Thursday Lesson/December 16th

Many students have been asking how to make letters upper case and how to insert punctuation and how to make the words bigger. Today's lesson was surrounding these topics. Each student had to log in and open Open Office, our word processor. After that, they had to write their name and 5 spelling words they know by heart. We discussed they'd know if they know them by heart if the red squiggly line is there or not.
They immediately saw their name had the squiggly line. I showed them two ways to "fix" the first letter of their name: clicking the mouse after the first letter and hitting delete or highlighting the first letter (trickier as one letter is difficult for them to highlight). Then they learned how to hit the shift and the first letter at the same time. Many kids are always afraid to hold the shift button down. They do it so quickly, like the keys will bite them! I notice this every single year! So, I showed them to hold the shift down and keep their finger on it, then touch their first letter of their name. Success. We talked about how it's much easier to create your uppercase letters as you type. They entered to the next line and we practiced their name with uppercase at the beginning. they got it!
For font changes, I showed them how to highlight the word they wanted to change, then we played around with fonts and sizes. They enjoyed doing this and many were giggling as they used some crazy fonts and made their words huge and then tiny!
Today I was able to teach them the period and the exclamation mark. The period was easy for most after they found the key. I had to go around and show most of them on their keyboard as I wasn't explaining it very well-a visual on the projector would have been nice here. I will consider this for the next punctuation marks. The exclamation mark was more difficult as they had to control the shift as well as the key. I am also teaching them correct hand form on the keyboard and they are making a conscious effort to have their first fingers on "J' and "F". It's quite impressive to watch.
While this whole lesson may sound so simplistic, it's another step in the digital writing process for young learners. At first I wasn't sure it would be OK to combine the all these components into one lesson, but it worked out well and I saw quickly that we'd only be working on periods and exclamation marks. We'll cover the others another day.
My hope is for next week (the 3 day week before vacation) to have the kids write in their writers notebook their thoughts for their December entry so when we get back in January, it's ready to go.

Thursday Lesson/December 16th

kid blogs

http://kidblog.org/home.php

Post I want to check out...

Blogging with Second Graders

November Timeline

Making the daily "happenings" in our classroom visible made November timeline writing much easier than in past months. After we added to our chart each day (note to self-post picture of chart) we had two charts full of daily learning. I then typed them onto a bulleted document and the kids were able to choose what they wanted to elaborate on. This was by far the easiest month yet! The kids were happy to have a large list to "choose" from as they were concerned last month that they couldn't remember everything they had learned. Once they chose their topic they wrote in the classroom on paper (this is the first time I've had them compose on paper before going to the lab). The next day, we went to the lab and they were so excited to be able to use the clipboards that they have wanted to use since school began! (note to me-take pictures of kids in lab). 14 out of 17 students were able to do their whole November timeline writing during lab time and the other three finished up the next day in the classroom. I haven't asked them yet which process they liked best: composing on computer, thought on sticky note or writing their whole thought on paper before lab. I will be sure to get their feedback.

Making it Easier

It's been difficult for students to remember what they have learned after a whole month. Initially I had thought about having them write one journal entry on Friday afternoon highlighting their weekly learning. Instead, I decided to keep a daily large chart of what we have learned all day long. Currently, we have an end of day discussion and I write down their thoughts. After the holidays, they will take turns writing the daily learning. I think this will help them when they are choosing their idea for writing. They are already surprised at how much they really do learn each day! It's amazing when we make something visible!

Back at it...

So today was a good day. Last week "something" was added to the servers and the computers all worked at once today! The kids did great despite the lack of practice I would have liked them to have experienced by now. They were able to log on, open my template, save it to their name, and then type their October learning! It was exciting to watch. This week, we discussed our learning for the month, just like we did last time. They turned and talked and told their peer what they were thinking about writing. One change was they wrote their plan on a sticky note before we went to lab and took it with them.
I have discovered waiting a whole month is way too long for them (and me) to remember everything we have learned. So, next month, we are going to write weekly learnings in their writer's notebooks so they can have several entries to choose from. I think that might work out better. We'll see!
Two students wrote so much, they weren't able to finish. They were excited to learn they could do it in the classroom tomorrow during writing workshop. They said, "On the computers?" When I said, "Of course," they were quite excited!

