We got some iPads to be used by teachers. There is one iPad per grade-level team, so they need to be shared by 2-4 people. They are intended for documentation, behavior management, evaluation (teacher, not student), things like that. Not apps for practicing math or reading.
Here is something that I am learning about technology integration. Guidance is very helpful! I think iPads could be very useful for teachers. There are two teachers in the building I know of that were on-board with iPads before this year. The majority of the teachers are focused on what to do today with their students, and they often do what they have done before. This is a natural part of working. We get into a groove, and if it is working, we want to keep doing the same thing. So when we gave these iPads to teachers, we told them to go and play around with them. This was not very helpful for them, and consequently they did random, not very educational things with them. This was only to be expected.
So this last Monday I sent out an email to all the teachers. Here it is:
My apologies. You were given iPads with very little guidance on what is expected of these devices. Here are some general guidelines. I will visit your teams next week to clarify and answer any questions you might have.
Please note, these are guidelines for the iPads purchased with SINA money. There are other sets of iPads in the building which are for other purposes, purchased with other monies, and have different guidelines.
1. SHARING. These were given to each grade level team, Title One and Specialists. They were handed to the Team Leader, who was asked to familiarize themselves with these things. The expectation is that the TL load some apps onto the iPad for teacher use, and practice using it in the classroom. Then the iPad is to be SHARED amongst the team members. For example, for the Specialist Team, we will meet next week and figure out when each member will use our iPad. No one member of the team should use it exclusively. We are trying to figure out how to use these most effectively in the classroom, and that will happen if we all contribute to the process. I have been told that, since a team member has a personal iPad, they don't need the school one. This is a faulty assumption. Think of the iPads as a type of school equipment, like Promethean Boards. They are to be used for educational purposes, and everyone should try using them.
2. APPROPRIATE APPS. An email was sent out with some apps that have been used by teachers effectively in the classroom. Please try those first. For example, every teacher that does Reading Records should try the Reading Record app, it is getting rave reviews from teachers that use it. The focus for these iPads is for teachers to use them for recording, photos, videos and whatever else would be useful for teachers in the classroom. This does not include games (although Brian downloaded Temple Run on all of them as a test :)). There shouldn't be student games loaded on these iPads. These are not to be used by students, and if you have games loaded on them, I will assume they are for you and will delete them. Same goes for personal apps of any kind. It is important that we be professional in our use of technology.
I have set up a Youtube account for each grade level, Title One, and Specialists. I will set up each iPad so that you can take a video and have it upload easily to your YouTube account, and then show it in the classroom. So the time from taking the video to showing on the PB can be as short as 5 minutes (depends on the length of the video).
3. THERE IS NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY. Many of you have set up your email on the mail app. If you do this, please delete that account. It would be better to establish an icon that opens Safari to the Microsoft Exchange login page. That is more private but still relatively easy to get to. Anyone who uses the iPad can view your email if you set it up incorrectly. Jambura or myself (sorry, Jambura, but Culpepper told me you showed her) can show you how to set up the icon more privately. There are also ways to set up restrictions, but that is not much of a problem because students should not be on these anyway, and since we are sharing them, restrictions just make sharing harder. Also, we may rearrange how these iPads are distributed at any time, so again, no personal apps of any kind.
4. SUPPORT. I am still learning, and will continue to learn about new ways to use these devices in the classroom. Please share what you know when you find a great way to use these. I have learned a lot of new things just in the last week that teachers have had these. I will set up a document on the Common Drive with apps and uses in a folder called iPads. Please feel free to add to this, but you can also just email me any new fun things, and I will put them on the Common Drive.
Again, I will visit your teams next week for clarifications and to answer questions.
I have not had much feedback to this email. I think this is a result of setting up guidelines after the teachers have the technology in hand. The teachers would have been better served to have gotten these guidelines WITH the iPads and with a list of useful apps that they could try.
Live and learn! Every experience I have with this integration project teaches me a lot about working with people. I am more and more enthusiastic about technology in the classroom. I am also more aware that how I treat the people that are doing the actual integration, the classroom teachers, makes a real difference in the outcome. This seems like a very elementary lesson for me to learn, but it seems I must keep learning this all my life.
Next blog, list of apps that could be useful for these teachers!
Possibilities and problems implementing technology in a K-5 school.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Twelfth Week
Last week!
This is the end of the 1st trimester, so I will be starting to work with two new grades, 1st and 3rd grade.
I feel like I should do a summary of challenges and celebrations. I am having trouble thinking of anything that I haven't covered already. But I will list some for my own benefit so I remember them when I am starting again with new grades.
Challenges.
Celebrations.
This is the end of the 1st trimester, so I will be starting to work with two new grades, 1st and 3rd grade.
I feel like I should do a summary of challenges and celebrations. I am having trouble thinking of anything that I haven't covered already. But I will list some for my own benefit so I remember them when I am starting again with new grades.
