want from tenmarks.com and I will only need 1 computer cart.

3. I will have a wiki that my students use often. I will include math games that review basic skills such as multi-digit multiplication and long division. It will also have power points we will use for the day, notes on how to solve certain problems, and activities students will need to complete using a computer.

4. At the beginning of the year I will have students use the smart slate to write the correct answers for the warm up. One goal for next year is for me and my students to use the smart slate more often.

Persuasive Book Reports

2011-04-27T14:32:00.000-06:00

My teammate and I had our ELD classes create persuasive book reports and then they video taped them. It was such a great opportunity for these students to build their writing skills and practice their speaking skills through presentation. Afterward, they reflected on this learning activity. So many realized how important good grammar and clear voices are. They also commented on how it was fun to try to persuade people. For some unknown reason my 4 videos will not convert or upload correctly. I will keep trying, but for now check out half of them on Katie's class blog at http://mrscogginsclass.blogspot.com

Film Fest Fun: April Update

2011-04-27T08:23:00.003-06:00

This post MUST start with a HUGE thank you to Kelly for helping me with my submission to the Film Fest. It has been an incredible experience that my students absolutely enjoyed. We created an Earth Day Public Service Announcement that was written and performed by the students. The main players researched Earth Day facts using a powerpoint and united streaming videos I created and the whole class performed an Earth Day song. It was a learning experience to combine all the necessary skills into one final product but I am so grateful for all I learned. The bluescreen proved to be a challenge that at first made me worried about the final product. However, as I spent the weekend editing all the shots, I found myself pleasantly distracted from the lack of bluescreen by the amazing information and performance of my kiddos! And that is what it is ALL about. They did amazing and I am so proud of them! I feel inspired for next year and hope my students do as well.
I will attach it as soon as I have the final product!
:)

Voicethread-May Blog

2011-04-25T21:33:00.004-06:00

Okay, so i am early,but wanted to share the first voicethread created by a couple of students in my classroom. I know...I am slow, but still learning. The voicethread was a great way for the children to create a story, write their ideas, and practice fluency. I also created my class blog. So now, I have a class wiki, blog, made moviemakers,photostories, vokis and voice threads with the students. They all need some more work,but I have learned so much this year. I also have improved on the smartboard and have been able to help others this year.
I have definitely achieved what I wanted to do this year,which was to become more comfortable with technology and integrate new ideas into the classroom. I have a long way to go, but this has been a great stepping stone for me.
http://voicethread.com/share/1945063
http://mswelnersblog.blogspot.com

Creating Fables - March Blog

2011-04-21T07:59:00.003-06:00

With my ALD group, we have been writing fables. I found a great website that displays and awards fables created by students from around the world, so it was not only a great writing lesson, but also a great geography lesson! The website is www.kidsfables.com/. Once my students saw how others around the world were writing fables, they became very invested in the project. Once they are done with their revising and editing, they will be publishing their fables as a Windows Photostory, which they are also very excited about! Look to the next blog for an example!

just asking and wondering ....

2011-04-19T15:32:00.020-06:00

Please view this video

From Wikipedia: Khan Academy is a not-for-profit educational organization created in 2006, by Salman Khan. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of over 2,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and economics.^[1]

+++++++++++++++++++

Of concern to middle school / high school global learners / 21st C teachers :

Why do we still have and pay for print textbooks? Why not get them "free" such as from the CK-12 organization? My ACHS 9th grade biology textbooks cost almost $100 each, are not replaced by the district and are "gang-grafittied" which makes them unusable but still used within 5 years. This is repeated in the other core areas.

Why not provide all students with net-books to be used instead of textbooks. The cost savings over years would be in the thousands of dollars! And yes, students might access facebook, myspace etc. So what? That is the 21st C student and we need to embrace the shift of paradigms.

Why not use educational sites such as Khan Academy as a primary resource in the classroom?

Why do we continue to teach / educate the same way as always? Why not let the "digital natives" / "our students" show us the way?

just asking .... and wondering ...

Doug

Practice with BlueScreen effects in MovieMaker

2011-04-15T11:47:00.000-06:00

Kelly will be glad to help you with adding BlueScreen effects to any video projects you may have coming up.

Canada 2.0

2011-04-14T21:21:00.003-06:00

For the last month my students have been emailing their pen pals from Canada. We exchanged a video and hope to Skype soon. For those that haven't heard of it, ePals is a great website for meeting classes. Initially I helped the students draft their own emails and edit for spelling. Now I'm letting the process occur more organically and allowing the students a lot of freedom to send their own emails. With ePals all the incoming and outgoing emails get sent to me for approval so I feel it is very safe. Some students have even showed their parents their emails and sent an email from home. They are all have their own email and password and are proficient at composing, attaching files, and sending and replying to emails.

We used Google Earth to look at our partner school and we sent and received pictures from our respective schools. It has been a blast!

