Math time is a busy time in our class. The Smartboard brings my students together to solve problems and support each other as they tackle new concepts. They are always eager to get to work and the best part is that even if they are not up using the board, they are actively figuring out what they would answer to be ready for their chance. A big plus is that as they work I can see what they are thinking.
Decimals as a team sport. Simply order them from largest to smallest.
This allows me to alter my teaching to address the misunderstandings of
the students. For example, when we were working on place value, one question I gave the class stumped them all. Their job was to write 1, 416, 098 from
the digits that were in a place value chart on the Smartboard. Every student came up one at a time,
and one at a time they were stumped. This amazed me because I thought they had a good understanding of the concept.
They were able to take the numbers from the chart and write them out in
the correct order1416098. However, the problem came when they tried to
put in the commas and read the number. After watching them come up one
after one, it soon became apparent what the problem was. They all started
from the left side of the number and counted out three digits and
placed the first comma. resulting in 141, 609, 8???? Of course it was
all down hill from there. Some tried to drop out the zero and others
tried adding some extra ones in various spots. However, no one thought of starting
from the right. I guess that we are so ingrained to read left to right
that the idea of starting from the right never occurred to them. We tried for about fifteen minutes until recess. They all headed out with the problem still unsolved. After the recess I set them groups to find a solution and the puzzle was eventually solved.
And..
http://bit.ly/LALk
Who knew Multiplication drills could be could be so much fun! Just a simple set of interactive buttons and the game is on! My students love these two big, noisy buttons. We use them for team math sports. They capture the first person's touch, light up, make a sound and count down. We use them for math drills amongst other games. They are always asking for a chance to use this.
Another resource from this website is a function machine.We use this as
teams as well. One student makes up the function while the other solves
it.
Using the Smartboard has challenged me as a teacher, and my students as a class, to develop a deeper understanding of math concepts. It provides me with opportunities to use observation as a pivotal part of assessing their learning, and helps me to tailor my teaching to student needs.
These resources are from TeacherLed http://bit.ly/OwnCHv.
This year has been an adventure in integrating technology. Our school acquired a cart of iPads as part of a pilot project in innovative learning. Our goal was to use them in class to see if and how they changed the way we teach and learn. The project was not just about using ipads in class but about discovering how using them would change the learning experience. My class got 5 iPads to use full time and I got personal Ipad to use.
Integrating technology was not new to me, but the iPads were. The first thing I did was to explore many of the Apps that were available to use in a variety of applications. I looked at apps that helped learn math facts, others that let you create books, video and music, and still others that let you download and read eBooks. I had intended to try it all.
Including the MacBooks, my goal was to use this equipment to create online portfolios of student work to motivate students and to allow parents to follow their progress throughout the year. We started with publishing a creative writing assignment for
Halloween. Each child followed the writing process in planning,
drafting, editing and publishing their own story. They learned how to
create a webpage, took photos of their illustrations and posted both.
During the process they learned how to use Dropbox, how to upload
pictures from iPads and then download them to use in a
blog. We worked through many problems, and their resolution and enthusiasm grew with each success. They learned to value each others opinions and to rely on each other for support.
Then we started blogging...and writing took on new importance to the class. The students began to take charge of their own learning. They stared blogging about class activities. Laterthey took on a new role as a character from our novel and their blogs became her diary.
I had started a blog as well to experience it myself and record and reflect on our progress.
"We started to blog with the idea of blogging once every week or two. We
now blog every day we are together. The kids are always looking for more
ideas to blog. They write more now. They are more creative in their
blogs and they are always busy taking pictures of their work with the
iPads to publish their work in their blogs. "From My Blog at the time (Blogging a Class Changer)
About this time we finished our Literature Circle novels and started a new project. We worked in our groups of four to create a video of the books. The students rewrote the book as a play, created sets, characters and scripts and used the ipads and MyStopMotion to create animations of the books. They used iMovie to do voice overs for them. I showed them briefly how to use the app and gave them very basic instruction on iMovie. They took up the challenge and became directors, actors, and producers.
