TOOL#8

I love that I got to bring home the Dell Notebook and IPad to "play" with this summer.  THANK YOU, Karen, for letting us have them over the summer.   There's nothing like having down time to play and learn, so I didn't have to watch the videos on the 11 Tools page to learn how to use these electronics.   I can't wait to use my IPad as I walk around the room to take roll or homework grades because I can do it electroically through our gradebook rather than doing it with pencil and paper and then having to transfer the info. into the computer later for parents to see. 

I much prefer the Ipad to the Itouch since the screen is bigger and documents can be typed into Google Docs.  Best of all, I like the size of the Dell notebook.  It's easy to carry and simple to use.  Then I won't have to undock my laptap when I go to staff meetings or want to type while I'm in a coworker's room planning lessons. 

TOOL #7

DIGITAL PROJECT- BOOKCLUBS

What a fun way to get kids doing electronic bookclubs as a project.  This will be great for kids reading significantly above or below grade level and when students want to work with kids in other classrooms.  Since it is all done electronically on their own time and at their own pace, this could help with scheduling issues.   Some ways to to make bookclubs a digital project are listed below:

• Rather than creating poster charts all over the classroom with observation, wondering and connection sticky notes that they write while they read, each club could have its own Wallwisher page to make the sticky notes electronically. 
• Students could create a blog with discussion topics or point of view questions for each chapter rather than writing them in their spiral notebook.  This could also be a good forum for conflict debates.
• Students can Skype the author or children in other classrooms outside of RCE to discuss or roleplay parts of the story. 

TOOL#6

I went ahead and set up a Skype account because I would love to communicate with authors or other classroooms to discuss our curriculum.  I also set up a Wallwisher wall page on www.wallwisher.com/wall/DRCOOL.  I would like to use this in the fall as a blog page for one of my students to be in charge of posting the homework every morning so students and parents can access that information from home in the evening. 

TOOL #5 (part 2)

I was going to do something with Mixbook until I realized that it is just like Shutterfly photo that I have used in the past to make albums for my family.  I also used Wordles with my students last year as an activity for learning buddies to find commonalities between the fifth graders and the second graders, so I decided to find out how to use WordSift.   Again, I decided to use the Preamble assignment.  I typed in the words and it just sifted them in a different order.  I suppose I could put this on paper or my white board and see if the students can reorder the words before they are required to say them aloud.  However, both of the activities I listed in this tool require very low-level thinking so I will really just use them briefly during quick downtime in the classroom or at the beginning of a lesson.

TOOL #5 (part one)

I love the idea of putting this comix up on the day the students are supposed to recite the Preamble to see if they are ready.  If they can at least fill in the blanks, then they know they are on the right track.  If not, they have more studying to do before they are ready to receive their oral language grade.

TOOL #4

OK, I am so happy that I finally learned how to use and access Google Docs.  I love the idea of not worrying about bringing a flash drive with me when I need to access a document, and I like that I can use a document on either a PC or Mac.   I created a lesson plan template from the thousands of examples and shared it with Judy and Joanna.  Judy and I were able to work on it to play around .  VERY COOL!   My concerns about students publishing documents for grading through Google Docs are listed below. 

• How are we supposed to grade work that a student starts at school but finishes at home?  According to our grading guidelines we are not supposed to take a grade if the child took the work home.
• Last year I had a student get mad at a friend while they were working on project so he erased the other student's work. 
• We also had problems printing the work.

Tool #3- Regions of the US Video Links

Here are some great video links that my students can use during our first unit of research in social studies:

THE MIDDLE WEST ENVIRONMENT
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=62CB900E-00CD-4515-8FD2-1B3955AF1DC8&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US

THE NORTHEAST
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=11C0EB98-638E-4094-9F9D-9843EFD50CEF&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US

TOOLS #1 & 2

Ok, so today after an hour and a half in Barnes & Nobel I was able to finally get back into this blog and comment on my five of my fellow coworkers blogs.  The only thoughts that come to mind for using this in the fall would be to post homework, blog about book clubs, or answer parent/student class questions.