Voki.com

2011-04-12T21:15:00.003-06:00

On voki.com students can create personalized speaking avatars. This is a great way to teach the students how to present what they have learned. This can be used in many creative ways in the classroom,and the children will be motivated. Below you can find the voki that I created using Voki for Educators.(voki.com) I made this really quickly as an example, but am very excited to use this project with my students.This activity will allow them to focus on structuring their sentences and become better writers. It is also great for our second language learners because they will be able to hear their mistakes that they have written. Some words like Sacagawea, are difficult for the character to say, but you are able to spell it phonetically so the character can pronounce it more clearly. Some ways to use voki.com in the classroom: 1) Create a character to give a book talk/book report. 2) Create a character to persuade. 3) Create a character to summarize or paraphrase a story. 4) Bring a fictional character to life. 5) Teachers can use this to grab their attention and motivate them about a topic.(introductory) I even thought about implementing this for our IB exhibition. Children have chosen people like Elvis Presley, Christopher Columbus, and Rosa Parks. They can create a character on Voki.com and the character can tell a story about their life. On voki.com the children can type in the text and choose a voice,or they can record their own voice. Once you create the character you can send it to an email address or post it to a blog. There are many lesson plans and ideas for educators on the website, so check it out, if you haven't looked at this before.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

2011-04-12T21:14:00.001-06:00

April

2011-04-10T09:56:00.002-06:00

When writing these posts I usually try to set goals for myself. I heard once that if you make your goals public you are more apt to achieve them, so I here's my goal for this month: Engage my student teacher in more technology.
She is feeling more confident with technology each day, but I know that more practice and guidance from me, she will become proficient in technology usage.
This month my TC and I will be implementing clickers into math and reading which will allow us to collect and analyze data more closely.
I'm also teaching her how to create more engaging, yet simple, smartbaord resources for her to use in every subject.
As for my March projects, they both were a success! The kids created Toondoos that revolved around the beginning, middle and ending of a Junior Great Books story we had read. They blogged about the experience, but I have yet to click 'publish' on that one..still figuring out some details.
Happy Spring!

Great Ways to Use a Blog: Concept Cartoons

2011-04-07T10:51:00.004-06:00

I was poking around the Adams14 Instructional Technology Site and reviewed the slideshow about creative ways to use your class blog. I was especially inspired by the idea of Concept Cartoons, which is a site that uses comics to introduce science concepts. While this program is for purchase, I think you could use ToonDoo or any other graphic/comic program or application to create your own comic to spark inquiry. Thoughts or ideas?

One Laptop Per Child

2011-04-04T15:39:00.002-06:00

So I recently applied for a teaching fellowship in Rwanda with SEVEN Fund which is a non-profit organization working to find enterprise solutions to poverty by investing in local entreprenurs. They are working specifically in Rwanda in all fields. The fellowship would allow me to travel to Rwanda this summer and experience the schools and current practices. I have read about the One Laptop Per Child program that Rwanda has been involved in and their President is committed to continuing.
If I am chosen for the fellowship my goal is to use what I have used as a Global Learner to support this program and communicate with schools in Rwanda using my class blog. I would also create lessons on solutions to poverty and do several presentations upon completion of the fellowship.
If I am not chosen, I still feel very compelled to be a part of this global movement to support education and eliminate poverty. I will still used what I have learned this year to create lessons and virtual resources to increase awareness and action.
I would love to hear any thoughts or ideas on how to integrate technology into lessons on poverty!!
Thanks and cross fingers for me!
Jenny

Graphing Data on Cities

2011-04-01T16:25:00.000-06:00

I was unable to do many technology related lessons because of CSAP and my student teacher is taking over. We did a project that had students researching the 10 day forecast, demographics, and population over time for a chosen city. For the 10 day forecast we used www.weather.com . For the demographics we used http://www.zip-codes.com/ (use “other free lookups” and then click the first time your city appears). For the population over time we used http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html. It was awesome because the students were excited about being on computers and looking up information of the city of their choice. I created a packet that gave directions on what to do and tables for the students to write their information. I provided graph paper and the students had to decide which graph to use for each set of information.

Sight Word video made by kids... for kids

2011-03-31T15:25:00.002-06:00

Hello there,

This past week (between CSAP and spring break), my fifth graders have had the opportunity to make a sight word video for younger students to use at home and over the summer! They are already used to using Windows Movie Maker thanks to our wonderful Aimee Stork... so this was not too difficult to plan. We are filming things on the document camera. The kids made all of their props (flashcards and backgrounds) and even wrote sentences with visuals for each list of ten sight words. They are really excited about it and can't wait to have their younger brothers and sisters use it. We only got through 350 sight words and we aren't finished with the final product yet. Maybe sometime soon we will have the opportunity to add to it. This was really a cool opportunity for the kids to show off their creativity and computer skills... and a wonderful break from the ordinary!

Kelly B.

Thinkfinity Opportunities

2011-03-23T09:24:00.001-06:00

Global Learners:

Here is an opportunity for you to learn more about Thinkfinity.org:

eNetColorado and Colorado Thinkfinity continues to offer it's highly successful 3-week Thinkfinity Online course for all Colorado teachers through 2011.

There are slots available in the courses that start April 1. May 1, and June 1.