Challenges.
- Figuring out what is helpful for the grade. This differs depending on the teacher, level of technology knowledge, grade level, and what they are learning at that grade level.
- Time. I meet with the teachers during their planning time. This is VERY nice because I talk to the teachers more, but I don't get into the classes as much as would be helpful because I am busy with other things, including my media classes, at other times.
- Buy-in. How do I get them to want to continue this work. I can set up lovely blogs, great software, and give lists of useful websites. The classes may not do anything with them. The challenge here is for me to recognize when I have done all I could and let it go. No sense making myself crazy if someone doesn't want to do what I think they SHOULD do.
Celebrations.
- Relationships. I love talking to the teachers that I have worked with this last trimester. They are great teachers, they want to implement (useful) technology, they are receptive to suggestions, and they have good suggestions themselves. Yay teachers!
- Blogs. The concentration has been on starting class blogs for parent communication and writing in the classroom. This has been very successful and I have written about it a lot already. Yay blogs!
- Learning. I have learned so much more this trimester than I knew at the beginning. I have talked and talked and studied and read and learned bunches. And the more I learn the more I want to know. Yay education!
- Specifically. Blogs in every 2nd and 5th grade class. Lots more reference work done with these grades for their content work. School website overhaul. Started teaching Google searching to 2nd through 5th grade. Both grades practiced keyboarding all trimester. 5th grade was introduced to Read Write Gold, a software for assisting students with research. General yay!
- I wrote a grant for one 5th grade classroom to get 11 iPads for their reading and writing workshops. More to come on that, the grant was approved but we haven't gotten the iPads yet. Also, each grade level will get an iPad for the teacher to help them video, photograph, and take notes on best practices. Best practices both for the teachers and the students. Yay iPads!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Eleventh Week
The Lowell Website http://www.waterloo.k12.ia.us/schoolsites/lowell/
Our school website is fairly prescriptive. All schools have the same template from Wordpress, and each school has a list of features that are required to be in place (mission statement, staff emails, etc.). This is very helpful in many ways because when I started being in charge of the website I knew what needed to be on the page and didn't have to spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel.
But as a result of getting all these teacher blogs, I feel that the Lowell website is more and more useful. The class blogs have been added to the website, as well as the Art blog and the Music blog. The media/library website is more useful as a result of learning more about how blogs are set up. We have set up a Professional Development blog for the Math Coach and the Reading Coach. Both coaches post their information from classes that they teach on Wednesdays, along with useful information and resources for teachers.
Then, as a result of looking at the website more often, we have gotten ideas to jazz up the home page a little. We now have a "Spotlight on Success" part of the home page where we post student work which is nominated for a Principal's Award. All teachers can nominate students for these awards. They are nominated for writing, math, leadership, research, anything that teachers feel is a stand-out piece from a student. I take a picture of it, and post it. We spotlight classrooms too. The Reading Coach spotlights parts of classrooms that encourage literacy.
The Lowell website is now becoming more of what I believe a school site should be, a combination of information and celebration. A family or student should be able to answer many questions by going to the school site, and also find out how much we value and appreciate students and teachers and parents. There is more work to do. I don't think the home page is clear enough, it is too cluttered for my taste. But it is going in the right direction.
This is a good example of unintended consequences. I did not start out this pilot project intending to improve the website. But it has been improved as a result of working with teachers on blogs. I love this. I believe that if when we take a positive action, positive things ripple outward like wavelets when throwing a pebble into a pond. Every time we take a positive action, like help a teacher communicate with parents, more good things happen, like the the website gets better!
Yay blogs!
Our school website is fairly prescriptive. All schools have the same template from Wordpress, and each school has a list of features that are required to be in place (mission statement, staff emails, etc.). This is very helpful in many ways because when I started being in charge of the website I knew what needed to be on the page and didn't have to spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel.
But as a result of getting all these teacher blogs, I feel that the Lowell website is more and more useful. The class blogs have been added to the website, as well as the Art blog and the Music blog. The media/library website is more useful as a result of learning more about how blogs are set up. We have set up a Professional Development blog for the Math Coach and the Reading Coach. Both coaches post their information from classes that they teach on Wednesdays, along with useful information and resources for teachers.
Then, as a result of looking at the website more often, we have gotten ideas to jazz up the home page a little. We now have a "Spotlight on Success" part of the home page where we post student work which is nominated for a Principal's Award. All teachers can nominate students for these awards. They are nominated for writing, math, leadership, research, anything that teachers feel is a stand-out piece from a student. I take a picture of it, and post it. We spotlight classrooms too. The Reading Coach spotlights parts of classrooms that encourage literacy.
The Lowell website is now becoming more of what I believe a school site should be, a combination of information and celebration. A family or student should be able to answer many questions by going to the school site, and also find out how much we value and appreciate students and teachers and parents. There is more work to do. I don't think the home page is clear enough, it is too cluttered for my taste. But it is going in the right direction.
