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.