"We jumped in
feet first and again the class surpassed all expectations. We all
started together but soon leaders emerged and as problems were encountered,
solutions were found. Everyone was proud of their finished movie and
gained a deeper understanding of the elements of a story. As I watched
and listened I realized just how important this was to them and marveled
at their new found expertise in setting and character portrayal. " (Reflections on Innovative Learning year 1)
We also took on the researching of the building of the CPR and its importance to B.C. We watched several YouTube documentaries on the building of the railway and took notes. We then set out and found old pictures of Immigrants working on the railway and the dangers they faced. We used Book Creator to meld our notes and pictures and created voice overs for the books. I wondered if students would emerge from the project with more than just technology skills and they impressed us by answering questions on their books, When I asked them if making the book helped them learn they said ."Yes, cause the information keeps traveling around your head when you need to use it."
I am amazed at all we have accomplished and how we have grown as a
team. Technology has become entwined in my daily classroom routine. I don't plan how and when to use technology.
On any given day, you will find some of my class filming or doing voice
overs as others are drafting and still others are blogging. Some are
busy taking photos of their latest artwork or making illustrations for
their blogs. Some may even be using the time to finish up some Math or
scrapbooking. We have many projects on the go and we are often all in
different stages of creating. We have blocks of work time and students
help each other, teach each other, work together and technology is just
another tool in our crayon box.
As we worked through each project I worried about the time
involvement for each. Were we taking too long? Was each project and
effective use of time? Would students finish with a deeper understanding
of the content they used? How could I evaluate each student's learning
effectively?
It is gratifying to know that the
students think they have learned more and have a deeper understanding
of the content we set out to learn about. They felt that they would
remember more about the topics than if they had just read about them,
answered questions, or written reports.
My personal
observations of the time they spent actively engaged and the
collaboration required in creating the movies, books, and blogs would
mirror those of the class.
"I have learned as much as I have taught and am excited to try new
projects next year. Each new project we finish seems to open a new
door of possibilities for another."
PS We never got to those Math apps or any of the other teaching apps. In May I erased them from the iPads and we are all happy filming, writing, taking photos and building portfolios. We used Pinterest to bookmark our work and highlight out portfolios Our adventure has just begun. We are already looking to next year.
I am currently a grade 4 teacher in Surrey B.C. I have integrated technology in my teaching for over 20 years and have given many workshops on how to do so. I am a past president of CUEBC and was Conference Chair of TELED, a twin International conference on technology integration in Victoria, and New Orleans. I participated in Ministry of British Columbia investigation into k-12 requirements for the successful integration of technology in schools. As part of this year long investigation I was one of the co-authors of the final report Conditions For Success. I appeared on Working TV in a documentary on the pros and cons of using technology in elementary school.
This is a documentary made by my students about our year long journey in project based learning with technology. The students interviewed each other and mixed in clips of their work. I asked them to think about how the technology changed the way they learned and what they learned.
This is their voice.
This is what they want you to know about their adventures along the way.
"Using the blog is incredible because we can share our projects with the world
When making our movies we cooperate with each other and get closer
A textbook has limited information when the web has millions of results
computers are very fast for searching up stuff
When we did our Barkerville journals it felt like we were there
When we are on Youtube looking at our movies it looks like we have fame and people we don't know, know us
In a group you an share your ideas and create something amazing
Kids feel like they have more trust
Blogging about a book or something makes you feel like your in the book
If you bring your own technology you can work on your stuff at home too
Putting movies on YouTube might make it go viral
We learn by doing it
When we do blogs we have to research things and by getting information we are learning
When you have a blog you can share your information with everyone elsse I really like our website because you can look back on it all"
In 2007, I found Wikis. A way of sharing, publishing, engaging and promoting writing. We started by writing every day, creating scrapbooks and a class Wiki. The Wiki gave my class a reason to write and they took off. This was a class that struggled with written output and the difference that our Wiki made was very evident. We were lucky enough to have an author and a game developer answer questions and chat with us through our Wiki as well. The students loved showing off their work and often took the time to go back and edit or re-edit from home. It surprised me to see students had made changes over summer and that we had traffic from all over the world as they shared their pages. 2007and 2008 were our Wiki years. We loved it. They are still up and my students stop by and visit their old work.
