Throughout this school year technology has been one of my focuses. Using more technology in the classroom and being a part of WC! has really assisted my learning as well as the learning of my students. We have had the opportunity to learn about wikis, blogs, SKYPE as well as many other wonderful tools. I am looking forward to include even more technology types in my classes next year. Or at least using technology more in my classes. I really enjoyed learning about a variety of ways to incorporate technology into the classroom on a daily basis. One thing I want to include next year is SKYPE in my classes with other students at our district or other districts. The knowledge I have gained through WC! is something I will take with me wherever I go and I enjoyed every experience with our group this school year.

Last week, between thunderstorms, I was able to take Mr. Parker’s math students outside to geocache for part of their math lesson.  The students had a wonderful time and I think the adults did too.  I took some pictures that are on my school website. I loaded the waypoints into the GPS but this could be a step the students could do themselves once they were taught.  The students used the GPS to find 6 different containers I had hid around the elementary school. After the students found a cache, there were directions for a math problem they had to solve. I’m so glad we were able to do the activity and am looking forward to helping other teachers incorporate geocaching into their lessons.   I also found this wonderful site of geocaching lessons.  Take a look.

For my peer lesson/activity, I SKYPEd with a few of my HS AIS students and with Cindy Ferland and a bunch of her 6^th grade students. The objective of the activity was to test the validity of probability and determine how close the actual results are to the predicted results. We tested the probability of drawing M&M’s out of a bag at random. The results showed that the actual probability didn’t match the predicted/expected probability.

I thought the activity was a really fun way to integrate technology into my AIS class, and to SKYPE with students between buildings. This is especially helpful for teachers that are shared between buildings. It’s a great way to have visual contact even if the teacher isn’t in that particular building. There were some issues with the camera at the MS and so we couldn’t see or hear them. They could see and hear us, so Cindy very graciously communicated back through typing. The fact that we couldn’t see the MS students was a bit frustrating but we still communicated efficiently. And realistically, technology isn’t always going to work the way you plan it so flexibility is crucial! Thanks to Cindy and her studentsJ

I am very excited that I have started using skype after our last meeting. For one of the online classes I am taking we need to complete a project with others in the class. The other students I was paired up with live outside of NYC. It would be impossible for us to get together to do our project. Therefore, we are using Skype and google docs to work on our project. I am really loving it and feel both of these assist me when learning with others as well as learning about technology. Google docs took a little time for some of the students in the group to get working, but now we are off and running and it is going so well. Skype on the other hand worked right away and we are so excited to be using it. I’m so glad I am a part of WC! so I know how to use this technology!:)

At this years learning fair I presented two different ways that I integrate interactive lessons in my classroom daily. For the first hour or so I presented an interactive smartboard lesson on Scientific Notation at the 7th grade level. For the majority of the time, however, I showed parents, other teachers, and many, many, many kids how I use StudyIsland on a daily basis in AIS with my 7th graders. I am some what new to Study Island but I am addicted to it. It has so many beneficial facets. for example, I can create assignments, keep track of my students’ progress when they log in, create classes, play games, use test mode format, or use pre-made worksheets. I also love that I can pick which topics I want to review, the number of problems, and the format that I want students to review with. I LOVE it- if you dont use Study Island…start!

I have been really trying to include more technology in my classroom teaching because I know it benefits students and also because of Williamson connects. My students have been loving technology so much this year. I am concentrating on one reading class working with more technology this year and it has been going well. We have worked on our blog, used the kindles and also our newest adventure our wiki. Overall it has been a great success, even though we have had a few issues getting started with the wiki. My students feel very empowered using technology and being able to post on the web for others to see. They feel like they are “a part of it all” as they say! Now we are taking on another exciting adventure. Some of my students will be exhibitors at the learning fair. They will be presenting and demonstrating how to use both kindles and our blog. My students are very excited about this and I look forward to everyone seeing what they are working on. Most of these students are in multiple AIS classes and struggle with learning so having an opportunity to show off at the learning is a very good and AWESOME thing for them. YEAH!

