No Teacher, Teacher!

30 minute Kindergarten classes worked through letter sounds and rhyming songs on Starfall.  More and more kids are used to touch screens.  We have to step back a little to keyboards and mice to move forward to communicating through and with a wider variety of technologies.  Fewer and fewer are struggling with picking up their mouse and moving it.

Next week, Kindergarten and First Grade will be learning the new help system.  No more, "Teacher, Teacher!"  In this room, we want students helping students as much as possible.

First graders should have come home with their first print out of the alphabet (complete with capital and lowercase letters).  Connecting the written word through pencils, tablets and keyboards are different experiences. One student could not believe that what he typed on his screen printed out across the room!

2nd-4th graders have new typing programs on their Symbaloo pages (TypingClub, DanceMat, and TypingWeb).  3rd and 4th graders are using TypingWeb that requires a username and password.  Those passwords will be available for parents during conferences.  Contact me if you would like them sooner.

1956 Selah Graduates Return

Original Poetry-I'm missing the library a little....

Getting Excited about Blogging!

I always use the inside-outside circle to encourage yakking and listening with each other because I can't listen to each one of their stories.  Hmmm....maybe when they start to blog I'll be able to communicate more on a personal level and see them as human beings! 

Week in Review

Kindergarten students are learning to log in and log out of our Kinder account in the computer labs.  We are using the Starfall website for learning letter names and sounds.  This website is pre-loaded onto our docks so students don't have to go too far to get to an activity appropriate for their dexterity level.  However, in the next two weeks, I anticipate teaching them to navigate through the RLE homepage to the Technology Resources page, students page and Kindergarten Symbaloo.  Symbaloo is a visual bookmarking page.  Try it out, it's free!

First Grade has been learning how to log in to our Easy CBM testing.  We worked through examples questions and how to answer them.  Teachers were noticing that students wanted to click and drag items when they should have been selecting radial dials.  We should have a more accurate view of what our students can do next year because lack of  "how" to take the test will not be a factor.  Students have also learned to navigate to their page on the Technology Resources page.

Second Grade has been working on Microsoft Word.  Students are learning how to: use keyboard shortcuts, click and drag to select, highlight, change font, color and size as well as look at zoom and the Print Layout view.  They are given a task, asked to print it then they can read eBooks or challenge their academic practice on the Technology Resources page.  Students will start TypingWeb next week.  They will have user names and passwords that can be used at school and home.

Third and Fourth Grade have both been practicing what 2nd grade is doing as well as how to save and retrieve documents from our student servers.  These skills allow students to learn how to use servers, saving and retrieving digital projects in our labs and homerooms.  This has proven to be harder for 3rd grade.  However, as society moves into the use of cloud servers like iCloud and Dropbox, it will put our students at an advantage to have this knowledge in their toolboxes.

Kindergarten 2nd Tech Session

Second class session in Kindergarten,  kids were asked to make Xs and Os.  I was checking on their comfortableness with using a mouse.  Several kids were asked to extend to playing tic-tac-toe.  While one student made gains just identifying that a click would make a mark on his screen, another drew a 3 dimensional object that I would have trouble doing without a model in front of me! 

Higher Education Unlocks Doors-Watch this video:

Talk early and talk often about higher education and our personal responsibilities to give back.  Watch this:

Billy Kenoi @ HPU 2014

I AM GOING TO COLLEGE

List of College Options

1st Week

First week of school reflection:

So far so good.  The change from library to technology has had it's benefits.

We worked on Word Processing for Grades 1-4 as I established the expectations.  It turns out setting standards of behavior is fast and easy when you know 98% of the kids.  Kindergarten will be my challenge.  They start tomorrow!

I'm trying a couple of new things this time around.  First, I'm setting up the class routine as a 10 minute model lesson, then participation time.  During the work, students will have a visual timer set up so they know they must focus.  They get about 5-7 minutes to compose then do a "walkabout" in the room to see what everyone else has been up to.  The stop and look has worked well to break up the stagnate sitting time.