This is a good example of unintended consequences. I did not start out this pilot project intending to improve the website. But it has been improved as a result of working with teachers on blogs. I love this. I believe that if when we take a positive action, positive things ripple outward like wavelets when throwing a pebble into a pond. Every time we take a positive action, like help a teacher communicate with parents, more good things happen, like the the website gets better!
Yay blogs!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tenth Week
Skipped last week. We went out of town for a long weekend and I never got around to it :)
Subject this week is differences between K-2 blogs and 3-5 blogs.
I can only speak from the experience of Kindergarten, Second, and Fifth grade.
Kindergarten and Second Grade
These blogs are mostly used for Parent/Family communications. The Kindergarten teachers post every evening what the class worked on. They post dates to remember like PTO meetings and conferences, and things to work on at home like number sense and reading tips. They have gotten great feedback from parents on this. It is a great tool for teachers, but students are not involved in the posts or replies.
Second grade also uses their blogs as communication tools. They post pictures of activities and websites that families can use at home to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. Again, good communication tool, but the students are not involved in the posts or replies. This may change toward the end of second grade but it hasn't yet.
Fifth grade, on the other hand, is using the blog strictly within the classroom. The teacher who uses it most effectively posts a question each week as part of their reading workshops. The students comment on her post, and their answer must be approved by her before it is published. The teacher then comments back to them if their comment is posted, and a conversation is begun. The students in the last 5 weeks have posted increasingly thoughtful and sophisticated comments.
The fifth grade blog cannot be accessed without a login, so students can log in from home, but they cannot post anything without the teacher's approval. So this can be read by parents and families, but it is really a teaching tool in the classroom.
I appreciate both of these uses, and would like to see the younger grades give students some say in what to put in a class blog, and older grades use the blog as a parent/family communication tool. But the whole point of this pilot project is to take technology and get teachers to use it in a way that makes sense to them. As an example of expanding the use of blogs, one Kindergarten teacher has just been accepted into a Kindergarten Around the World project, where two Kindergarten classes correspond by Twitter and blogs for a school year, get to know one another, and expand their world as a result of these interactions. I think this is a very exciting project.
After the teachers are comfortable using these blogs, I will ask them to try using them in new ways. But I am not in a hurry. Ideally, as the teachers use these blogs, they will do more things with them than I could ever think of. I would love that!
Subject this week is differences between K-2 blogs and 3-5 blogs.
I can only speak from the experience of Kindergarten, Second, and Fifth grade.
Kindergarten and Second Grade
These blogs are mostly used for Parent/Family communications. The Kindergarten teachers post every evening what the class worked on. They post dates to remember like PTO meetings and conferences, and things to work on at home like number sense and reading tips. They have gotten great feedback from parents on this. It is a great tool for teachers, but students are not involved in the posts or replies.
Second grade also uses their blogs as communication tools. They post pictures of activities and websites that families can use at home to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. Again, good communication tool, but the students are not involved in the posts or replies. This may change toward the end of second grade but it hasn't yet.
Fifth grade, on the other hand, is using the blog strictly within the classroom. The teacher who uses it most effectively posts a question each week as part of their reading workshops. The students comment on her post, and their answer must be approved by her before it is published. The teacher then comments back to them if their comment is posted, and a conversation is begun. The students in the last 5 weeks have posted increasingly thoughtful and sophisticated comments.
The fifth grade blog cannot be accessed without a login, so students can log in from home, but they cannot post anything without the teacher's approval. So this can be read by parents and families, but it is really a teaching tool in the classroom.
I appreciate both of these uses, and would like to see the younger grades give students some say in what to put in a class blog, and older grades use the blog as a parent/family communication tool. But the whole point of this pilot project is to take technology and get teachers to use it in a way that makes sense to them. As an example of expanding the use of blogs, one Kindergarten teacher has just been accepted into a Kindergarten Around the World project, where two Kindergarten classes correspond by Twitter and blogs for a school year, get to know one another, and expand their world as a result of these interactions. I think this is a very exciting project.
After the teachers are comfortable using these blogs, I will ask them to try using them in new ways. But I am not in a hurry. Ideally, as the teachers use these blogs, they will do more things with them than I could ever think of. I would love that!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Eighth week
I want to talk more about relationships with teachers, and how that affects my work.
I have always felt that my job is to support BOTH students and teachers at school. This can be with books, helping find the right book for the right person, with research or teaching about research, or with technology or teaching about technology. But as I look back, I have concentrated on helping students, and only assisting teachers when they asked for help.
This pilot project has forced me to try to help teachers when I wasn't even sure that they wanted any help. My job is to "help teachers implement new technology in the classroom." That is a big statement, and I have spent a lot of my time this first trimester clarifying what that will look like. Clarifying has been very helpful and I will continue to do that.
