technology 2 learn

The End is Near

2010-05-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well here we are in our last full week of school. It has flown by!!! Bonnie and I were able to serve about 140 students in the 7th grade with our grant devices. The students really enjoyed using Blogger, Glogster, and the flip videos. They enjoyed learning how to podcast, but it was very time consuming. This grant gave the students numerous opportunities to have technology on demand whenever they needed it. It also gave them options to present projects and use their creative skills.

I've had a lot of fun learning the technology. It's been a very long and trying road, but I think we did the best we could. It's definately been a great way to end my teaching career-well for a while. I'm sure Bonnie will have me on speed dial to help her with any technology issues she has & I'll be happy to help!

Glogster

2010-03-25T13:28:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since we last posted. We have been so busy trying new things.

Below you will see some examples of the online posters that my students have created using Glogster. They created these posters within their book clubs & presented them to the class. Along with the poster, they turned in a group notebook that recorded their discussions, notes, plot diagram, character descriptions, etc. The kids really seemed to enjoy working in Glogster, and I have to say that I was very pleased with the outcome of the project.

My SBISD Accounts & Google Docs

2009-10-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

We began working with our MySBISD accounts and Google Docs this week. The students love working in them. They are typing up their examples of strong leads & imagery. The students are also working on a research project with a partner. They are collaborating with one another on Google docs. They are so engaged. My most talkative group works so hard and they ALL stay on task. It would be so nice if every student had their own laptops to work on daily.

My first email to the students welcomed them to their new email accounts & then I asked each of them about one thing they would like to learn this year with the new technology. I had a wide variety of answers, but the most common was they want to learn to type faster. I think it would be great if we could get a typing class or program impletmented into the curriculum for them to work with.

Everything is working great as of now. Let's keep our fingers crossed that everything continues to go smoothly.

Netbooks & Brain Pop

2009-09-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

Today in class the kids used their net books to watch two videos on Brain Pop about plagiarism and paraphrasing. The students will be writing a research paper over a Texas city and these videos will help them understand what to do & what not to do within their papers. After the students finished the videos they took the quiz and emailed their results to me. All of the students stayed on task and seemed to really enjoy watching the videos. I tried uploading my video of the students using the netbooks, but it won't upload.

Another Use For Emails....

2009-09-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

I was grading the students this weekend and wanted to email some of them congratulatory notes on some good papers. I also had some that I wanted to give a “heads-up” they were slipping. Some had emails that they used when they signed on to my webpage but many did not. If we had this set up, it could be a wonderful communication device.

Unseen Issue

2009-09-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

We were so excited after leaving our podcasting training last week about our technology. Bonnie & I both began working on our own podcast to show the students before we begin our next big project. Yesterday I tried logging in to the Mac Book that I had started my podcast on & I was unable to log in. After trying all different types of ways to get it to work I quit. I began working on another computer. I started working on a Keynote slide show for our Back to School Night. I finished it all up & was ready to set it up to my projector and...they don't connect. There is a special connector that we need, I'm sure from Apple, for our projectors. Now, the plans we had to show our students the podcast, that we so diligently worked on last week, have changed. This is very frustrating.

Also, another unseen issue is that none of the Mac Books have the network folders, i.e. Sweden, Alaska, Norway, on them. You have to put in a Geek ticket to have those loaded on the Macs. So now it's sit and wait until the tech guys can come out to do this. My kids are very eager to begin working on them, but saving their work is an issue.

September 14th; Students review work

2009-09-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

As part of the learning process about book reviews and videotaping, I wanted the students to watch their own videos and then identify what they could improve on and what they did well. This would be the written component of their project. They were excited to see their videos because most just "shot" and turned in. After they ran to the computers and waited to log in and get connected, none of the students were able to watch their review...they all had the stutter problem with the video.

Sept. 13th, 2009

2009-09-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

Good news! The MACS are in ...yeah!
Bad news! They don't work at home! Booo!
Good news! Our geek guy showed us how to get on them at home...yeah!
Bad news! We can only get on the desk top - we can't get on the internet...can't access
internet to add pictures to my practice podcast. Thank goodness they told us in our tutorial class to save help cards to desktop or I would have really been lost.