Second, I'm trying to step out of the learning equation a little.  Kids are encouraged (almost required) to ask 3 people for help before they try to get assitance from me.  Once they've exhausted their help options, they grab a red flag and attach it to their computer to let me know I'm really, really needed. 

This procedure has freed me from the "teacher, teacher" call that I can't stand (makes me crazy).  It was also easier for the 1st graders than it was for 2nd-4th graders.  I wonder why that is? 

Next week we will continue working on Word Processing in 3rd and 4th.  They will learn how to save a document and retrieve it.  Organizing your digital world is a serious skill our kids will have to master.

The Last First Day of School at RLE

 The last first day of school at Robert Lince Elementary. 

Technology Specialist Schedule

Story of Survival-Movie Release Dec. 25th

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (also the author of Seabiscuit) is an amazing true story of Louis Zamperini.  A rambunctious child, turned Olympic medal winner and armed services veteran held as World War II prisoner of war by the Japanese.  

This book resonated a lot of connections for me.  First, my husband is involved with horse racing.  I read Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and saw the movie.  It was quite a moral booster for all the people in that industry.  During the Great Depression, people were looking for an entertainment escape and often found it at the racetrack.  Seabiscuit drew thousands of spectators to the sport of kings because he was an underdog that flourished under the right kind of training and circumstances.  After that inspiring story and a recommendation from Mrs. Bonsen, I couldn't resist reading Unbroken.  

Louis Zamperini was slated to be the first human to break a 4-minute mile.  Unfortunately war got in the way and he was drafted into the armed services.  This is where I started to relate to the places in his story.  He trained a little in Ephrata, WA not too far from Selah.  While in Hawaii, Zamperini touched the soil of my own beginnings in Kahuku (where I went to high school from 7th-9th grade) Ewa beach, Honolulu, and Kualoa (Chinaman's Hat island is located right off shore there).  

This summer, I also visited Wendover, Nevada where the atomic bombs, Little Boy and Big Boy, were held for a time before they were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Wendover is in the middle of NOWHERE.  It used to be the ultimate armed forces training facility.  They hold a couple of car races each year on the salt flats in that area.  (Off topic, I know, but it was cool!)  I also bought a T-shirt for veterans day that shows I visited Wendover.  

When Zamperini's plane crashed in the ocean, only three made it to the survival rafts.  After many days at sea, they lost one of the three men and eventually were picked up by the Japanese.  Held as prisoners of war the atrocities performed by the captors made me sick.  I had heard of the unjust internment camps in Washington and California, but none of my textbooks talked about how awful the prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese.  Maybe I just didn't pay attention because I grew up with a mix of races, or maybe my teenage brain got in the way.  Heck, I didn't put together that my dad was one year old, when Pearl Harbor was bombed, until I was into my teaching career.  Sometimes we are just not ready for the information put in front of us.

A movie on this amazing story is slated to release on Christmas Day.  It is directed by Angelina Jolie. Louis Zamperini died last month on July 2nd.  

 

Finding Your Element

Finished the book, Finding Your Element by Ken Robinson.  He is a leader in the development of creativity and innovation.  I first encountered his work at an ESD 105 conference with a brief animated video about Changing Education Paradigms.

Consequently, I try to get everything I can that he shares with the public: TED talks, his Youtube channel and now his books.  I am inspired to continue my own education toward changing my classroom strategies to allow for exploration, innovation and creativity.

Weigh Evidence On Your Own

I just finished listening to Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. It occurs to me that many would take this book as word for word truth even when the authors clearly state, that this is their interpretation of the evidence they were witness to.  I admire the passion it takes to write as an authority on any subject because it takes a tremendous amount of RESEARCH.

It is important to know that ANYONE can do research.  According to UC San Diego :

Research consists of:

• Asking a question that nobody has asked before; 
• Doing the necessary work to find the answer; and 
• Communicating the knowledge you have acquired to a larger audience.

Take each piece of evidence and weigh it for yourself.