Pictures

Okay, so after spending a little time in my room yesterday I think I am finally done with decorations. It has only taken me five weeks into school (almost six) but it is done. I promised pictures so . . . here they are.

The mouse and Icon wall, a long with the colored keyboard are ideas I borrowed from my new fun website (http://elementarytechteachers.ning.com)

The Growing word Wall

Trees and student WPM monkey's. The Monkeys on the wall are less than five words per minute.

Tomorrow is Monday, with M.A.P testing and other things on the schedule for the week it will be a busy one but a good one I hope. I hope everyone has a good week.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy with school, school projects, family, and life that I haven't posted in awhile. As if taking on a class three days before school started wasn't enough, starting new protocols such as class blogs (I will let you know how those are going in a few weeks), and pen pals haven't been challenging enough, I am also finishing up my masters application and taking two three credit classes through the University of San Diego so that I can get my Computer literacy endorsement on my license.   I think there is room for a few more things. I came across  a completely wonderful website called http://elementarytechteachers.ning.com  If I mentioned it my last blog, I love it sooooo much, I am mentioning it again. Such a collaborative environment and great ideas!!! After I spend sometime in my classroom tomorrow I will post updated pictures.

Student monkeys have come a long well and are now hanging in the classroom, and on the "trees." The students love them, and I am glad they are excited about them.

I will be sending off our first Adopt-a-soldier letters tomorrow. It is true; kids do say the darndest things. Reading through some of the letters just made me smile. I hope that the military men and woman get as big a kick out of them as I did.

Things are coming a long. I wasn't sure how I would feel about teaching a technology class but I honestly like it.

Found a great Website

So, today while I was wandering through the never ending world of Internet trying to find one more group of fifth grade pen pals, I came across a great website for technology teachers. http://elementarytechteachers.ning.com  I wish I had found this website weeks ago, before school started. The website is a great place to get ideas, share ideas, discuss technology classroom stuff, and communicate. I really, really like it.

On another note the Adopt a soldier letters have been going well and I am hoping to send the first group of letters out over the weekend. The students played it cool but when they sat down and started typing you could see the excitement in their letters progress. I am glad that I have found something that I can supplement with Type to Learn that the students will be interested in.

Thanks to the new fun website I found a great suggestion to keep the attention of my kindergartners for the full 45 minutes. I can't wait to try it tomorrow and see how it goes . . . I am crossing my fingers :0)

Patience

Today was a roller coaster kind of day. I woke up to find my adopt-a-soldier list(s) waiting in my e mail box which excited me but as the day wore on I found myself a little frustrated. In starting the friendly letter process with students in a word document it was taking my students quite a bit of time to type out the return address and salutation. I had everything on the smart board so all students had to do was copy the information onto their word document . . . this was a longer process than I had planned. I was talking to my son on my lunch, the smart little boy that he is, and we were discussing how the day was going so far. I had mentioned that I was frustrated that the process was going slowly, he offered to help. We had a discussion about how the students needed to do these things on their own so that they would learn and that progressed into a discussion about how they all don't have computers at home. He thought about it for a minute and said "they are not like us." I couldn't help but smile at the deduction his intuitive four year old mind made and then I thought to myself if he can figure it out in one conversation and I work with these great kids on a daily basis why am I getting so worked up. Sometimes all it takes is someone to remind us that all we need is a little patience.

Pen Pals

    I had this great idea, or so I thought, of finding my upper grade students pen pals to practice keyboarding skills, word skills, language arts skills, research skills, and also work in some social studies (and eventually science in a different way). Because of the type of school I teach in the focus is language arts and math so students lose out on social studies and science in the classroom. I have been trying to find ways to incorporate these standards into my technology classes so that the students get both technology, social studies, and science. What I didn't know is how difficult it would be to find pen pals. Because of the way the social studies standards work third grade students look at social studies more of the world as a hole (current events, heroes, that type of thing), our fourth grade focusses specifically on the state, and fifth grade focuses on the United States and how it came to be.
   So, my plan of action was (is) to set up my third grade students with the adopt a soldier program. This way both students and soldiers (or troops, to be more non secular of military division) benefit from writing and receiving letters. It took a little bit of work but we are finally getting somewhere. I would like to set my fourth grade students up with a class from within the state of Nevada, maybe a Native American school or program, and then have my fifth grade students pen pal with European countries that either discovered, molded, or were a large part of the creating force of America. The last two are proving more difficult than planned, who knew.
   Once the students get their pen pal assignments they would then of course write, I should say type, to their pen pals, but then I was going to have them use the internet to research where their pen pal is, write a paper about the similarities and differences in locations, include pictures from the internet, teach good sources versus bad sources, and have the fourth and fifth grade students maybe even create a power point. We could even create graphs about where the pen pals are, how old pen pals are, their favorite activities and so on. The thing I love about the pen pal idea is the way it can be utilized in so many different ways to teach so many different standards and still be technology based. Sooo, my search goes on for the right fit for my fourth and fifth grade students, we will get their . . .

Typing ideas

Sooo . . . we have this great typing program at the school called Type to Learn but the kids get bored with it pretty quickly. I have been brain storming ideas to continue there typing practice but in a way that will hopefully be more fun. So, my tentative plan will be to find military pen pals for the students, I was also thinking pen pals from around the world (find students in other countries in the same grades). This way students will get to practice typing skills, writing skills, and social studies skills. When I finally came up with the pen pal idea boy did the ideas start flooding in! Students can use the internet to research information about the countries their pen pals are in, we can discuss proper websites for research, safe internet practices, students can type reports, create notebook and powerpoint presentations and sooo much more! The great thing is not only will all of these assignments cover technology but they will also cover social studies, and language arts. The more I think about it the more excited I get.

The Jungle in room 103

We are quickly approaching the end of week two, tomorrow actually, and after a successful open house I am ready for the weekend. I promised I would post pictures of my room once I got it put together, the second computer lab is still in construction mode. Here are pictures of the lab I use everyday to instruct students.

I have three rows of trees. The trees will have a monkey for each student from third grade through fifth grade. Part of the curriculum requires that by the end of the school year each group of students have to reach so many words typed per minute. I have a row of trees for five wpms, 10 wpms, and 20 wpms. The bananas hanging from the trees state which wpm tree it is. As students progress on their typing skills their monkey will move around the classroom. I am going to add some vines between each tree for students who are in-between each interval. The students seemed really excited about it and the little littles like the decoration.

This is what the room looked like when I started two days before school . . . I think it has come a long way.

On another note I am thinking about creating a classroom blog. I have been researching and there are some webs sites that allow you to create blogs specifically for the classroom and are only viewable by classroom students. I think it will be a great way to give assignments, for students to post completed assignments, take polls, and allow students to practice typing skills. 

Matt Damon’s Speech to Teachers at SOS Rally

Matt Damon’s Speech to Teachers at SOS Rally

I had to share after seeing this on a fellow teachers blog.