Sunday, September 12, 2010

Skyping With the U.K.




When one of our second grade teachers wanted to Skype with a class in another country, her Tech Coach turned to Twitter to ask if there was another teacher outside of the United States who wanted to Skype with a second grade class in Memphis, Tennessee (Elvis country). She found a first grade teacher in a school just north of London. It can be a challenge communicating with a class in another country due to the differences in time zones. But we scheduled a Skyping session for 9:00 AM Memphis time, which was 3:00 PM U.K. time - right before their dismissal. We had some slight communication problems in that we saw and heard them but we couldn't seen them actually moving. It was fun for our boys from an all boys schools to see a coed school and to listen to their accents. We got a chance to exchange some questions also. We asked each other about the current weather. Interestingly enough, England was warm and sunny and we were overcast with drizzle, which is just the opposite with what you would expect. One little girl asked if any of our boys had been on any interesting trips. One of our students told of his trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and told them of the huge chocolate bar he had. When asked if the children in English had Hershey bars, they said, "No." I have to admit that I was a little surprised by that. I think that if we had had enough time to ask if they had Hershey "Kisses" they would have certainly answered with a yes!

Back to School Night Puts Parents Into Students' Role


One of our second grade teachers decided to put the parents in the role of the students during our back to school night. We use Photo Booth on our MacBooks quite often with the students. This teacher decided to let the parents see the ways that the students use Photo Booth. She asked them to think of their most favorite school memory and record themselves using Photo Booth. Parents had a great time with this "assignment" but did want to make sure that their recordings would not hit the Internet. No, not the recordings, only a picture!

Monday, September 06, 2010

Please Don't Leave Me, iPod!



That's what one boy said as his class ended their lesson with the new iPod cart for the first time. The boys told our 1st-3rd grade Tech Coach that she was the most popular teacher for the week, because she had the iPod cart! We are a 1:1 laptop school where each boy from the 4-year-old classes through 6th grade has his own laptop. But this is the first year that we have incorporated iPods. I'm anxious to see what iPods can add to classrooms where there are already laptops. Right away I know it's important to give the students practice with a touch screen and the use of apps. I don't get this question much anymore, but on occasion I'm asked why we don't formally teach keyboarding. We have offered keyboarding as an after-school enrichment, but our day is so full that I honestly don't think it's necessary to try to fit in keyboarding - especially if we can't fit in a daily keyboarding class for several weeks in a row. The boys begin using laptops even before they come to our school, and we use them with our 3 and 4 year olds. That's too early to teach the standard keyboarding class. Their hands are just too small. And now with touch screens, I really believe that these children will be using touch screens almost exclusively by the time they are adults.
Today the tech coach introduced a "monster-making app." She told them that aliens had landed and they were to create their own monster/alien. The students had no trouble using the iPods. Most had already used an iPod or an iPhone at home. There was such excitement as they created their own alien. They then emailed their picture to their teacher, which she printed. This was followed with a thinking routine where the students had to create a headline for the "front page" of the paper announcing that aliens had landed. The first iPod lesson was a success as I will continue to evaluate the use of iPods in the classrooms.

Skyping With a Classmate


In one of the third grade classrooms, a student is missing the first few weeks of school to be with his family in the country of Grenada. Not to worry! By using Skype, the student is still part of the class as he Skypes in regularly to share lessons. This day, the boy and his family shared information about all the different types of trees they've seen in Grenada even showing examples of some of their findings as you can see in one of the photographs.

We All Learn Differently

One of our 6th grade teachers uses Diigo to bookmark important websites where she highlights the important points for her students. You can see in these pictures that she also encourages the boys to choose their own way to take notes to study. Some choose note cards, some regular notebook paper, some enter notes into Word, and others use Diigo accounts. The students have their own Diigo accounts so that they can collaboratively take notes and share highlights and sticky note annotations.