The 3-week online course provides an overview of Thinkfinity.org and instruction on locating Thinkfinity’s online educational resources and integrating them effectively into instructional activities to support student learning. After completion of this online course, educators will have developed their own original Thinkfinity Integration Plan and be empowered to use Thinkfinity resources in their classroom to enhance student learning.

There is a $50 registration fee and participants will be awarded 30 CDE credits upon successful completion of the course or have the option of registering for 2 graduate credits from Adams State College.

Classes start the first of each month with our next class starting in January and we will offer classes each month in 2011.

Individuals can register for the month they want to take the course at: http://www.coloradothinkfinity.org/register-for-courses.html

Group registrations from districts are also available.

For more information, visit
http://www.enetcolorado.org and www.coloradothinkfinity.org

Contact: jane.brown@coloradothinkfinity.org

Testimonials from past participants:

"Up until now I have never experienced so many resources in one place. The National Content Partners\' sites truly give Thinkfinity the strength to have a content rich library."

"Thinkfinity is a treasure trove of education resources for parents, teachers, and students"

"The reputable Content Partners is the aspect that drew me in and validated the reliability and professionalism of Thinkfinity."

"I see Thinkfinity as an educational travel agency for learning. What a great way to view the journey of learning."

"Bottom line, Thinkfinity is a resource that I can personally use to increase my ability to teach."

We Made a Dialogue Book Using Technology!

2011-03-18T14:50:00.002-06:00

This week in writing we have been focusing on dialogue. Students have been identifying dialogue in stories and including it in their writing!

Earlier this week we read the story, Goldilocks and The Three Bears. My kindergartners drew pictures from the story and wrote their favorite dialogue from the story. For example, they drew a picture of Papa Bear and wrote, "Someone has been sitting in my chair."

On Friday we made a class book and brainstormed dialogue for each character! Check it out!

http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/picturebookmaker/captures/stf/index.php?incomingNum=4869

ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker

2011-03-18T14:45:00.001-06:00

ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker is a fun and free tool that you can use to create your very own children's book. My children were studying dialogue in writing and we used our prior knowledge of quotation marks, exclamation marks and letter formation to correctly publish our own book. We titled our book, "Vanilla the Gorilla." It's a story about a gorilla who travels to China in search of Ramen Noodles! Click on the following link to read our story and let us know what you think! http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/picturebookmaker/captures/stf/index.php?incomingNum=4868

Feb. Blog

2011-03-17T16:00:00.002-06:00

I found the greatest website that we've been using during ALD. Here it is: www.idebate.org
The students were put into partners to research debate topics I assigned them to, they created a rubric to grade each other and themselves on for the debate, then debated while being filmed. They were then able to watch the film in order to grade themselves. They LOVED the project!

Donors Choose

2011-03-13T08:33:00.003-06:00

Hey Busy Teachers!

How many of you have posted Donors Choose grants? I've got a couple posted right now and a couple more under review that should be posted soon, and they are SO EASY to do. If you've never heard of it, Donors Choose is a site where you, the teacher, go online shopping for things you need for your class (it can literally be for anything) write a few paragraphs about your class and why they need these things, then submit your proposal. Once it is reveiwed, donors can come in and look at your proposal, then donate money to your cause! Ive done 2 in the past and both were fully funded within a few weeks. The key is to make them public so more people see them. Link them to your Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, etc and you'll have no problem funding your proposals either. Check out my proposal here for ideas or just to donate to a good cause! Thanks!

myebook.com

2011-03-11T11:35:00.003-07:00

According to the website:

" myebook aims to revolutionise the way we create, publish and share ebook content online. Built on a feature-rich social platform, complete with powerful, browser-based, builder software, and a slick reader environment, there's never been an easier way for anyone and everyone to 'get it out there'.

With myebook.com, we've made it possible for anyone to upload, or create from scratch, beautifully simple or adventurously complex page designs and covers online, in no time. What's more, you can publish your book with a single button and release it to the world before the (virtual) ink's dry! You can create as many publications as you want. And it's all free.

myebook, currently available as full-featured beta release, is a culmination of over 2 years research and development. The result is a slick, polished product that harnesses key internet technologies in a way never seen before.

Add to this myebook's powerful yet simple user interface and you have the ultimate ebook platform for any personal or corporate publication, whether it's for novels, childrens books, magazines, comics, photo albums, leaflets, brochures, instruction manuals. You can even embed or link to videos, audio, documents, images and flash files to make your books fully interactive. And what's more, since the whole myebook system is community-based, getting your word out to your audience is easy.

The team behind the project are all seasoned developers, designers, writers, marketeers and are continuously adding features and enhancing the myebook experience as they approach their next milestone release."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I think that this looks good and I would like to hear from you if you use this.

I am going to try to incorporate it into HS science. We shall see ...

Doug

Tsunami Resources

2011-03-11T10:59:00.001-07:00

With the tsunami today/last night in Japan, I thought I would share a couple of resources for you folks.

