Interactive Whiteboards

 I enjoyed doing my SmartBoard lesson.  I have always wanted to do a SmartBoard Lesson and I feel very lucky to do one and learn the software. I even taught my lesson to a third grade class to test it out.   I did my lesson on living and nonliving things.  It enhanced my lesson by letting me add pictures and videos of living and nonliving things.  In one part of my lesson, the students had to move an "L" or "N" over a picture and decide if the picture was living or nonliving.  It allowed me to informal assessment my students. 
The pros of having an interactive whiteboard in your classroom are endless.  The cons of having an interactive whiteboard in your classroom are finding the time to put your lessons on the computer and making sure all students are engaged in learning.  I could have used a Smartboard while teaching onset and rime, rhyming words, and letter recognition. 

“One study found that in spite of the fact that 99 percent of K–12 schools have Internet access, as do most classrooms (87 percent), these resources are rarely used effectively.” This statistic jumped out at me.  I think of my building and all the demands that teachers must do.  Our teachers in all grade levels must do 120 minutes of reading/language arts from a researched based program.  Factor in all of the other requirements of teaching; it is hard to use technology effectively.  My building was built in the 1960’s and there are not many electrical sockets in each room. I think our teacher would love to use technology more, it's just finding the time to fit it in.

            I think the Net Geners are great at using technology socially.  Communicating socially is just like breathing to them.  It comes naturally.  But I wonder if they feel that they are using technology effectively?

Graphic Organizers

Graphic Organizers are a great tool to help students organize their thoughts.  Graphic organizer are an excellent tool to help visualize their learning.  Why use graphic organizers in students projects? They can help organize and highlight important information.  It is a great visual to reinforce learning.  Graphic organizers are a great alternative for students who may have trouble writing paragraphs or doing written reports. 

Social Bookmarking

Did you ever find a great website? And the next day, you try to find it, and you can not.  Social bookmarking can help you organize the websites you use and they can be all in one place at a click of a button.  Social bookmarking to me, is having a collection of your favorite websites and putting names (aka tags) to classify them.  Social bookmarking can be used to help your student learn more about a topic or get extra help at home.  Teachers can have a "bookmarking community" where they can share websites and tags with each other. 

Excel

New Excel ideas:

            1) The students wear uniform (colors consist of white, light blue or dark blue) to school.  We could use excel to track who wore what colors on any given day. 

            2) We have to document when we would with small groups.  We could use Excel to show what we have taught and keep track of the progress.

            3) We have to track how students get to school.  We could use Excel to see if they are a walker, go on a bus, or they are dropped off by the car line.

            4) Students could use excel to show how many words they read in a minute.  They can use the graph function to show grow over time.

            5) Student could use Excel to help them understand math facts. Students can use excel to learn about equivalent expressions by finding how many ways they can make 12, using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Google Docs or Microsoft Word/Excel

            I would choose to stay with Microsoft Word/Excel.  Teachers are familiar with these programs. A lot of new expectations are put on teachers and they are expected to do it with the resources they have in their classroom.  Teachers need to be able to access information at the touch of a button.  If the internet is done, you won’t be able to get on google docs. It is important to have hard copies of information. 

"Language"

"For the NetGen, nearly every part of life is presented in multimedia format."

When I think about the "language" that my students speak, I think of my language.  There are many times I have said to a friend, "text me later" or "send me an email."  I hear this "language" around some of the older students I work with. 
 I remember back in high school, everyone would be on AOL instant messanger.  You could have five or more conversations at once.  So much information is at our student's fingertips.  Is this how they communicate with their parents? But I have to wonder?  Is this "language" replacing the language experience that children need in order to create background knowledge? Do children know how to communicate properly if their fingers do the talking?  I agree that students will always use this "language" but, they need to remember how to communicate with people who don't speak their "language" and be willing to teach their "language."

Using Google Docs

Technology and I have a love/hate relationship.  When technology works for me, I love it.  When it does not, I hate it and I am usually yelling at the computer. I was surprised when I had no problems using Google docs and how easy it was.  I did have a back-up though.  I had a copy of what I was posting saved into Word just in-case something went wrong. 
Now figuring out how to post this blog was another story.  But I didn't yell or scream.  I remained calm and just experimented with the website.  I figured it out and I did not have to call for help.
So far, so good with my technology this week!
JK