Journal Writing March 2, 2004

  In two weeks my third grade class will be taking the N.J. ASK 3 test. I'm now taking some time to assess the progress we've made this year in our use of technology.

  This week I asked my students to write details about they activities they best remember. I was pleased and sometimes by surprised by their responses.

  Jamar wrote: “ I liked when we saw the house where Dr. King lived and we got to search around the house. We got to see the bed, the piano and flowers he had in his house.” He also liked learning to type and playing the typing games.

  One of Samuel's favorite memories was investigating silly poems at www.gigglepoetry.com . I even caught him reading a poem that he'd written down, and laughing to himself, during an assembly we were having last month.

  Evangelista enjoyed learning about winter at www.vickiblackwell.com and using google to learn more about groundhogs. She liked

sprawling on the carpet in our classroom and reading giggle poems with her friend, Takiayah.

  Dayzayn thought his investigation of Fat Tuesday was very enlightening:

“ I like the funny masks and clothes they wear. I like the king's cake that looks like a donut.”

  Amir best remembers the haunted house he explored through Yahooligans on Halloween.

  As we head into testing week, I am feeling very positive about technology's contribution to our efforts. My students have explored worlds to which they did not previously have access. They are becoming much more independent in finding the information they are seeking. They are reading, discussing and writing about what they find. Best of all they are excited. And so am I.

March 25, 2004

Students did a beautiful job testing this year.  I'm sure glad it's over, but we were really pumped up.  One student even wrote

"N.J. ASK3 Rocks" as part of her math answer.

This week we've been enjoying Ms. Inferrera's picture prompts.

May 1, 2004,

Third, fourth and fifth grade teachers are having a workshop today at MLK.  We are all very excited about the activities planned for the coming year.   Today we talked about ways to get parents for involved.  We're going to have a parent day at the end of the school year to introduce parents to STARW and answer their questions.  

This is the first workshop we've had with the fifth grade teachers.  It's exciting to think that the third graders we have now will have access to all the benefits of StarW for the next three years. 

May 3, 2004

Today my class really enjoyed being trained by Mrs. Riggins' to use their journals. Mrs Riggins' group has already become experts.  Each of them paired up with one of my students to learn the system.  Everyone picked a screen name and Art immediately set up an account for us.  Journaling on-line is going to be a big hit in my classroom!

May 7, 2004

We've added a new dimension to our journaling.   Now students are in the STARW chatroom and having so much fun.  We made a list of subjects that were good to talk about.  We also discussed the rules for positive behavior in the chatroom and the consequences for negative behavior.  All except one students responded appropriately.  It was a successful visit to the chatroom. My students are really enjoying this.

May 8, 2004

Third, fourth and fifth grade teachers enjoyed today's training.  We learned how to create rubrics at rubistar.4teachers.org.

We posted new activities and created links to the rubrics for our students to follow. 

May 22, 2004

We had fun this week using the internet to plan for our field trip to Wheaton Village.

On Monday and Tuesday my students found out all sorts of information about the colonial village in Millville.  The build-up was exciting.  Jose' M. couldn't wait to see the biggest bottle in the world.  They learned technical terms for the tools the artists would use for creating glass art.   Sam even printed out the directions to Wheaton Village from Atlantic City "just in case."   Turns out that his foresight saved the trip.  Our driver led the way, all the while holding the directions that Sam brought on board.

The biggest bottle in the world was everything we dreamed of.

July 6, 2004

Today we started summer technology classes.  This year fifth grade is joining us and we're all very excited. The third graders who just finished with me will have the luxury of intensive technology training for the next two years.  By the time they're finished there, I figure the entire district will be on board. 

Today we learned about the Big Six process of  problem solving.  If we all decide to use this process, students will have a system to use throughout the rest of their elementary school careers. 

We also learned about a website that I really found interesting:  www.snopes.com.  It specializes in urban legends.  You can go to the website to find out if your favorite legend is fact or fiction.

July 7, 2004

Today Dr. Loper and I were partners.  We worked together to create new web pages.  Most of us have been working on setting up activities for the 2004-05 school year.  I have a new writing prompt for students who check in during the summer and have been organizing a table of monthly activities for the coming year.  Everyone is working well together. 

July 8, 2004

We worked hard today learning the web and flow system of gathering information and websites and storing them for projects at school.   I did my research on Johnny Appleseed.   I found lots websites gathered by other teachers.  I also found some new recipes to try with my students.  We've done Johnny Appleseed activities in the past, but I expect this year will have many more components thanks to our research and organization.

July 9, 2004

It was a very productive day in class.  We've done quite a bit of research on bullies and character education.  Everyone was very excited the end of the day because Janine arranged for WNJN to come in to do a classroom close-up on our program.  We are moving ahead so quickly.  At the end of the day we planned ahead for group activities we'll have on Monday.  We'll begin planning our introduction for students in the fall.

July 12, 2004

This morning we worked in groups to begin preparing our for B2B lessons for the upcoming school year.  My group worked on a survey that we'll give to students at the beginning of the year.  It includes questions about whether the children have been bullied, what types of bullying they have encountered in school and how it has effected them.  This information we gather should be useful information.

In the afternoon we again worked in groups to develop bullying scenarios.  We all brainstormed about the bullying situations we've encountered in school.  My group wrote a script of our situation.  We are videotaping these segments to use as discussion prompts with the students in the fall.

July 13, 2004

We had a productive day working on our B2B project.  This morning we did a lot of work on a power point presentation we'll have on Back to School Night. We wrote a script and imported quite a few pictures.  It was a lot of fun. 

This afternoon we videotaped the bullying script we wrote yesterday.  Janine, Raina, Steve and I worked together.  I think we've accomplished a lot and work well together.

July 14, 2004

Today we learned a lot about using our Dana AlphaSmarts.  Our guest speaker got us motivated.  The children will really enjoy using this technology.  We practiced beaming information to eachother's Danas and experimented with Picowrite and Sketchy.   This afternoon we began learning about Hyperstudio and updated our StarW web pages.  Jen gave a demonstration of Grade Pro.

July 16, 2004

We're all leaving this Friday feeling as though we accomplished so much this week.  This morning Janine and I finished up the Back to School Night Power Point about our Bullying project.  I looks really good.  As a group we all created many, many writing prompts about bullying and linked them to one page that we can all use.   I also received an iBook loaner to try out

until our new ones arrive.  It's wonderful to have all this technology.

August 18, 2004

We've just finished two days of training on our new iBooks and have learned so much.  I also really enjoyed watching the video that some of our students at MLK made this past summer under the direction of Ms. Caldwell and Ms. Alden.  The students gave a wonderful tour of the school and interviewed teachers, principal and vice principal. 

During the past two days we've learned to use iPhoto, iMovie and iTunes.  We've learned to create very professional looking videos with audio in synch.   Our Students are going to learn so much in the coming year.