SWMS Power to Learn Team

Appreciating an opportunity to enhance student's abilities!

2010-05-17T15:01:00.004-05:00

Due to the Power to Learn grant in Spring Branch ISD this year...specifically at Spring Woods Middle, my ELL Newcomer students have excelled in their English language learning. They have needed to use and know many words in English just to navigate, search and report on various topics in Social Studies and Language Arts. The motivation of using an IPOD or a Net book is so great that they will research and learn whatever they have to as long as they can use the computers. Blogging has been a wonderful tool for them to comment on the various projects that students have done. By learning just how much English they ALREADY knew simply because of the cognates in English and Spanish, students have moved quickly up the scale of knowledge. The technology that we have been given through the grant has been a God Send! The students love to go to Brain Pop, StoryBird, Tumblebooks and more, as long as they are on their mini's. They will do any thing asked of them on the IPOD Touch and finding sites to practice English spelling, common words, pronunciation has been wonderful for the new language learners. Next year I plan to use the minis more for researching areas in American History and more for creating stories of their own. This was an experimental year and it has been very successful! Thanks to our wonderful leader, Laurie Pickup who wrote and encouraged the grant!

2010-05-13T15:37:00.002-05:00

NUMBER OF STUDENTS SERVED BY GRANT
Our Power To Learn grant served a total of 242 students all in Spanish 1 through 4.

GRANT IMPACT
The biggest impact of the grant in our classes was that it gave students the opportunity to access technology in a regaular basis. Students really enjoyed using the iTouches and were more engaged and thrilled about learning using technology. It was also a great tool for students who needed to "handle" something and made the learning more pleasant.

WHAT WENT WELL
The Flip Cameras were a hit, they worked on interviews and gave formal presentation. These were a great tool for them to evaluate them selves in how to improve the speaking skills. The I-Pod Touches were a great success with our Spanish learners. They liked using apps to learn Spanish vocabulary and grammar and also gave them the opportunity to practice listening and pronunciation "away" from everybody else. The net books were used with AUDACITY, they created a weather report and students were at all times engaged in practicing not only the vocabulary in the lesson but also their skills.

PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR
Next year, we would like to use a more project-base approach with technology. We also want to use all technology in centers more. We will have an advantage next year since we already know what we are doing :) and we can start earlier in the year. Mary Serrano and Maya Whitten.

Laurie's view of the impact of technology on ESL and Math Lab students.

2010-05-12T12:49:00.003-05:00

GRANT IMPACT
I am proud to say that the person that was impacted most by our grant was me. I am of an age that sometimes has trouble accepting change. I was extremely frustrated at times with Word Press at first. It is a difficult program for me.Once everyone was settled it worked out okay. The technology that I was given access to this year changed my teaching methods. I worked hard to have a more green classroom and use less paper. I did that! I worked hard to use technology as a tool in my class and not as a reward. I wanted the students to think of the netbook mini's as they would a book or a pencil or a composition journal. My students do. One big difference. They love the computers and take really good care of them.Not so much with pencils and paper.I have found that even the wildest students can be brought around with a promise of "5 minutes of math choice time when you finish your work."
Student impact: All of my ESL students started and kept up their science blogs this year. They did lots of research about science and in interactive math games throughout the year. They learned and used network etiquette and the reasons for it. Wrote comments to each other in English most of the time and talked a lot about their blogs.

WHAT WENT WELL
The whole year. Our trainings by Karen Justl were phenomonal. She is an inspiring, helpful and can do person. Any time that we had any questions found Karen not on line with us but, at our school, jumping in and helping us get up and started. She was awesome.
The team I worked with was excellent. Everyone tried really hard to take a part in implementing the grant and boosting each other persons morale as we made misteps or mistakes or simply became FRUSTRATED! with something new that we had trouble grasping. Estelle is the queen of aps., Christa and Mary the goddessess of Flip Cameras and Maya and I are the Dames of the Dell Minis. We all found equipment that became our favorite tools. I love those mini's-- Just try and get me to give them up.

PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR
Next year I would like to seamlessly integrate technology into my classroom so that I do not feel so awkward about it. I plan to become more versatile with the ipods and minis this summer. I want to use them so that I can fully appreciate and understand their capabilities. Academically, I want to set up a program for ESL kids much like Library2Play that our district has. I have a few more things that I would like to put into it. I want to have a student directed wiki or website that will walk the students through netiquette. I want to be that teacher that knows and runs a 2.0 classroom.

