Thursday, December 24, 2009
Reflection on Last Year Sept. 2008- Dec.2009 #2
Integrating technology into the classroom has changed the way we research and learn about new things. Our lab provides an up to date link to the world where we can find answers to most of our questions. We use the internet to find facts about states for our state reports. On our website, http://hawaiianfifthgrade.weebly.com/, we have links to specific sites to find this informations such as http://geology.com/state-map/, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/, http://www.kidinfo.com/Geography/USA.html, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_U.S._states/state_templates. Students record their information on a study guide for their report. Students also use information from the internet to find out facts about molecules. They are given a molecule to research. After finding facts about their molecule, they build a model based on the facts they have discovered. We use the following site as a reference: http://www.chemicalelements.com/index.html. These are a couple of examples of research activities that we do in our classroom. There are times when my students ask a question and I either have a vague answer or I simply have no idea what the answer is. I have the student go online to find the answer. We have resources to find answers instantly and students can find the answers for themselves without having the teacher finding it for them. They share their answers with the class. My students are empowered to learn and have the world as a resource.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Reflection on Last Year Sept. 2008- Dec.2009 #1
The 2008-2009 school year has ended and we are now in December, two days before Christmas 2009. I have been incorporating Open Source technology into my classroom for some time now and find the results quite rewarding. If I were to categorize how I have used technology thus far I would include mainly four areas of concentration: writing, research, reference support, and enrichment. The main issue in using technology in a fifth grade classroom is finding time and utilizing time in a meaningful productive manner that will in no way take away or waste time in learning.
I have mainly used my lab to encourage writing. My students spent much of their time writing on the computer. They practice typing, word processing and work on writing tasks based on the California Curriculum Standards for Writing. Students love to write on the computer. They are engaged and tend to be more conscientious about what they are writing. I have had struggling students who hate to write begin to grow as writers. Much of their challenges include spelling, writing legibly, and being ashamed of how their writing looks. Technology has opened a door for them to express themselves making writing more enjoyable. Students in my classroom have a choice of whether to use paper and pencil or to use technology. In a way, this opportunity provides an avenue of self discovery. Many of us have a difficult time creating on a cold machine, needing to use pen and paper. Most of my students use the technology option, but some find that there is something about writing on paper. And there is something to writing on paper, specifically for me, dragging that pencil lead, physically creating and pushing your thoughts across a page, crossing out, drawing those pictures in the margin, and having at your finger tips the means to pour your heart and soul on to a page anytime, anywhere. I digress, back to the point of technology use in writing in the classroom. Spelling is definitely an improvement. I am unable to tell you how many times students in the past have asked how to spell a word. I either told them, gave a hint, had them sound it out, or directed them to a dictionary, or wrote the word for them into their personal word dictionary. How many times have we asked our students to check their spelling or had a peer check their spelling and they said that they did and their spelling was still atrocious? The sad thing is that students will continue to misspell the same words. These days all misspelled words are underlined and students have the opportunity to use spellcheck as a guide, a multiple choice quiz so to speak. Now spelling is no longer the issue. The issue becomes do I know which is the correct word to use. For example, "Do I use to or too?" or "Do I use their or there?" These are important word usage issues that my second language learners face each day. They become the topic of a specific mini lesson instead of a myriad of misspellings that can easily be avoided. I found that students will actually learn how to spell the words that they use most often in their writing.
They are also learning writing skills they will be using in the future in high school and college such as word processing, keyboarding, and standardized APA format.(American Psychological Association writing style format) We work on persuasive, narrative, literature analysis, and expository forms of writing. So far, technology has offered valuable resources and support in each area of writing.