But what has been the best surprise of the project is getting to know some teachers that I did not know before (very well, anyway), and building professional relationships that I value greatly. I have three teachers now that I regularly talk to, ask advice of, and share things with. They have enhanced my understanding of teaching -- and they are great to know!
For example, my principal just asked me for some advice on spending some technology money. Whereas before I would have asked other Media Specialists for help, today I went to a couple of teachers and talked to them. This makes a lot more sense, because the money is for MY school, and I want to use technology to specifically aid OUR students. So it was very fun to go to these teachers, get their input, kick around some ideas, and know that we will continue to talk about what is best for the students.
Yay teachers!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Seventh Week
My Role in this Pilot Project
Yesterday our Lead Teacher came into the Media Center. She wanted to rehearse the Professional Development that she would lead today. She asked two questions, one about PowerPoint and the other about YouTube. I knew the answer to neither question. BUT, here is what happened.
The PowerPoint question I googled. There was a PDF online with the steps to do what she wanted to do. I printed it out and handed it to her. Turns out she needs administrator rights to her computer in order to download something in connection with these PDF directions. I knew how to get her that. Sent her an email with that information. First question, done and done.
The YouTube question I needed someone else in the district to answer. I emailed him. He answered the email quickly and with the needed information. I forwarded this to the Lead Teacher. Second question, done and done.
When I was in Library School we took a class called Readers Advisory. In this class we learned about finding out exactly what a patron is asking for and then figuring out how to provide it. This can sometimes be a fairly long process, because people are not always able to articulate what it is they want. Of the two, it is easier to FIND what they want than to FIGURE OUT what they want.
So I am excited to feel like I am doing some Technology Advisory work. The example from yesterday was easy, because she knew what she wanted, so I just needed to FIND what she wanted. That makes me feel useful.
But my biggest challenge, and what I feel my role in this project is, is to FIGURE OUT what people want, especially when they think they don't want it :) When I started thinking about technology, I was overwhelmed by all the web tools out there that are helpful to people. As I learn more about the web tools, they seem like the easier part of the equation. It is figuring out what is helpful that is the hard part.
This figuring out part has to do with listening and developing a relationship with a teacher so that I can ask intelligent questions about their work. That is what we learned in Library School. I feel that this is happening slowing but surely with the teachers I am working with this year, and it is very educational and rewarding for me. I hope that it becomes so for the teachers also.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sixth week
What a difference a week makes.
5th Grade
One class is starting to use their blog! The teacher asked a question "What is your favorite book? Tell us a little bit about the book and why it is your favorite." A basic question. The students answered her question in the comments section, rather than writing new blog posts. This works because she can 'moderate' their posts, which means not allowing them to show until she approves them. Then she put a comment that had all the pieces she wanted up on the Interactive Whiteboard and the class talked about what is needed when they comment on a post. She is liking it! I am so happy I can't stand it.
I set up another blog for the special needs teacher in 5th grade. She had been using Weebly, but I think Kidblog will more suit her purposes (she thought so too). This illustrates something that I know will happen again and again. What I am trying to do is to match up the right tool with the right class or the right teacher or the right subject. This may take a few tries. The first blog I set up for her was very clunky to use on iPads, although I think it would have worked on a desktop. This new blog works better on iPads. She is enthusiastic about this so I am hopeful the new blog will work for her students.
2nd grade
They are still not using their blogs. But they DO use me, so I am less concerned about this. They are very welcoming in their meetings and ask me lots of questions about websites to use for their content. And they use what I give them. This makes me feel like THEY are in charge of how they use technology, and that is fine with me. They want to use technology, but they are deciding how. I will keep giving them ideas :)
One thing I may not have mentioned before is that two other specialists, the art teacher and the music teacher, have started blogs as a communication device for parents and teachers. The specialists have divided the blogs into grade levels and put activities and websites on the blog for each grade level. Very useful. Now I need to do that for Media...
Friday, September 21, 2012
Fifth Week
Not much is happening.
This makes me very nervous. I can't seem to allow any downtime for this project. If I am not moving forward I feel I am moving backward, not pausing.
5th Grade
They are not using their blogs yet. They are not using the software Read Write Gold yet. They are not doing what I want them to do!
There are lots of reasons for this. There are only three teachers, two regular ed and one special needs. Actually, the special needs teacher has started teaching her students to blog. But in her class each student has an iPad. The regular ed teachers have 5 laptops per classroom, so that is more of a challenge to schedule. One regular ed teacher was out for more than a week, so they are still catching up. They are swamped with other initiatives.
Still...
If I accept that they just haven't used their laptops yet, which I can, what can I do next? I cannot figure out more useful ways to help them integrate writing in blogs into their classroom routines. My plan right now is to be at all their planning meetings and just talk about it every day. Cheerfully, positively, and helpfully. And keep thinking of ways to make technology useful enough so they are attracted to it :)
2nd Grade
They are not using their blogs yet. But I have a different attitude toward this group because they are definitely asking me to do things!