Just wanted to share that google docs has made it so much easier for my students to always be prepared with their written work. Before introducing docs to my students, we were always having issues with unsaved work or lost memory sticks… now they just save on to their docs account and open whenever wherever! Technology… just making it easier )

I have missed every presentation given on geocaching. I am still not understanding exactly what it is. Are students going to sites to read and learn about a specific topic as they go? Or are they simply just navigating through the web? Who can explain to someone who has had no visual explanation to learn from? Thanks!

I’m interested to hear how many of you are currently using Google Reader? Do you love it? I know I do!!

If you get the chance, I recommend reading this blog from a teacher in Canada.  As part of her unit on the winter olympics, her class spent the night at school so they could video conference with classes around the world without having to worry about timezones.    The start of her post is “What so you get when you take 24 grade 5 students, 5 parent volunteers, 1 student teacher, and 1 slightly crazy classroom teacher and lock them in a school over night? You get one of the best experiences I’ve ever had as a teacher.”   What a great adventure for her and her students!

With the help of the  second graders I work with, we are finally ready to send our travel bug out into the world on his journey to Washington state.  You can read more about our travelbug at its homepage.   We plan to track his adventures using google maps and we will be skyping with the class in Washington that we are trying to get our travel bug to.

I know I should not have went ahead..but ..I have learned how to SKYPE using our the webcam in our mini. SKYPE is an awesome site and very easy to use  (unless your name is Julie). I have been able to connect with old friends and my sister-in-law who lives in Seattle. What I am most excited about is that my fifth grade class has pen pals in Moreno Valley, California and we are planning to web cam together in May just before the students leave for summer vacation!  If you have not experimented with this site yet, I encourage you all to do so!

I have been following this blog in Google Reader and found it very useful.  I wanted to share.

Free Technology for Teachers

I am so excited that the pieces of my project are beginning to come together. My PLN on Plurk has been a wonderful help. The second graders I’m working with will be connecting with a second grade class in Washington State to compare our community to theirs. I showed the kids on Google Maps today the satellite view of our school and neighborhood and then that of the school in Washington. They were so excited and can’t wait to continue on with our project.

I am really working hard to try new things with tech. in my classroom. The blog was a great success. Tomorrow I plan to introduce my Wiki in the same class that worked on the blog. It is very worthwhile to include technology in the classroom. I feel that it really has enhanced student learning as well as my own. It does take some extra time, but is so worth it. I would encourage anyone to try using some Web 2.0 tools in your classroom, choose one you love and go for it. So far the Wiki is my favorite, we will see what the kids think of it tomorrow. I’ll keep everyone updated. Also, my students have been using the Kindles lately as well and LOVE them.

In November, our first graders learned about the First Thanksgiving. We took a virtual tour of Plimoth Plantation and read a variety of books. Our culminating activity was a Thanksgiving Feast. We found a wonderful website that enabled us to easily make a slideshow with music and graphics which we have posted on our classroom website. You may want to explore this website at slide.com.

I am totally lost in the sauce on this site! Need to spend more time or seek help. Not even sure if this is a post, blog, comment…wonder where it will go…

During P/T conferences I had a number of positive comments on the use of technonlogy to connect home and school. Parents spoke of their use of the classroom website to stay informed. They also spoke of their use of suggested educational sites to reinforce skills taught in school at home. Parents stated the use of technology helped them engage students as opposed to the paper and pencil tasks they had used.

My students have been working on their classroom blog for the book Rules for the last month. It has been a great success overall. I really enjoyed it and know that the students did too. Some used it as a communication tool between myself and them while out of school. That was a great idea. It was nice to see how technology can enhance one’s learning experience and reading experience. Our last blog was about thankfulness and it really made us open our eyes to all we have to be thankful for. If you get a chance check out the blog and even post if you want. . . wchmaloney@edublogs.org.

RSS is wonderful to work with! I highly recommend it for anyone who has felt overwhelmed trying to keep organzied with all the new information coming our way. I like having the information I am intested in coming to me rather than dreading the idea of going and “finding” it myself. I feel like I have more control.