I have mainly used my lab to encourage writing. My students spent much of their time writing on the computer. They practice typing, word processing and work on writing tasks based on the California Curriculum Standards for Writing. Students love to write on the computer. They are engaged and tend to be more conscientious about what they are writing. I have had struggling students who hate to write begin to grow as writers. Much of their challenges include spelling, writing legibly, and being ashamed of how their writing looks. Technology has opened a door for them to express themselves making writing more enjoyable. Students in my classroom have a choice of whether to use paper and pencil or to use technology. In a way, this opportunity provides an avenue of self discovery. Many of us have a difficult time creating on a cold machine, needing to use pen and paper. Most of my students use the technology option, but some find that there is something about writing on paper. And there is something to writing on paper, specifically for me, dragging that pencil lead, physically creating and pushing your thoughts across a page, crossing out, drawing those pictures in the margin, and having at your finger tips the means to pour your heart and soul on to a page anytime, anywhere. I digress, back to the point of technology use in writing in the classroom. Spelling is definitely an improvement. I am unable to tell you how many times students in the past have asked how to spell a word. I either told them, gave a hint, had them sound it out, or directed them to a dictionary, or wrote the word for them into their personal word dictionary. How many times have we asked our students to check their spelling or had a peer check their spelling and they said that they did and their spelling was still atrocious? The sad thing is that students will continue to misspell the same words. These days all misspelled words are underlined and students have the opportunity to use spellcheck as a guide, a multiple choice quiz so to speak. Now spelling is no longer the issue. The issue becomes do I know which is the correct word to use. For example, "Do I use to or too?" or "Do I use their or there?" These are important word usage issues that my second language learners face each day. They become the topic of a specific mini lesson instead of a myriad of misspellings that can easily be avoided. I found that students will actually learn how to spell the words that they use most often in their writing.
They are also learning writing skills they will be using in the future in high school and college such as word processing, keyboarding, and standardized APA format.(American Psychological Association writing style format) We work on persuasive, narrative, literature analysis, and expository forms of writing. So far, technology has offered valuable resources and support in each area of writing.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Content Standards and Technology
I am a fan of technology in education. I love Linux and the applications for classroom use. Computers are wonderful tools. This idea of the computer being a tool is key. We can have computers and the most fabulous software. If technology does not add to what we want to specifically teach and guide student learning based on learning standards, why have it?
I use the California Academic Content Standards to guide my teaching. It only makes sense to apply those standards to the activities I have my students working on while they are on the computers. During my first year with this lab, I have been able to integrate writing and research in science. My students were engaged in learning and stayed on task.
I use the California Academic Content Standards to guide my teaching. It only makes sense to apply those standards to the activities I have my students working on while they are on the computers. During my first year with this lab, I have been able to integrate writing and research in science. My students were engaged in learning and stayed on task.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Convert Open Office Presentations to Flash Slide Shows
Here is something I discovered. Did you know that you can save Open Office Impress Presentation documents in Flash format? Why is this important? With this capability, you can create a tutorial or slide show and place it on your website. The presentation can be accessed right on your website using Macromedia Flash which everyone has. All you have to do is create your presentation and save it. Then, go to File/Export and choose Macromedia Flash (swf). Save to your desktop. Open this file by opening Firefox. Then, go to File/Open File. Browse and find your swf file and open it. If it works here, it will work on a web page.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Classroom Web Pages
One thing that was helpful last year was creating a website for my students. It was the first thing they viewed when they went online. It provided resources to begin searches, information about the lab, links to educational sites and games, helpful videos, and a way to contact me online. It is constantly changing and featured photos of the year's activities and field trips. Here is the link to our site: http://hawaiianfifthgrade.weebly.com/ This year I plan to incorporate our math textbook into the site. Students will always have access to their book. I use weebly.com to publish my website. It is very user friendly.
Background and Purpose
The 2008 CUE conference featured an Open Source Linux lab created by Steve Hargadon. The lab consisted of thirty-two thin client laptops and a server running a Fedora Linux Terminal Server Project network. All the computers were donated and the cost of the lab was under $1000.00. All the software was free and the system was fast. I realized the potential of this resource and how my students would benefit from using this technology in their classroom. Linux is free and works on virtually any computer. A network is easy to build and configure. Since then, I have integrated Edubuntu LTSP into my fifth grade classroom. Open Source software has created many new learning opportunities for me and my students. The purpose of this blog is to share methods of integration and teaching strategies within the daily schedule of the classroom as well as sharing basic administration tasks. Hopefully the information on this blog will help others.
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