They are starting to teach more content with their reading and writing. So they ask me for books, for websites, for videos, for anything I can find that will help them teach content. This is very fun for me, my favorite part of being a librarian, so I help them all I can. They also ask about how to embed videos into the software for our Smartboards, and other technology questions, so they are getting more tech-savvy themselves.
As I am finding stuff for them, I am starting to understand a little of how their classrooms are working. So I think blogs will fit into their classrooms very well. They are on their second unit of science, which will be about weather. I am again giving them lots of support material. But I will also do the same thing as the 5th grade. I will go to their planning meetings and talk about how blogs could help them. I will talk cheerfully, positively, and helpfully. I have more hope with this group that they will actually use them :)
On reflection, I am not moving forward or backward, I am paused...
(In first sentence you say you are not pausing, but moving backward. In last sentence you say you are paused, not moving backward. Do you want this contradiction?)
This makes me very nervous. I can't seem to allow any downtime for this project. If I am not moving forward I feel I am moving backward, not pausing.
5th Grade
They are not using their blogs yet. They are not using the software Read Write Gold yet. They are not doing what I want them to do!
There are lots of reasons for this. There are only three teachers, two regular ed and one special needs. Actually, the special needs teacher has started teaching her students to blog. But in her class each student has an iPad. The regular ed teachers have 5 laptops per classroom, so that is more of a challenge to schedule. One regular ed teacher was out for more than a week, so they are still catching up. They are swamped with other initiatives.
Still...
If I accept that they just haven't used their laptops yet, which I can, what can I do next? I cannot figure out more useful ways to help them integrate writing in blogs into their classroom routines. My plan right now is to be at all their planning meetings and just talk about it every day. Cheerfully, positively, and helpfully. And keep thinking of ways to make technology useful enough so they are attracted to it :)
2nd Grade
They are not using their blogs yet. But I have a different attitude toward this group because they are definitely asking me to do things!
They are starting to teach more content with their reading and writing. So they ask me for books, for websites, for videos, for anything I can find that will help them teach content. This is very fun for me, my favorite part of being a librarian, so I help them all I can. They also ask about how to embed videos into the software for our Smartboards, and other technology questions, so they are getting more tech-savvy themselves.
As I am finding stuff for them, I am starting to understand a little of how their classrooms are working. So I think blogs will fit into their classrooms very well. They are on their second unit of science, which will be about weather. I am again giving them lots of support material. But I will also do the same thing as the 5th grade. I will go to their planning meetings and talk about how blogs could help them. I will talk cheerfully, positively, and helpfully. I have more hope with this group that they will actually use them :)
On reflection, I am not moving forward or backward, I am paused...
(In first sentence you say you are not pausing, but moving backward. In last sentence you say you are paused, not moving backward. Do you want this contradiction?)
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Fourth Week
Maybe I am getting used to this combination of ups and downs throughout the week. Maybe.
Up
I started teaching research to one 5th grade class using software called Read Write Gold. The teacher is on board as a result of this lesson, likes the software, thinks it will be great for doing research with her students, wants it on her laptops in the classroom.
Down
The software didn't work on all the computers in the lab. It will take a week or so to get all the computers loaded with the software. So I was only able to SHOW the students what to do, not have them all do it. Not a great way to teach. I had checked the computers by starting the software, but only did it on one computer at a time!
Up
I was given a tip (thanks Ron!) to use KidBlog to make classroom blogs so each student can have their own blog. Very easy to set up and use, easy for the kids to use, can be moderated so the teacher can approve comments and blog posts. Great for writing in the classroom. Set it up for both 5th grade classrooms.
Down
One teacher was gone for a week (something totally out of everyone's control, I know). Now he is swamped and will not be getting to these blogs for a while.
Up
One second grade class is using her blog and classroom website to enhance and differentiate learning in her classroom. Example: they are learning about the Sun. She has gathered books, websites and videos wthat are embedded in her website. The students gather information from all sorts of different places. Today she will have them write comments on her blog answering a challenge question. Yesterday I was chatting with two students from her class and they (without my asking!) told me all the wonderful things they had learned about the Sun. They were excited that THEY had learned it! Another teacher reported one of students saying "We are like high school students! Doing research!"
Down
There are three second grade classes.
Up
All the 2nd and 5th grade classes (those are the two grades I am focussing on this trimester) are practicing keyboarding in the computer lab once a week.
Down
Can't think of a downside to that!
So - I may not be getting used to the ups and downs while they are going on, but in retrospect they are a natural growth cycle. I know that I am learning more and more helpful tools that can be useful to teachers. When I remember that my teachers are doing MANY more things in a day than trying to incorporate technology into their curriculum, I think they are doing a great job trying the things we talk about.
