SOMS Language Arts

Geico TV Ads - Rhetorical Questions

2011-02-07T15:40:00.001-08:00

HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!

2011-02-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

What a Year!

2010-05-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

I completely agree with Betsy. It's difficult to stop and reflect on our use of technology in the past year since we're wrapped up in the craziness of the end of the year. Also, I think we're all hard on ourselves since we have such high hopes and expectations. Then again, when I look back on all that my students have accomplished in the past year, particularly the projects that involved technology, I am so proud of them!

The Power to Learn grant served over 100 of my 7th grade students, including both my language arts students and our newspaper students. Plus, this grant served all 8th grade students. I can't wait to see how my 7th grade students who used the technology all year will thrive next year in 8th grade. I imagine (or at least I hope) that the students will continue to shine as they benefit from the easy access to ipods, netbooks, and flip cameras.

My students just recently created book trailers. Throughout the year, we have used different video formats, so by now, the students are familiar with several different programs including iMovie, GoAnimate.com, XtraNormal.com, Animoto.com, and the flip cameras. After choosing their favorite book that they read this year, students planned out a book trailer for their book. They watched several examples of other book trailers on the ipods. Much like movie trailers, we discussed how a book trailer should "sell" people on the book. The trailers should encourage people to read the book. And, therefore, students wrote scripts highlighting their favorite parts of the books without giving away the ending. After planning their book trailer and writing a script, students chose a video format for their trailer. It was pretty cool to see some groups combine more than one program for their book trailers. In general, I think students seemed to like iMovie, Animoto, and the flip cameras the best...and several groups combined a few of these programs. So cool! Now we have a huge collection of book trailers on the ipods, so students can browse these trailers when they are looking for a good book to read.

Honestly, I can't wait for next year. I think that as successful as this year was, next year will be so much better! We can use the technology right from the start of the year, and by next year, I really think it will be seamless. I have gotten much better about integrating technology into my lessons, and that really took some time to get used to thinking differently. It was exciting to offer my students so many awesome opportunities and different ways of learning that would not be possible without this technology in my room. Next year, I want to use this technology from day one. And I can only imagine how much more successful next year will be. Teaching with access to so much technology has allowed me to be more creative...and our students' use of this technology has definitely helped them!

The End is in Sight

2010-05-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it's the end of May. We only have a few more days until finals and everything is crazy right now. I've got students using iPods to assist them as they finish reading Daniel's Story or Night. Students are using computers to finish typing essays, paragraphs, poems, and to conduct research. We've had some printing problems which have delayed getting some work printed for portfolios, and I'm still not sure how all of that is going to be resolved.

Overall, it's a little hard to reflect when I'm still in the middle of all the craziness. However, I know that is what I'm supposed to do right now, so I'm going to try. I think this year has had some great successes. I don't know if we exactly "lived the dream" as far as technology goes, but we definitely made some great progress. The problem with evaluating this year is that our expectations for ourselves are so high. Every time we try something, we always look at what we have done and say, "How can we do this better next time?" That means it's hard to look back on this year without looking at the areas for improvement.

I do know that my 8th grade team agrees that using the technology has been a great motivator for the kids, and for us, as well. We are so happy that we applied for this grant and cannot imagine teaching without it now. Our successes have been in working together to troubleshoot and to come up with ideas for great lessons. I know our kids really enjoyed using the iPods to view videos that connected to our curriculum, talking about what they read on Ning, and designing their own heroes online on HeroMachine. They also enjoyed just being able to access info on a computer or to be able to type up their writing whenever they needed to do so. The challenges have been finding the time to seamlessly fit the technology into our lessons. We've had a million great ideas, but we don't always have the time to carry them out or to fit them into the curriculum.

I think we've learned so much, and we're excited to actually start next year with the technology and everything we have learned this year. I know starting from Day 1 with all of our expertise will make next year run much more smoothly. We're ready for a break and some time for reflection, but we'll be excited when it comes time to get started next year!

