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Friday, December 12, 2008
Benefits of Blogging
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Do We Really Need Books?
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Age of Screenagers
Many educators are concerned about the adverse affects on students' writing. They feel that the slang, or casual language used extensively in texting and IM'ing will have long term detrimental affects on students' writing. Most seem to ignore the fact that kids today are writing constantly. In fact, putting thoughts into written words is part of the natural lives of kids today. Anyone who cannot share their thoughts through texting is at risk of becoming a social outcast.
Another concern is the constant focus on a screen. Although this has shown to have some merit, this has basically replaced other forms of entertainment such as hours spent watching TV. At least many of the hours spent today are somewhat interactive.
Another worry, especially at the secondary and collegiate level is how students spend class time texting instead of focusing on the lesson being taught. However, forward thinking instructors have begun to use this to their advantage by engaging students in real-time dialogue and assessment.
In many classes today, students are participating in online learning, web-based collaborative projects, and various other computer uses throughout their school day. Often students are much more motivated in class by the use of video and interactive Smart Boards.
Obviously, the screenagers of today have lifestyles, both in and out of the class that are much different than the traditional classes. Many educators are concerned about the long-term affects of these changes. Some of us though, are celebrating the advancement of education. Our goal is to open doors and encourage students to push forward using every tool available for a more interesting and challenging learning environment.
If you qualify age-wise, go for it. Become a Screenager!
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Monday, December 8, 2008
Students' Speak, Computers in the Classroom
Stay tuned, videos are on the way!
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Thursday, December 4, 2008
Who Wants to Know about The Reading Workshop
They came from 35 states.
They came from 16 countries.
Sixteen visitors were from Texas.
Thirteen were from California
Twelve were from New York.
'Ten were from Florida.
Sixty five visits was the most by any one person.
Fifty nine was the second most times visited.
Two Hundred Sixty Nine started out on The Reading Workshop home page.
Twenty-two had questions about how to do Reading Workshop.
Sixteen had questions about Study Island.
Seven queried good books for student readers
Six wondered about the book Freak the Mighty.
Fifteen had question about listening to music as you work.
Twelve wanted information about the affect of texting on students' writing.
Thirteen visited for longer than an hour.
Thirty six wanted to know about Rambunctious Reading.
Ninety two percent that used a search engine, used Google.
Sixty seven percent are first time visitors.
One Hundred Eighty are using the newest version of Firefox.
Seventeen came from the latest Carnival of Education which list Educational blogs
Seventeen came from the Laurelville Elementary website.
Twelve came from Alltop which lists education news and headlines from across the web.
Three came from Joann Jacobs educational blog highlights and links.
So if you're like me and find yourself wondering, who cares about The Reading Workshop at Laurelville, the answer is a lot of people, from a lot of places, for a lot of different reasons. For all that take the time to visit the blog, thank you!.
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Sunday, November 30, 2008
Commenting vs. Writing on Paper
Monday, November 17, 2008
If a 12 Year Old Gets It, Why Don't You?
Friday, November 7, 2008
Class Full of Technology For Cheap
Each student has one of a total of 24 Dell OptiPlexes at their desk. These refurbished machines were purchased for about $100 each. These are networked into our LAN, with internet access and a storage server. A networked HP4240 laser printer provides economical printing. These PC's are loaded with all free software. They use the Ubuntu operating system. This Linux based program eliminates the problems of spyware and adware that caused so many issues when we used Windows. For word processing, we use Open Office 3.0. This newest version works seemlessly, and will read and save .doc files from Microsoft Office. For internet access we use Firefox, the Mozilla based browser.
For instructional purposes, I have an Optima DLP projector. This is used for whole-class instruction so students can easily see what is being taught. I can project the computer's image onto the wall, making a six by six image. An Avermedia doc camera is hooked to the projector. The doc camera takes a picture and feeds it into the projector. I use this to show examples of students' work. I also have a digital camera that is used to, among other things, take pictures for the blog.
