Technology Central

After a summer away from blogging and spending time on the computer, I am playing technology catch up. My classroom is truly becoming technology central and I am learning everyday what to do with it all. I now have a projector, smartboard and Elmo in my room.

I am amazed by what they can do, but know that I am only using a small portion of their capabilities. My class and I are having a great time with all the new technology. We are also trying to keep up with our blogging. As if that is not enough technology for one teacher to learn, I sat in a training today for DIBELS. DIBELS is a series of reading assessments that will be administered using a Palm Pilot. I enjoyed playing with my Palm, but have a lot to learn.

I am having a great time, but suffering from a bit of technology overload. As I find interesting or helpful information about these new technologies I will post them here.

Welcome to my STETS Blogging Workshop

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Are You Paying Attention

Video from YouTube video discussed in Workshop. Thank you to jsdt4 for creating this video.

Workshop Slideshow

Click on links to explore further. Don't forget that most of the pictures are links too. We hope you enjoyed the workshop.

Teacher Center Workshop

Simply Successful Secrets

Allanahk tagged me to…

List the top 5 to 10 things that you do almost every day that help you to be successful. They can be anything at all, but they have to be things that you do at least 4 or 5 times every week. Anything less than that may be a hobby that helps you out, but we are after the real day in and day out habits that help you to be successful.Source: Miguel Guhlin responding to Ed Tech Journeys’ Guest Blogger, Sylvia Martinez (GenYESBlog) writing on this meme by Thea Westra, Simply Successful Secrets
This blog started it all off on March 7th.

Like Allanah, I don't always view myself as extremely successful. I just work hard to create the best experiences I can for my students. My teaching career is simply, an extension of who I am. I am also lucky enough to have a family to love and take care of and who love and take care of me. My cousin who writes for the USA Today once wrote an article comparing the success of my grandfather to the success of the fortune 500 CEOs that he usually interviews. He judged my grandfather's success on his relationships with the family he raised and the love he shared with us all. I agree with my cousin and strive to be as successful in life as my grandparents were in theirs.

As for me, what makes me successful??? What are the habits that help me succeed?


Play a little everyday. Yes play. I love to play with my 4 year old. To get down on the floor and play with stuffed animals. To live in his imaginary world if only for a short time.


Do the unexpected - Toast marshmallows over the gas stove in the middle of winter. Make snow cones with actual snow. Have a Pajama day and serve eggs, bacon and waffles in the classroom. Make up a song with the class. Celebrate backwards day. Start the day writing down the homework and end with the morning meeting. I don't always do something big, but always do something a bit unexpected.

Learn - Read the latest research or interesting education blogs. I attend workshops or conferences when I get a chance, but mostly I learn from my students and my 4 year old son. Children see things in a new and interesting way that often reminds me of the real meaning in the world.

Collaborate - I have the fortune of working on an amazing team. We meet several times a week and share ideas on a daily basis. I am always learning something from them. I also collaborate with our librarian on classroom projects, professional development ventures, workshop planning and we have become a grant writing team. My latest collaboration efforts with Allahna King from New Zealand is also proving to be fruitful.

O.K. M. Karre and Gail S consider yourself tagged.
Your it. what makes you successful?

I am sorry about the missing post from March 15. I am not sure what I did, but it disappeared.

Photo Story - Best Kept Secret

Photo Story 3 is easily the simplest photo slide show software I have used. Students can easily create multimedia presentations on their own with the wizard like interface. Despite the ease of use many teachers don't realize that it is available as a free download for Window's users. My students use it quite often. We use it to commemorate classroom events such as debates, student teacher greetings or student goodbyes. We also make photo essay dictionaries. We do this by taking pictures of items such as geometric shapes and angles, adding text and recording voices that define each term.

Here is a quick tutorial:

First you import pictures. When you click on import pictures the program will open your "My Pictures" file.

Select pictures

Add text. Students love to choose from the many colors and fonts.

Record your voice. You can record a different voice on each slide.

Create your own music or import your own. My students love to create their own music. They can choose from several styles, speeds, moods and instruments.