STUDENT COMMENTS
The following are comments that I have recieved from my students regarding the use of our new technology this year. Remember they are learning English.
M.Noyola "I like the computers because I learned how to make a blog of science. I learned how to use a Flip camera to film things."
A.Escobeda "I like everything computer, camara, I pod touch and I like all of them. I learned more words in English, I learned to type faster, I learned how to google information, and I learned how to use the blog and Jiji."
H.Rodriguez "I like everything; the computer, ipod touch, and the camera. It is good for learning English. I write and speak many words and use the computer more. I go to google, Jiji, blogs and I comment to my friends."
J.Castro "I lke the computer programs, the blog of the science, the ipod touches don't have the other programs. It is very ugly. I like the mini computer better. I learned to write and speak English on camara and on blog."
C.Edwards "What I like most about the computers are the wonderful math games I play so far. I like everything about the computers."
K.Mejia "I like the blog the best on the computer.The ipod touch helps me to learn English. The animal names ap is my favorite. I like the Flip camera because I take it to my house and I have an interview of my family."
S.Guzman "I like that I can use the computers in all of my classes. I like that the netbook mini does not have a mouse.I don't like the mouse. the Ipod touch I can't see very good and I need to move the screen and I don't like it. I really like the Jiji math program."
J.Sarmiento "I love the ecology unit on the computer. I wish all the school has ecology. I love to have the small computers to blog about the ecology. I love the ipod to play games and I can do the aps. I like the flash cards. In the Ipod I learn Spanish to write in Spanish class. I like my blog because I put the things that I learn."
Here is my blog and it will link to my student blogs. thank you.
I do not think you will be able to comment but, you can try.

Reflections on a year of technology from a French Point of View....

2010-05-12T11:53:00.005-05:00

NUMBER OF STUDENTS SERVED BY GRANT
Our Power To Learn grant served a total of 393 students (125 of which were in French 7, French 8 & in ESL Support classes)

GRANT IMPACT
One of the biggest impact of the grant in my classes is that it familiarized students with technology that many otherwise would not have access to. Students really enjoyed learning using the iTouches and were more engaged and thrilled about learning using technology. It was also a great tool for students who were more kinetic and needed a tactile environment to flourish.
This technology grant also was a great opportunity to teach students how to find answers on their own by surfing the Internet and becoming savvy in determining the importance and validity of information found online. It helped them learn to become learners for life.

WHAT WENT WELL
The iPod Touches were a great success with my ELL Support and French students. They liked using apps to learn English & French, particularly creating their own flashcards and then challenging themselves to get higher scores each time. For French class, I mostly used the iTouchwa as a listening and recording tools so that students could hear proper pronunciation and then record themselves for self-evaluation of their pronunciation.

PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR
Next year, I would like to use a more project-base approach with technology. I am also looking forward to using the iPod touches and computers in centers versus whole class. The additional hardware that the Board so kindly approved will make it really more feasible. I plan on using this summer to experiment and play with the plethora of apps that Karen Justl so kindly researched and posted on the technology website for us. In 2010-2011, I would like to create the ning that I didn’t get to do this year and maybe dabble with Skype or e-pals for French class and thus pursue our grant’s vision of using technology to enhance communication. [efm]

Hurried Comics are Never Outstanding...

2010-04-23T11:06:00.018-05:00

In order to have my french students internalize the verb "etre" and apply noun and adjective agreements in a fun new and more authentic way, I've decided to experiment with the online educational comic strip maker, "Make Beliefs Comix." Students were given the parameters of what needed to be included in the script via email and then they went ahead and used them to create their own dialogue in Google Mail. They also used online resources to look up vocabulary that they didn't know yet in French. Although the intent was that they would all send in their dialogues via email for a brief check-over by me, it didn't work out this way due to a time crunch. Somehow, I keep on having a hard time gauging how long it will take my students to complete a project when technology is used. I always seem to be short on my timing! At any rate, after 2 whole periods on this assignment, I needed for my students to go ahead and create their comic strip online whether they were done with their dialogue or not. In spite of my students' hard work and the example that I provided them with, the results were not as good as I expected and unfortunately, due to sporadic Internet connections and a glitch, I didn't receive most of the comics that I know my students had worked on and clicked on "Email Comix." A bit disappointing but a well-learned lesson: plan for more time!! I will definitely use it again next year, maybe more at the beginning of the school year though, as suggested in the 21 WAYS TO USE MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.COM IN THE CLASSROOM. [efm]

Blogging Slowly but Surely...

