Here’s the progress I have made so far this week…
THE GAME PLAN #1
3b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation(ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 2008).
I have been able to view many other blogs for Kindergarten and have been getting great ideas. I plan to add a link on my Edline site to a class blog. The blog will really be a way to show parents what is going on in the classroom. I will provide videos and pictures illustrating what we are learning in the classroom. I still need to research what provider would provide the most privacy for my students.
THE GAME PLAN #2
5b. exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others (ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 2008).
This past week I made some headway with this goal in two ways. I have designed some kidspiration activities to match our reading and math curriculum. I have put these lessons on our student share drive so that we can conduct reading lab time with kindergarten. This year, kindergarten began using the computer lab for the math program successmaker. I thought we should extend our half hour a week lab time and utilize more technological resources by adding a reading lab time. I plan to encourage the rest of the team with conducting this lab time weekly by coordinating lessons with the lab assistant and continuing to add lessons to the student share drive so students may access the programs I create that are directly related to our curriculum. I am not having a problem finding resources as I am noticing we have a great deal of resources in our school that are not being used to their fullest potential. I am wondering if there are other ways I can motivate my peers. I am hoping some of you will offer suggestions. Another way I made some headway with this goal is with a new program that we have begun to utilize called Edline. Although I am not excited with the lack of creativity, it did give me the opportunity to share and learn about some really awesome sites to utilize with students and parents. It was a great opportunity to collaborate with other teachers regarding technology.
I do not have any questions so far. I have learned that this whole process of meeting these goals will be a lengthy one. It is a slower process than I thought it would be.
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Does your school have access to the reading portion of Successmaker? I know that our lab time can be used for both math and reading. We also have Successmaker on all the computers in the classroom for students to get additional time in the area they are lacking. I like your idea of adding another time for a reading lab. However, does your school have a lab that is empty that would have time slots for so many different classes? I know my school has four computer labs and trying to work with everyone’s schedule can be challenging especially this far into the year. Hopefully your grade level team can come together and propose something to your administration that works for everyone.
ReplyDeleteSarah, you have some great questions that keep me thinking :) I have been in a district that utilized the reading and math programs for Successmaker. However, the distict I teach in now does not have access to the reading, only the math.
ReplyDeleteThe lab assistant and I have already met and worked together with finding time slots in the lab for our 5 kindergarten classes. Turns out, after 1:30 almost every day is available, although this is not the reading time in our day, administration approves us taking this additional time to integrate technology into reading. We have been warned that if the teachers and students do not begin to utilize the lab we may lose it so I find it very necessary that we try to make a lab like your labs where it is difficult to use it because so many are utilizing the resource. That's my hope, at least :) We have already met and everyone is on board.
I used a blog for two years in my classroom. I used it to update parents on weekly homework and to post pictures, videos, game sites,and a variety of things that we did in the classroom. I would even attach homework documents so that if students got home without the information they needed, they were still able to print or copy the work. My students and parents loved it! They went to the site at home and used it for bragging and work. I believe that it really helped my students and parents feel connected to what was going on in the classroom. We used the blog for everything from book reviews to author's study. It is a little work to keep it current, but you are going to find that it is worth it. This year, I have not used it because only 3 of my students have internet access at home and I can see the difference it has made. My students and parents are not as involved in many of our projects.
ReplyDeleteAlecia,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point about basing whether you should create a blog on how many students have internet access. I was not sure about what to do about this, as well. I have maybe 5 students that I know have intenet access for sure, but they aren't necessarily the students I am worried about reaching beyond the classroom walls. Maybe I could focus on those few that do have the access and it would increase the involvement in my classroom. It would also be useful for me to use for my own professional development, serving as an online journal of lessons that I might be able to reflect upon and adjust for optimal learning.