MoWillems.com

Mo Willems, who used to be a writer and animator for Sesame Street, is one of our school's favorite authors. Writing primarily for primary children, Mo has won the Caldecott Honor for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. MoWillems.com contains information about his characters, new books, and computer games. Mo also has his own blog and the Pigeon character "Tweets."

Math Playground

If you are looking to practice math skills at home, www.mathplayground.com is an excellent site for elementary students in grades 1-6. The site includes math videos, word problems, logic games, and general skill practice. Activities are aligned with the Common Core Curriculum Standards. The site is so popular, that many students like to use it at home or during free time at school.

Dance Mat Typing

Now that cursive writing has been removed from the state standards, more emphasis is being placed on children learning keyboarding. There are many schools of thought on this practice. Some educators believe that students need direct instruction in keyboarding, while others believe that it should be embedded in classroom writing activities. As a technology teacher, I believe that students need a little bit of both methods, as long as practice activities are fun. I have included a link to a BBC website called Dance Mat Typing. Students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade seem to enjoy it!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

JanBrett.com

The month of December is very unfair to teachers. While the rest of the world can sometimes get away with stretching the lunch hour a few minutes longer, or gossiping around the water cooler for a few extra minutes in the morning, we need to put on our stern faces and try to keep a lid on the excitement that both children and teachers are feeling this time of year. As a teacher, my method of containing this excitement is to explore Jan Brett's website with younger children,  Even though some of her activities are Christmas specific, the website is also appropriate for those children not celebrating the holiday. There are videos, games, and card making activities, and it is a great tie-in to our library lessons as well.

Voice Thread

 https://ed.voicethread.com/is a digital storytelling website that allows you to create and narrate a story by  using images, videos, and documents. Before creating a video, there is a "Browse" tab for sample creations and tutorials. Educators can create a free account for classroom use, but the website is also a valuable tool for anyone wishing to create a personal video, or even a vacation slide show. We are going to be using the site in social studies this month to create colonial America videos.

Caldwell College Technology Conference

On October 26, I had the privilege of attending the first annual Caldwell College Technology Conference. At the conference, we were first introduced to the presenter's "Top Ten Technology Sites." The first site, Symbaloo.com, is a great Web 2.0 tool which allows you to access bookmarks from any computer. Freerice.com was also interesting because for every correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to a free world country. We also were able to learn about two other Web 2.0 tools, Glogster and Voice Thread. Voice Thread is a presentation program that I am planning to use with my fifth grade classes in social studies next month.

Hurricane Sandy

Most of the schools in coastal New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York have been closed this week due to the historic Hurricane Sandy. Much of the Jersey shore, as well as Long Island and Staten Island were destroyed from the powerful winds and storm surge.
Many lives have been lost, people have been left homeless, and our beloved New Jersey beaches have suffered severe erosion. Hopefully our schools will open next weeks,so students can return to a normal routine.

ABCYA.com

In preparation for Halloween, our primary classes have been completing virtual pumpkin carving and Halloween word searches on the site abcya.com. Students and teachers are very enthusiastic about this website because it contains literacy, math, science, and technology tasks for children in grades kindergarten through five. There are also interactive holiday links, and even a short video about cyber safety. I highly recommend this website to parents and teachers because of the abundance of quality activities.

Totem Pole Project

After studying about Native Americans in Social Studies class, fifth grade students viewed a youtube video about totem poles in Alaska. We also researched the myths and stories surrounding these totem poles. Students then used clip art and google images to create a totem pole illustrating the story of their life. They then wrote myths to explain the history of the images on their totem poles.

Author project

What is a scientist? After some on-line and print research, sixth grade students chose a famous scientist and organized a snapshot of the scientist's life on a software program called Timeliner. They also used Inspiration, which is a graphic organizer program, for note taking. The Inspiration project was exported to power point, and after adding images and what I call "bells and whistles," the students presented their reports to the class.

Technology and Science Curriculum Integration

Since many of the science standards also are integrated with technology standards, we have been creating projects which will satisfy both curricular areas. In third grade this week, classroom teachers used www.brainpopjr.com to review the steps of the scientific method. During technology classes, we used abcya.com to design a robot on the computer. Students then saved this image, and next week will copy the design to Microsoft Word and write the steps used in the design process to create their robot.

Technology Buddies

First and Fifth grade students will be working monthly with a "technology buddy" to create projects and share technology knowledge. Next week, they will be working with the graphic organizer software known as "Kidspiration." Kidspiration allows students to enter images and words into a web. This month's topic will be October vocabulary. Partners will brainstorm words for the month of October and enter the terms and matching images into a web. The web will be printed in color and given to the first graders for their Writers' Notebooks. During writing time, the web will be a valuable tool to help students become more independent with their spelling and vocabulary tools.
Check back next week for some photos of this exciting endeavor!

Learning.com

Learning.com is an educational technology program that has been purchased by our school district to introduce and reinforce student's technology skills. Our primary focus in grades K-6 will be project based learning, but Learning.com will also be used to practice keyboarding skills and be used as a general reference in lieu of a textbook.Students will be completing exercises in class, but they may also access Learning.com at home. They should know their user name and password by now, but don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail at school if you need their log-on information.

Back to School Night

September 19, 2012
Because the response clickers were so successful with students, I decided to model this new technology for parents at back-to-school night. The clickers work with a traditional power point slide show used in conjunction with Turning Point Clicker Response Software. We have 4 sets in each school, and every teacher can have the software installed on their classroom computer. I also introduced parents to our new "Tumble Books" subscription which can be accessed from home. This quotation was on display in my classroom, but it bears repeating for parents who were unable to visit that night. In the words of April Chamberlain's blog,"Education is evolving due to the impact of the Internet. We cannot teach our students in the same manner in which we were taught. Change is necessary to engage students not in the curriculum we are responsible for teaching, but in school. Period"(May the tech be with you).

Turning Point Response Clickers

September 7, 2012
Just spent the first week of school using Response clickers with all my classes as a technology pretest. Lessons were very successful. Students were enthusiastic and engaged, and it gave me some background knowledge for future lessons. Teachers also asked me to train them in using the clickers for future lessons.