Yay Teachers!
Up
I started teaching research to one 5th grade class using software called Read Write Gold. The teacher is on board as a result of this lesson, likes the software, thinks it will be great for doing research with her students, wants it on her laptops in the classroom.
Down
The software didn't work on all the computers in the lab. It will take a week or so to get all the computers loaded with the software. So I was only able to SHOW the students what to do, not have them all do it. Not a great way to teach. I had checked the computers by starting the software, but only did it on one computer at a time!
Up
I was given a tip (thanks Ron!) to use KidBlog to make classroom blogs so each student can have their own blog. Very easy to set up and use, easy for the kids to use, can be moderated so the teacher can approve comments and blog posts. Great for writing in the classroom. Set it up for both 5th grade classrooms.
Down
One teacher was gone for a week (something totally out of everyone's control, I know). Now he is swamped and will not be getting to these blogs for a while.
Up
One second grade class is using her blog and classroom website to enhance and differentiate learning in her classroom. Example: they are learning about the Sun. She has gathered books, websites and videos wthat are embedded in her website. The students gather information from all sorts of different places. Today she will have them write comments on her blog answering a challenge question. Yesterday I was chatting with two students from her class and they (without my asking!) told me all the wonderful things they had learned about the Sun. They were excited that THEY had learned it! Another teacher reported one of students saying "We are like high school students! Doing research!"
Down
There are three second grade classes.
Up
All the 2nd and 5th grade classes (those are the two grades I am focussing on this trimester) are practicing keyboarding in the computer lab once a week.
Down
Can't think of a downside to that!
So - I may not be getting used to the ups and downs while they are going on, but in retrospect they are a natural growth cycle. I know that I am learning more and more helpful tools that can be useful to teachers. When I remember that my teachers are doing MANY more things in a day than trying to incorporate technology into their curriculum, I think they are doing a great job trying the things we talk about.
Yay Teachers!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Third Week - blogs
This pilot project was proposed by my principal as a way to help teachers incorporate more technology into their teaching day. The project entails me having less scheduled class time and more time to directly interact with teachers.
My reasons for doing this are changing. Initially it was kind of a panicky response to the thought of our jobs in the district changing from mostly library to mostly technology (I can do technology! Don't fire me!). Then I took a class on PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) during the summer and got all excited about ALL the possibilities that exist using Web 2.0 tools in classrooms. This was energizing but not very focused.
In talking to the teachers and observing what is and isn't yet possible in our K-5 school, I am LOVING blogs and classroom websites. They enhance and utilize so many aspects of a teacher's day.
They can facilitate parent-teacher AND parent-child communication. "What did you do in school today" becomes "I see you are learning to count by 2s. Let's practice!". The parents who cannot volunteer still feel a part of the classroom. It is yet another mode of making sure dates are remembered.
Writing! Writing! Writing! Blogs are great for writing. Many (most) of the ways teachers ask the students to write can be done with a blog. Journals, discussions, challenge questions. All can be done by a student on the computer posting to a website or blog. For many of our students, who don't have a computer at home, these are critical skills for the rest of their school and work careers. Any writing that is done on a blog gets two skills done instead of one. Writing AND technology! Win-win.
Teachers have a great place to reflect in blogs. Personal blogs are amazing. No one reads this one except other bloggers in my school, and I still think it is the most important thing I will do for this pilot project. Any teacher on an evaluation year will have all their work and reflections recorded on a blog. They can show week by week how it went, without sorting through papers and lesson plan books.
Sometimes I feel like a troglodyte in the blogosphere when I read about teachers that have been using blogs since 2000 and before. But starting is important, and I am doing that!
There are other technologies that I love also, video being the number one technology that I could use every day all day.
But I will concentrate on writing and blogs for a while here. Knowing my focusing issues I may be talking about something totally different next week:)
Yay blogs!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Second Week
Second Week,
Another familiar feeling during projects. Frustration.
What have we done?
The two projects from last week update: Nothing happening. For different reasons.
2nd Grade
The teachers and students are gathering ideas and working on it. I really have no input until their work is done. Then I will do the photographs and talk about how their ideas will show up in a professionally produced poster. So this is just waiting. I was at their planning meeting today and they sound like things are fine, they are just not in a hurry.
5th Grade
We are having a lot of trouble with scheduling. But I am scheduled for next week to present a lesson on research using a website that talks a lot about pioneer life in the early 1800s. This means I have work to do, but it is not really collaborative work. Because of our time constraints, I am happy to be contributing at all :)
Grateful for:
Two Kindergarten teachers have classroom blogs and each one has received positive feedback from a parent on them! Both parents say they love using the blog with their kindergartener as a tool for communication. Instead of, "What did you do at school today?" "Nothing." They can say, "I see you were practicing counting to see how many students are in your class? Let's practice!" Both teachers are very positive and say now that the blog is set up it takes very little time to update. Success!
