Shepherd's Shining Stars: Technology

Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

The first two days Back to School have been filled with

rules/expectations
procedures
team building activities
text to self connections
picking a Just Right book
Getting to know you activities
exploring technology in the classroom

Students really did a great job of becoming acclimated to the WBT Class Rules/Expectations. We practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and taught our partner the 5 class rules. We also reviewed certain rules (like Rule #3 Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat), when students broke them.

We reviewed procedures throughout the day such as sharpening pencils, our designated time to use the restroom and how we walk to and from the restroom, lining up for lunch and PE, switching classes, and finally coming to the rug with our partner for Shared Reading.

Students participated in a team building activity. They worked exceptionally well together! I was pleasantly surprised. However, I completely forgot about the Saving Fred activity, which students reminded me of at the end of the day. We will definitely have to fit it in our schedule sometime next week.

After reviewing rules and expectations of our shared reading time, students were assigned their first partner and were given a designated area on the rug. I began reading First Day Jitters and modeled making connections using sentence starters posted on an Anchor Chart.

On Friday, I read Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians with a focus on exploring different genres and the 5 Finger Rule.

Finally, students were given a chance to explore centers.

Here on the rug, you can see students cutting, pasting and sorting the Rules under the following headings on a Tree Map- Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible. In the Back of the picture, you can see my student teacher assisting students with choosing a Just Right book.

Here are a few students exploring the apps on the iPads. Temple Run seemed to be the most popular, among students. However, they were given instructions not to spend their whole time playing games and to explore as many apps as possible. They did a fantastic job exploring!

Students in the next two pictures are creating their first "All About Me" Wordles.

Looking forward to a full week of Instruction!

Mrs. Shepherd

Today was our last day of Testing! Can I get an OH YEAH!

We have three days left for this school week and then we will have off for Spring Break!

Tomorrow my Shining and Shooting Stars are going to be busy preparing and reviewing expectations for our upcoming centers for the Week of April 30th. They will also receive a visit from one of our local weathermen Carl Arredondo tomorrow morning, which was organized by my partner teacher Mrs. Wilson. Thursday we will again review centers and expectations, and receive a RIF book (Reading is Fundamental). Friday we are going on a field trip to the zoo, and we are celebrating my birthday!

I am really looking forward to the last three weeks not only because summer is drawing near, but because my students are going to be working collaboratively in groups on technology based learning projects to develop their communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills. They will develop innovative products using technology and be assessed on their projects. No more paper and pencil tests! Can I get another OH YEAH!

Here is a look at my Technology Centers for the coming weeks! Click here to see my lesson plan.
Click here for the rubric.

What are you doing the last few weeks of school?

Mrs. Shepherd

For the past two weeks and continuing until the end of the year, my 4th grade "Shining Stars" and "Shooting Stars" will work collaboratively in groups on technology based learning projects and in guided groups with a teacher. My students will demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products using technology. They will also practice test taking strategies to prepare for the upcoming state test.

Here's a look at my 6 centers which students attend to for 2 rotations of 30 minutes.

At center 1, the Shining Stars work in a teacher led group facilitated by Mr. Martinez, the ELL teacher and Ms. DiFulco, the Special Education teacher facilitates the second class, to revise and edit a passage. They end the center with a Proofreading test on LouisianaPass and print out their results for a grade

At center 2, this week students determined the climax of the story by analyzing the plot. Here's a look at the anchor chart I used on the left and a chart I used to model how to determine the climax using the book Stone Soup. The activities for this lesson were taken from ReadWorks.

At center 3, students work in a teacher led group to analyze different resources, use process of elimination and learn to prove their answers by giving evidence to where their answer was located. This is a test prep center to prepare for Information Resources and is led by my student teacher.

At center 4, students interact, collaborate and publish their work with peers through Edmodo. Students take a Reading quiz, poll, and respond to a focus question on their chapter book. The Shining Stars are reading James and the Giant Peach and are collaborating with a 4th grade class from Kansas and Colorado. The Shooting Stars are reading Because of Winn Dixie. I am so excited I was able to get this book club together for the students through Twitter. Thanks to @JanWells and @Jmplus for their and their students' participation.

