Technology Showcase
This page is dedicated to "showing off" what my 4th grade students are doing in the classroom with technology. You will see that we never use a tool just for the sake of using it. We have clear purposes for everything we do, and we use technology as a tool to communicate or publish. I try to make school engaging and fun by allowing my students many choices to showcase their learning and talents. If you would like to see more examples of how I use technology with learning, please check out my MSU Coursework pages.
Communication is key
Probably my biggest accomplishment and the thing I am the most proud of as an educator is my classroom website. Not only do I use it as a newsletter to communicate to families what is going on in the classroom, it is also a place to go for all things 4th grade at Red Cedar. My students and their families can visit our website to watch videos to help with tricky math concepts, find kid-friendly Useful Websites, communicate with each other through classroom and individual blogs, and look at photos of field trips or classroom projects. In addition, my students have also made their own websites and blogs to do classroom assignments and communicate what is important to each one of them personally. I cannot imagine teaching without my website. Students and parents have access to information and resources 24 hours a day, and my students who move back to their home countries can still communicate with us in the United States through our classroom website. We have made our world a little smaller and our information accessible at all times.
Flipping in elementary
There has always been a "Math Help" page on my website. I understand the way math is taught today can be very different than the way parents were taught when they went to school. So, I created a "Math Help" page on my website to help parents learn what their children are learning at school. In turn, I hoped that the videos I added would inform the parents so they could support my instruction at home. This year, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of just adding YouTube videos, I decided to jump in all the way and use the flipped model of instruction for math. I could go on and on explaining this model and how I used it in my classroom, but Jeff Gerlach and Dave Goodrich already did an amazing job of synthesizing the information into a blog post. Please check out This is Fourth Grade: A Blended Odyssey. Again, I house all my video on my classroom website so they are open for anyone in the school, district, or world to use. I try to add any information that I think will deepen my students' thinking and provide background information while also helping them be successful on the test.
Teaching online safety in the hallway
It took me a few years to drink the Kool Aid, but I now absolutely LOVE Twitter! I mostly use it to collaborate with other teachers, get and share creative ideas, and for general Professional Development. I feel like I've taken my PD into my own hands as I read tweets and links to blogs about amazing ideas from super-creative teachers from around the world. My reading is relevant to my passions, I can get answers to my questions in a matter of minutes, I can participate with presenters and other conference attendees in real time with back channels, and my posts are read by a much larger audience (which has led me write more!).
The picture above is a Twitter bulletin board that's outside my 4th grade classroom. If you zoom in to look at my student's first tweets, you will see that they're using hashtags (in turn thinking about nouns and main idea), addressing a specific audience (@mom, etc), and summarizing their idea in 140 characters or less. This board has been great for teaching online safety. I told them they may be addressing one person, but anyone walking by in the hallway can see it. So, we should never use our first and last name, phone #, address, or say mean things about others.
The kids absolutely LOVE tweeting, and I feel like I get to know them better too. It's kind of like Show and Tell. For their first tweet, I had my students write "rough drafts" on dry erase boards because I wasn't sure that they would understand the concept. It was unreal how quickly they caught on. Even my struggling writers and ELL students tweeted wonderful messages (with no help!). And they wanted to spell everything correctly too since so many people were going to see it. I can't say enough good things!
I told my students that maybe we would get a classroom Twitter account (a real one) if they get really interested in it. I do tell them every year that I am in no way encouraging them to get Facebook or Twitter on their own, and that the rules say you are supposed to be 13 to have an account anyway. I just want to show them how to be responsible and safe online by practicing with Vis a Vis markers on laminated strips of paper in the hallway. You can follow me on Twitter @WeverWorld!
The picture above is a Twitter bulletin board that's outside my 4th grade classroom. If you zoom in to look at my student's first tweets, you will see that they're using hashtags (in turn thinking about nouns and main idea), addressing a specific audience (@mom, etc), and summarizing their idea in 140 characters or less. This board has been great for teaching online safety. I told them they may be addressing one person, but anyone walking by in the hallway can see it. So, we should never use our first and last name, phone #, address, or say mean things about others.
The kids absolutely LOVE tweeting, and I feel like I get to know them better too. It's kind of like Show and Tell. For their first tweet, I had my students write "rough drafts" on dry erase boards because I wasn't sure that they would understand the concept. It was unreal how quickly they caught on. Even my struggling writers and ELL students tweeted wonderful messages (with no help!). And they wanted to spell everything correctly too since so many people were going to see it. I can't say enough good things!
I told my students that maybe we would get a classroom Twitter account (a real one) if they get really interested in it. I do tell them every year that I am in no way encouraging them to get Facebook or Twitter on their own, and that the rules say you are supposed to be 13 to have an account anyway. I just want to show them how to be responsible and safe online by practicing with Vis a Vis markers on laminated strips of paper in the hallway. You can follow me on Twitter @WeverWorld!