The first is a downloadable interactive from edumedia sciences: It is a free simulation that you can download. You can also drag it into a notebook file (it is a flash object). They make you install a program called ebox to download it, but you can also just run it from the website. It is a pretty good little interactive to describe how and earthquake leads to a tsunami

http://www.edumedia-sciences.com/en/a98-tsunami

The other resource is a free brainpop (my all-time favorite educational website) video on tsunamis found here. They usually make current event videos free so this will be a good way to help students understand how the earthquake in Japan caused so much damage.

Here is the brainpop: http://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/tsunami/

Hopefully these will help you if you have the chance to teach about this event.

Jim Haynes

ToonDoo's

2011-03-10T19:44:00.003-07:00

Here's a couple examples of the comic strips my students created about the beginning, middle and end of "How the Elephant Came to Be."

Pretty cute :)

Feb Posting (and by Feb I mean March .....oops!)

2011-03-10T10:00:00.002-07:00

So February flew by and I apologize for the late posting!

I spent February brainstorming ideas for the Film Fest! While I am completely terrified of the process, I am very excited to incorporate all I have learned into a fun project that can be shared with my students, their families, and the entire district. We are going to do a Public Service Announcement for Earth Day. I will be teaching my students to do research online using united streaming videos and websites. We will organize our research on Storyboards to write a script. The filming should be hysterical as I am having the kids dress up like the Earth, air, water and land! I will be sharing all parts of this process and project for my contribution to Global Learners. A BIG thank you to Kelly already for her amazing ideas and support!

Thanks!

Writing PD Follow Up

2011-03-09T20:01:00.002-07:00

At our writing PD on Monday, March 7, many lucky teachers received a copy of Nancy Fetzer's Writing Connections, which is a fantastic resource for any K-5 writing teacher. I just wanted to send out a reminder that much of her book can be found online at her website, www.nancyfetzer.com. Here you can access training videos, PDFs, and other freebies that can help you with your writing instruction.

Liz

Canada 2.0

2011-03-09T10:33:00.004-07:00

(photo courtesy of Garcia, Rosamar, pics4learning.com)

I am excited to tell you about a recent project I'm undertaking through ePals. My second grade class is corresponding with a class of first and second graders in Ontario, Canada. We began the lesson while we were still studying money so it was great to learn about their different money.

It was also a good opportunity to use Google Earth.

Once we finished our initial email and our second one to learn how to attach a file I pretty much let the students correspond on their own. I didn't correct for spelling or punctuation but encouraged them to communicate independently. Some of them managed to log on from home and showed their families. Some surprises were the trouble with capital letters and all caps, misspelling of target email addresses, and hitting send multiple times. Overall it was a blast! I wasn't sure the students could log on and send emails by themselves but they did remarkably well!

The lesson is posted here.

Hooray for Handwashing

2011-03-09T10:24:00.005-07:00

We have the Integrated Nutrition Education Program at Kemp which consists of weekly nutrition lessons with a science focus. I'm going to start posting these lessons and I'm curious which other schools are participating in this program? Has anyone else been making some SmartBoard lessons for this? Maybe we could collaborate.

The first lesson for 2nd grade was called Hooray for Handwashing. See the file I have attached for the smartboard lesson.

More to come later. The Smartboard file can be found HERE.

Voki for Education

2011-03-08T09:11:00.004-07:00

Voki is now easier for educational use. Check out their Voki in Education Blog. Maybe you are looking for new ideas, or just want to see how teachers worldwide are using Voki. You will find a teacher community and lesson plan database.

February Blog-Ways to use Wordle

2011-03-06T19:38:00.005-07:00

My fifth grade students have started their new IB unit entitled"I am a Poet, and I Didn't Even Know it!" I was trying to think how I could integrate poetry and technology in a fun way, and then I remembered Wordle! Kelly Berry had introduced this to us in our staff development,but I didn't know exactly how to integrate it successfully so that it would be meaningful and rigorous. In this IB unit, the children are required to create a poem or song. This can be written by the students and then they can create their wordle using their ideas,print and share with the class. It can be used with any poem or song, but I think having a concept, and then brainstorming words on that topic would be the best, as the words as scattered in a wordle.
I am thinking about using wordle in other ways. For example, the children can use their weekly robust vocabulary and brainstorm synonyms and antonyms and create a wordle for each word. These can then be passed to other students and they can pick out,point to, or circle the synonyms of that word.
I also thought this would be a great tool for our NEP students to practice sight words, or vocabulary. It can also be used at the end of a core story, where the children can come up with themes, important key words, or concepts learned from the story.
I believe I will use it first for my Poetry unit. I am pretty sure the children are going to enjoy this activity as it requires some thought and creativity! Plus, they're just cool!

Start spreading the news...

2011-03-04T14:29:00.002-07:00

Start spreading the news, there will be multiple PAID technology training opportunities for teachers, administrators and employees of Adams 14 School District. The trainings will occur during the summer and include SMART Notebook, SMART Response, Google, Web 2.0, Discovery Education and much more. This is a new and very exciting opportunity for our district. Please watch for the announcements and share with your colleagues!

