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.