At center 5, students expand their vocabulary by using a variety of tools such as tag board I created from Jasztalville's Blog, play www.freerice.com, www.spellingcity.com, and creating a Word Cloud using Spelling words on www.wordle.net The Wordles students created came out great. They are hanging outside of my classroom. Sorry I forgot to take a picture!

Finally center 6, students will make a choice post on their blogs using Kidblog. Students are expected to write at least a 100 words and include a hook, transitions, and a conclusion.

Mrs. Shepherd

What a spook-TECH-ular Halloween it was in Room 3 today! Students began the day by reflecting on their progress so far in our class. They folded a white piece of paper in fours and answered the following questions in each block:
1. My favorite part of the day is....
2. I need the most help with...
3. Something I learned so far....
4. The best part of the day is..

I plan to use the students' reflections during parent conferences tomorrow afternoon.

Then the best part of the day came when students rotated through centers for the remainder of the day. My first class of 28 4th graders rotated through 6 centers and my second class rotated through 4.

Center one was a lesson with me on using www.Glogster.com Here students created a digital poster on the chapter book we just finished titled Bunnicula. Students were expected to post the title, a short summary of the story without giving the ending and post two pictures.

Here is an example of a student's Glog.

Next, students in my homeroom worked with our ELL teacher Mr. Martinez. He gave each student a kitkat and had them take a bite. They then wrote a descriptive paragraph persuading their audience how it tasted and why it was good. Students posted their descriptive paragraphs on Edmodo.

In my second class students worked with our Special Education teacher, Ms. Difulco. She read students a Halloween story and had them post a response on Edmodo.

Then was a lesson with my PLEP student from Holy Cross College. She also read a Halloween story to the students and had them complete a writing assignment to go along with the book.

Students also worked with our technology intern, Ms. Brittney. She facilitated a lesson on the iPads using the app Keynote. Students created a 3-4 slide powerpoint on our chapter book Bunnicula.

The students had a fabulous time during our Tech day today and learned a lot. They explored a few new tools using the technology and were motivated and highly engaged throughout.

Mrs. Shepherd

Do you see what I see? That's right! My technology grant has finally arrived. We received 10 ipad2, 5 netbooks, a flipcamera, a digital camera, a web cam, and 5 GPS units. I am still waiting on the laptop cart and the laser printer.

The students and I were so happy we cheered with joy. One of my students was so excited that he already told his mom, who was a substitute today at our school. This afternoon she stopped by my room and so kindly asked if I could use her help to set up the new equipment. So, of course I said YES! She also has her own iPad and will be helping me and the students get acquainted.

I am looking for any helpful tips, advice and apps to get us started!

Mrs. Shepherd

Today students re-visted voki, but with a partner. They explored the site, avatars, backgrounds and voices. They need lots of time to explore! I say this because I gave students an objective at the beginning of the lesson to create an avatar and then to either record their voice or type in their text. Their final product was to choose one of our vocabulary words we have discussed or a word from our Word Wall. Well, some students were so enthralled with creating an avatar they didn't have a chance to complete the project. Although, I did have a few who completed the assignment. Tomorrow after our first Interval assessment. Students will continue to explore and create an Avatar tomorrow. They will use the avatar to post on one of their vocabulary words and an "All About Me" post. Here are the completed avatars from today.

Mrs. Shepherd

Thanks to Fourth Grade Fanatic's wonderful idea my students participated in an exciting and engaging activity to culminate Character Traits.

Character Traits on PhotoPeach

Mrs. Shepherd

How exciting is it for a teacher when students are actively engaged in a lesson, ready to learn and all eyes focused on what is next. Well that is the reaction I received when I showed a short clip Of "Oktapodi"

The focus of the lesson was I can analyze the setting and the character's emotions by asking myself Does the character's emotion change as a result of the setting?

