Week Eight Thoughts...

In my school district we have very strict privacy settings on all of our computers. Not only does our school board have a strong firewall in place, but each individual school can also limit the information we are allowed to access via the internet.

While this bothers some of the other teachers, I kind of like it. I don't know a whole lot about computer viruses and the like, so anything that can be done so that my computer won't get one I'm all for. I also know that at our board we have a technology specialist who can track to see each website anyone in the county visits, and how long they are on it.

While each of these steps is good, and I do like them, sometimes they can be a pain in the neck. One day while on planning I was trying to open a document sent to me by another teacher as an attachment. My computer WOULD NOT open it. I tried everything. I finally called on our school's tech specialist and she couldn't figure it out either. She told me it had something to do with the firewall at the board, although it had been sent from inside our own building. There have been other times too when I will show my kids something on-line, minimize the site, and forget to log off until the end of the day. I am constantly worried that I will get "looked upon" for being on the internet for so long during the school day.

Overall, our school itself didn't have one problem all year with any malicious software or hackers. I may not totally understand everything being done to prevent this, but obviously its working!!

Week Seven Thoughts...

This week we discussed educational software that can be used in the classroom. While my school is already out for the summer, the one thing we use daily is Accelerated Reader. From this software students can take reading comprehension quizzes as well as vocabulary exams after reading an AR book that is on their reading level.

This software helps teachers gauge how well a child is "getting it" when it comes to reading comprehension. Just because a child can read does not mean they are comprehending anything.

My kids have always liked this program. They can log into it at any time to see how many books they have read, and how many AR "points" they have earned. Each of our 5th Graders must earn 100 points by the end of the school year, and this year they all did!

The only thing that I don't really care for is the fact that students can only take each quiz one time. Say if in 3rd grade Sally takes a quiz for a book that was over her head and does poorly. She cannot repeat the quiz in 4th or 5th grades. Other than that I love AR!!

Week Six Thoughts...

This week we had to create WebQuests. Before this lesson I had never even heard of a WebQuest, much less seen one on-line. After doing a quick Google search I found a plethora of information about them, as well as many fine examples.

Although I had never seen a WebQuest before this week, I really like the idea of them. They are a great way to get students interacting with technology, and an awesome way for them to learn while still having fun! While the process of creating the WebQuest was long, and kind of complicated, I believe in the long run it is totally worth it.

http://questgarden.com/104/67/4/100608115949/

The above link is for the WebQuest I created. I wanted to make something fun, so my WebQuest is designed so students must research and plan a trip to Paris, France. While I didn't find the creation process too difficult, it was time consuming. Not only did I have to word everything just right so the students would understand what to do, but I had to make it look visually appealing.

I think the WebQuest I created is good, but I know it could be better. If I would have had time I would have tried it out with a group of kids to get their take on it so that I would know what needs to be changed. I already know I need to work on the "evaluation" portion of the WebQuest because I didn't really know what needed to go there. I mean, I knew what needed to go there, but I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to see. Overall I really liked this assignment. I can't wait to show my co-workers the QuestGarden website, and show off my creation!

Lesson Five Thoughts....

In the past I have used online communication tools in my classroom, but the neatest thing I have ever done with my kids didn't happen in the actual classroom. Last summer when I was teaching in an Enrichment Program I did a project with my kids called "The Adventures of Marcus the Bulldog." We had a stuffed bulldog (a Webkinz) that we took everywhere we went, and when we returned to school we would post pictures and entries on our online blog. (I totally borrowed this idea from the book Flat Stanley).

I even took the dog with me when I went on vacation to Chicago and Gatlinburg, because many of my students had never traveled outside of our state. I would post on the blog while I was away, and my "sub" would pull the blog up on the Smart board to show the kids what Marcus was up to.

Not only did the kids love this project, but their parents did too. Marcus and his journal would go home with students on the weekends so that they could continue Marcus's story on paper. While these entries didn't make it onto our blog, (there were too many), we would read them on Monday mornings so that everyone would know what Marcus had done away from school.

I am not sure if anyone other than my students and their parents ever saw our blog, but that didn't matter to me. It was a way to bring different experiences to all of my students who otherwise would never get the chance to experience them for themselves. By blogging Marcus's adventures we could talk about different regions of our country and how culture plays a huge role in every ones lives.

If it were not for blogs (much like this one) I'm not sure this project would have been such a success. I can't wait to continue Marcus's story this summer!

I am also thinking about next school year, and trying to start my own YouTube channel for my class. I think that allowing the students to make their own videos will not only help drive certain concepts home, but showing said videos to other students is yet another way to explain certain topics. I'm working through the ins and outs in my mind, but I really think this may be a possibility.