Go to the Adams 14 Instructional Technology Site for more information. Registration will open during the week of March 28, 2011. If you have questions or would like to know more about presenting any of the workshops/trainings, please contact me! Your ideas and expertise are wanted and welcomed! kberry@adams14.org

Theme 6 Storytown grade 5

2011-03-04T07:06:00.003-07:00

Attention 5th grade teachers!
Colleen Urlik and I have been collaborating on a Storytown project that promises to be very useful, dynamic and interactive... and best of all, it fits with our 90 minute literacy block quite nicely! We're putting together a Smartboard Notebook doc that we can all use in conjunction with teaching storytown every day. It's kind of like the PPTs that some of us use, but it's much more engaging and interactive. It's in its draft stages now, but it will be finished by the time we unroll Theme 6 in April. We'll make sure to post it so everyone has access to it. If you have suggestions or general feedback, please let one of us know :)

Happy CSAPing!

Liz

Clickers!

2011-03-02T22:09:00.002-07:00

Well, it seems that I can't say enough about the clickers. I have been embedding questions throughout my reading block after the "I Do/We Do" section of my teaching to inform my instruction and it has been so helpful! I know when and who to reteach. Plus, it helps with engagement because we switch back and forth between clickers and note taking. It keeps them from losing interest with one strategy. And I love to see the data improve throughout the week! My mentor and I keep giving each other ideas to make our lessons better. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Ooo right... February only has 28 days!

2011-03-01T18:11:00.002-07:00

I was not ready for March 1.... I'm still not quite sure where February went. I haven't tried much new technology in my classroom in the past month, but it's coming! In April, I am planning to have my fifth graders make a sight words video for my younger kids. I can't take credit for this idea, I heard another special ed teacher talking about her idea and asked if I could jump in too. I think it's a great idea for my fifth graders to practice sight words (yes, they still need it), and complete something that I've been wanting to make for my first graders for a long time now!

On another note, I found the "whack a mole" game for the SMARTboard online and it is a great engagement activity for my younger kids when it comes to sight words and such! What is more fun than throwing a koosh ball at moles on the SMARTboard?? Apparently, not much!

Where did February go?

2011-03-01T08:04:00.003-07:00

Wow, I got to school this morning and realized February was over! Besides enjoying all the snow days, I have really enjoyed the Smart Response clickers in my class. I have been incorporating what I call "quick quizzes" into everyday lessons. Although one student said they really aren't always quick, they quickly provide me with data!The students have really been engaged and excited. They love to see their immediate results. They have really gotten the hang of them, so there is no longer management issues. I have been able to collaborate with my mentee, so we have double the quizzes-which is awesome. I have been able to truly make intentional small groups with the data. I can also see the student growth each day--again awesome! For all these reasons and more the Smart Response clickers are amazing!

March 1st Happenings

2011-02-28T19:18:00.001-07:00

My ELD class read the story, "How the Elephant Came to Be", which tells the story of how the elephant became the elephant. While reading the story, they answered questions and proved their thoughts with information from the story.
After, they partnered up and drafted their three frame comic strip. The instructions were simple, create a comic strip that had three frames, had three captions and overall, included the beginning, middle and end.
The kids LOVED creating their comic strips, using ToonDoo.
Tomorrow, they are going to draft a blog post about their feelings of the project.
I'll post some comics soon, when I'm on my other computer.

Another TenMarks Convert

2011-02-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

So.. I saw a few blog entries by Jesse about tenmarks and thought I would check it out as well. I teach 4 science classes and one math intervention and after reading some of the posts about it, I thought I would get a class up and running as well. I have been using it for about the last 2 weeks or so about 2-3 times a week and I really like how the whole system works. I have found that it is really easy to get the kiddos up and running on it and get them independently working on their own.

The way I am using it right now is to assign kids 10-20 problems from a particular strand giving them a goal of 80 percent proficiency. Once they have reached that goal, they are assigned another strand. I have my math gurus in the hallway giving me the strands that best review what they will see on the CSAP, and I am also assigning their work based on the learning continuum in TAAT

If some students are struggling with that strand, I am pulling small groups of students to work more one on one, while the most of the class works independently. I am pretty amazed at the amount of review I have been able to do in such a short amount of time (wishing I had jumped on board earlier). Most students are able to use the systems built in video and hints to help them relearn/review topics and I am able to spend the bulk of my time with students who need the more one on one approach.

2011-02-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

This month has been spent really gearing up for CSAPs. I have been using tenmarks.com for 30 minutes three days a week. I was having trouble holding students accountable for the work they were doing. In order to help me keep track of this, I created a simple recording sheet. It has spaces to record ten problems that a student works on from a particular skill set, a place to indicate whether they got the problem correct or incorrect, and a space to record their reflection if they did not answer the problem correctly. I call it a reflection because that is something they are supposed to be doing for IB. It really seems to have helped hold the students more accountable for their work. Also, I have given the students the option of taking a sheet that can track 20 problems in lieu of the daily homework. I have only had 4 or 5 students consistently choose tenmarks over homework. I have had a number of students who are now working on tenmarks at home. Overall, the students need help reflecting on the reasons they are not answering questions correctly, but more are investing time to watch the instructional videos and putting in some extra effort in order to get the problem correct so they do not have to write a reflection.

