Project: Classroom

I have been dreaming about my future classroom for 3+ years. I've collected from garage sales, teacher friends, Good Will, the Dollar Tree, and Target's dollar section. On July 13th, I was finally able to move all the things I have accumulated over the years into my room (let me tell you my mom was happy to see it all leave her house).

Here is the before picture! My classroom is awesome. High ceilings, built-in storage, and TONS of wall space.

And then the working began! Unpacking, sorting, cutting, taping, organizing. One thing they didn't tell us in college, how long it takes to set up a classroom. I mean seriously!! Project after project. It was so much fun though. I enjoyed every second I spent there this summer. Seeing as I spent so much of my summer there, I'd though I'd share all my hard work. Enjoy the tour!

The hallway - bright and inviting! Next week I will add my students' names to each balloon.

Butler is a PBIS school and uses positive rules to teach correct behavior school-wide. Our room will be buzzing with good behavior all year long!!

My friend Emily's legacy, JOY, will be spread with my 1st graders by filling buckets! Students can fill each other's buckets (located in their lockers) with nice notes, and we will also work to have good behavior as a class to fill our class bucket. If it gets filled, we will have a bucket party!

Each of my students will have a tablet - can't wait to incorporate them into our learning.

The library - the most time consuming project, but it's perfect and ready for my students to browse!

My mantras for the year!

I tried to have everything picked up, but let's be honest, my desk will never be cleared off.

Students can put their own facts on the "Did you know?" board - motivation to read nonfiction!

Our writing center!

And there it is! I can't wait for my 1st grade kiddos to fill it up on the 31st. Lots of planning and organizing left to do, but at least the room is finished!

I haven't been blogging much, but I am going to try as much as I can this year to document the good times and the not so good times!

Crazy Busy in the Best Way Possible

Happy Valentine's Day!!! It's been over a month since my last post and today is the first day I've had time to sit down and blog. *Sigh* I have been very busy with student teaching, life, and landing my FIRST JOB!

I've known for awhile that I had a job, but last week found out what grade level and building. Beginning in August, I will be teaching 1st grade at Butler Elementary in Fort Dodge, IA, my hometown. I have heard wonderful things about the Butler staff and I cannot wait to become a part of it. I will be meeting my team over spring break and pick out my classroom for next year. It is all very surreal. I can't wait for next year, but right now, my focus needs to be student teaching.

The 2nd graders keep me busy and on my toes - I love seeing them every day. I am finally full time teaching and it is fabulous. It makes me so excited for my own classroom next year. I've been able to get to know each of them, which has been very rewarding. They make my heart happy. Only 3 weeks left with them; I don't like thinking about having to leave.

We have doing a lot of things, but my favorite project we've been working on in 2nd grade is our blog. We have been using KidBlog to publish our writing to express our opinion. This writing unit began by introducing opinion writing and what that should include. We used an OREO to help us remember.

O - state your Opinion
R - back it up with Reasons
E - provide Examples
O - and restate your Opinion

Next, I introduced the blog. This lesson was a bit of a nightmare, yet a success all at once. I went home that day mentally exhausted. Of course, with technology, you have to be patient and know that something will always go wrong. It was a process to familiarize the kids with it - they had lots of questions, but their engagement and excitement level was through the roof.

The next lesson, however, was a breeze compared to the first! They had a better understanding and the initial craziness of a new app had subsided. They still had questions, but they didn't bombard my brain like last time. They published their first post - an about me post - including 3 facts about themselves. 22 second graders sat quietly at their desks without a single reminder, while writing. SUCCESS!!!!!!

I learned an important lesson during these first lessons; trying new things requires you to take a leap of faith, but the jump is SO worth it. We have had great discussions about digital citizenship, proper use, and purpose of our blog. We are all learning as we go; learning new things each day.

The students have been able to publish a few opinion writing pieces, comment on peer's posts with editing advice or their thoughts, and write to an audience which provides great purpose to their writing. It makes writing much more appealing to them.

Our next project is a book review. It has many components, but I am very excited to try it out. Here's a breakdown of the plan:

• Students pick a book
• Students brainstorm on paper 
• Students write a draft on paper
• Students revise and edit
• Students get their final draft approved by the teacher
• Students post their book review on the blog
• Students read their book review and are recorded
• Videos are posted to YouTube 
• QR codes are created for each YouTube video
• QR codes are placed on the books in the library
• Students can scan the QR codes to listen to their peer's opinion and recommendations about books in their classroom library

This will be my first time doing anything like this, but as my cooperating teacher says, "This is your time to try new things!" Very true. I'll never know unless I try.

Realistically, it will probably be awhile again until I am able to blog due to the craziness of life, but hopefully next time I'll have a successful book review project to discuss!!

