Merit Week 19

We had a field trip to the Egyptian Museum.  My class was able to ride the bus.  I was given a grant by the Target corporation.  We took pictures and movies of the event to make a memory.  It will be an exciting project to do.  Each student will pick a picture and write about it and then talk into the podcast about it.  I hope it will work.  I wish my students had cameras to do a picture story of their own experience - maybe next time.

My math students are working on their facebook pages and biographies.  I don't let them have time in class because they don't use it well.  I am available before school and afterschool and during lunch if they need to use my computers.  At the end of math class, Friday, I allowed them to work on the computers or to play math games.  None choose to work on their project.  This is sad.  I guess I will have to have check in points for them.  It was cool using Teachergate to email all of my students the documents they needed to do their reports.  I could not figure out how to make the facebook page a google doc.  The formatting was very trickly so I just sent them each the file.

I was so excited to hear about winning another grant.  I finally ordered my new memory 750GB and the flash drive for each student.  We have already started working on our online portfolios so it came just in time.  I am having trouble trying to set up the scanner to file each student's work into their own folder.  I hope I can figure it out soon.

My students are working on their five paragraph essays through google doc's.  It is going slow.  There is so much I am trying to fit in each day.  It was due on Friday but some students have only entered their first paragraph.  Patience is needed.  Others are finished except for the concluding paragraph.

I forgot I wrote a grant for the MERIT funds.  I want to try out 5 different netbooks in my classroom and evaulate them.  I want my students to think about what they like and dislike. I plan to blog about the experience.  Where do teachers find the best service?  What does a 4 hour battery life versus a 7 hour battery life matter to a classroom teacher?  My students hope I win because now we have to share computers.  There is a race to the Mac's.  If I win the grant I think I will set up a schedule along with the bog so everyday the students can try another type of computer and then be able to compare the differences.

I am having trouble trying to use the wireless network system.  I am logged off when ever I want to use my mac.  So I am mainly using my pc in class.  I did share the movie I made on my previsit to the Egyptian museum.