A second grade teacher wanted me to figure out how to set up a blog so she can pose a Challenge Question when they are learning content. She will have a special set of books in the room on a subject, say, animals, whatever they are studying. She gets these from the library or from our area resources. Then each day she will pose a Challenge Question on the blog. During literacy workshop the students can utilize the books to research the question, and write what they have learned in the comments section of the blog. These comments do not show up until they are accepted by the teacher. At the end of the day the teacher goes over the research, the comments, and posts them while talking about the question with the whole class. Great way to get authentic writing into the classroom! And I set it up for her today. Will post again about this after she has used it. But very hopeful.
Another teacher, a 5th grade Special Needs teacher also wanted a blog. She wanted one set up like this: I set up a class website on Weebly.com and added blogs for each of her students. She wants to (again) ask a question on the website, the students will then have time during the day to post, like a journal, about the question. There will be a little higher learning curve because the posting has a few more steps to it than commenting, but I am confident they will get it. Will re-post after she has used it, but very hopeful.
The above blogs are exciting, I think. Both teachers do the same tasks already, using paper (and journals) and pencil. Using the blogs makes the tasks more authentic for the students, preparing them for communicating in our connected world today.
So I see a great value to this blog of mine now. I was so frustrated on Monday, thinking that nothing was happening and I didn't know how to be helpful. That feeling persisted on Tuesday, but the reality was quite different. Teachers are asking me for help, and I have been helpful in a couple of instances.
Yay blogs!
Another familiar feeling during projects. Frustration.
What have we done?
The two projects from last week update: Nothing happening. For different reasons.
2nd Grade
The teachers and students are gathering ideas and working on it. I really have no input until their work is done. Then I will do the photographs and talk about how their ideas will show up in a professionally produced poster. So this is just waiting. I was at their planning meeting today and they sound like things are fine, they are just not in a hurry.
5th Grade
We are having a lot of trouble with scheduling. But I am scheduled for next week to present a lesson on research using a website that talks a lot about pioneer life in the early 1800s. This means I have work to do, but it is not really collaborative work. Because of our time constraints, I am happy to be contributing at all :)
Grateful for:
Two Kindergarten teachers have classroom blogs and each one has received positive feedback from a parent on them! Both parents say they love using the blog with their kindergartener as a tool for communication. Instead of, "What did you do at school today?" "Nothing." They can say, "I see you were practicing counting to see how many students are in your class? Let's practice!" Both teachers are very positive and say now that the blog is set up it takes very little time to update. Success!
A second grade teacher wanted me to figure out how to set up a blog so she can pose a Challenge Question when they are learning content. She will have a special set of books in the room on a subject, say, animals, whatever they are studying. She gets these from the library or from our area resources. Then each day she will pose a Challenge Question on the blog. During literacy workshop the students can utilize the books to research the question, and write what they have learned in the comments section of the blog. These comments do not show up until they are accepted by the teacher. At the end of the day the teacher goes over the research, the comments, and posts them while talking about the question with the whole class. Great way to get authentic writing into the classroom! And I set it up for her today. Will post again about this after she has used it. But very hopeful.
Another teacher, a 5th grade Special Needs teacher also wanted a blog. She wanted one set up like this: I set up a class website on Weebly.com and added blogs for each of her students. She wants to (again) ask a question on the website, the students will then have time during the day to post, like a journal, about the question. There will be a little higher learning curve because the posting has a few more steps to it than commenting, but I am confident they will get it. Will re-post after she has used it, but very hopeful.
The above blogs are exciting, I think. Both teachers do the same tasks already, using paper (and journals) and pencil. Using the blogs makes the tasks more authentic for the students, preparing them for communicating in our connected world today.
So I see a great value to this blog of mine now. I was so frustrated on Monday, thinking that nothing was happening and I didn't know how to be helpful. That feeling persisted on Tuesday, but the reality was quite different. Teachers are asking me for help, and I have been helpful in a couple of instances.
Yay blogs!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
First week
A kindergarten teacher and myself have committed to posting our blogs on Wednesdays. This Wednesday I am home sick and will post it by myself (sorry Nicole!). Wednesdays work well because school started on Thursday so I have a week in already.
What have we done? This trimester I work with the 2nd and 5th grade teachers on technology projects.
First up, 2nd grade. Our big project is for the three 2nd grade classes to have the students gather and write what our Lowell Positive Behavior Expectations look like. For example, what does it look like when we are safely walking in the hallways? The students figure out what everything looks like, then we take pictures of what they have decided, add some words maybe, as a little reminder, and publish posters (professional looking posters from the print shop) that will be hung up all around the school. We met as teachers to divide the responsibilities, and had a first meeting with students to explain what they are doing. That's all! My plan after we do the posters is to use the posters as a storyboard and have the students make a video of the expectations also. I am a big video fan, and believe that if pictures are more helpful that just words to show how to do something, then videos are even MORE helpful because they show the whole process. We will see. The videos would be great review to show after winter and spring break.
