I am so grateful to my district for obtaining a site license to BrainPop.  Students seem to thoroughly enjoy the method BrainPop uses to present content.  In the last few weeks, all students have been assigned two BrainPop videos a week in the Digital Citizenship category. Below is screenshot of all the videos in that category.

Due to benchmark STAAR testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, I did not have students in the computer lab for technology.  On Thursday and Friday, the third, fourth, and fifth grade classes watched the last three BrainPop videos together on the white board while using Edmodo as a backchannel.  According to Wikipedia, “Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside the primary group activity or live spoken remarks.”  The students were on the floor with their laptops.  They had logged in to their Edmodo account and selected the grade level chat room as the group to post in.  While watching the videos, they were able to post their comments and reply to each others’ comments in Edmodo.  Below is a screen shot from each grade level chat.

Fifth Grade:

Fourth Grade:

Third Grade:

Using Edmodo in this way served several useful purposes.  First of all, the load time on the videos is much quicker when only one computer is accessing the website instead of twenty-four individual computers.  The most powerful purpose, though, is to give students the opportunity to practice what I have been preaching to them all year.  Before posting or sending anything over the internet, ask yourself these two questions:  “Am I willing for the entire world to see it?”, and “Would I want that shared/posted about me?”  Below is a short clip of the exercise:

Last week was one of those weeks that left me questioning if I was in the right profession.  I left school Monday highly frustrated.  It happens to me about three or four times a year.  Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE my job!  I highly respect and appreciate my co-workers and administrators. I just get overwhelmed at times with what I regard as poor student engagement: in other words, not listening to instructions and allowing their brains to process the instruction and turn it in to action.  As an enhancement teacher, I see six different classrooms of students a day.  That calculates to over 120 students.  I get them 45 minutes, once a week.  When the Intermediate students come to the computer lab, I feel a great deal of pressure to manage the time they are in there in the most efficient way possible.  The students come in, get their headphone bags that are laid out on the counter, great me with a handshake, and then have a seat on the floor in front of the projector.  I explain the job they are to complete by demonstrating using the white board as well as writing helpful information, in case they get “stuck”, on the chalkboard.  What frustrates me is when they go to their computer and do not know what to do.  I do not have the time to show each one individually the steps they need to take to get their job done. After explaining my frustration to my principal, Mrs. Parker, she suggested I use the “ask three, then me” approach.  I immediately implemented that strategy the following day.  Students must ask three other students before asking me if they have a question about the assignment.  I believe that strategy is going to lower my frustration level, but I had an idea over the weekend that I believe will be even more advantageous – introducing Class DoJo.

I had come across Class Dojo on Richard Byrne’s FreeTech4Teachers blog in September.  I thought it looked like a great tool, but did not know how it would work for someone with over 300 students until this weekend.  I created 15 classes and populated them with students in less than an hour.  (I have five third grade classes, five fourth grade classes, and five fifth grade classes.) Now here is how I will use it.  When the each class comes to technology, I can use the Class Dojo app on my iPad to walk around the lab while students are working. If they have to ask another student about directions that were given at the beginning of class (ask three, then me), I will denote that as a negative behavior.  If a student responds in a friendly and helpful manner, I will denote that as a positive behavior.  At the end of the week, I will look at each grade level and determine what class had the most positive points.  When that class comes to the lab, I will randomly pick one person to come to the treasure chest.  Using Class Dojo in this way will allow me to set up a weekly competition between classes within each grade level.  I believe this approach will encourage students to be better listeners AND encourage them to respond kindly to their classmates that need a little extra help.

Here is a screen capture of my classes:

I cannot believe eleven weeks of school are already in the history books!  Although my blog does not reflect it, students have been busy in the lab working toward getting their web license.  As students finish the Digital Citizenship unit in Moodle, they are beginning a new unit that was created over the summer.  In July, I took advantage of the opportunity Google offered to take their Google Power Searching course to earn a certificate and become a better Google searcher.  I enjoyed the course so much and learned a great deal of useful information that I felt my students would also benefit from, so I created a course in Moodle for them to access.  I included twelve of the lessons found in the Google Power Searching course.  The third graders do lessons one through four, the fourth graders do lessons one through eight, and the fifth graders do lessons one through twelve.  The lessons consist of the Google video and a short assignment that shows me they watched the video.  I decided to have them turn the assignments in to me through Edmodo.  In Edmodo, I created an assignment for each lesson.  Students log in to Edmodo, click the Turn In button and leave a response or upload a file, depending on what the assignment calls for.  I spent some time this weekend grading the assignments.  Since I have over 300 students, I was a little apprehensive about how much time I would need to commit to in order to get the assignments graded in a timely manner.  I was SO pleasantly surprised!  Not only was the grading quick, it was a great deal of fun, as well.  In some cases, I was even able to award badges to students for going the extra mile.  Below are a few images of the process:

Google Power Searching Unit in Moodle

Google Power Searching Lessons in Moodle

Google Power Searching Lesson Two in Moodle

Assignments for Google Power Searching Lessons in Edmodo

Edmodo Grading Page

Edmodo Badge Page

Google Power Searcher Certificate

We took a break from the Digital Citizenship Unit in Moodle all students are working through to do a Homecoming project.  White Oak experiences homecoming once every three years, so Homecoming 2012 was a big deal.   Since our motto for this year is “We are WILD about Learning,” the students at White Oak Intermediate School wanted to show parents and alumni “We are WILD about Technology,” so each student created a QR code of their blog, screen captured it, dropped it on a page document, printed it out, then decorated it to say something about them.  Each design was slipped in to a quart size ziploc bag and displayed by classroom in the entrance to the school for parents and alumni to enjoy. Parents were encouraged to guess which design belonged to their child, then scan the code to see if it went to their child’s blog.  Here is the tutorial video students accessed to complete the project:

“I realize the theme for this year at White Oak Intermediate School is WILD about Learning, but are you really going to begin each blog post with the word WILD,” you may ask.  The short answer is, “Probably not.”  But the title does sum up nicely the first week of school for my technology classes.  Students were WILD about Edmodo.  When I first logged in to my account, the immediate response from most of them was, “That looks like Facebook!”  We talked about how the creators of Edmodo wanted to create a web tool that educators could use that would be familiar to students.  We also talked about why Facebook is required to ask for your birth date before allowing you to have an account.  COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) requires website operators to  protect the privacy and restrict marketing to children under the age of 13.  Edmodo is the perfect social networking site in that it does not collect personal information and does not market to its members.

Once students were logged in, they answered a poll question about having internet access at home and then replied to a post that asked what they most wanted to learn this year.   You can see the responses by grade level to the poll question in the screen shots below:

FIFTH GRADE

FOURTH GRADE

THIRD GRADE

After receiving instructions on joining their classroom teacher’s group, they were anxious to begin connecting with one another using this tool.  After several replies left under the questions I had left them, I realized they needed a group of their own where they would be free to chat in order to keep the WOLab page uncluttered for posts and assignments.  I quickly created a 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade chat room where they spent the rest of the class period typing messages and replying to classmates. It was thrilling to  hear comments like “This is so much fun!” and “I thought I was not going to like school this year.” In the next few weeks, I will be sending home with your child the instructions and code for creating a parent account.  In this way, you will be able to log in to Edmodo and see your child’s activity on the site.

This week students will be introduced to the Digital Citizenship unit in Moodle.  They will log in and see the unit is divided in three sections: digital contact (the ten things you never share online without your parents’ permission), digital content (that all that information on the web is not all good, it is not all true, and it is not all free), and digital conduct (if you are not willing for the entire world to see it…DON’T POST IT!)  You can view the content of this unit by clicking on the image below, then clicking on Enhancements, Technology with Mrs. Peery, and logging in with the username: woteacher  password: woteacher.

This year’s theme for White Oak Intermediate School is Wild about Learning. Students in the computer lab are being introduced to the procedures and expectations. Students enter the computer lab, pick up their headphone bag from the counter, walk to Mrs. Peery for a handshake and greeting by name, then sit on the floor in front of the projector, ready to receive instructions for the task of the day. Each student chooses a fidget to keep in their headphone bag. They are allowed to squeeze the fidget in their hand(s) during instruction time. For those students that need movement to be able to help their brains focus, this gives them the movement their brain needs without causing distractions for other students.  After instruction time, they head to their computer to complete the task.  Each student is assigned a computer by number.  They always use the same computer anytime they are in the lab.  When it is time to be dismissed, they LOG OUT of the program they are on, close out to get the screen back to the desktop, close the lid, pack their headphone bag with their nametag clearly visible, push in their chair, return any items to their correct places, throw away any trash, place their headphone bags back in the drawer and stand at the front of the room on the taped line, ready for the hall. When students are ready to leave, if they have completed the dismissal task on time, they will watch a short funny video.