Students begin by watching the short clip of the movie. Then, they watched it again, but I stopped periodically throughout for students to turn and talk to their partner to discuss the setting and a word they would use to describe the character's emotions. Finally, as a review students were distributed graphic organizers to fill in on the Main Idea, Character Traits or Sequencing. All previous skills taught. They worked with a partner to complete. Here are a few pictures of students deep in thought and working collaboratively.

Mrs. Shepherd

My students and I are currently reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. This Thursday one of our mini-lessons was focused on vocabulary. Students were put into groups of five and worked collaboratively on one vocabulary word . Students in each group were numbered off and given a specific job such as:
1- Write the word and find the part of speech
2- Find and write the definition
3- Find the word in our chapter book and write the page number
4- Find the sentence the word was used in and write the sentence
5- Use a Thesaurus to find a synonym and an antonym for the word

Students compiled their results into a bubble map on a sheet of computer paper.

Then today I introduced students to Voki.

Students came to the front of the room in their groups and used our class mic to record their vocabulary word.

Here are the avatars the students created:
1. pollution

2. mugged

3. demonstrate

4. managed

5. accident

Mrs. Shepherd

My students have begun blogging! Last week I introduced students to Kidblog. Students blog during Daily 5 at the Listen to Reading Center, which I changed to the Technology Center just this week.

Students will be introduced to a new Web 2.0 tool every two weeks or so and will have the opportunity to explore that tool three days a week during Daily 5.

This week I discussed how to make a new post, give it a title, use spell check and how to send it to me to be approved. Students were excited to begin and quickly went to work on their first blog. Their first blog was an "All About Me" post. They were instructed to write as much as they could about their self.

This week I posted a Video Writing Prompt on September 11, that was taken from TeachHub. Students were given choice to either post their thoughts on the event that took place on September 11, 2001 or they could write about the Saints vs. Packers game. Of course they all chose to write about the Saints, WHO DAT!

You can check out my students posts here.

I also discovered that you can Tweet your Blog link to #comments4kids and have other educators and students comment on your blogs. How cool is that!

My plans for next week are to teach students how to insert an image into their post and help them with some basic editing. Once we get that accomplished, students will learn how to comment on each others' blogs and then I will begin sending out Tweets looking for students and teachers to comment. I would also love to teach parents how to comment on blogs.

More Information on Kidblog:

According to Kidblog's website, kidblog.org "is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with their own, unique blog. Kidblog's simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs." Kidblog has several advantages over other blogging sites:

Teachers can create a class blog, and add student accounts without needing student email accounts.
Students have their own unique blogging space. They can create posts and comment on other students' posts.
Teachers have control over approving students' posts and comments before they are published to the blog.
The site is secure. Students must login to read posts and write comments.
Teachers can post private comments, so that only the child who wrote the post may see the teacher's comment. This is a great way to leave feedback for the student.
Students can navigate easily between their blog space, their teacher's blog space (optional), and their classmates' blog spaces.
There are no ads on this site.

Mrs. Shepherd

How did you integrate technology during the first week of school? Did you use an interactive flipchart, activotes, online survey, Brainpop, Discovery Education, Glogster, etc..? If you didn't use technology during the first week, how do you plan to integrate technology in your classroom in the future?

I integrated technology during the first week with my 4th grade class by having students complete two surveys. The surveys were created in Google Docs. Students completed a Reading Interest Survey and a Beginning of the Year Survey. You can view the surveys on my Class Wiki.

Mrs. Shepherd

Community Building
Three days down and my students and I are learning a lot about one another. Our theme for this week is "My Identity" with a focus on building a community in the classroom. On the first day students took a survey using Google docs to tell me a little about themselves. Tuesday, they participated in a brown bag sharing activity, which was a hit. This is the first year I did this and think I will do it from now on. They were so excited to share things that represented them, and the students who were nervous just asked me to share for them. Today, we began with morning meeting something else I wanted to start last year, but didn't do and am sorry I didn't. Our classroom community is really coming along and they are very eager in the morning to sit on the rug and share. BTW they love the crate seats. Those are a hit too!!