Check out our Blog!

2011-02-28T15:26:00.003-07:00

Hey~
A few of my second graders blogged about their favorite story in Theme 4 and what they learned. Check it out! http://dupontdinosaurs.blogspot.com/
There are only a few that blogged, as I used this as a reward for students that were working hard. Another reward that I used was Toondoo.com. Students had to create a toondoo about the story The Life of George Washington Carver. I will have those posted on our blog as soon as I can figure out how to do that. If any of you have posted Toondoo's to a blog, let me know how to do it. Thanks!

Sara

Lesson Plan 2 Anne and Jesse

2011-02-28T15:01:00.001-07:00

Glet: Read, interpret, and draw conclusion from a line graph, bar graph, circle graph, and frequency table.

Objective: Students will be able to accurately determine information about other students jumping jacks ability when given a line graph displaying this data.
Vocabulary: X-axis, Y-axis, Title, intervals, labels,
I Do: Teacher will review reading line graphs giving multiple examples and stressing vocabulary

We Do: teacher and students will practice reading line graphs. Students will be shown a line graph and asked a question about some of the data (What was the high temperature in Denver on Monday 2/23). Students will click in answers. Teacher will address confusion until 85% of students are answering correctly.
Teacher will then walk students through the process of posting their graphs from previous days lesson in a power point document and record audio. Students will have 4-5 slides and they will post their graph on each slide.

You Do: Students will create 4-5 questions that ask the reader to interpret their jumping-jaxs graph. They will write one question on each slide. Students who finish before other students will record themselves reading the question.
Students will then be given 5 min to move to another student’s computer and answer one question about their graph. Students will record their answer on a sheet of paper to be turned in at the end of class.
Assessment: students will turn in their answers to each other’s questions.

Just got a document camera

2011-02-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

My classroom now has a document camera. I have figured out the basics of it. Right now my students are studying graphing. I have used the document camera to show the whole class a few of the student’s graphs. It made it very easy to show a graph with a correct scale, labels, and using the majority of the space available. Students feel important when I use their work as an example and the rest of the class enjoys seeing real work rather then something I got from a workbook or a worksheet online.

I really enjoy using a document camera but I know there is a lot more I can do with it. Please share any ways you have used the document camera in your own classroom!

Graphing Lesson 1 --Anne and Jesse

2011-02-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of a 2 day lesson

GLET: Read, interpret and draw conclusions from a line graph, bar graph, circle graph and frequency table.

Objective: Students will gather data, create a line graph, accurately label all parts on the graph, and create questions that analyze their graph

Vocabulary: x-axis, y-axis, title, intervals, labels,

I Do:

1. Demonstrate how to collect data.

2. Demonstrate how to make a line graph on excel

We Do:

1. Collect data (Students will have made a table for this on notebook paper)

a. Students will count how many jumping jacks they can do in 15 seconds and record

b. 30 seconds and record

c. 45 seconds and record

d. 60 seconds and record

2. Make their individual graphs on excel. Save so they can use it tomorrow.

You Do : Answer:

1. Label all parts of the graph

2. Create 2-4 questions that would have to be answered by reading their graph

Assessment: The graphs created with accurate labels and questions created.

Resources: Computer for each student, timer, data collection worksheets

Toon Doo!

2011-02-28T14:30:00.002-07:00

After reading the "The Three Little Pigs," my kindergartners practiced summarizing the story using a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer. First, students drew and labeled pictures using a paper version of the graphic organizer. After my students perfected and finished up their writing, it was time to present their work to their classmates! Throughout the week each table group shared their work during "Author's Chair."

At the end of the week I decided to practice summarizing during whole group instruction. As a class we used the website Toondoo.com to create a comic strip-graphic organizer of the story, "Three Little Pigs!" The students loved retelling the story, picking out graphics, and brainstorming ideas for the text! Above is what we came up with!!

slide rocket

2011-02-21T18:43:00.007-07:00

According to the website, "SlideRocket was founded in 2006 with the vision of building a better presentation experience, one that provides for every part of the presentation lifecycle and helps you make great presentations. SlideRocket is committed to providing the best presentation experience to individuals and businesses around the world through innovative and compelling software-as-a-service."

As written about in PCworld, "SlideRocket packs a powerful punch with a beautiful interface and top-notch features.SlideRocket is a secure and fully integrated suite of online tools offered on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis from any Internet-enabled laptop, PC, or handheld device.

You can create slides with either your own content or material gathered from a comprehensive online marketplace that offers themes, cartoons, photographs, data feeds, video and audio clips, illustrations, and other elements. You can import existing PowerPoint slides and include them in SlideRocket, and insert plug-ins as well.

You can also include dynamic data from Google Spreadsheets, Twitter, and other Web sources to keep presentations current and up-to-date. Collaboration tools let colleagues work in sync. In addition, SlideRocket provides a raft of extra services such as graphic design, copywriting and editing, coaching, printing, and binding.