I have a desktop computer that I use to keep grades, write lesson plans, write the blog, and email/message parents and students. I use a laptop to bring work back and forth between school and home.
When you walk in the classroom, the use of technology is everywhere. Teachers often marvel at all of the equipment. The most amazing fact though, is the cost, or lack of. At the most, there is $5,000 invested. So for much less than $1,000/year, students can have computers to use as a tool, every day in language arts. I average about 60 students total each year in sixth grade. This means this technology-based classroom costs about $16/student/year.
I have to ask, why doesn't every language arts teacher have a class equipped with technology? This journey we started twelve years ago has sure paid off for the students of Laurelville.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Using a Dictionary & Other Tools
Okay, Ohio Monkeys, how about this one?? I just gave my Canadian Monkeys a vocabulary test today to see where their strengths and weakness are (Gates-MacGinitie). Should I have let them use a dictionary???
To add to this thought, when is it OK to use all of the tools available? When should students show what they know without the help of tools like dictionaries, thesaurus, word processing and other technology, peer help, teacher help . . .?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Is Surfing the Net Reading?
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Study Island
Each day a Study Island Student of the Day is chosen from each class. The winners receive an award certificate, a piece of candy,
You can tell by looking at Briann, that when a student gets "The Chair" they spend a day in class living in luxury!
Congratulations to today's Study Island Students of the Day--Breann C., Samantha R., and Jolene M.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
10,000 Hits!
This is remarkable for several reasons.
1. Students are listening.
2. Parents are using this resource.
3. Teachers tune in to see what we are doing.
4. This proves the value of a blogs in education.
5. Parents, students, and teachers are all reading the same thing.
6. Educational issues are being discussed.
7. Students are feeling ownership for the class and what happens here.
8. Where Am I? causes students to think critically and use map skills.
9. Student write with the knowledge that their writing has an audience.
10. Students are taking advantage of the opportunity to earn extra credit.
Thank you to everyone that has stopped by to see what we are doing!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Two Person Journal
This system has an advantage over a regular journal in that the writer has an audience. Everything written will be read daily. Also, with a peer to share ideas, comments, opinions, and information, it means more. Whether students write about books, school, friends, hobbies, family, or any other topic, they know a reader cares about what they have to say.
I originally did this project with composition notebooks that students shared. Now, with the technology available in Reading Workshop, students keep a common Open Office Word file saved on our file server. They can each write to the file from anywhere in the school. Because there is a computer for each student, they can access their file during class each day, read their partner's post, and respond.
This is a great motivator for students. After all, what does every writer want? To be read, of course.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Role of Technology in Education
Parents, students, and teachers, how should technology be incorporated into education? What would the ideal Reading Workshop look like? What would reading and writing instruction look like? What processes would we follow? What activities would take place in this "ideal" classroom? What would determine success?
Monday, April 28, 2008
Teen Writing, r u lol
How has the use of electronic writing affected you? How has it helped? What problems has it caused? With only one month left in the school year, should language arts instruction be changed to reflect this? And if so, how?
Pew Internet & American Life Project researched Writing, Technology and Teens. The study looked at the effect of modern technology on students' writing.
This is a significant issue based on their conclusion that 85% of teens ages 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites.
This table summarizes some of the findings of the study.
The complete findings of this study can be viewed here.
Are texting, IM'ing, MySpace, Facebook, blogging and email ruining the next generation of writers, or will they make them the best ever?
Friday, February 8, 2008
Etech Conference
Many of the ideas currently in use at Laurelville Elementary came from this School Net Conference. The use of the online learning program, Study Island came from a discussion with the vendor at a conference four years ago.
Posting grades online for students and parents was discussed in several sessions three years ago. After visiting with several vendors, I decided to use Engrade.
The use of LCD and DLP projectors with doc cameras in writing workshop, has made sharing student work easy. All of the fifth and sixth grade classes at Laurelville use this technology daily. This idea came from a session I attended several years ago presented by a language arts teacher.
Each year there are sessions on digital media in the classroom. This has helped with sharing pictures of students hard at work.