Reading
On Monday the students completed a Reading interest Survey, completed a classroom Scavenger Hunt, and selected a book from the library. I then read aloud Thank You, Mr. Falker and focused on how the character changes in the story based on the setting.BTW you can also listen to the story by a celebrity on StorylineOnline We then made a text to self connection on the difficulties we may have as readers and reflected on what our goal would be. I introduced the Cafe board, had them write their name on a sticky note, and then students decided what their goal would be for the next few weeks by placing their sticky note on the Cafe board. On Tuesday, students wrote to a journal prompt and we shared in our family circle. Next, I began with a read aloud using Crickwing again focusing how the character changes in the story based upon the setting, and then made a text to self connection on being bullied or doing something nice for others.

Writing
Today, our main focus was a writing sample. Students were given a writing topic, which was read aloud and then began brainstorming and writing their rough draft. Students will be scored using a rubric on capitalization and punctuation only.

Spelling
Students took a pre-assessment today, which will determine which leveled Spelling list they will receive on Monday. This is a great way to differentiate.

Tomorrow
So tomorrow, the plans are to do a journal prompt. Compare and contrast the first two read alouds. Next, I will read Chrysantheum and model again how to make a text to self connection. Students will then research for homework the meaning and origin of their name. Then they will begin working in small groups for the remainder of the time reading, finishing their rough drafts, copying their leveled Spelling list, beginning Word Work, completing a journal, and using the computers to complete a final survey.

Whew! I am a busy teacher.

Mrs. Shepherd

Why yes of course!

Tonight I participated in a Twitter chat with 4th grade teachers. BTW if you are not signed up on Twitter you are missing out!!! Tonight's topic was blogging and several people shared wonderful ideas on how to get parents to buy in, teaching parents to comment,and how students benefit from blogging. Cool Cat Teacher has an excellent blog post stating 12 reasons to blog with your students. My favorite of the 12 is #2 Blogging Encourages Voice. My students have a hard time incorporating voice into their writing. Hopefully, through weekly blogging students will learn more about themselves and adding voice to their writing will come naturally.

When you first introduce blogging to students you must first collaborate with them on guidelines to follow. Here are a few guidelines another 4th grade class developed. After students begin practicing with blogging, then commenting on blogs would be the next thing to discuss.

How do we comment?

Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog has a wonderful post on "How to Compose a Quality Comment". She even showcases students stating how to write a quality comment. I love this!

Finally, if you want parental support you must get them to buy in. A colleague of mine Paula Naugle hosted a blogging commenting party last year for her parents. She had the students present to their parents why blogging is important, its purpose and then to teach their parents how to make a quality comment. Check out her flyer here she sends home! Here is Blog Intro Letter to Parents.

In addition to the Blog Commenting Party for parents, I also plan to tack a roster of students next to the computers and every time their parents comment they will receive a star next to their name. The student with the most stars at the end of the month will receive a reward.

My favorite idea shared tonight was having a student take a few photos around the school and post them for students to blog about. I plan on having a Tech Star of the week in my class so this would be a perfect job with a big responsibility.

My kidblogs are set up and I can't wait to get started with my new students!

Mrs. Shepherd

Create Teach Share posted a word of the week freebie she was sharing. She also posted a question of what do upper grades do for Word Work. So, I thought what a great way to integrate technology by making a video using a word of choice from the week's words, when students are at Word Work during Daily 5. My students learn a new word Monday- Thursday where we discuss and look at the word in context. These words are posted on our Word Wall and students will have the opportunity to practice with them during Word Work. They will have two choices during Word Work such as: Spelling City or to create a video using Animoto.

Here is a video I created using Animoto.

Click here to get a checklist I created for students to use when making their video.

Mrs. Shepherd

I finally think my plans for the first week of school are coming together! I have decided to go with a theme, which I have never done before. My theme will carry throughout the first two months of school, but I would love to try to extend it throughout the year. So, we will see how it goes!

My theme is "My Identity". Lessons and activities will center around students finding more about themselves such as their names, culture,family and their passions.