When you finish a presentation, you can share slides securely by hosting a Web meeting, publishing them to a URL, embedding them in a Web page or blog, giving users permission to forward them to other people, or printing them for distribution. You can export presentations both to PowerPoint and PDF, though SlideRocket warns that some features may not be preserved. You'll also find an offline presentation player.

Particularly notable is the fact that SlideRocket offers metrics for you to measure the effectiveness of presentations. On top of adding polls to presentations, you can track who viewed them and where, how much time a person spent on each slide, and what follow-up actions they took, such as click-throughs, form submissions, or forwarding to other users. Viewers can leave virtual comments, too.

In the mobile realm, SlideRocket allows iPhone and Android users to attend remote meetings, play presentations, and view embedded presentations. Videos, audio, transitions, and builds work with HTML5-compliant Web browsers.

Hands-on: SlideRocket has a beautiful interface for getting a new user up and running quickly. Importing presentations from PowerPoint was no trouble, though existing slide transitions were not preserved.

SlideRocket is an extremely powerful service, and everything felt intuitive while we worked on a presentation. We encountered a few very small lags--as seems to be typical with online software--but the option to incorporate dynamic content from sites such as Twitter is great, as is the built-in ability to look for images and videos quickly and easily on Flickr and YouTube. Both features feel like a natural reflection of the way Web-enabled users work today.The new library of free, premade presentations is impressive and can be a nice source of inspiration, while the metrics capabilities could be a real asset for anyone using the software for business purposes.

All in all, SlideRocket stood out as the most comprehensive, full-featured package we looked at. Note, though, that the free version lacks a significant portion of the functionality of the two paid versions, including many of the collaboration, analytics, offline presentation, and export capabilities. Most business users will probably want to go with a paid version.

Price: Free for a Lite version with up to five multiseat accounts; $24 per user per month for a Pro version with up to 25 accounts; enterprise pricing for unlimited users is set separately

Import/export: Import from PowerPoint and Google Presentations, export to PDF and PowerPoint

Unique features:

Beautiful interface
Metrics to let users track the impact of presentations
Excellent collaboration and security features
Content gallery includes customizable, ready-to-use presentations
Plug-ins for Flickr and YouTube
Capability to include dynamic content, such as from Twitter
Offline presentation player
Some mobile viewing capabilities
SlideRocket app is available in the Chrome Web Store

Best use for SlideRocket: A flexible offering packed with features for even the most demanding users, SlideRocket is our favorite of all the contenders we tried. We can't imagine any user being dissatisfied. If anything, it might be overkill for some users."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It is kind of cool! Worth checking it out. Doug

Here is a link to a chem teacher who is having his students create google sites, wikis and slide rocket apps.

More collaborative blogging between HS and MS

2011-02-20T08:11:00.003-07:00

By blogging buddy and colleague Jim Haynes at ACMS has been using his blog with me as a means to promote electronic interactions between his 6th graders and my 9th-12th graders.

Jim's suggestions given in an email are highlighted below.

"The first is a letter to a planetary leader explaining the benefits of a tilted planet to a planet without a tilt. They were supposed to describe seasons and explain how the tilt causes seasons in effort to persuade the leaders of this planet to either change their tilt or leave it alone. I don’t think I did a great job with this one, so the letters need work. It is supposed to be persuasive so if your students comment, have them focus on that piece of the writing."

"The second is a friendly letter to a younger student describing the phases of the moon. There is no persuasive piece in this one, just a simple 10 sentence paragraph that describes each of the 8 main phases of the moon. If your students comment on either of these, have them focus on the descriptions and details."

His post to the gl blog can be accessed here

My students are given the Jim's suggestions as well as my guidelines for replying:

1. address the student by his / her first name
2. write something positive about their blog post
3. critique / suggest something for improvement
4. "sign" your reply with your first name and last initial

Most students respond appropriately but for those who don't, then COMMENT MODERATION helps!

Thanks to Jim, his students and mine for this continuing interaction with ACMS and ACHS!

Doug

Voice Amplification

2011-02-10T08:50:00.002-07:00

I am so excited that I recently received a REDCAT classroom audio system. This is a voice amplification system that allows my students to hear my voice regardless of where I am standing in the classroom.

Students also love getting a chance to try out the microphone for themselves! During English language development class, students have the opportunity to speak in complete sentences using the microphone. Students will begin with a sentence frame, "My favorite food is________ because _________." Students will take turns speaking and responding to each other. In order to ensure 85% engagement while one student is speaking into the microphone I have all the students repeat what was said using the child's name in front of their sentence, "John's favorite food is _______because_____." The students are very excited to speak in the microphone and to hear their friends!