5th grade. We have a program called Read Write Gold put on all of our computers in the computer lab. This program is helpful to special needs students doing research and writing. It will read text in web pages and PDFs, highlight and organize text, and do lots of other helpful things for research. I will be teaching the students to use this program as part of helping them do research. The teachers and I met and decided to have the students research either the Winnebago Tribe or early 19th century Iowa life as a precursor to their annual trip to Ft Atkinson, a fort in Iowa that re-enacts life during 1840's. This sounds like a great idea. My problems so far have been it is very general. I want some specific topics that I can use as an example to show how to use the program, and I want to be able to give the students more specific topics to study. I expect this will gain more focus as the teachers and I talk about it.
Again, what have we done?
Well, we are talking. That is more helpful than it may sound. Teachers always say we don't have enough time to process things, and we are right. I feel like the extra time I am being given this year will give me some process time, and even if the teachers and I don't talk every day, I can get information to them and get more immediate feedback when we talk face-to-face. And the projects have been introduced and begun, and it is only 5 days into school!
There have been some little things that I am very grateful for. Because I was up talking to one of the 5th grade teachers, she asked me an unrelated question about showing student work on her interactive whiteboard, and I was able to help her do that. She will now be using her IWB more and so will her students. I spent a half hour in a 5th grade classroom for math, and learned something about teaching that I hadn't tried before, and will try now. I have a great project that I will be planning and scheming for the kindergarten to do as a result of my conversations with the kindergarten teacher who wants to do a blog. And the whole 2nd grade is going to get instruction from the district about making a class webpage as a result of just spending time with them talking about it.
Feeling scared and excited simultaneously about this school year. This is a familiar feeling at the start of projects.
What have we done? This trimester I work with the 2nd and 5th grade teachers on technology projects.
First up, 2nd grade. Our big project is for the three 2nd grade classes to have the students gather and write what our Lowell Positive Behavior Expectations look like. For example, what does it look like when we are safely walking in the hallways? The students figure out what everything looks like, then we take pictures of what they have decided, add some words maybe, as a little reminder, and publish posters (professional looking posters from the print shop) that will be hung up all around the school. We met as teachers to divide the responsibilities, and had a first meeting with students to explain what they are doing. That's all! My plan after we do the posters is to use the posters as a storyboard and have the students make a video of the expectations also. I am a big video fan, and believe that if pictures are more helpful that just words to show how to do something, then videos are even MORE helpful because they show the whole process. We will see. The videos would be great review to show after winter and spring break.
5th grade. We have a program called Read Write Gold put on all of our computers in the computer lab. This program is helpful to special needs students doing research and writing. It will read text in web pages and PDFs, highlight and organize text, and do lots of other helpful things for research. I will be teaching the students to use this program as part of helping them do research. The teachers and I met and decided to have the students research either the Winnebago Tribe or early 19th century Iowa life as a precursor to their annual trip to Ft Atkinson, a fort in Iowa that re-enacts life during 1840's. This sounds like a great idea. My problems so far have been it is very general. I want some specific topics that I can use as an example to show how to use the program, and I want to be able to give the students more specific topics to study. I expect this will gain more focus as the teachers and I talk about it.
Again, what have we done?
Well, we are talking. That is more helpful than it may sound. Teachers always say we don't have enough time to process things, and we are right. I feel like the extra time I am being given this year will give me some process time, and even if the teachers and I don't talk every day, I can get information to them and get more immediate feedback when we talk face-to-face. And the projects have been introduced and begun, and it is only 5 days into school!
There have been some little things that I am very grateful for. Because I was up talking to one of the 5th grade teachers, she asked me an unrelated question about showing student work on her interactive whiteboard, and I was able to help her do that. She will now be using her IWB more and so will her students. I spent a half hour in a 5th grade classroom for math, and learned something about teaching that I hadn't tried before, and will try now. I have a great project that I will be planning and scheming for the kindergarten to do as a result of my conversations with the kindergarten teacher who wants to do a blog. And the whole 2nd grade is going to get instruction from the district about making a class webpage as a result of just spending time with them talking about it.
Feeling scared and excited simultaneously about this school year. This is a familiar feeling at the start of projects.
Why
My New Year does not start in January. It starts in August, when school starts. The Fall, yes, even August, feels new to me. I feel a blank page being turned and am excited to try new things.
This year I am piloting a new schedule in my K-5 school. Every trimester I will not have a fixed schedule of classes for two grades, and will collaborate with those grades to try out different technologies in their lessons. As you can see, this is pretty vague, which is the reason for this blog. I want to document for myself what exactly it is I am doing. Here goes!
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