Final thoughts

People have always told me that time flies as you get older, and man, they weren't kidding! I can't believe this semester is almost over. As I reflect back on this semester and the knowledge I've gained through my technology class, CI 302, I am happy with how far I've come. I have learned so many tools and ways to incorporate technology into my classroom someday. The biggest take away for me is pushing myself to redefine teaching and learning with technology, not just substitute old ways with new ways. That is something that had never been brought to my attention before this class and I think it's really important to consider.

The learning that has happened through this class matters because it pushed me beyond my limits. It challenged my thinking and opened my eyes to technology I wasn't familiar with. I learned from my peers and was also able to teach them what I knew. More than just learning about tools and gadgets, I learned how to be a better educator; connecting with others using technological tools to gain insight and ideas. This is only the beginning, and I look to grow more in the future.

As a future teacher, I think this class helped me realize that I will never be a master at technology. There is always someone else who knows more, and as a teacher, it is my job to find and connect with that person to share knowledge and grow. I also have so many more goals for myself now, not just my students. I want to participate in twitter chats, continue blogging to share ideas and reflect, and connect with educators across the world. These are things that weren't a priority of mine until this class.

To my teacher, Jamie Fath:
Thank you for a great semester. I truly learned a lot and appreciate you taking the time to teach us. To help you become a better educator, I will provide "one glow, one grow" as feedback (one thing that went well and one thing to work on). My glow would be how you let us teach each other. We were able to share the resources and tools that we know about and teach it to our peers. This is how the real world of teaching will be and it was really nice to see that in our class. My grow would be to enhance our blogging experience. It is hard to keep up with everyone's blogs because we had a large class. I think it would be beneficial to group students and then each group can follow, comment, and keep up with only their group's blogs. This would be less overwhelming than the entire class and allow us to practice interacting through blogs.

In conclusion, I am sad to see this class end, but I am excited to continue moving closer to student teaching and my future classroom. I look forward to growing and learning more about being an educator in the future.

Writing a Grant

In my technology class, we had to apply to a fake grant as a group. I worked with two of my peers as a '3rd grade team' at a K-5 building. We applied for 60 iPads to be used in the 3rd grade as a trial for eventual full implementation of iPads in K-5.

I learned a lot through this process. I had never even considered applying for grants, and didn't know that it was something teachers did. It was empowering to know that we have the ability to make a change in our school environment. I think it is a great way for teachers to get what they want and make something happen. This assignment also showed me how easy grant writing can be. I am by no means an expert, yet I successfully wrote and submitted a grant!

During the grant writing process, the biggest struggle my group encountered was getting everything we needed to say into 5 pages. The grant proposal called for no more than that. We wanted to sell our case and show that we deserved these iPads, while being concise and getting our point across efficiently. It was a challenge because we had to decide what was a priority to write about and what could be left out.

As I begin to think about the future and myself as a teacher, I think grant writing is something I will try to do. During my first few years of teaching, it will not be my main concern. However, once I have a secure job and see myself at that school for a long period of time, I think it would be great to take a look at the school and its needs and make it happen. I look forward to seeing what my future brings!

Technology Interviews

For my technology class, my teacher interviewed a teacher librarian, a technology coordinator, 1:1 teachers, a technology integrationist, and an AEA staff member. She posted videos of the interviews and we were to watch them all.

My goal is to be a teacher will technology in my classroom, so the role I found most interesting was the 1:1 teachers. One of them was in her 1st year of teaching so it was really cool to see how she was adjusting to a new classroom and a new technology tool. They gave great advice that I will take with my in the future.

• Take baby steps with technology
• Don't be afraid to try something new
• Ask questions
• Find technology to support your outcomes, not outcomes that support the technology
• Consider room set-up to manage classroom

After watching all 5 interviews, there were many similarities to the information discussed. I saw 2 major themes throughout all the interviews: don't be afraid of the technology and technology is not all that matters. 

Hearing from 5 different perspectives that it is important to try new things and be willing to fail was very comforting. As a new teacher, it is nerve-racking enough to plan a lesson that will go well - let alone one with technology. It is nice to hear from so many different perspectives that failing is okay. I think that is a great outlook to have when it comes to using technology, because failure will happen, but you just have to learn from your mistakes and fix them for next time.

Technology is not all that matters is very interesting to hear from people whose jobs center around technology, but I totally agree and see where they're coming from! Technology is amazing; it's a game-changer in the best way possible, but student learning is still more important. Technology may be a great way to reach student understanding, but it is not the only way. One of the 1:1 teachers stated that it is important to find technology to support your outcomes, because then the technology is supplementing your teacher and the students' learning, not just an addition.

