The Little Engine That Could!

So as I look back on the first two weeks of school and onward, I feel overwhelmed. I do think I have been engaging the students in whole group reading instruction by using the Smart Board. That I feel is about the only technological thing I have done so far! Boo! But, I am looking forward to getting back into the groove of things and recommitting to technology! This year I want to use my class blog more and use the clickers for more assessment and quick data results. It just all takes time and I am trying to be ok with that. I need to remember technology is fun, a super way to learn, and a fantastic way to get that student engagement! As the little engine said, "I think I can!"

A slow start, but it's looking good

Hello everyone! As a Special Education teacher, I have not started with my students yet, so I have not had the opportunity to use my SMART board. I will be starting this week, so I am pretty excited to get using my new resources and so are my kids. Like a lot of you guys do with Storytown, I have created a SMART board daily schedule to use with my 5th graders in our Language!3 intervention program. I also created a replica of our F.A.S.T. intervention program magnetic boards on my SMART board, so I think my 3rd graders will be pretty excited about that!

As for my web presence, I have created a website using google docs that all Learning Specialists in the district will have access to in order to share resources, documents, and other fun stuff related to our intervention programs. This is something we really need since our collaboration really only consisted of sharing things via email or jump drive. I still need to go through some approval with the SPED department and district for it, but we'll see if we can get it up and running soon! I have a second web presence in my classroom website. Students will be able to use it in my classroom to get to websites and our class blog, where we can share about what we learned! Hopefully I will have more to share soon once I get started with my kiddos!

August Blog: Teaching kids how to use the SmartBoard

It always amazes how I taught--and how kids learn--without a smartboard. I have several new students this year (new to the district) and they haven't been exposed to this technology in the past in their classrooms. The Smartboard makes kids feel so smart and successful because of the ease in which kids pick it up. They're naturals!

The SmartBoard is helping my students become independent thinkers and learners each and every day. I begin each day with a SmartBoard weather report in which the weekly weather person must look up the weather on a designated website, synthesize the information in the report, then represent the information in a non-linguistic visual display on the Smartboard. This includes plotting the temperature on a line graph, selecting the correct weather visual, adding the temperature under the correct day of the week, and orally presenting the weather to the whole class, comparing today's weather with days previous. The kids are great at helping each other to the point where I don't have to chime in at all.

If you'd like to see/use the template I've created for weather, I can email it to you. Let me know :)

Happy Global Learning this year with your students!!!

Love the Smart Responders

The first time I tried the clickers, it was a disaster. The students were so excited about using them and then they didn't work correctly. So Kelly came in and helped me teach one of my classes how to use them. It was a huge help! Since then they have become one of my favorite things. Everyday the students come in and ask, "Miss, are we using the clickers?!" The students are much more excited about doing work and the whole class is engaged every time we use them. The results make it very easy to create small groups because of the instant feedback they give. Right away I am able to see which students will be able to work on their own and which students need to be pulled into a small group.

I have also begun to use the smart slate. Right now I have been the only one to use it and have found it handy to walk up and down the rows while we are taking notes. I plan on having some students come in during lunch to practice using the smart slate. These students will become additional "teachers" to help other students learn how to use the slate.

My mentor and I have been discussing the best way to use a web presence in our classrooms. We have decided to create a joint website for parents and children. We plan on having our students blog on certain topics in math and then read and respond to the blogs from the other class. We also plan on smartcasting all of our lessons and post them on the website. This will give parents an easy tutorial if they want to help their child at home. They will also give students an easy way to review in small groups without depending completely on the teacher.

So far, so good

Here's the update on my 'technological life.'
1. Smartboard! I'm loooving having it in my room full-time and it's a bonus that it is mounted to my wall. I use it for every lesson I do and I know that it has increased the engagement in my room. Not to mention my planning has become less paper and more computer. Like Deborah, I have created daily lessons that follow the 90 minute reading block. It's fun to be able to share them with my teammates too.

2. Smart slate- it's a teacher's best friend.I can be anywhere in the room while working with the smartboard. I love that I can stand behind my students to observe their behavior while still maintaining a lesson that is effective.

3. Smart response. Eeek. Today was our first day ever using them. Enough said. (Thanks for your help, Kelly. It was rough, I know.)

I am looking forward to implementing the 'clicker's more...anyone want to come in to help me? It's me against 26 7-year-olds armed with (what they refer to as) "cell phones!"

Free online keyboarding

TypingWeb is a free online typing tutor & keyboarding tutorial for typists of all skill levels.

Create a teacher portal, add students and track their progress. There are lessons from homerow keys to speed drills. TypingWeb also has games for students to increase their skills, just note not all of the games can be accessed in the district.

Here is an Education World article about keyboarding - when to teach, suggestions for teaching keyboarding. You'll need to scroll down the page a bit to see the article.

Anyone using a keyboarding activity in the classroom?

Ready for Class Blogging?

I can't believe that two weeks of school have already passed. This year I have the largest class I've had yet with 29 third graders. I am ready to teach them how to blog. That is my goal this week. I posted a video on my blog about drought in the Philippines. Students will need to watch the video and then answer some questions about what they watched. I hope it will encourage my students to become more invested in the topic of natural disasters that we are currently studying. Has anyone else started blogging with students yet? Any suggestions about how to make it go smoothly with so many students? Visit our class blog at: http://rmtwentyone.blogspot.com/