2011-02-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

During the month of January, I have been using something new in my classroom. It has quickly become my favorite piece of technology. The website is called . It is free math website that allows teachers to create a class. Once the class is created, you pick a grade and they have a predetermined list of skills based on six math standards: number sense, algebra, measurement, fractions, geometry, and probability (this may be different for different grades). Each standard is broken into sub-standards such as number theory basics, decimals, fraction concepts, addition concepts, introduction to algebra, foundations of geometry, area and perimeter, and many more. Each sub-standard is further broken into individual skills like angles and their classification, triangle classification, quadrilateral classification, decimals and factions, equivalent fractions, and so on. On the free account, the teacher is also allowed to pick a few more other skills. I chose addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division concepts from earlier grades for my students who still struggle with those skills. Every skill has over 30 practice problems that focus on that specific skill. The problems are all multiple choice. For every problem there are two or three hints for the student and the student also has the option of watching a video that explains step by step the concepts involved in solving the problem.
Each student receives a username and password and they are able to log on from any computer that has access to the internet. As they work through the problems, they submit their answers. From the teacher portal, I am able to look at the work students are doing on each standard, or each sub-standard, or each skill. I can view this as a class overview or just look at individual students. The report is also color-coded based on the percent of questions the student has answered correctly. Every week, I am emailed a report that tells me how active the class has been and the average number of questions answered correctly. Also, you can add parent emails to each students account and they will receive weekly emails with their student’s information.
I have found this to be incredibly helpful in assessing and organizing students into flexible groups for math content and small skills groups. Also, I have contacted many parents and if they have access to the internet, their struggling students can receive extra practice on specific skills that they are struggling with. I have many parents worry that they do not have sufficient math knowledge to help their students, but now they can watch the videos with their students and help them with the math.
While there are so many benefits with tenmarks, there are a few things that I would like to see changed. Because every question is multiple choice, I do have some students who are simply guessing at the question even though I ask them to show work on paper. Also I do not have enough headphones for the class and I have found that students are embarrassed to watch the videos when the whole class hears what they are struggling with. It takes a motivated student to really work and learn from the website if they are struggling with a skill. Also, the website itself is not one-hundred percent reliable. There are times that we are unable to work on it because it is responding so slowly and I have not been able to access student results for weeks at a time. Over all it has helped me focus in on my students needs and on what my students already know and keep all that information organized. I feel this is a huge benefit for me and my students.

January Blog

2011-02-07T08:52:00.002-07:00

This January, I decided to have my students publish their three week writing project as a PowerPoint Presentation to share with their parents during conferences. They loved it! They had to complete their rough drafts, revising, and editing prior to being able to publish, of course, and it really excited them through the entire process. I had students who normally barely write in class taking their writing home and completing it for homework just so they could have more time to complete their PowerPoint.
I began the PowerPoint istruction with the bare minimum. I let them pick a slide design, and they then had to type all their writing into certain slides. (I had a break down ready for them as to what part of the paragraph(s) went on each slide.) Once all the typing was complete, I allowed the students to add on the "bells and whistles", such as font, pictures, and animation. They all worked so hard, almost every student was able to add these things! My students wrote some of their best writing, and their enthusiasm was unparalleled. It was fantastic to also watch them present to their parents as well. Now, I have them asking to create presentations for every project we do!

January Blog--Math Website

2011-02-03T06:52:00.001-07:00

I have had my class working on the website enlvm.usu.edu. This is a website with many different computer activities that students can complete on their own. All you do is create a class and give each of your students a number. There are activities for grade 2 all the way up to trigonometry. This past month we have worked with the geometry sections. I really liked the geometric transformations. Most of my 6^th grade students could recognize a rotation, translation, and reflection before I did any formal teaching. These computer activities extended their knowledge of the 3 math terms and definitely challenged all of my students.

Smart Slate

2011-02-02T17:22:00.003-07:00

So I have begun tackling the Smart Slate! I really enjoy using but admittedly struggle a bit with my hand-eye coordination. My focus tends to shift completely to the board vs the students BUT luckily they are so engaged with watching my "magic" on the board that my lessons have still been successful. As I approach proficiency with the Smart Slate I am eager for more ideas on how to integrate it into more lessons. I will post more as they come but please let me know how you have been using Smart Slate in your room!
Thanks!

January and beyond

2011-02-01T19:24:00.002-07:00

Yikes- where has the month already gone? I have been thinking about my goals for technology in my classroom for the remainder of the year. I am sad that one of my goals has been my goal since October, but I still haven't figured out how I best want to use my class blog. Is it still a great idea to have students post or better to just post student work? As of now it has been just a place to post (and not as frequent as I want at that). I guess we shall see where the year takes it. Another goal is to get better at using the smart response clickers in my classroom. I have teamed up with a teammate and we have been doing every weekly reading test on them. I would like to use them for math assessments as well as get fast enough to create quick formative assessments to help drive my small groups more. I guess my last goal is to maintain and increase my use of our new computer lab with my class and my use of the smart board. I still think the smart board is such a great tool for student engagement, I do, and we do instructional times. So look forward to seeing how my technology goals pan out for the rest of the year!

Mini-Laptops!

2011-01-31T20:01:00.002-07:00

Our classroom received new laptops! Our school made a decision to distribute the computers that were apart of the laptop cart! Now, each classroom in our primary hall has at least 2 or 3 little laptops that are perfect for little fingers! I was nervous when we received the computers because I wasn't sure if the kids could use the touchpad on the computer. However, I was really surprised to find that the kids were able to use the touchpad on the computer! I'm beginning to think that kids are pre-wired to use technology!