Merit Week 24

All good things come to an end.  This is true but sad. I just attended my last Saturday MERIT class.  This experience changed me as an educator.  I am just a new teacher but now can't image teaching a class without the use of technology in the classroom.

Just this week I have used my new white board.  I have put notes on them and saved them.  I think I will create a webpage for these files for each subject matter.  That way the students will have them for future studying. (if they can't read their own notes)  I tried going back and forth to my macbook and pc laptop but it was too confusing.  Does anyone have feedback as to what works best with a white board?  I rearranged my classroom so my students can have access to my computers to enter their assignments into Google. It seems to leave more area open in my room.  I would love another table to move the computer so they are more spread out.  With my student population there is too much interaction on the computers.

I found out I was awarded money from MERIT for my grant request.  Yea!  I can't wait to go shopping.  I requested a few more netbooks.  I have a few students who just sit and wait for a computer to be available and then never actually do the assignment.  My class grew from just 8 students to 16. (Remember these are special education students.) There are more students who want to be in my class.  I guess that is a nice problem.

I applied for another grant through the SV Foundation.  This time it had to be a STEM project.  I wanted cameras and flip cameras.  I find when students have to do a voice over of their math project they are really doing a think out loud which really helps with understanding math concepts.  When I do my vocabulary words, the students were having a hard time coming up with visuals that explain their concepts.  With cameras I can have them use a white board, draw their concept and then take a picture of it.  I can download it and email it to them so they can post it on their Google Presentation.

Can anyone help me move all these blog entries into my Google blog?  I would love the help.  MERIT has been intense but highly rewarding. Now I wonder what I will do with all my free time?  I do need to learn how to use my white board.  I always need more time for my IEP's and testing.  I am in graduate school to finish my clear credential. I do want to write some more grants.  Any other ideas?

Merit Week 23

There is still no word as to who won the MERIT grants.  We are wondering when they will be announced.
 Yea for Price Middle School my SMART board is being installed during our break along with all the other teachers who do not have one yet.  I already went to a training on how they work.  I feel I should probably use my Mac for this instead of my PC. Does anyone have advice?

Today my students did a project for real life.  Perhaps I should send it to Lessonopoly.  I had the pick a menu from a place they like to eat.  Write down three items to order along with a friend. Calculate the cost, add sales tax, and tip if needed.  Then estimate the amount of money they need to withdraw from an ATM to cover the costs.  Too bad so many students did not finish within the 45 minute class period.  Now they have homework to do over the break.  This was suppose to be an easy assignment.  When they get to the computer they have trouble finding prices, choosing the place, etc.  I see this all as a waste of time.  But perhaps they are learning something.  I am trying to make my lessons be all about real life.  I guess the final product should be a link the the menu, and then a spreadsheet with their data.  They can put in all in a google spreadsheet.  Check back in March and see if this happens.  Their project can be displayed on their electronic portfolio website.

I guess it was a big week because I have all of my core students set up their own website.  They love going to it and working on their page labeled, "All About Me".  My students wrote about the person who made the most difference to them in their life.  I just need to grade them and have them post their google doc's on their language arts web page.  It is all coming together.  Now I need to grade notebooks and include the google forms via spreedsheet on the chapter summaries of Hatchet.  Next year, I can perhaps go all digital.  I just need more computers, or netbooks.  It is hard to have enough computers except for 2 or 3 students.

I am still working on how to figure out how to use the scanner and have it put the students work in a file.  When is Bryan going to answer me?  I just need more time.  I have movies to make, and more picture albums to post on my website.  I want to write another grant for the Silicon Valley group but it must be a STEM request.  I am glad I still teach math.  I also want to write a grant for the Silicon Valley Cue group.

Now to head out to Tahoe and do some skiing before I need to finish those IEP's, grade and lesson plan.

Merit Week 22

Wow, another great week.  First Saturday was spent with my MERIT team. Awesome as always.  I learned new material which I have already shared with my students.  Tuesday night I spent with the Google apps group and learned how to enter my blog on my website.  I also posted pictures on Picassa and make a book and posted it on my webpage.  It shows our Intel field trip.

Students still love doing the presentations for Language Arts vocabulary but this week I added Math.  Four out of the 16 students never finished but overall they enjoyed doing it.  Math is a subject they would rather avoid but by Friday we were able to review the final product and start learning the new word.  I have homework for the weekend of cleaning up their presentation, and creating some worksheets for home work.  I might like to do this each week and perhaps link it to the subject we are studying.  I am learning too.

I had trouble showing CNN student news a few times.  Our IT department said it was them.  I think my computer was acting up.  But I had a video on the dark ages to show so I was saved.  I show videos for about 15 minutes to connect to the chapter we are studying.  My students did not really know what  a knight was.  The videos helped.  I hope to show the start of Robin Hood on Monday so they can see what the crusades were really about.  I shared this was the begining of when cultures became mixed up.  They like that visual.

I still need help scanning to each students file.  I am scanning student work and saving it by the title.  I need to turn in my receipts for that grant.  I like my external drive.  I still have not labeled my studen't flash drives. I applyed for the Horace Mann scholarship to finish up my level 2 classwork.