I learned a lot from watching each video. I think it was very helpful to see multiple perspectives of people working with technology in schools. Even though I hope to be a 1:1 teacher, it was helpful for me to see the perspective of technology integrationist and coordinators because if I ever need help or have an issue with something, I know have a better understanding of what their jobs look like and realize I'm most likely not the only teacher with a problem. It was also a great professional development opportunity. I connected with educators and now have more people to follow on twitter!

Many of the people interviewed have different tools at their schools: chromebooks, macbooks, iPads, etc. It was interesting to hear why they chose the tools they did and how they are being used in classrooms. It solidified for me that the tool isn't what is important, it's how the teacher uses it to further student learning.

Speed Geeking

In my technology class last night, we spent the majority of the time reviewing many devices and tools very quickly - or as my teacher called it, "Speed Geeking". Through doing this, we learned about 7 different devices and 9 tools in less than an hour.

Devices:

• Acer Chromebook
• Samsung Chromebook
• Lenovo Chromebook
• Nexus 7
• Kindle Fire
• iPad
• Surface tablet

Tools:

• Write About This
• iMovie
• Educreations
• Popplet Life
• Lucid Chart
• WeVideo
• Powtoon
• Padlet
• Educreations

My favorite device: the iPad. My favorite tool: Write About This.

My least favorite device: Chromebook. My least favorite tool: Powtoon.

Strictly my opinion, but let me explain...

I chose those two devices as my favorite and least favorite for many reasons, but I will admit, my early childhood degree sways my opinion on this one. For students PreK-3rd grade, I believe the iPad is the best tool out there and the Chromebook is not appropriate. However, that does not mean I believe the Chromebook is a bad device. I think it is a nice, cheaper option for older students. I believe the iPad is the best tool because it's interface is student friendly, it is easily carried by students, and through the App Store, there are a multitude of tools to further the students' education. I also have the most experience with the iPad - working in an elementary school that is 1-1 I have seen it implemented in classrooms successfully.

Write About This is my favorite tool out of the tools we reviewed. It provides students with writing prompts: photos, a starting sentence, or directions on what to write. I think this is a great tool to use with elementary students. It avoids the response, "But I don't know what to write about!" I did not like the tool Powtoon because I think there are other simpler tools that teachers are more familiar with that do relatively the same thing. There are so many tools out there and as teachers we must decide what's worth spending our time to learn and what is not. In my opinion, Powtoon is not worth spending our time on. It is very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Presentation with a few "fun" additions.

If I chose a device for my classroom, I would choose an iPad. I would use the iPads for many things, but here are a few examples:

• To hand out assignments virtually
• Conduct spelling tests
• Record students' reading
• Practice math facts and spelling words through game-like apps
• Quickly assess during a lesson
• Daily journal writing assignments for students
• Behavior management
• Conduct running records
• Explore the world with Google Earth
• Communicate with pen pals from across the world

Every device can make a difference in your classroom. It takes time and research to find the best tools within that device to further your students' education, but the extra effort is worth it!

I updated two of my previous blog posts with a more in-depth review of the apps I discussed in them. Check out Live and Learn and Pic Collage to learn more about how you can use Toontastic and Photo Collage in your classroom.

Digital Equipment for the Classroom

For my technology class, I chose to do my Digital Classroom Project on "Digital Equipment for the Classroom." I had to state what kind of hardware and computer access I thought should be available for grades K-12, while backing up my opinion with reasoning and evidence to support.

I chose the topic "Digital Equipment for the Classroom" because I have the most experience with this topic. I work at an elementary school which is 1-1 with iPads, each teacher has an audio system that serves as a microphone to project their voice throughout their classroom, every classroom has a projector, and I also went to a 1-1 laptop high school. With this experience, I felt that I had a good stance on this topic.

When we're thinking about "digital classrooms", I think the most important aspect is educating the teachers. Working at that elementary school, I see so many times teachers struggling with the tools provided for them because they were never educated on how to use them. Simple tasks become impossible without education. Professional development can solve this problem. It will take time and effort, but it is worth it in the end to provide a better education and ensure that the money spent on technological tools is put to use.

I created a presentation to compile my ideas of necessary hardware and computer access for each classroom. Below is a summary of my presentation:

A K-2 Classroom needs:

• Projectors
• Lab of mobile devices or mobile device for each student

A 3-5 Classroom needs:

• Projectors
• Mobile device for each student

A 6-12 Classroom needs:

• Projectors
• Laptop for each student

Again, this is all my opinion based on my experiences and some research I've done. Every students' needs are different, every school district is different, and the need for technology will depend on all this. Check out my presentation for more detailed information!