It is easy to use and a great deal of fun. Try for yourself, but be careful you may get hooked. Have fun.

Collaboration with New Zealand

I have been a bit delayed in posting, but have stayed busy learning from my new friends in New Zealand. Thank you Allanah and Rachel for your great blogs and our enlightening Skype conversations. What a great opportunity for my whole class to speak with Allanah through Skype. We all enjoyed the conversation. My class was amazed that it was Fall in New Zealand and the start of Spring here in the U.S. I look forward to continued communication between our classes.

For those of you that think computer users need help desks

This is a really funny video about a man from the middle ages who calls the help desk to learn about this new technology known as a book. It's from a show called Øystein & Meg. It's written by Knut Nærum. The actors are named Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad. Thanks to YouTube user ZrednaZ for humourous post and backround information.

Web 2.0 Directory

I knew that there were many web 2.0 apps out there, but I don't think I realized that the options were this extensive. Check out this web 2.0 directory. I am sure you will find it quite amazing.

Blogging for Educators Slide Show

This slide show was created as talking points and links for an education conference this weekend. I feel excited and a bit nervous as I prepare for my first workshop on blogging. I have been enjoying my adventures in blogging, but also realize that I am still near the beginning of my adventures.

Think Blogging

I have continued to research blogging and in my quest I have stumbled across several great blog hosting sites that would be appropriate for middle and high school student blogs. I have not however, been able to find any site that is more suited to younger student blogging than Think.com. My 4th grade students as well as a class of 4th grade students at another local school have been blogging at Think.com since early October. It has been a great experience. Part of the positive experience is directly credited to the ease of use and safety measures provided by the site. My students can easily add posts, message boards, votes, and other interactive tools to their sites. They can even link a word document. They can post virtual post it note messages on each other's blogs or participate in votes and discussion boards.

They can even create secondary pages. Some of my students, for example, added a writer's workshop page in addition to their assigned reader response page. I can also create multiple sub-pages. I have an information and directions page, a reading page, and a science page. I can use these pages to post discussions and votes pertaining to read aloud or information that we have covered in science or social studies.

The best part is the safety measures. In order to set up a blog administrators account you need a letter from your district office. Which thankfully my very supportive Assistant Superintendent willingly provided. Think.com then provides parent permission slips and other support materials that can be distributed. A blog administrator can set up classes and create accounts and passwords for all involved parties. Blog administrators can also choose to open student's blogs to other students or maintain a private community. I chose the latter. My students' blogs can only be viewed by invited guests. The site maintains several filters which send messages to the administrators of any attempt of bad language. All members can flag any posted information that is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable. This information is forwarded to the administrator's mailbox.
Blogging has been a great experience for my class. No matter where you choose to blog. I recommend that you involve some school celebrities to post messages on students' blogs. Those that teach in elementary schools will understand who the students look to as celebrities. In my school, this includes the guidance counselor, consultant teacher, principal, librarian, challenge teacher and the reading recovery teacher. This truly makes it a celebration of reading and writing.

A Week of Wiki

Vacation is over and it is time to reflect on the success of our vacation wiki experiments.

• The Odyssey of the Mind team Wiki was a great success. Every student signed in at least once and contributed to the script or discussion. However, most students spent hours at the wiki over vacation. The team wrote and edited their whole script. They also spent some time in the discussion area deciding how they will solve the required problem and what supplies they may need. The students told me today that they really enjoyed working on the wiki over vacation. The students liked the layout of Wikispaces and found it easy to use. One fifth grade student described it as "really cool and fun". Based on this reaction, we will continue using this approach of between meeting collaboration until competition. I will also definitely use a wiki with students again. Another benefit of this wiki is that Wikispaces offers private wikis to teachers. I felt comforted because the site is password protected. Strangers can not edit or post messages.

• The grant writing wiki worked well but was not as inclusive as the students' wiki. A few of us signed in regularly and really brainstormed ideas. We were able to find prices for items and link product sites and add product pictures within the text. It was a great experience for those that participated, but before we move further we will need to also have some non-technology based meetings and discussion. Despite this, I still believe that those of us who participated were able to get more done over vacation than we would have any other way.