I need help! I give a lot of personal time to try and figure things out but without connections, it won't work. Frustration abounds with the new pieces of technology and the lack of technology support. While at school I got some help so that the flip video recordings could be viewed. But when I got home I couldn't play them...it seemed to be a synch problem. I was told to try AVI. I am unable to download AVI to try and remedy it. I packed up my computers, books, and loaded the car. I had to go to school in order to view them. Even at school my computer is treated as though it is a guest. Lots of issues. The young geeks have tried a time or two to fix it, they can't; they say they will let someone know. But the situation remains. Ashley and I have given quite a few hours to try to set up our podcast, but we are unable to continue the work at home. Planning is difficult because we want to be proactive and delve into projects using the new technology, but experience tells us not to count on it. Things aren't working as they should.

First Flip Video Book Report

2009-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a sample of our first Flip Video book report. The kids were excited about filming! We did this as a center and there were four students. We had two cameras.

The students found the camera easy to use. When we downloaded it we saved it to the students' folders on Norway we also saved a copy in Sweden where Ashley and I have each set up a family folder. Each of our family folders has 3 seminar folders where the students can deposit their work.

The flip video picture is crisp. Students need to be careful where they film as noise, even the air-conditioning is captured on the camera. When we saved the video and played it back there were some streaming issues that were not evident on the camera when played back. We are trying to find out whether there is a setting or some other thing we can do to eliminate the hesitation.

2009-09-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

First Week

2009-08-29T04:56:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind! First of all, I am having a lot of difficulty getting my blogs to post. I have finally logged on to my computer at home; I am hoping to have more luck. My school computer seems to kick me off or not allow me to post. I understand the kids' frustration when they complete an activity and then lose it. I love using technology, but I hate it when I can't get it to work.
Our first week just blew by. Ashley and I began by instructing the students in acceptable use and safety. We demonstrated how to get to our web pages. It took a while to get all of the students on the computers. They had to set up their new passwords. Our activity was for our students to go to our web pages, sign up for our classes, and then tell us 3 things they found on our web pages. Not being able to sign our students up for their gmail accounts the first week as we initially planned altered some of our activities and put us back to paper and notecards. Ashley and I took our students to the library this week to be instructed by our librarian, Kay Land, on how to use Noodle to cite references. This was a refresher for most, but most of the students needed it. Then, our students shared computers to cite the books they were using for silent reading to demonstrate their knowledge. Our flip video cameras came in! The students were excited. I made a sample book report and played it using the projector. The kids were excited. I am hoping to begin using the flip video in a center this week so the kids can begin their book reports. Several in the class have similar cameras, which is good. They can help all of us! One did mention to put a soft cloth under the camera when downloading the video to the computer so we wouldn't scratch the lens. Great advice!

First Week of School

2009-08-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

We have made it through half of the first week. It's been very crazy to say the least. The students are very excited to hear about all of the technology that we will be using in class this year. I can already tell that they know more about most of the stuff than I do. I think I will be learning more from them, than them from me.

The students were very actively engaged when we went of the Acceptable Use Policy. I took time in class to jig-saw & go over it. I think that now that they know they will be using technology on a daily basis, they better learn & follow these guidelines.

I have found some great internet safety videos on Teacher Tube, title "Think Before You Post." I am planning on showing them to my classes tomorrow & discussing internet safety. This is one thing that I don't think the students understand at all-even after talking about it numerous times, they still think their profiles are completely private on the social networking sites. I have also posted the videos on my class website for parents to see as well.

As of right now, I am very overwhelmed with fitting everything in & staying up with the curriculum. Not only are "Watts Up" & I teaching both LA/SS, but we are now having to take time to teach the students how to use the technology. I hope we can get it done effectively.

2009-08-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, we're up and on! This summer's attempt at using more technology (Library2Play) was interesting and gave us some new ideas. We are excited and are formulating different ways we can engage our students. One of our first priorities is getting our students signed on, prove how to save to their folders, and find and respond to our web pages to demostrate they can view their assignments and class news. We will begin with etiquette and how to find and cite sources. When we receive the account numbers from the distict we are poised for them to set up their gmail accounts.