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Ms. Castaldi's
Journal
3/2/04
Today
the kids had a great time for Read Across America Day! We
completed book reports using Kid Pix. They are becoming better
and better with Kid Pix everyday!
3/4/04
What a great day!
I learned how to edit my pages using Contribute! I posted
my bio and picture. Then I wanted to post my journal too.
Art helped a little, but not much! How exciting! This
is a lot of fun. Now, my new goal is to decorate my pages.
That will be coming soon.
3/10/04
Oh my goodness!
My kids love the chat room! Today I just introduced it to
them and I let them "play around" in the room. I
monitored at my computer and they were discussing kid stuff.
Some of them wanted to talk back there too. I told them there
was no need to talk, just type what you want to say. I look
forward to giving them a topic to discuss and have them discuss
it in the chat room. I also think it would be great if the
third grade was in the room with us, and they could all discuss
something. That will be really neat! I find that they
are getting quicker with their keyboarding skills as well.
Yesterday I took my laptop down to the little boy I tutor from Uptown.
He wrote a great piece using Kidspiration. He loved it!
3/16/04
Today I posted pictures
from our ASK 4 Survivor game. I wasn't sure how I was going
to be able to do it...but I figured it out! I love Melissa's
writing prompts. That will be my next mission, to learn how
to post different writing prompts. I would also love to set
up a new email account where the writing can be sent. I'll
have to remember to ask Art tomorrow.
3/19/04
The other day we met with
Phil, the Contribute expert. He helped a great deal.
Janine also bounced an idea she had for our big project. I
think it is a great idea and I am very enthusiastic to get started.
I want to start finding books related to our topic. I wanted
to share something that one of my students said to me after the
Language Arts section of the ASK 4. He raised his hand and
said, "Miss Castaldi, everything we have been doing this year
with you was on the test. Even the character map on Kidspiration
was on there." It was a great feeling that he gave me.
Then all of the other kids chimed in and agreed with him.
Another student even said, "Yes, but you made us use three
character traits and the test only asked for one. Why did
you make it harder for us." I thought that was funny
too. Of coarse I made it harder, then I knew they could accomplish
what was on the test. It just made me feel that my efforts
were working. It also gave me great satisfaction that time
of the computer is not wasted time. I remember Janine saying
this summer that she wanted to use her computer stations as a work
station not a "game station", and I feel that with Kid
Pix and Kidspiration we are able to do that.
3/25/04
I had a break through
yesterday with a reluctant writer. We were typing our pledges
to our planet for Earth Day on our Dana's. I overheard one
of my students find the word count button and he told his friend
that he had typed 70 words. Then his friend told him that
he had typed 85 words. From there it was a word war!
They were typing more and more to see who could type the most.
I was scared to read their final pieces because I feared they would
not be on topic, but they were! It proved to me that typing
on Dana's is not as hated as actually writing on paper. At
the end of the day one student had a 155 word essay and the other
had 160 words. I thought it was truly great!
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