Vocabulary

Just a quick note to say putting vocabulary words as flashcards on the itouch is wonderful. Today, while the students were entering their new vocabulary, there was a beautiful, quiet, rare hush in the room.

Apps

Of course, our students love using the itouches. They are definitely a motivating device. I have been disappointed with the number of quality apps that are available. We have found a few we really like, but not the selection we expected. Another disappointment is that the students cannot acces BrainPop on their touches. They love the videos available and we find them a valuable teaching tool.

Blocking Access

After syncing a couple of times and having some great difficulties, we decided to restrict access to iTunes and the App store. We decided the last time to give them access to itumes, but keep the App store restricted. This seems to have helped us with our syncing problems and yet gives the students the opportunity to download their favorite tunes.

Things I didn't anticipate, but should have

We are pushing forward with our use of the ipod touches. The students enjoy doing their agenda entries and homework assignments on their touches and we continue to add to their vocabulary flashcards. We are getting better at the syncing process, although it is still not as quick and easy as we had hoped for.

One of the issues, I hadn't really thought through, was what do when touches are lost or stolen. Since our students are each issued a touch, they are taking them home every day. We have had one that we believe was stolen from the sync cart (we have become more strict about cart access) and two students have now lost theirs. We have a couple of extra and so far we are just letting students borrow those for use in class, but not letting them take them home. One of the parents is willing to pay for a lost one. Do we allow this, even though everyone can't afford this solution? It is difficult to know how to be fair to all.

As a treat for our students, we put a couple of free Christmas games on their touches and they are thrilled with them!

Technology - Love it or Hate it!

Well, it is after 2:00 in the morning and I have spent the last 5 hours trying to get my slideshow of our Class Stations to work on our Blog. At first I created a PPT and then could not get that to work in the blog. So then I tried google docs and the Photos I wanted to use made the file too large to download. Then I went to Flickr and it was easy enough to upload the photos there. The problem has come up with the Blog. I follow the directions to add the Slideshow as a gadget and it appears everything is good, and I save it; however, the blog just has a white square where the photos should be streaming through. It is strange because it will allow me to use other people's slideshows from Flickr, but not mine.

Anyway, I am exhausted, so I am signing off for now. I will have to deal with this problem later.

Good night! (Or is it good morning?)

Stations

We have been working diligently to modify our teaching strategies to focus on small group instruction and more opportunities for students to collaborate and use the new technology to support their learning through a variety of learning stations. We strive to help them understand that computers and mobile devices are extremely useful tools and not toys. But...who says you can't have fun. The students have worked in a variety of stations to reinforce the learning in their core subjects. They have used the minis and the iPods to make comments on our classroom blog. They use them to research scientists and mathematicians as well as watch podcasts. They enjoy practicing their math skills using the computers and continue to build content area vocabulary. They use the iPod Touches to increase their organizational skills by keeping daily agendas, homework and important reminders, such as tests and projects. We are including a few photos to showcase some of the learning stations in our classroom.

I purchased a Flip video camera, so I hope to have time over the winter break to play with that as well as time to create a podcast or two.

On Our Way

It has been a while since I last posted to our Blog. We are really getting our feet wet. In Math & Science, our students began working in Stations. We still have direct instruction in both our content areas and then students move to different stations to continue their work. At this time, our students are just working on one station per day to supplement their learning.They rotate to a new station each day. We have a research station, blogging, computer Math or Science games, as well as writing and reading and current events. Our goal is for them to do most of their work in small groups at stations and move away from whole group instruction. The most difficult part of this is the scheduling part. There just is not enough time in the day to get everything done. It takes time to teach the students how to use the technology and this cuts into our class instruction for Science. I feel that I am always running behind. As the students become more adept at using the technology, we can get caught up. It is all a mind-shift for us to change the way we teach. It is easier to say you want to be the guide on the side than it is to put into practice, especially when you are working with 6th-graders. They are still quite dependent.

We have started a class blog and the students have all posted to it at least once.There was some problems when we first tried to post and the students have had some difficulty with their g-mail accounts, but it is getting easier. I like being able to approve their comments before they actually post. This also allows me the opportunity to print our their posts and use the rubric to give them a grade and make comments on ways to improve.

Janet and I have attended the podcasting training and hope to get something going on that. We each want to create a couple before we try teaching this to the students. If we didn't have to teach or grade papers we would have all kinds of time to work on this. Such is life. I think we both feel that our vision is slowly coming into view. We still have a ways to go, but we are getting there.

Until next time...Happy Thanksgiving!

Kathleen