Saturday Seminar

I had a great work day. The day started out with a few shares from Bailey. She showed us a website: screencast-o-matic, which we can use similar to Jing to record our voices and show how to do something. A tutorial of sorts. Dave says he finds it easier to use than Jing. I'm nut sure I'll have a use for this for second grade but I could see this as an application I could use to teach parents how to do something I'm using with their children or share with others teachers something new in technology. Another site that was shared was wallwisher. Here you can create a page full of sticky notes. If all of my students had laptops, this would be a great site to use to respond to literature, create a quick exit slip to showcase their learning, or do a quick math message. I am still thinking about how I can use this in a classroom with 3 computers. One idea is to have kids write on a sticky after their independent computer time. Perhaps they could write one thing they did at the computer, such as I practiced my spelling words and got them all right!
We had several guests that came to assist us with our work: Danielle and Seth. They were both very knowledgeable about technology and both have created a project that will be on the digitalis website when it's up and running. Danielle helped me a lot to think through my project and see what direction I could take it in. After today, I know I want to use more technology that's out there. She shared voicethread with me and I'm excited to try that with my students (if my computers work). I know that will continue to be an issue and I need to figure out what I will do if the problem persists. She also taught me how to capture my movies in imovie. I have been downloading movies and am not sure where they end up after the download.
I have also added to my original questions: How does the use of digital media foster students writing as they work to create a yearlong timeline of their learning? What evidence of deep learning will these projects reflect? Will students take ownership of the writing so that mid-year, templates with story starters will not be needed? Will the quality of paper-based reflections differ from digital writing?
Heather gave me an idea to have my kids reflect weekly about their learning, then choose one of those reflections to do their monthly reflection. I think this will be more manageable when they are ready to do their reflection because a month is a long time!
Dave showed us a tutorial about using imovie. I have been using it for a few years, but learned a few new things-I didn't know about the advanced tools (my version doesn't have the globe on it). I didn't know you could drag photos directly to imovie. I was saving them to desktop-this will make it quicker!
I'm thinking about changing the final project after talking to Danielle. What if I took the kids' writing and they record their voices on imovie along with adding their photos or scanned work? I think the final presentation will be more interesting than an Impress project would be. We'll see.
The day went fast. I think I accomplished a lot and did a lot of reflecting in my own mind about what it is I am actually doing with my students!

Resources for October 23

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm (Digital Storytelling Finds its Place in Classroom)

http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:cg3O0PeFquQJ:scholar.google.com/+fostering+students%27+writing+through+digital+media&hl=en&as_sdt=10000000&as_vis=1
Educational Uses of Digital Media

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=V1RmhxPaO9UC&oi=fnd&pg=PA153&dq=motivating+students%27+writing+through+digital+media&ots=CmSoMW_i6Z&sig=6EqSujYQ_4id3AWXL-xoN8RgGDI#v=onepage&q&f=false
Digital Literacy in the Classroom

http://www.citejournal.org/vol8/iss1/currentpractice/article1.cfm
Digital Booktalk

http://www.jstor.org.prxy4.ursus.maine.edu/sici?sici=0034-0561%2820081201%2962%3a4%3C292%3aRTEJ820650%3E2.0.TX%3b2-O&origin=EBSCO&
Literacy Instruction with Digital and Media Technologies

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9235#toc
Make Me a Story

Friday Catch Up

Today I did some catch up work in the classroom. We have 3 classroom Linnux machines. I went into my drop box to check and see which students had dropped their work in there last week. I had all but 5. I called those students down one by one and showed them how to drag their template to my drop box. They thought they had. This was good to show them so they could see what the folder looks like when it's dragged successfully. By the way, the computers work fine in the classroom when only one or two students log on at a time. I might have to have the kids work on the project in the classroom over a week's time. I don't know.