Technology Update

2010-04-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know where the year has gone. It is just flying by, and I just realized it had been way too long since I had posted anything on our blog. My students have definitely been using technology. One lesson they particularly enjoyed was one we did using VoiceThread. We were studying persuasive appeals and techniques, so I found commercials that I thought showed certain techniques and appeals my students had studied. I posted them on VoiceThread and then students viewed them there and pointed out the appeals used in each commercial. I had a written part to the assignment, as well, but of course, the part they got the most out of was getting to type in or record their answers on the VoiceThread. After that lesson, students then had to choose a cause and plan their own Public Service Announcement using persuasive appeals and techniques. They used the Dell minis to research and some used Flip cameras to record people to include in the PSA. All but one group created their PSA on iMovie. Some also used Garage Band to create their own music. Most chose music from Freeplaymusic.com. We are still trying to finish these PSAs right now. I already have eleven groups' PSAs posted on the T3 Grant's SBwiki. I plan on posting more. I just tried to load one here, but it didn't work. I never have any luck getting my videos here. I'll try again if I have time. Overall, I'd have to say that the students really did a great job with this project. Their PSAs were very emotional and persuasive, and I think the students completely enjoyed working on the project. I'm excited to use the Macs for another project!

Book Clubs

2010-03-10T16:07:00.001-08:00

My academic students finished reading Mississippi Trial, 1955 and my pre-AP students finished their book clubs. Each of these books was related to slavery and/or the Civil Rights Movement.

Students responded to blogs and led discussions on our class Ning and in the Ning book club groups.

Throughout our class discussions and the book club group discussions, students learned from the novels and from each other. Because the students seemed to have a growing fascination with this period of history, each group chose a topic that they wanted to research. After researching on the internet, students created Animoto videos to present their information to the rest of the class.

I was so proud to see my students going above and beyond my expectations. The students were so thrilled to create videos, and they went out of their way to learn new things.

Animoto videos

2010-03-10T15:49:00.001-08:00

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Little Rock Nine

Rosa Parks

KKK

Underground Railroad

NAACP

Social Networking Safety

2010-03-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know this video is pretty lame, but my students actually had a good discussion about social networking safety. Just wanted to share.

TCEA Conference

2010-02-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

I spent two days in Austin at the TCEA conference. I attended some interesting presentations while I was there. Since I just got back and have to plan for tomorrow's classes, I don't have time to explain everything I learned while I was there, but I do want to go ahead and post some websites that I heard about at some of my sessions. I thought this would be an easy way to store the information and that my grant team members might benefit from these ideas, as well.

I will post more that I learned soon.

Cool Websites/Tools I'd Heard of Before:
http://www.jingproject.com/- Jing easily captures screen shots and you can add comments to them

http://wallwisher.com/- On Wallwisher students can leave digital sticky notes and even add video or pictures; all the comments could appear on the ActivBoard all at once

http://www.wordle.net/- Wordle is where students can copy and paste text and it will pull out the most commonly used words and make a word cloud. (This could be cool for students to use when looking at persuasive speeches in order to focus on the word choice.)

http://animoto.com/- I'm sure most people have heard of Animoto, but what I liked about the example I saw was how it was used. They showed an example of a teacher using a video he made to introduce himself on the first day of school and to introduce his classroom rules. That's a much more interesting way to start off the school year than with a traditional packet and letter.

http://www.glogster.com/- Glogster is a way for students to create online posters. This has many possibilities.

http://www.imaginationcubed.com/ Share ideas by drawing on GE's multi-user online whiteboard.

Cool Ideas That Were New to Me:
http://museumbox.e2bn.org/-great way to present research; This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box.

http://blabberize.com/- Blabberize can make any of your pictures talk. You could use it in a presentation and students could use it, as well.

http://www.google.com/squared- Google Squared takes a category and creates a starter 'square' of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web.

http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/index.htm- Jam Studio creates music beats for free.

http://www.myavatareditor.com/- My Avatar Editor lets students create avatars like the ones on Wii. These can be used instead of pictures for profile page on Ning or a blog, or can be used in other writing assignments and projects.

http://sketch.odopod.com/#featured -Odo Sketch is a more advanced online drawing site.

http://classtools.net/ Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! The presenter shared one called the Random Name Picker that seemed like it had multiple possibilities. I have not looked at everything else that is offered yet, but the site seems full of options.

http://storybird.com/tour/- Storybird is a collaborative story-telling site. The art on the site inspires the stories.

Open House

2010-01-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

We had our Power to Learn Open House today. Because the 8th grade students were on a field trip, we had the opportunity to borrow their laptops, so we had tons of technology! With 24 computers and 8 ipods, every student had either a computer or an ipod at all times. Clearly, the students were actively engaged!

