Good STEP Work Session

Linda Sweeting came Feb 24 and we had a good work session. I figured out my Blog and deleted the "practice" ones in favor of the "blogwynheights" for the school.
I tried to help others in the group with their Wikispaces, and move things along.

Computers

My thoughts today are about laptops. I love my tablet pc, even though it would win the prize as the slowest computer. I think how easy it is writing observations on the computer. I remember how I used to write all my notes and go home and type the observations. It is such a time saved to do it. My typing skills have improved significantly (except when someone is watching. I know that technology has had a great impact on how I do my job. It makes things easier and I hope that I can get better and quicker at much of the paperwork by using technology more effectively. Today is a day of Celebration as all of the teacher observations are done.

VoiceThread

I am excited at the prospect of using VoiceThread in my classroom. It seems like a relatively easy to use tool that can help engage students in various ways. I am thinking of using it as a way for students to answer BCR’s. That way, they could see how their own responses compare to each others, and I could give feedback that would guide students towards more-complete answers.

WIKI SCIENCE AT STEM FAIR

Wednesday we had the judging of the STEM Fair Science projects. Fourth and fifth grade students' backboards were lining the hallways, along with some third grade class projects, and some individual projects.
My brother-in-law came as a judge for the sixth graders, and he and 5 other adults were in the computer lab. The judges could preview the projects ahead of time using the bhestech.wikispaces site, and the students explained them pretty well.
A science teacher said that the graphs were not good, and I realized that next year I will have to work on recording, graphing, and analyzing data more thoroughly.
All-in-all it worked out well, and I look forward to building on our modest foundation this year.

Science Fair Power Point

It seems that our students are so much better prepared with technology than we adults are. It was really amazing to see the students' presentation. They were really able to do some interesting things. I talked with one student who showed me in a matter of minutes how he could change color, style, and effects. I think I need a student to help me do the Faculty Meeting presentations. I really spend a lot of time doing something so BASIC. He could make it more professional looking in about 4 minutes, with color, animation, etc. I will try and take more classes to help me be better prepared. My problem is that if I do not get practice I forget. Here's to practicing over the summer!

Science Fair and WikiSpaces

I was impressed with our school’s use of Wikispaces and our Science Fair this year. Our tech coordinator, Mr. Beaumier, stored all students’ Science Fair PowerPoint presentations on a class wiki, and had students work on them in class and at home. While it was seemed confusing and downright messy at first, the students were able to get the hang of it. It also provided me a way of keeping an eye on how students were progressing.

MSA on my mind!

I had two MSA test meetings this week, one for Reading and Math for the whole school, and another for MSA Science online. There is a LOT of information to take in, mostly to take care of wierd situations that come up. I really like the MSA Science, and in ten years all of these kinds of tests will be online: faster, easier, quicker scoring, and GREEN - lots of paper can be saved!

Our 6th graders are working to complete their STEM Fair Science projects, and I am staying after school from 4-6 for the second week in a row to help students. There is a dedicated group of 5-7 girls who come and are very productive. Many have taken digital pictures and are adding them to their PowerPoints. They are also starting to narrate their slides. Some look VERY good.

Family Book Night

We have a great PTA who along with the reading teacher wrote a grant for Target to have parent book nights. The grant covered the cost of books for all students. Kathy developed wonderful experience for parents and students to share their books. It was delightful. We even showed the Witches movie earlier in the year as part of the program. This wonderful night got me thinking about where we could have enhanced the program with technology. Students did PowerPoint presentation of books as one of our School Improvement Activities. It was very difficult in terms of extra time needed. I wonder what we can do to get parents to help us with technology and their individual students, it could be like our science fair nights where parent and students come to work on a project. I wish I would have thought of it before. Maybe next year if we apply for the grant we can think about how technology impacts our program.

What Happened?

Evidently I made two Blogs as a test, and now I have to make one for STEP, and when I logon to one of the test blogs I can't really get into the school blog, called "blogwynheights", except as a "follower"!
Of course I should have written down all of my passwords, and this is the source of some confusion. I think I will just delete the test blogs, and get into "blogwlynheights" and work from there. Honestly, the Wiki seems very helpful with students, but it is a reach to see how a Blog would really help in an elementary classroom. I'd have to see some examples of a class that did something productive with it.
More to come.

More Blogging BLUES

Week of Feb. 2nd

Do you remember when we first got Google Mail? It was really difficult to make the adjustment. It was not hard just different. One of my biggest problems was that of organization. I loved that I could go back and put everything in alphabetical order by sender and find the thing I did not remember I got and do it! Well the blogs are just as bad. I cannot seem to remember how to get into the blog. I will try to record my little messages until I get around to doing it right. But it would be nice to converse with someone else occasionally. Either I have to give up working or sleeping to get done all I have to do. I am sorry I am not the technology wiz I want to be. I need to spend time that I do not seem to have. I will get better as I go. Or at least I hope I will.