I must give thanks to the following educators for inspiring me and leading me to discover these wonderful lessons and activities to implement in my classroom. Ms. Naugle has inspired me to implement Identity Day with my students. Identity day will allow students to showcase their strengths, interests or passions. Click here to find out more! Also, thank you to Ms. Jasztal a former Scholastic teacher for finding my blog. She has led me to discover a new Scholastic teacher Ms. Zimmerman, who has created a fabulous lesson incorporating reading, writing and technology in finding each student's uniqueness.

So here it is an outline of my Lessons and Activities for the First Week of School!

Week of August 15-19
Monday
1. Word Search of Class Names
2. Welcome with Introduction after announcements
3. Introduce Self with Flipchart and Quickly Scan Room and Intro Class Jobs
4. Take Reading Interest Survey using iPads and netbooks / Book Selection from Library/ Silent Reading
5. Call to rug, brainstorm why people read( Circle Map) and then do a Read Aloud Chrysantheum/Discuss Theme “My Identity”
6. Allow students time to browse baby name books and make an anchor chart noting the findings Click here to see lesson!
7. Work in groups to brainstorm Classroom Rules/Expectations
8. Introduce Wordle Activity and allow students to begin creating and saving
9. Writing Activity Journal Tell me about yourself, how you spent your summer, and what are your goals for this 4th grade year. (Brainstorm- Circle Map)
10. Tech Student to take digital head shots of students

Tuesday
1. Activity?
2. Watch video of PBIS Rules and Expectations and designate parts
3. Call to rug and discuss Reading Workshop/ Read Aloud the second chapter of Louis Lowry’s Goonie Bird Greene stop only a few times to make connections/Establish Guidelines for RW (Anchor Chart)/Model how you researched your name and make an example like the one here. Then give students a copy of the organizer and allow them to research their name using the computers or books.
4. Introduce Kidblogs and how to post wordle and begin blogging. (Pairs)
5. Writing- Allow students to complete their journal from the previous day.
6. Introduce Wall Wisher and have students post goals

Wednesday
1. Activity?
2. Take tour of school and practice reading and modeling rules using Flipcamera
3. Read Aloud and discuss 5 finger rule/Ask how to find a good book?/Create an Anchor Chart on how to pick a just right book/Introduce the book log and have them glue into their notebooks and record their books.
4. Continue with blog posts/Discuss how to make comments (Anchor charts)
5. Writing- New Journal Prompt and Share (Allow to use computers and Paint program to Draw a picture to go along with journal) Speech to Text/App (Dragon Dictation)

Thursday
1. Activity?
2. Take tour of school and practice reading and modeling rules using Flipcamera
3. Read parts of the The Important book by Margaret Wise Brown/Discuss how we can use this book to help us with our writings about our names. Model for students how to write their paper. Then allow for IR time 15 min and inform students you will begin conferring with them on their chosen books. They also need to update Reading Log
4. Continue with blog posts and review how to make comments (Anchor chart) Use one students blog post as an example. Give all students a sentence strip and have them write a comment to post.
5. Introduce Daily Edit and Model have students come to IWB to make corrections/Proofreading Practice
6. Writing- Journal Prompt and Share (Allow to use computers and Paint to Draw a picture to go along with journal) Speech to Text/App (Dragon Dictation)

Friday
1. Activity?
2. Play completed PBIS movie for students
3. Call to Rug and Ask what is reading? Explaing “Reading is Thinking”/ Intro. Anchor Chart/Read Aloud and Complete anchor chart and then allow for IR time for 15 min. give students 2 sticky notes to record their thinking conferr w/students/ Call back to rug and allow to share with a buddy if they are ready
4. Daily Edit today students will copy in their notebooks. Then I will Model Proofreading Practice
5. Allow students to complete their writing about their name
6. Next, students will create name collages to decorate their writing. The collage process will allow me to informally assess my students’ basic computer skills. I will teach the following sequence of skills:
Open a new word processing document.
Type your name and capitalize the first letter.
Copy and paste the name at least twenty times.
Change the fonts, colors, and sizes of the names (the students loved this part!).
Print the document.