Our assignments today will lead into the book clubs that we're beginning next week. Because the books relate to civil rights, and because Monday is M.L.K. Day, today's assignments allowed students the opportunity to explore the historical background of this time period. Additionally, their writing assignments required the students to formulate opinions about "the way things were" in comparison to "the way things are today."

After explaining the assignment to the students, they referred back to the ActivBoard for instructions when they forgot what to do or when they got confused. I encouraged the students to choose what they wanted to do first, work on the ipods or the computers. It was actually pretty funny (and amazing!) to see the students who used both the ipods and computers at the same time. Multi-taskers!

The students who were using the computers responded to two blog posts on our Ning network. Both blog prompts related to civil rights. In fact, the students responded to M.L.K.'s "I Have a Dream" in one of their responses.

Because students are using our class Ning to write their responses, we discussed the importance of different types of writing and the importance of identifying the audience. For instance, we agreed that it's okay to use all lowercase letters or abbreviations when sending a message to a friend or when writing on another student's wall. However, we also agreed that students must use proper capitalization, spelling, and punctuation when typing assignments for class. For the most part, the students did pretty well with this.

The students used the ipods to watch two videos, M.L.K.'s video of "I Have a Dream" and the music video "A Dream" by Will.I.Am. While watching these videos, students were responsible for annotating their thoughts and examples of figurative language in "I Have a Dream." Students made excellent connections between the music video and the speech.

Students were actively engaged, and, therefore, there were no classroom management issues. Honestly, the students were perfect. Even my most challenging class worked silently all period, only whispering to help other students. This was definitely a pleasant surprise! If only we could do this every day... Our rotations usually work well, but nothing can compare to having extra computers in class. Today was amazing!

New Year!

2010-01-12T05:45:00.000-08:00

On top of what was previously mentioned in regards to the 8th grade team, I have found that students enjoy being on the laptops for ANYTHING, even if it is something as simple as typing a paper instead of writing it by hand. With so many students who do not have computer access at home, this gives them a great opportunity to learn more about technology.

I have still found that one of my biggest problems rests in the fact that there is a significant number of students who never turned in permission slips (whether it be for e-mail or the social networking), but as stated before, I think this will go much smoother when we are able to start handing out permission slips at the beginning of the school year. Though I can say that some students became quickly motivated to turn in permission slips after having seen what other students were doing with things like the Ning.

As we get a steady grasp on the technology and all of its potential, we continue to come up with more and more ideas to integrate it into our classrooms. The 8th grade students will be completing a web scavenger hunt over the Civil War. This gives students the opportunity to both learn about the war and enhance their web navigation skills. We are also using audio books once again on the iPod Touches. Some students prefer to read to themselves, but the audio books have really helped engage students, as well as keep them at a steady pace. I definitely see it as being beneficial.

As a reading lab teacher, I have also found websites that are beneficial to providing practice over TAKS objectives for my students. It makes the drills much more exciting for them, and the students are always happy to have the technology out.

We are always thinking up (or discovering) new ways to integrate the technology, and the more we learn about it, the smoother the process becomes.

Book Clubs

2009-12-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we are already almost finished with the semester. It's been a whirlwind. Students in all of our 8th grade Language Arts classes have been busy using technology for a variety of different activities connected to their Book Club book. We got our book club books on audiobook so that students had the option to listen to their book on the iPod Touch as they read. I formed groups on our class Ning so that students had a place to respond to what they were reading and could get feedback from their teacher and from other students. The feedback has not been able to be as frequent or instant as I had hoped because we only have six computers, but I found that students were excited about responding in this way. If we had more computers, the Ning would be even more effective. Students have also been taking turns using the computers to complete research for projects connected to their Book Clubs. Just recently, students used the computers to create their own hero as a pre-writing activity for their hero's journey creative story. The website is called Hero Machine 2.5 and the students absolutely loved getting to create their hero. I think it really got their creative juices flowing and hopefully, their final products written products will benefit from this activity. My students seem to be getting used to the different processes they have to go through to log in to Google docs and to our Ning. Some still need help, but overall, I think it is starting to get easier. I'm excited about next semester. There's so much more I wanted to accomplish by this point, but I have to remind myself that we got a slow start since we didn't get to kick off the year with the technology in place. I really feel like next semester, we can accomplish so much more since we'll have everything in place from the first day of school.

