Extending Summer into New Technology Goals

This summer was amazing for my own professional development, and I am hanging on to those summer conversations.  I have set some BIG goals for this year's class with technology and pushing the 21 Century skills:  collaboration, creativity, communication and research.
  
*Extend the day through the use of technology (Class Blog)
*Expand students' learning with instant conversations (Evernote)
*Change my record keeping system to digital (Evernote)
*Continued focus on expanding Wonderopolis into all parts of our day


All teachers try to figure out the time aspect in their classrooms-we are constantly making choices and often having to complete the "requirements."  I believe strongly that I need to set goals for myself perhaps as important as setting goals for my students.  I started one year ago jumping into technology, and I am thrilled to start this school year - a little smarter but better yet with bigger goals.  So here we go.........

This past week Mr. Mark and I introduced my class to our class blog which students can access from my teacher web page. I chose this goal to work on first because I am excited how I will be able extend our school day into the students' homework. I am just beginning to learn about the "flip classroom" and I am very interested in that concept.  I plan on uploading a video that connects to a content area (first video is about building milk carton boats for science) and the students will watch the video at home and leave a comment on a focused question that I have posted. My goal is to use the video several times with a different focus questions not only teaching the students that they can learn different concepts from one video but also begin to talk about perspective as well as view points. I am very excited to bring the 21 Century skills into the students lives at home and then connect back to our classroom.

Collaboration and Stretching Beyond Literal Research

I want my students to be able to collaborate with their friends about their research topic, so I set up a class Wiki site for the students to post their topic as well as their 3 reasons why they chose their topic.  One of the important parts was teaching the students to write strong comments to each other.  I was looking for more than "I like koala bears too." After lots of modeling, I am pleased with their comments to each other.  Here is a sampling from a koala bear wiki. 

Did you know that koalas sleep for 22 hours of the day? The rest of the time they eat but I am not sure what they eat?

Yesterday at 11:51 AM

I liked how you connected your reason with Wonderopolis and you put figurative language in your 3 reasons why.

Yesterday at 11:53 AM

I would like to know if they were endangered too. Who would want to endanger these animals? Also, did you know that in some places you can hold Koalas? 

Yesterday at 11:53 AM

That's cool have you ever been to the Columbus Zoo and seen their koala bears? Maybe you can learn some more at the zoo if you have a chance to go. Also my dad has a friend at the zoo so maybe i could give you his email or address.  

(this student did get an address from their friend)

Yesterday at 11:55 AM

This may answer your question: Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves (pronounced: U-ka-lip-tus)

(I like how this comment flowed from the top comment)

Examples of higher level questions

In addition to the Wiki, the students are working on their research based on the six questions/statements that they wrote using the different level of bloom's verbs. I believe this will shift their thinking about research instead of just reading for facts they are reading for a purpose to answer their statement. Here are a few examples of statements as well as the different organizational tools.

I love the higher thinking with statement #1.

On a side note, I will be presenting at the National Conference of Family Literacy  next week on how I  use Wonderopolis in my classroom within my reading and writing workshop.  I am excited and nervous all rolled up into one.  Check back later for an update.

iPods=communication=Wiki/Blogs

One of the reasons I became so interested in technology last year was because of the positive effect that Wikis had on my students as well as me.  When I started using Wikis last year, I was not even sure how they worked, but I knew the ability to communicate with my students from my home was extremely important to me.  In addition, the students reading and writing about their friend’s writing was another positive benefit of Wikis.

As I mentioned in the post Gotta Keep Reading, I introduced the class to our Caplin Wiki/Blog page.  I knew the students loved the video so that was my hook and since Sunday night I have had many students comment on the video.  I also added a Constitution video and asked the students to write at least 3 new facts they learned using the keyboard on the iPods. This was also well received, and it was fun to read the students were sharing videos with their parents and siblings.

Now that we have iPods the whole idea of Wiki/Blogs is like a snowball rolling down a mountain. The ideas are endless, and we have just started.  The first idea is to continue downloading videos to their iPods.  This will save class time because the students can watch the videos at home and take notes then the next day we can start with a conversation about the video. I plan on showing focused clips of video to reinforce important concepts.   A second idea is to post inquiry questions about our current content areas for example in geography, “How does climate and land features impact the economy in Canada?”  The students can type their answers as well as add pictures to support their answers.  They are able to find pictures on the Internet take a snapshot and then add them to the Wiki. With both these ideas,  the fact that we can carry on conversations outside of class time will start a whole new level of conversations as well as higher level learning that I am very excited about this year.