Now that I have had a chance to get my feet wet with these wiki's, I am sure that I will continue to look for ways to incorporate them into my professional life.

A little wiki to save the day

I have been grappling with the wiki idea for a while. It seems really interesting and I could see many uses in both the middle school and high school level. Still unclear, was how it would help an elementary school. This week everything changed. Now I am actively involved in two wiki's at my school. The cause of this epiphany: Vacation. We have a week vacation. School is closed but upcoming deadlines don't change.
The first deadline involves a technology grant application. The school librarian and I began to ask questions. If we can't get the committee together over break how can we work on the grant? E-mail? Phone calls? Then the answer came. We set up a wiki at wikispaces, entered the grant information, e-mailed members the information and we are off and running. I can't wait to see the results of this online collaboration.
The second deadline is the upcoming Odyssey of the Mind competition. Seven students who need to meet and won't be able too. How frustrating. Then it dawned on me. Wow, another practical use of the wiki. I quickly set up a wiki for the team and had a short training session with them. They are very excited and some have begun already.
For me this vacation is acting as a testing period for wiki use. I am really looking forward to observing first hand how well the wiki works with elementary students. This is a great testing ground for future wiki projects in my elementary school.
Stay tuned for post vacation results.

Video - The Connected Classroom

The world is changing and so is education. I came across a well made video by YouTube user khokanson. See what you think.

Article Review

I have just created the following slideshow as discussion points for an article review presentation.

Around the Web in 80 Minutes

Slideshare user GladsteinS does a great job of explaining web 2.0 in this slide show. Try following the links and checking out any web 2.0 applications you are not familiar with. I know I enjoyed checking it out and learned a few things along the way.



www.Slideshare.net is a great place to find slideshows created on every topic you can imagine. Try searching education technology or any other topic of interest. I really enjoyed reading the slide shows created for edtech courses. Slideshows by other k-12 teachers and administrators also provide some insight into technologies used in other classrooms around the world. You can also post your own powerpoint shows for embedding into your own blogs, Wikis, and websites. Have fun.

Blogging Research

I spent a few hours today researching how other teachers are using blogs with their students. I came across various family communication blogs. I think it is great how many teachers are able to keep families connected in this way. Some however really stood out. I saw one teacher at Mary Scroggs Elementary School using a blog with kindergartners as a language experience activity. You can see this and many other ideas for using technology in elementary school in this video.

Another interesting find was a blog created by a primary school teacher in Nelson, New Zealand. She has her own blog just chuck full of ideas and tools for blogging with kids as well as a blog that she has created with her students.

I also really liked the science examples I found at the Technology Ninja's Site. These examples showed student created blogs. They were my space "like" blog pages, however they were each designed as if they were created by a planet. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so look for yourselves. Mercury blog

Shared Vision Building

Plan for creating a vision and mission statement for a school technology committee

• Meet as a committee
• Analyze available data including involved parties, current procedures and resources.
• Discuss committee concerns and individual visions
• Form a sub committee
• Create a survey to ascertain needs, classroom resources and ideas
• Survey all involved parties utilizing an online service such as Survey Monkey to collect, track, and sort data.
• Meet and look at data including survey results, inventory, resources (staff, time frame, physical space)
• Use this data to determine unifying ideas that can be blended into a succinct and realistic vision and mission statement.

Let's get started

My first leadership class assignment requires me to write my vision and a mission statement. What better way to start this blog.

So here it goes:

Fostering meaningful learning communities

I am committed to the development of enriching learning communities within classrooms and between classrooms. Shared knowledge building and awareness of the thoughts and values of other students across town and across the globe will be invaluable to students as they emerge into a global society. In order to succeed in this mission I will continue to guide students as they work together toward common learning goals. I will expand our 4th grade blogging community by adding classes from other districts in other states and countries. I will provide further staff development and teacher training in using technology to bring teachers and students together into peer learning communities that stretch beyond the walls of the classroom.