Greek Mythology videos

2009-11-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

My Pre-AP students finished working on their Greek mythology videos, and they are hysterical! This project required them to research one Greek god or goddess to go along with The Lightning Thief. Some groups chose to use the flip cameras. I can't believe how easy it was to point, shoot, edit, and publish! Other groups decided to use xtranormal videos, and those came out really cute too. With very few exceptions, I was thrilled with what these students produced using technology!

I'm including a video. Enjoy!

Just "Ning"ing it!

2009-10-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! All of my students have now joined my Ning sites. I have two sites: one for my two Pre-AP classes and one for my two Academic classes. The students really seem to enjoy having a place where they can all come together. I have created groups for each Book Club and students are in the process of joining the groups and adding to discussion posts on certain chapters. It's been a little crazy trying to get everyone in and to get everyone started, but I think it's going to be a really great way for students to discuss what they are reading and for me to give immediate feedback to their thinking. I know this has many more possibilities, as well.

Another First!

2009-10-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

Today, my Academic students used the Dell minis for the first time. I used my ActiveBoard to guide them through the steps of logging into their Google docs account for the first time. It took a long time to get through the steps, but it ran pretty darn smoothly, considering. They did not get much time to actually type their drafts, but I'm hopeful that one more day will be all they need to finish. After having our Pre-AP students type in shifts, we decided that it would be easier to have our Academic classes log in all at once this first time. Now that they know the basics of accessing Google docs, we can go back to rotations next time. I'm eager to start my class Nings, but I'm waiting for permission slips. Argh! I don't want to introduce the steps of logging into the Ning more than once per class, so I'm waiting to collect all the slips.

Currently, the Pre-AP students are working on a project where they have selected a movie that follows the Hero's Journey. They will outline the Hero's Journey in the movie using Google docs to make the presentation. Then, we will convert their presentation so that they can record narration on Keynote on the Mac and download it into iTunes. Then, all the students can view the presentations on the iPod touches.

We are starting Book Clubs tomorrow. I created a short Keynote presentation of Ch. 1 of The Giver focusing on clarifying certain words as I recorded myself reading the chapter. The Giver group will be able to read their book along with my recording of the chapter. Our team has plans to record key chapters of the other Book club selections so that other groups will have a chance to listen, as well. We also hope to use the Flip cameras and Nings for students to respond to their Book Club books and share with other groups who are reading the same book.

Overall, it has been very exciting using this technology, and I am very appreciative. My only wish is that the ActiveBoards had arrived a little later. I feel like when those showed up, my stress level really shot up. I love the ActiveBoard, don't get me wrong, but I'm feeling pressure to use so many different types of technology all at once, and the amount of time it takes to use them all well, while at the same time, keep the focus on what students are learning, is a little overwhelming. I'm all about making changes this year, and so far, I'm adjusting to the changes pretty well, but I just have to make sure I don't lose sight of my students and their needs in all the excitement and rush of trying to incorporate technology into everything. I've always prided myself on giving my students plenty of individual attention, and I'm feeling like that may be slipping a tad as my creativity and energies focus on technology lessons and projects. I know their learning and engagement will increase once they are in the habit of using all of this new stuff in my room, so I guess it will all balance out.

I agree with Melissa about the blog. We have not gotten very creative with our blog postings yet which is regrettable, but I'm hoping that once we get into the groove, we will be able to improve.

Here is Ch. 1 of The Giver that I mentioned above.

Up and Running!

2009-10-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

We're officially up and running now! I'm proud to report that we're using the laptops nearly every day, or at least a group of students use them, and we're using the i-pod touches once or twice a week. The students definitely consider using the technology a privilege, so they are respectful and responsible. In fact, using the technology towards the second half of the period ensures that we eliminate (or minimize!) discipline problems. Overall, I'm LOVING it! :)

My academic students are posting examples of figurative language on their class blogs. The best part is that students look at the other students' examples, so they recognize and can come up with their own examples. Clearly, this approach has been successful in that even some of my more difficult students eagerly pointed out when they came across examples of figurative language in The Lightning Thief, our class novel. Yes!!!