This week students are being introduced to the educational social networking site called Edmodo. Student accounts were created over summer break so they could log in to the site this week and get a feel for it.  This site looks alot like Facebook.  Teachers are allowed to create groups or classes. Through this site, teachers can post notes, assignments, and polls. They can upload resources like videos and documents for student to access.  They can send and receive comments and assignments to their students.  Two of the six strands for Technology instruction in the state of Texas are Communication and Collaboration and Digital Citizenship.  The use of Edmodo will be a great opportunity to incorporate hands on learning for both.  If you would like to know the scope of the TEKS for Technology, visit my page titled TA TEKS on this blog.

Above image found at: http://www.public-domain-image.com/animals/insects/ladybug/slides/ladybugs-insects.html

Here is one great idea to incorporate in your summer plans.  This was a full-page feature in the June 28, 2012 White Oak Independent newspaper.  It is called “The Lost Ladybug Project”, and here is how you can be involved.  According to the feature, some of the species of ladybugs are disappearing in North America. The three species that are declining in number are the nine-spotted ladybug, the traverse ladybug, and the two-spotted ladybug.  Entomologist need our help to look for and document the siting of any of these ladybugs.  If you locate one of these species, note the date, time, location, and habitat. Take a picture, if possible.  Then send the information to http://www.lostladybug.org.  Or send a printed picture with the information to: Lost Ladybug Project, Cornell University, Department of Entomology, 4117 Conrstock Hall, Ithaca, NY  14853.

Dig Deeper:  What is a ladybug?  How did it get its name?  What benefit does their color have?  How are they different from mosquitoes? What is an entomologist?  How many species are there in North America?  Why is the traverse ladybug named that?

The third graders have been working on creating something out of plastic.  To introduce this project, we watched the videos below while running a backchannel on TodaysMeet.

Driving Question: What product can your group create by re-using plastic to reduce plastic waste in the environment?

Students are placed in small groups and given a project planning sheet where they can sketch their idea and think through the supplies they will need. They determine what they will bring from home and what they need me to supply. As the groups work on their project, they document each step by taking a picture with the iPod Touch. When they have completed the project, they will use the StoryRobe app on the iPod Touch to create a video of the process. The videos will be uploaded to my TechNeckHowTo channel to share globally. Students are instructed to find the embed code of their video and post it to their blog.

Here is a list of other sites and videos containing ideas of how to re-use plastic:

http://www.stufftocraft.com/2009/05/recycled-soda-bottle-sprinkler.html

http://lifehacker.com/5841459/make-a-lunch-box-from-a-milk-jug

http://alphamom.com/family-fun/holidays/cherry-blossom-art-from-a-recycled-soda-bottle/

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/make-plastic-beads-1002430/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i1W9Mi7jPM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptZF-291kg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfBgCbLS8BA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX01nw4toRs

TEKS covered:

111.15(b)(3.14)(A)(B)(C)(D)

112.14(b)(1)(A)(B),

113.14(b)(18)(A)(B), (19)(A)(B)

126.3(b)(2)(A)(B)(C)(E), (3)(A)(B), (5)(A), (7)(A)(B)(C), (8)(A)(C),  11(A)(B),

As noted in the previous post, the fourth graders are researching famous people of Texas.  I have witnessed them struggle with attempting to read information from a website and summarize the most important parts.  Even when they have the help of their computer (we use macbooks in the lab) that can read the text to them through the use of text to speech, they still want to quit due to frustration before they get the job done.  Today I read about a search engine called InstaGrok from a post on Engage Their Minds and decided to give it a try.  I searched for what others might be saying about InstaGrok.  Click on the blog names below to read what other educators are saying:

Engage Their Minds

FreeTech4Teachers

Edudemic

Teachers For Tomorrow

Watch the video below to get a quick overview of InstaGrok.

I believe this will be such a useful tool for my students in the lab, I am placing a widget on the left of my blog so students can access it easily.