As you can see above I am still looking for a few 15 minute morning activities to do when the students first come in the room. Any Ideas?

Mrs. Shepherd

This video was created using Animoto. Animoto is a web application that produces videos from user- selected photos, video clips, and music. Below is a video I created to capture just some of the Tech I will be using in my classroom this year.

FYI........ You can Register at http://animoto.com/education

This account will provide you with 6 months of All-Access privileges to Animoto. (Non-educators must pay for these services!)
If you want your students to create Animoto slide shows, Animoto will send you a classroom code to use with your students.
Reapply when your account expires in 6 months.

Mrs. Shepherd

What a cool site to use to introduce spelling, vocabulary words or the theme for the week. Geogreetings.com allows you to type in a simple message that will display each letter as an aerial photo from somewhere in the world. How cool is that! Check out my Geo Greeting here!

Mrs. Shepherd

School is fast approaching and my plans for a fabulous year are coming together. I have done a great amount of reading including books, blogs, websites and participated in Twitter chats this summer. The amount of knowledge I have gained is a bit overwhelming and exciting at the same time. The amount of resources I have gathered to use with my students throughout the year are phenomenal. The main purpose for creating this blog is to document the technology integration in my classroom and I can't wait to get started.

One of my biggest goals for this year is to integrate technology with Web 2.0 tools. Students will use the technologies available to create knowledge and personal and social change. The word cloud I created below showcases some of the many tools my students will become comfortable with over the course of this year.

So, here is an outline of some of the activities my students will take part in during the First Few Weeks of School.

1. Introduction to the Technology Equipment and Discuss Rules, Procedures and Expectations
2. After discussing our 4th grade goals for the year, students will post their goals using WallWisher which will then be embedded to our class e-board and my personal blog.
3. Students will complete a Reading Interest Survey I recreated using Google Forms.
4. Students will create an "All About Me" Wordle to post outside of the classroom after filling out a Student Questionnaire.
5. Using the Flipcamera, students will create a movie on the rules and expectations in all areas of the school.
6. The Tech star of the week will use the digital camera to take headshots of students to post on our Writing Bulletin Board.
7. Students will create class Wordles on their favorite things such as subjects, food, places to visit, color, sport, etc. These will decorate our class door.
8. Students will be introduced to Edmodo and Kidblog.
9. Students will begin publishing their first writing assignments, which will be a personal narrative using Microsoft Word. They will then copy and paste their writing to Kidblog for parent, teacher and students comments.
10. Students will learn about online safety viewing a video through Brainpop and use the Activotes to participate in a quiz.

These and many more activities to come will develop and implement creative ideas that will result in high student achievement. They will learn to work cooperatively to meet the requirements and exceed my expectations throughout the year. I am so ready to get started and can't wait to showcase student engagement in technology lessons.

Mrs. Shepherd

School is soon approaching, and I am eager to get back to share all the wonderful things I have discovered this summer with my colleagues. I have become hooked to many social media sites this summer with one of them being Twitter. I have shared ideas, networked, and even eavesdropped with many educators around the globe. I have bookmarked so many wonderful articles and resources that have expanded my knowledge of education. Twitter has been the best professional development that I have participated in. The best of all it is FREE! I am hoping during the first week of school to share my thoughts on Twitter and why I think it is beneficial for educators to sign up. Below you will find a presentation I created using Google. Google Docs is something else I discovered this summer and am just touching the surface with it.

Anyway, I hope you will check out my presentation and add your thoughts about Twitter and what you have gained from Twitter as an educator.

Mrs. Shepherd

Calling all Teachers who are looking for an authentic audience for their students to blog to!!!!!!!!!

Are you looking for a constructivist tool for learning? Blogging is it! However, the audience is one of the most important aspects of blogging. By signing up on Comments4Kids your students blogs can be commented on by other students worldwide by the teacher making a tweet with the hastag #comments4kids. How cool is that! Teachers will have to use their phones of course to tweet, unless your school district doesn't have Twitter blocked.

You must check out this blog.

Comments4Kids

Mrs. Shepherd

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