My pre-AP students are continuing their research on their Greek god, titan, or monster, also in relation to The Lightning Thief. They are beginning to plan out their video and to divide up roles, all in preparation of making a video about their Greek god. Some students have decided to make a music video, others a commercial, and still others are making a skit or movie trailer. Most of the groups will use the flip cameras to record their videos. I have two groups who do not want to be in their videos, so we are exploring www.xtranormal.com. I'm hoping this will work. Otherwise, we'll keep coming up with new ideas. Honestly, my students know far more about computer programs and websites than I do, so they are coming up with amazing ideas!

After going to the Power to Learn meeting last night, Jen and I were so impressed with all the other teams' awesome ideas and successes. It was great to hear what other schools are doing and to imagine using some of those ideas in my 7th grade classroom. However, we also saw the other teams' blogs, and we realized that we need to add to our blog a bit more. Of course, it's so difficult to find the time to add to our blog. And when we do have a free minute, we're using it to further our students' access to the technology, not so focused on recording our progress. Now we all have access to the blog though, so we can all add to the blog in our own usernames. Hopefully it will make updating the blog a bit easier.

My students started prewriting and drafting a personal narrative, so as we continue drafting, revising, and editing, I'm hoping to have them type their writing in Google docs. Again, though, we're just trying to find the time. Over the next two weeks, hopefully the students will use Google docs, and my pre-AP students will use the flip cameras. Look forward to updates soon.

Loving This New Technology!

2009-09-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

We’re off to an exciting start with our new technology. Last Friday, I divided my students up into three groups, each rotating to stations around the room. One group of students used the i-Pod touches to watch a slideshow on the hero’s journey. While they were watching, they were taking notes and responding to questions by tracking the hero’s journey in The Lightning Thief, our class novel. I created the slideshow using Keynote because I, too, had trouble with Garage Band. Keynote worked perfectly, and it was easy to export the file to iTunes, and then to sync iTunes with the iPods. My only difficulty with Keynote was when I tried to include short videos in my Keynote slideshow. It worked well on Keynote, but once I exported the file to iTunes, the videos didn’t match the voices. I ended up just including the videos separately in iTunes, not as a part of the slideshow. It worked out well and the kids seemed to LOVE this fresh approach to learning.

While some students were working with the iPod touches, another group of students worked with the laptop minis. These students were using the internet to research the Greek gods that are included in The Lightning Thief. I met with these students and briefly discussed reliable resources on the internet, and I was pleasantly surprised by how critical students became of unreliable sources. They quietly pointed out helpful websites to their group members and added to their notes on the Greek gods. I loved listening to the great discussions coming from these students!

The remaining students were reading their SSR books or catching up in The Lightning Thief. Of course, everyone wanted to spend all of their time using the technology, but because all students completed the three rotations, everyone worked well together and completed their assignments.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from my students. Chaos? I can’t even believe how well it worked though! The students were focused and engaged for the entire period. And perhaps the most exciting part is that even my tough, difficult students who rarely seem interested were doing some of their best work. Clearly, Friday was a success! In fact, Friday was so successful that on Monday we used our technology again.

I’m excited that now we have email addresses for our students. I’m ready to get started on our class Ning. I can see using the Nings, a separate one for each of my classes, frequently. There’s so much you can do on Ning!

My pre-AP students are getting ready to start a group project on the Greek gods, and we’ll be using the flip-cameras. I can’t believe how easy they are to use! Then, of course, the students will be able to upload their videos on the laptops or the ipods. Exciting!!!

Now that we’ve gotten started using this technology, I can’t believe how easy it is to work with the district curriculum and to strengthen daily lessons to make them more memorable and engaging. After making my first slideshow, the ideas started flowing. Unfortunately, while I’m trying to sleep, new ideas will pop into my head. That’s getting old. I need my sleep!

I’m disappointed that I don’t have a common planning time with the 8^th grade team, and as the only 7^th grade teacher with this technology, that means that I’m creating all of the lessons. On the bright side, though, the ideas really are flowing now, so I’m not too concerned. I just wish we had more time in the day. Then again, I’m sure I’ll become more efficient as I learn.

My students and I are incredibly grateful to have all this technology in our hands!

--Melissa Weedin

We've Started!

2009-09-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

The last week has been crazy! The iPod touch devices were delivered on Friday, Sept. 11th. That Saturday, Valarie, Jennifer, and I attended a workshop about Macs and iPod touches. We were really eager to use our new technology in the classroom A.S.A.P. (and so were our students), so we put a top priority on figuring that out this past week. Jen had already been hard at work on a PowerPoint on Figurative Language so after we got the Mac, she successfully converted it to Keynote (on the Mac). Our hero!

