Today is my first day writing in my journal.  I have been working with the students on Kidpics, and have not spent much time updating my website.  My main goal now is to get my journal up and to continue to add to each at least once a week.  Friday afternoon my third grade students were creating recipe books using Kidpics.  They were very excited, and worked on their own to create these wonderful books.  Next week students from Ms. Tomasella's fourth grade class are going to teach my students how to create a PowerPoint presentation.  I can't wait to see how well the students ppick up the skills and hopefully I will also be refreshed on PowerPoint.  The grant is very exciting!  I am eager to learn so much more this summer, especially since it will be my second year here, and I will have a better idea on how the next year will start out. 

This morning my students were very excited to get on the computers and see how we updated the website.  They worked very well on the new writing prompts, which motivated me to create more.  I have to ask Art to get my class set up for the online journal and the chat room.  I am also very excited to see how well they pick up the new skills.  They are navigating much better.

It is Saturday morning and we are back at MLK to continue our training.  Yesterday I was able to add a topic to my class forum, unfortunately my students were not able to respond to the topic due to time restraints.  They were very excited to choose their own screen names, anmd Janine's students did a fabulous job teaching my kids how to log onto the journals and the chat room.  Next year the fourth grade students will be great teachers for the incoming third graders.  They will all be able to start their journaling the first month of school.  This is great!

This morning I finished a web hunt on plants.  It isn't vey complex, but it will get the children thinking more about the different parts of a plant.  I will hopefully be able to add more critical thinking questions to the hunts in the future.  This month is National Hamburger Month, so in the journal forum, I asked the students to describe their favorite burger to me in a descriptive paragraph.  They will be doing that this morning too!  Things are going well, and all of us are moving along nicely!

Today is Wednesday, and we are going to Wheaton Village tomorrow for a third grade class trip.  I created a simple web hunt to go along with the trop for the students to complete today.  I am so proud of myself for doing so much since last time we met.  I created more web hunts, worked in the class forum, and started my June students' page as well.  I am really enjoying this and can't wait to learn more.  The students are getting much better at navigating Kidpics too!  They now know exactly what to do when they are told to write a story using Kidpics.  It can only get better!

We had a wonderful time on our trip to Wheaton Village yesterday!  I found a travel log background on KidPics, and today the students are creating a booklet telling about their trip.  I am very pleased with how well they know their way around KidPics now.  I can't wait to see the final projects completed!  Tomorrow we are going to be back here at school and learning about using cameras and creating 360 degree views of our rooms.  Well at least I think we are!  I'll let you know tomorrow!

Here we are back in school just a month after school!  Yesterday Art introduced us to Big6, which is a problem solving strategy.  It sounds great, and a great way for the children to solve problems in a structured, but also flexible to different learning styles way.  The lap tops are now all working, and the other teachers and I are excited to get back to work on our sites.  I am thankful that I remember all that I do!  We will be working on our project "Bullies to Buddies", however, that name is not set in stone. I talked to Miss Inferrera yesterday, and she will be stopping by to see us!  We will definitely miss her this year!