Repurposing technology |
Talking Tom iPad App When I first got my iPad a few years ago, my kids immediately found the most annoying app out there. They downloaded Talking Tom, and I have been cringing to the sound of his scratchy voice ever since. But one day I thought about how we could actually use Talking Tom for good rather than evil. That's when I introduced the idea of using it to study spelling words. Now my students can use their favorite annoying app with a clear educational purpose (even though their purpose is probably just to have fun with the funny voices). I have tricked my students into learning again... hahaha (evil laugh). |
Just Dance
When I first started teaching 4th grade a few years ago, I realized that I have about 10 minutes at the end of each day where half of my class leaves for their Safety Patrol jobs. I tried reading aloud books, doing Mad Libs, and having free choice time. However, it seemed like an unorganized free-for-all. The kids who were not Safety Patrols seemed annoyed that they had to stay in class to do "extra work". |
After getting Just Dance 2 for the Wii for Christmas, I remember thinking that it was too bad there was not a similar game for teachers to use with their students because it was a fun, physical activity that required coordination and promoted following directions. That is when I thought about checking out YouTube to see if anyone had video recorded the game. Bingo! There were a few songs on there. So, I projected the YouTube recordings onto my board for my students to dance along with the songs. They absolutely loved (and still love) this activity, and so do their parents.
I have had numerous parents thank me for allowing their kids to express themselves by dancing in school. Other parents have liked how I have integrated more physical activity into the day while PE class times have been cut. And one grandma even remarked that she was grateful that her grandchild was actually learning how to dance because she could not think of anywhere else she would learn that skill. Even though the kids do not know the original reasons I looked into repurposing Just Dance in my
classroom, they do know that they like to dance and have fun with their friends. Now they don't mind staying the 10 minutes when they are not Safety Patrols. It is actually a great management tool for me , and the learning and physical activity is a bonus!
I have had numerous parents thank me for allowing their kids to express themselves by dancing in school. Other parents have liked how I have integrated more physical activity into the day while PE class times have been cut. And one grandma even remarked that she was grateful that her grandchild was actually learning how to dance because she could not think of anywhere else she would learn that skill. Even though the kids do not know the original reasons I looked into repurposing Just Dance in my
classroom, they do know that they like to dance and have fun with their friends. Now they don't mind staying the 10 minutes when they are not Safety Patrols. It is actually a great management tool for me , and the learning and physical activity is a bonus!
Putting kids in the driver's seat
Flipping our classroom
Since my district began a new reading program, the emphasis on Social Studies has decreased. So, I wanted to design a course that could still cover all the Social Studies content, use technology as both a tool and motivator to do the work, and encourage parental involvement because the course essentially "flipped my classroom". I was able to choose the platform, design, assessment, forms of communication, and content. Check out my CMS Critical Review to see my thinking after I designed the course.
I still use this Wiki with my 4th graders to teach Geography every fall. My students enjoy the course and ask for more flipped projects. In addition, this course is great to show my student teachers so they can see various models of teaching and learning in the classroom. We also flipped our Math class on our classroom website too!
Since my district began a new reading program, the emphasis on Social Studies has decreased. So, I wanted to design a course that could still cover all the Social Studies content, use technology as both a tool and motivator to do the work, and encourage parental involvement because the course essentially "flipped my classroom". I was able to choose the platform, design, assessment, forms of communication, and content. Check out my CMS Critical Review to see my thinking after I designed the course.
I still use this Wiki with my 4th graders to teach Geography every fall. My students enjoy the course and ask for more flipped projects. In addition, this course is great to show my student teachers so they can see various models of teaching and learning in the classroom. We also flipped our Math class on our classroom website too!
Showing off our learning to authentic audiences
A big motivator for some of my students is that they are able to show the world what they know by publishing their thinking online. This gives my students an opportunity to share their thinking with an authentic audience (anyone who looks at our website). We do this in a few different ways. One way is by using ScreenChomp on our classroom iPad. When a student knows a concept so well that they are able to explain their thinking in words and teach someone else, they have the option to share their learning by making a ScreenChomp video. The example video is a student showing off that he knows how to do Partial Quotients division. I encourage my students to use math vocabulary and explain every step. This helps their own learning, but it also helps others in the class because we can put these videos on our classroom website's Math Help page. |
|
|
Creating classroom and school culture
Our school is doing a program to show students how to be nice and caring to others. We recognize good friendship by awarding "Bucket Filling" cards that are displayed on a bulletin board next to the Library. The 4th graders were so excited about the program that we created a video to share the main points with the rest of the school. The kids wrote the scripts, held rehearsals, and recorded a video of how to be "Bucket Fillers". Though the kids did all of the prep work, I took charge of editing together the clips in iMovie because the project was about thinking through the process of making a content-rich video. It was not about using the software to be able to do that. Our final product was shown at a school-wide assembly, was displayed on our website, and was even shared around the other East Lansing schools. |
Just having fun!
After hearing all the buzz about the newest YouTube sensation, The Harlem Shake, my class decided that it was time to create our own unique version of the dance. We used a mask given to me as a goodbye gift by a student who returned to China to add interest to the video (and because we thought it would be funny if she saw us on our website wearing her gift).
We used my iPhone to shoot two shots. We then used iMovie to edit them together and add the audio. It took about 10 minutes to do, but the kids think it's the coolest thing ever! Plus, they think they are super-stars anytime one of their videos is on YouTube. |
|