Last year I attended sessions on blogging. Needless to say, this attempt at keeping parents and students informed came from those sessions.
I attended a session Wednesday about using Audacity. This is sound recording/editing software. I use it to edit songs that we sing in the class. It is also a useful tool for recording podcasts. A podcast is an audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer.
A couple of ideas that I hope to use in the future are clickers and digital books. Clickers are infrared remotes. Each students gets one and they answer questions projected on the white board. At einstruction, they have a clicker that works with Study Island. The clickers anonymously keep track of each student's answer. This way each student is thinking about the question, instead of just a few students.
As you can see, many of the uses of technology in language arts at Laurelville Elementary originated from the Etech Conference. Each year I am excited to see the new ideas and find great uses in the classroom.
Friday, January 25, 2008
What Doesn't Matter
Student partners went through the article and looked for trivial details, unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and minor facts, opinions, and quotes that didn't help understand the article.
Once the highlighting was completed, student partners were combined to make teams of four. The four students compared each team's work and discussed their decisions.
Scotty D. took over as the teacher next, and students looked at the article with the projector. With Brianne managing the computer, the class as a whole had to agree on what wasn't important. Today, students will use what text that is left as they search for the W's and write a gist statement.
This is how the article looked when they finished. If you look at what is not highlighted, you should be able to see the important details, and get the gist.
Tuesday, October 11—Stanley usually seems to know where he's going. He moves quickly over rocky ground and across puddles. He works hard and he's almost always on the move. Stanley is a robot car.
Last week, 23 teams—including the Stanford University team that built Stanley—gathered in the Mojave Desert in Nevada to compete in a special race known as the Grand Challenge. The race was special because none of the cars had drivers.
Stanley completed the dangerous 150-mile course through the desert in six hours and 53 minutes, earning the Stanford team a $2 million prize from the Department of Defense. Of the 23 teams that competed, only five actually finished. The others were stumped by mechanical or technological problems.
Sebastian Thrun, the lead robotics engineer for the Stanford team, realizes that driver-free, robot cars like Stanley still seem like something from a science-fiction film. "People by and large don't believe in this stuff," he said. "They've seen too many failures." This year's Grand Challenge was much more successful than last year's, when no vehicle was able to travel more than eight miles.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Poetry, Clerihew Poems
Writing Workshop will focus on poetry for the next two weeks. We began working with free verse poems. Students listed topics they were interested in developing. Next, they picked one and worked on a "So What?" This is based on Nancie Atwell's Lessons That Change Writers. Atwell talks about the importance of knowing, "Why are you writing that," and, "what is the point?" She wants writers to think about the lesson, meaning, and/or moral.
Mrs. Bower, the Educational Specialist that is in each day during Writing Workshop to help students, taught about how to write a Clerihew poem. This type of poetry has four lines and is often written about a person. The first two lines rhyme and the last two lines rhyme. The poem is meant to be funny, so after a week of gray days the students enjoyed the "comic relief" that writing them brought.
I once had a teacher named McGuire
Someday he will have to retire
That'll be a sad time when he bids us "Good Bye"
I'm so sure all the cute girls will cry!
Mrs. Bower shared this example for all of the students (and they thought this was soooo funny).
One of the tools we used to help find rhyming words was the website www.rhymezone.com. This website makes it much easier when students choose to write poems that rhyme.
Check back to see some of the best student work!
Friday, November 9, 2007
3rd Grade Study Island Help
I was especially proud of how the sixth grade "teachers" showed their younger students how to find the correct response when they struggled. The sixth graders did an awesome job helping make the first experience on Study Island a positive learning experience.
Great Helpers!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Study Island
Each day a Study Island Student of the Day is chosen from each class. The winners receive an award certificate, a piece of candy,
You can tell by the look on Shayna's face, that when a student gets "The Chair"
They spend a day in class living in luxury!
Congratulations to today's Study Island Students of the Day--Cail J., Seth R., Molly V., and Chris T.