The workshop we attended on Saturday suggested we use Garage Band for podcasts, so Valarie, Jen, and I had our first recording session last Wednesday after school. The recording went pretty smoothly, but when we were done, that's when the problems began. When we tried to put the images from Keynote into Garage Band, it took Jen some time to match them up with the proper narration, but she persevered! Then, when she put it into iTunes, only the voices were available, not the images. By this point, it was late. She had been working on this way too long, already, and really needed to get home. (The problem with our Mac is that right now, we are unable to get it to open at home, so we've had to do everything up at school). I thought I'd look at it one more time after she left, and I realized that you can narrate on Keynote and that it appears in iTunes with no problem. It's so easy (but from what we were able to tell, if you mess up, you have to start all the way over). I checked to see that it would open in iTunes, and it worked there, too.

The next day during our planning period, the three of us recorded our narration, AGAIN, in Keynote. We got it into iTunes with ease, and we were ready to roll. I also had some movie clips from WingClips (Inspirational Hollywood movie clip downloads licensed for church or non-profit viewing) that I wanted to get into iTunes for a lesson on Conflict. I had them saved in RealPlayer on my Dell, but could not figure out how to get them on my Mac. I was going to just download them again on the Mac, but the internet wasn't working. Finally, by Thursday afternoon, the internet worked on the Mac, so I was able to get those downloaded on the Mac. They were saved in QuickTime, and I figured out a way to convert them to put them into iTunes. Success!

In our classrooms, we made efforts to prepare our kids for using the iPod touches. Valarie had her kids come up with their own contract for using the iPod touch, and Jen and I made one that we had the kids sign. Our 8th Grade Pre-AP students were at the spot in our curriculum where it was time to review figurative, so on Friday we did a three group rotation. One group has Silent Sustained Reading, one group took notes and did some independent practice on figurative langauge using the video we made (from Keynote) that was on the iPod touch, and one group worked on an activity connected to our class novel. Students were given about 20 minutes in each rotation. They seemed VERY focused when they had on the headphones and were taking notes. It was amazing the differences I saw between that version of reviewing a concept and when we do it whole class. If we had used that same video with the whole class, there would have not been as much engagement. Jen agreed that the rotations worked really well in her class. Of course, there are some kinks to work out (mostly with the focus of the other two groups who don't have the technology), but we look forward to discussing that and trying it again with our Academic classes. I actually was able to use the videos with my Academic classes on Friday. The students were supposed to view the movie clip, figure out the type of conflict it showed, and explain the conflict. The students were either doing their Silent Sustained Reading or were viewing the clips. It was amazing to see how those students were focused when they had on their headphones and that little screen. The other kids who were waiting for a turn were mostly really focused on their book. I would say a few students were a little distracted, but this was a Friday and the first day of using the devices. I would not say they were really any more distracted than they would be on a regular day. That was my most challenging class, and yet they still did well.

This next week we'll try the rotations with our Academic classes. We're ready to use the iPods for some different types of activities, as well. It's just that we need time to figure everything out. I think having the time to be as creative as we want to be will be one of our greatest challenges. Also, we feel bad because this year we don't have the same planning period as Melissa. She was sick and did not get to attend the workshop last Saturday. She's very good with technology and a quick learner, but we really counted on being able to team with her during planning time. I filled her in on what we've been up to, but I want to make sure she has enough support. Maybe this blog will help? I don't know. I know I would not have been able to make any of this work in my classroom this past week if it weren't for my team members. This is all happening so fast. It's a total whirlwind. Jen has grad school two nights a week, and this is Valarie's first year of teaching. They are doing a great job balancing everything.

Also, the Dell mini laptops arrived on Friday. We have not even had a chance to think about those. I think we'll wait until we get info on the Gmail accounts before we start to worry about that. This is exciting, but a little overwhelming.

Waiting to Begin

2009-08-18T13:38:00.001-07:00

My team and I are excited about using our new technology in our Language Arts classrooms. Our only wish is that we could start using the technology today, but we understand how these things go and will be grateful to receive it when comes in September. We have so many ideas and are just curious to see how it will all go when we start trying out the technology activities with our students.