I will try to apply for the $1000 cue grant, the next Teacher Innovation grant for March 1 which needs to be in the area of Math or Science.  I am still waiting to hear on the MERIT grant...

I want to set up a Google form for referals in my classroom. Next week my principal is review my math class on Wednesday morning.  Does anyone have a great lesson plan to share?  I am thinking of doing proportion or mean, median, mode.  Now I just need to grade my KidsBlogs, Tween News Articles, Google forms...Oh and of course one more IEP..

Merit Week 21

Another great week for Technology in Room 28.  The external drive arrived!  I hooked it up and backed up my mac machine.  My students flash drives arrived as well.  I am putting a label with their name on each one.  I also plan to have them stored in a box, which I can lock up each night for security.  My students are very excited.

I am set up to scan all their work in to their electronic portfolio but don't know how to set it up.  I don't know where to ask for help on this.  I am having trouble finding the time to discover this on my own.  So if you know someone who can help me let me know!  Thanks!

Again I set my students loose on google presentations.  They went wild and love it.  I recorded the presentations being made and need to learn how to make a video where I can speed up the action.  Can anyone help with this project?  I did interview my students about what they like best about technology in room 28.  It is so cute.  Now I just need to find the time to make the movie...

The facebook mathematician project was a bomb.  My students do not work during class time.  I gave them four days to work on it in class.  My room is open before and after-school and at lunch.  Not one of my students made it a page to show on the projector.  OF my 16 students, four actually made the page but printed it out.  They gave oral presentations which were lacking content and purpose.  I did give an example and let my students tape me, talking about Albert Einstein.  So to do this project again, I will have them print out sources and have an aid or myself highlight where the information should go.  I think they need more structure on how to do a report.

On Friday, we finished reading chapter 2 of Hatchet and many of my students requested I make a Google form so they could write down their chapter details  online versus their notebook.  This is great for me because at one glance I can tell if they have comprehension of the story versus looking at 15 different notebooks.

Merit Week 20

I can't believe 20 weeks have gone by already.  I am just excited about using technology in class.  I keep thinking on new things to do.

The week started out great by attending the Good Teachers Conference held in San Jose.  I attended workshops on writing, behaving and one on technology.  Of course, the one on technology was my favorite. I started using the ideas on Monday.

I helped another teacher set up Kid's Blog for her class.  I showed her mine and how it works.  I help her set up her password, etc.

I worked with Allegra on how to put google docs as a list on a webpage.  I am setting up lists of my vocabulary and definitions in google docs but was having trouble displaying them on my web page.  Thanks!

My students want me to send in our video clip to CNN Student News.  I need to find time to do that.  I finished two IEP's.  I am so thankful that is all online now.  I brought one home to do this weekend  because it is due on Monday.

I have another IEP to attend on Tuesday where I want to recommend the student bring in his computer and type is written projects.  How do others feel about this?  The teachers can not read his hand writing.  Printing would be the issue.  Do we allow him the wireless password or does he bring a flash drive to the teacher to print his assignments?

I am trying to redesign my home office.  It feels like so much trouble.  I did go through old paper work and sorted out the old and unimportant.

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.

Merit Week 18

I sent in my receipts for my last grant and the money came back to me within the week.  Wow!  And they did not ask for my original credit card statement.  Then I would have had to wait over a month.  The Silicon Valley Education Foundation rocks.  And then on Friday, I found out that I received another Grant!  My students are so excited.  Memory for electronic portfolios. - we start working on that project Monday.  I think that will be my project for the 30th.

I plan to do a joint effort of both paper and electronic portfolio reflections.  I plan to set up everyone one with a file on the server where I will post their 3 submissions to their portfolio for my class.  I will also scan in other refections that I have received.  It sounds a bit overwhelming but I think the hard stuff is just to get started.

I love using google forms in my social studies class.  I have my students write down the definitions form the book and then input them into a google form.  I change the background each week so I know they are doing the write form.  From the spreadsheet, I can tell if they are on track or not.  If not, I know I need to do a reteach.  I just love it.  I entered that as a lesson plan for lessonopoly.  I used it for Egyptian terms.

My other good news is that I received the $400 check from the Target corporation for my field trip.  My students are so excited.  I made a slide show for them earlier.  Now they each are going to take pictures and share what we learned.  I guess I could write another project about this one.  Anyone who reads this could offer advice.  Thanks!

The developers from Teachergate say they like my feedback.  I send them reports when things don't work as they should.  I love being able to send my students files with a click of the button.  I am using my students email address from our closed google site system.  It is great.  I sent them a facebook page as a doc and then they are doing a math project of their famous mathematician.  Oh, I guess this could count as another project.

My sixth graders are writing their five paragraph essay using google documents.  It is fun to edit their paragraphs with them as me, and send them off to write some more.  They seem to enjoy it.  They are writing about the differences between the book and the movie of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I guess that could be a project also.

I need help on choosing my next project!

I do need to write up a grant for the Merit program.  Are there any volunteers to read what I write to give input?  I plan to ask for money for a few netbook computers.  I really need my whole class to have access to the internet so they can do google forms, write documents, etc.

Well I guess week 18 has been an exciting week.