I am wondering if I should edit their work. I have saved a copy of my focus student's work so I can track his progress from beginning to end. They will be sharing these with their families at the end of the year. My instinct was to edit, then as I thought about it more, I wondered if it would show growth if I left it. Any ideas on this would be helpful?

Third Lesson

I took my class to lab today with the intention of going back into our slides and editing/revising as several had not finished last week. I wasn't very hopeful when I walked in the lab and saw our technology guru in there with doors that housed the servers wide open. He was sitting at a computer nearby and I sat down and got started with my class. It took several minutes for my homepage to show up. Then it took even longer for the template to load. We waited and waited and waited. This was just my demo! The guru was in a different room so I proceeded and was able to show the kids how to get to the template and finish their writing. This took 8 minutes. It should have been a quick 3 minute lesson. The kids all went to their computers, logged on, and that's when everything was s-l-o-w. No one could even open the template. This is the frustration I was worried about. Apparently, we just got a new part for our server so it would run much smoother. It was installed after my last lab lesson. It's not working. Last week went much better without the new part. After 7 minutes of pages not loading, I instructed the kids to escape and try going to Tux Type and practice keyboarding. Because many are not very fast at typing, the lag time worked for them! The students that were able to click the letters quickly had to sit and wait. Our time was up and we didn't accomplish anything. This is what I feared. It's so inconsistent you can't depend on it from one day to the next.

Second Lesson

The second class went much smoother than the first! Based on the chaos at the end of the last lab time, I decided to give my kids an incentive for following directions, aka listening! I don't use rewards in my classroom, so when I offered them a sticker for their log in card if they stayed with me the whole time, they were super excited. Imagine that...just a sticker! And it worked today. Everyone followed along and didn't try to skip ahead.
The plan:
Basically I did the same lesson as the first time except I was hopeful we'd get through the whole lesson. The Technology Integrator was in the room with me and she supported what I was teaching by checking in with the kids. Everyone successfully logged on, found their folder easy enough, and opened up the Impress file. Then they had to type their name on the save file as it's a read only file until they save it in their name. After that, they saved it in their home folder and then they could begin typing. I had a template with a sentence starter this month. It read: "I can't believe September is over already! The best thing about September in Room 14 was..." And here is where they were to insert their learning. We had previously discussed what they liked about school so far and everyone had orally shared in the classroom before going to lab. I think the oral rehearsal was helpful for most. Some decided to change what they had rehearsed and wrote something entirely different. This is what the student I am tracking wrote (I am not correcting his work, but will write it in italics in correct spelling after: my faverit thae was the pufball because I cude stepe on it. (my favorite thing was the puffball because I could step on it.) Most of the students learned how to capitalize a letter at the beginning of a sentence and the word "I" today. I went around and taught that individually. 2:30 quickly approached and it was time to save the work and drag it to my home box. 12 out of 17 were successfully doing this. I'm not sure what happened to the 5 that didn't get it in my box, but I was able to go in and get them later!
This lab lesson was a success and everyone was motivated to write (type). It was also helpful to have another body in the room.

First Lesson

9/30/10:

Thursday Lesson: I wrote how each part went in italics.

(The whole staff received an email in the morning warning us that the computer lab was experiencing extreme difficulties. It was slow, students were not able to simultaneously log on, and many computers were freezing in the midst of work. I emailed the librarian and asked if it would be a waste to bring my class down-she suggested I ask the T.I.. Her response was to try it and see what happens. I figured at the very least, I could model what our project would be and we’d come back to the room.)

• I modeled the whole lesson using the DLP projecting my computer screen. When practicing this by myself the previous day on several student accounts to make sure it worked, it looked easy. Doing it in front of the class made me realize just how many steps are involved to even be able to type! Students were sent back to their computer station with their user name and password written on a notecard.

