It's difficult for me to write about novel ideas that I have had, when they don't seem novel to me. Then I get brought back to reality, and learn that the tech ideas that I implement in my room are NOT the norm. I am super stoked though that there is a small group of teachers, spanning all grade levels and concentrations, that have made a new commitment to try technology in their rooms. My school participates in Professional Learning Communities (PLC's) where we focus on one particular aspect of teaching, and I am leading one on worksheets... PSYCH! It's on technology in the classroom. We met about two weeks ago, but I've been so busy helping other teachers figure new things out, I haven't had time to write!

So I had a HUGE range of teachers show up for our meeting... Kindergarten, 3rd Grade, Self-Contained ESE, Art, Media. It was crazy! Not only did I have such a wide range of grade levels; but also, a wide range of familiarity and ability. It is such a daunting task when you are faced with something you are so passionate about, and you're unsure of how your audience will even respond. So, I started by showing this video...

This was all to make the point that we need to make sure we are meeting our students where they are. I think so many teachers get stuck in a rut, and forget that if we don't change with the times we are only doing our students a disservice!

After introducing the urgency for our group's meeting I then checked out the survey that I had sent out earlier in the week using surveymonkey.com. It was really great because I got a lot of honest answers about the challenges teachers are facing with technology. Some of the responses said that it is, "just one more thing to learn" or "lack of time."

Feel free to click here and add your response!

Once we had gotten some sort of momentum going I started answering general questions that teachers had about the technology available at our school. We worked with the eInstruction CPS Clickers and Edmodo. I'll give more details about that later!

Ultimately, my goal was achieved because I have gotten tons of emails asking me, "How do I do..." I think my colleagues are reluctant to ask because they think it'll bug me. BUT IT DOESN'T! I'm so excited that I have more people on my bandwagon!

So what are some things that you have been wanting to try in your classroom? What's holding you back? Leave a comment below... maybe I can help you out! :)

On the Fly

So I had some visitors from another school come by to observe my class today. They actually kind of just "popped in" unannounced... but it worked out OK. Their tour guide wanted to bring them to my class to show how I use technology... She asked me to show them how I use the eInstruction clickers, Voicethread, and blogging. I told her that she had been gone (she used to teach at our school) for too long. I explained that I still use those components, but that the main hub of my class is Edmodo. Edmodo could be likened to a class Facebook account that is completely secure and school related. It is the main source of all things related to my class. So, I really wanted my visitors to get a good idea of how technology isn't just "another cool thing" that we do, but that it is ingrained in our classroom community.
So my intern was just getting ready to do a sweet lesson on using a thesaurus with my class, when I politely asked her if I could take over. Or maybe I just kind of said, "Can I do this one?" (It's really hard to sit back sometimes.) I guess my passion for anything ed tech just takes over and I want to make sure that visitors get to see ALL of the crazy awesome things we do. So I started by reviewing what a thesaurus is, and I showed them our classroom thesaurus book. Then, I asked my students, "When we need to look up a word, and we don't have a dictionary near by, what do we do?" The resounding answer was... "We Google it!" I told them that we could do the same thing to find words in a thesaurus, and then I showed them the even cooler way to find synonyms using an amazing website.
Graphwords.com allows students to visualize the different shades of meaning of a word in a way that makes much more sense to them. A thesaurus is so linear and unappealing. A graphwords web shows how words are connected in a visual sense.  Check out this web for the word "friend."

The kids instantly perked up when I showed them this site. We looked up several words as a class to do a little practice. Then I told them that I had made an assignment on Edmodo where the theyhad to use their personal laptops to look up this week's vocabulary words on the graphwords.com thesaurus. They then had to "reply" to the assignment with two synonyms for each of their words. Instant engagement. Instant feedback. Check out what they found...

Let me just let you know though... I wasn't even supposed to be teaching this lesson (my intern was). Nor had I planned any of this out. But the use of this type of educational technology made it super easy and beneficial for each student. My visitors (4th grade teachers from another school) were blown away, and had about a million and one questions for me. I was more than happy to share my ideas! I just hope that these teachers won't walk away saying, "That was cool, but I don't have the time or patience for all of that technology..." I should have emphasized how "off the cuff" that lesson really was! That's what I love about technology... it's available, just waiting to be used!

Introduction

After much deliberation (and beating myself up), I am finally getting started on my blog. I'm not quite sure what to put in my first post, so I'll just give you a little background about my teaching experience. 

I have been teaching for five years now, and it seems like there is something new every year. I discovered my interest in educational technology during my internship where I was presented with a Smartboard to use on a daily basis in my kindergarten class. I basically made myself figure it out... and that is where my crazy obsession with anything "ed tech" began. 

Every year I have added on something new... my first year was in second grade where I was pretty much doing my best to stay afloat. I developed a love for Reader's Workshop and began experimenting with different types of technology to supplement my instruction. The next year I looped to third grade with my class to teach a "dedicated laptop class." Boy oh boy, was I in over my head?! I just jumped in with both feet and figured everything out alongside my students. I learned so much that first year in third grade; I was just lucky that I already had my classroom management down! Every year from then on became a little bit easier, and a little bit more awesome. This is my fourth year teaching the regular third grade curriculum with student owned laptops. I am constantly striving to be a better 21st century teacher. 

I have read so many different blogs, attended trainings and webinars, researched anything related to educational technology that I could find. My goal is that through this blog I will be able to document my class's use of technology and to inspire other teachers that are where I once was.