In 2009, we acquired carts of Macbooks. IMovie and iPhoto and iWeb became tools of choice for telling our stories and we made DVDs of our work. We have continued making movies and have discovered blogging. Another success! Another reason to write. We blog every day, and since we received the iPads we use Book Creator and MyStopMotion to make movies and publish books. We have a class website, a YouTube channel and a Pinterest account. We are running out of year faster than we are running out of projects.
Technology has become entwined in my daily classroom routine. I don't plan how and when to use technology. On any given day, you will find some of my class filming or doing voice overs as others are drafting and still others are blogging. Some are busy taking photos of their latest artwork or making illustrations for their blogs. Some may even be using the time to finish up some Math or scrapbooking. We have many projects on the go and we are often all in different stages of creating. We have blocks of work time and students help each other, teach each other, work together and technology is just another tool in our crayon box. If we can't get the Macbooks during specific times we change our day around and use them when we can. We usually work in small groups and some of us take on more projects than others.
I have always integrated technology,
and I know many of my peers
do not share my views on its importance in the classroom. They see
computers as a way to teach
typing, to learn math facts, or to research and publish a report. Many
want a one on one ratio of computers to students and think of
using computers as a acquiring a new skill. They want scheduled weekly
times with computers and don't see the need to have ongoing significant
access to them. Over the years, I have been steadfast in resisting scope
and sequences, marking technology skills, promoting integration and
arguing for increased technology funding for elementary schools. I
still believe that elementary school is the perfect place to use
technology, as integration is the cornerstone elementary classes are
built upon. We need to see technology as an essential tool for elementary students, a means for early intervention and a way to kick start literacy.
Make all learning real, relevant, tied to communities,
with real application in the kids’ lives outside of the classroom.
Example: Ban research papers—unless they are published online and have
an informative, persuasive, or other real purpose for others. Learning
should have an impact beyond getting an “A” on the assignment.
Teach kids to think through, with, about, for–and
create–new, interactive digital global communication. I don’t mean this
as an add on. I mean rethinking all the subjects we now teach in view of
the possibilities (what techies call “affordances”) of the digital age.
That means getting rid of the “two cultures” binary. STEM subjects are
impoverished without creativity, analysis, critical thinking. The
Information Age is about putting back together the knowledge that the
Industrial Age subdivided. A simpler way is to say have them all learn
Scratch multimedia programming and think about the possibilities.
Things I learned from my methods classes:
1. You need to make learning relevant. You need to tie it to the here and now. We learn best when we need to use knowledge for a greater purpose. It is not good enough to teach skills and content for future use.
For example, if we require students to research a Canadian Explorer, and report back simply to receive a mark, they will. However, if we ask them to join that explorer on his journey, find out where they went, what they did, and blog about their adventures, they live the part. They need to use all the research and tie into their imaginations, They need to create, to become involved. They will take away so much more and enjoy the experience.
2. Children love to share. We all do. The bigger the audience, The more successful they feel. This year my class made videos that we posted on YouTube of their novel studies. They enjoyed the literature circles they participated in as they read their books, but they loved turning them into movies. They asked for one more chance to make a movie before the year ends so we are racing to do just that. This time, the excitement is much higher, the plans are more elaborate, the sets and characters are coming together quickly and after a few days we are almost ready to film. This one is all them. Their project. They are working at night and planning at recess. There have been trips to dollar stores for the extra sparkle and telephone conferences to create scripts. This is a true labor of love.
What I learned from my students:
3. It's not about the mark. It's about growing, sharing and teaching each other. It's about working together and appreciating and enjoying each success. It's about being proud and celebrating. It is about being our best.