Log onto Linnux using username and password

• All students were successful doing this except one new student. His username and/or password didn’t work. I asked him to look on with another student.

Go to Home Box

• One student didn’t have a home box. I’ll need to get some help from the T.I. to get it set up. I had this student move to my demonstration computer.
• The rest of the class was successful here, but several couldn’t double click quick enough to make it open.
• Some students began going on to next steps even after I asked them to put their hands in their laps if they had their home box open.
• I had to stop 3 times to remind them to stay with me as many were saying, “What do we go now?” because they had gone ahead of my directions. I was a bit grumpy at his point!

Link to Ms. O. Handout

• Again, most could open it, several had a difficult time double clicking on the icon.

Timeline-double click

• They double clicked on the icon for timeline and the Impress timeline I created opened up on their computer! At this point, the librarian came in and asked me if I had any issues. She was shocked when I told her we had no problems yet.

File-Save as

o Go to Name

Everyone was with me here.

o Click in front of timeline and type name

Several students had accidentally erased the name I had created rather than clicking in front of it. I went around and fixed those computers.

o Save in student folder

Here’s where several students went ahead again and clicked on the box in the left corner before saving. So, none of their work was saved. Lab time was over and it was time to go home, so I was not able to fix these during this time.

o Click Save

This is as far as we got today.

This portion of the lesson didn’t happen today: I thought they would have time to type on the template and then next week come back to it and revise.

When done save, and then exit

Look in homebox

Put paper you just wrote into dropbox

• Next week’s a new week and I will be thinking of a plan to keep kids with me, rather than rushing ahead. I also need to have them work on double clicking.
  
• I know each week will get easier as they become more efficient logging in and going to the templates. Today, I felt frustrated that I was one amongst 17 that needed help!

Getting ready for labtime

I didn't get started as soon as I had intended due to the NWEA testing tying up the computers for 4 weeks. Here's what I have done to get ready for our first lessons:

9/28/10: Tech Integrator created folders for templates and finished work for each student.

9/29/10: I created a template in Impress and saved it to my Ms. O.’s Handout File

9/29/10: I tested and was not able to type on the template. It’s a read only format. What to do? Check in with the Tech Integrator! After some time, she figured out what the problem was. This is the remedy I tried today and practiced using a few accounts. It worked. Tomorrow I will take the kids to the lab for our first lesson.

Inquiry Project

New Inquiry Question:

How does the use of digital media foster students writing and motivation as they work to create a yearlong timeline of their learning?

My Vision (My Plan):

• I will create templates for each month on Impress that will be shared on each student’s computer.
• I will take pictures/video of students working in the classroom and upload them for students to choose from.
• Students will learn to open a saved file in Impress each lab session.
• Students will learn how to choose photos so they can write about one photo a month and tell what they learned/liked about that lesson.
• Students will learn how to keyboard well enough to tell a story. I will teach how to capitalize letters, how to punctuate sentences and how to spell check.
• I will document my work on my laptop. Entries will include lessons taught as well as problems and successes!

What Help do I Need at October Meeting:

• I need to learn how to use Impress well enough to teach it. I know it is similar to PowerPoint and I have a basic understanding of that.
• Is Impress the best program to use for this work?
• How do I create templates that can be sent to all kids’ computers?
• I don’t know how to download pictures onto our computers (Thin Clients). Hopefully someone is going to show me this week.
• I want to learn how to share movies on Impress so students can have the movies we create in their yearly timeline.
• I need to learn how to podcast so clips can be added to the timeline.
• These timelines will be shared with families-haven’t decided on the format yet.

Problems I may encounter:

• The server is often down. What will I do if I am not able to have the kids do this work because of the server??

Comments:
Kim, your inquiry question is a wonderful revision. It sounds like you have a lot to do/learn-but what a wonderful thing. Imagine how knowledgeable you're going to come out of this project! YOU'LL be teaching other teachers how to do all of this stuff!-Bailey

Wow! I am impressed by what you know already! Rosemarie