Lesson Four Thoughts....

I need to start off by saying that I love PowerPoint presentations! It is such a great way to present information to people of all ages, not just my elementary school students.

The PowerPoint I used this past week was slightly different than those I have used during the rest of the school year. Instead of presenting a specific idea, topic, or lesson I used PowerPoint this week to go over the end of the year events with my 5th graders. We do three special things with our kids; 5th Grade Awards Night, a 5th Grade Lock-In, and a 5th Grade Luncheon. My PowerPoint introduced each event and the expectations held with it.

The most "impressive" item in my PowerPoint were the graphics and photographs I used. Instead of just listing information for the students to read, I had taken pictures to go along with the ideas I was trying to get across. For example, when I wanted to talk about what my students should and should not wear to Awards Night I had pictures of students dressed appropriately, and students dressed inappropriately. While my kids thought these pictures were really funny, it helped for the idea to stick in their minds.

If I could go back and change anything it would be the length of the presentation. When using PowerPoint in class I always try to limit the number of slides I use. Unfortunately since I had so much to cover with this one presentation it went a little long and I lost some of them toward the end. They tried their best to stay with me, but in the end they couldn't help it.

My kids loved the presentation. The pictures I used made them laugh, and it really made the idea of "graduating" 5th Grade more real for a lot of them. There were a lot of nerves running through our school this week, and I am confident this presentation helped to calm some of my girls down.

In the future I definitely plan on using PowerPoint even more. I want to develop a Jeopardy style game to play to review for testing, and I want the kids to become more familiar with PowerPoint and all of its bells and whistles. They like looking at Power Points so I want them to like creating them themselves.

Lesson Three Thoughts....

There are many different documents I send home with my kids each week. Flyers, handouts, homework assignments; the list goes on and on. When I really sat down and thought about it though, not very many of these documents are visually appealing. Sure on most of the flyers sent home there will be graphics, and maybe a "fun" text, but as a whole they are just black and white pages full of print.

I'm sure that there are times when the parents see these documents that they think to themselves "I just left work. I don't want to read all of this right now." I can't say I blame them. When you are handed a sheet full of writing and there is nothing on it that grabs your eye lets face it, it looks boring.

This all got me thinking. Later this week is our school's 5th Grade Awards Night. The kids and their parents already know all of the details, but we wanted to send out a reminder to them and the rest of the staff. We had created a document in Word, but the more I looked at it, the more boring it seemed. I sat down and used a desktop publishing program to create a new document to send home and post around school.

This flyer is direct and to the point. There is not a lot of excess text; it simply tells people what we need them to know. Because our Awards Night this year has a beach theme I decided to use a picture of the beach as the background as a simple reminder, and because it makes the flyer a lot nicer to look at. I really think this will catch people's attention much better than a Word document.

From now on when I need to send something home with my kids, I am definitely going to think twice about how it looks and what makes it appealing. I always try to make things interesting and fun for my students, so why not make their take-homes fun too?

Lesson Two Thoughts...

This week's lesson really opened my eyes to all of the different ways spreadsheets and databases can be used in the classroom. Below is an awesome website I found created by a man named Bill Ferriter. In his article, Mr. Ferriter explains a new spreadsheet he has created for his school and how it will help the teachers keep track of student reading comprehension. A link is below.

The Tempered Radical: Using Spreadsheets and Pivot Tables to Track Data. . .

Not only does his spreadsheet keep track of reading comprehension, but different teachers can manipulate it to tell them exactly what they need to know, even about individual students! I never knew that Excel could do so many things. There are great instructions in this article, but I'm hoping I can find someone at my school who knows more about Excel than I do so they can help me set something like this up. It may not be as grand, but I really like the idea.

After talking with different people in our class, I have a lot of good ideas about how I can continue to use spreadsheets and databases in my classroom. For starters, I want to create a behavior chart so that keeping track of each of my students won't require going through hard copies of their files once a month. I also want my kids to become more familiar with spreadsheets, so I'm going to work this summer on creating a lesson that will teach them the basics of Excel and Access while still being fun and creative.

I've already talked in the discussion board about how I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my student's reading goals and points, but there are other ways I use spreadsheets everyday. For starters, I am the teacher rep for our 5th Grade Committee and since the end of the year is on its way, we've been busy planning our 5th Grade Awards Night and Lock-In. Because we have permission forms, money and other papers coming in everyday, I have a lovely Excel document that I enter everything into so we can all keep track of who is coming, who has paid, and what else we need to do. The parents on this committee appreciate how easy the spreadsheet is to read, and it really helps me stay organized and focused on our goals. I may not be a pro when it comes to Excel, but it truly makes my life easier.