2010-04-16T16:13:00.008-05:00

To my disappointment, each time I have tried to have students blog using the iPod Touches, it hasn't been very successful. It seems each time we tried, there was a problem with the wifi. Our blog entries have not been as numerous as we would like, but my ELL Support students are slowly understanding the format I am asking of them to use when sharing and explaining the academic and non-academic vocabulary they are gleaning from their classes. They finally are starting to have a feel for the dashboard and no longer constantly ask for help to navigate WordPress. At this time, they are able to successfully write an entry and include a picture and a caption. The most advanced students have actually even taken on adding hyperlinks to the definitions they found in Wordcentral and the English-Spanish online dictionary they use. Things are shaping up at last! Please visit my blog and browse through my blogroll to see some of my English Language Learners use of the Internet and its available resources to "play" with vocabulary.

TCEA- Austin 2010

2010-02-25T13:48:00.002-06:00

I was so excited to attend TCEA. Sabrina Villegas and Ana Feliciano were so helpful in getting our "stuff" together. They are two amazing women.
I drove in late on the 9th to Austin with Tim and my husband. He was our driver since we could only find rooms near the North side of town. He drove us in each day around 7:30 and came back Wednesday afternoon to attend the vendor show with us.
We went to some awesome presentations and a couple of not so awesome. I was excited to see that most of the equipment that they talked about is present in Spring Woods. I chose to go to anything that I could find that was either project based, web based, 2.0 or center/stations based.
We found out about something called Moodle which is super cool and I will be playing with it this summer. It is easy for kids to access, user friendly, and allows teachers to easily post cool stuff for the kids.
Here are my ah hahs or my, "I am so excited that I could jump for joy. I have found something I can use next week."
All year I have felt bound and held back by what I know. I was looking for something to help me with my grant because I am not from the computer generation. Everything that I do and learn is hard learning when it comes to the computer. Even Tim, who is about 15 years younger than I, has a totally different understanding of the workshops that we attended. Where I see the Oh that is a neat idea for the kids. He sees beyond that to the computer language of the ideas presented. He actually "gets it."
Enough whining.. here is what I discovered that will help me get my kick start next year. I discovered Weaving Web 2.0 tools into the Classroom and The Web 2.0 Toolbox by Patsy Lanclos from Tools for Teachers are two fabulous resources for teachers like me that are a little nervous about stepping foot with students into the ether net. The books have student based lessons about everything that I tried to do this year from digital citizenship, Introduction to 2.0, Social bookmarks, Google productivity tools, ZOHO productivity tools, citation builders, graphic tools, maps, content sharing, organizers, Social networks, wikis, Zamzar, Firefox, Jing, Flickr, Picnik, Animoto and conversations.
These two wonderful resources JAZZ me UP!
I attended another wonderful workshop at the very end to win i pod touches, didn't, but, got a ton of ideas from two fabulous women, my age or older, Janet Corder and Joan Gore who have co-written several books under the heading Successful Solutions for Technology Integration. I am so excited by the projects that these women shared with us that I bought that book too. I am going to try one activity pretty quickly on earthquakes. You can look for those postings on my student's science blog in the future.
My next favorite ideas came from Jim Holland and Gaby Krumm. They have put together some wonderful activities that teach kids how to use technology to create projects. Alana Morris has taught us that students remember best when they are invested in a project she connects this as the "episodic memory system." These are the events in classrooms that students remember. Well this collection of Print, Cut, and Fold Creative Technology Projects for for Math, Science and Language Arts are phenomonal. They have written up little lessons that teach the kids how to do the cool stuff like align objects, insert clip art, make projects that look cool and then connected them to some awesome lessons to go with skills that we teach every year.
Attending this conference got me so excited again about getting technology into my classroom and into the hands of the kids.
I just can't thank the district and its patrons enough for sending me to Austin and allowing me to have this fabulous opportunity to see how other teachers are doing it across the country.
Thank you .
Ohhhh I have a whole bunch of email connections and addresses and will try to get to update them soon.

Laurie Pickup- classroom blogs science

2010-02-16T20:55:00.002-06:00

I am super excited with how far my kids have come in their blogging. This is all they have done.
1. Gotten a gmail account
2. Created a personal blog, found a skin/theme for their blog
3. Linked to their friends accounts
4. Written, edited and published blogs posts
5. Added widgets to their blog
6. Added links and pictures to their blogs. I am very proud of them.
We are going to be working on : siting work from others, talking back and forth to others. Linking with people out of class.
Here is the blog site.
http://mysbisd.com/lpickup/ Please drop in and make comments if you can.
You can link to the kids sites through mine. I have had some students withdraw.

Math Lab- I had no luck in getting the parents of these kids to respond to notes home about signing permission for their kids to blog or work on line with google accounts. Sosososso.
In lieu of that possibility I set up a couple of centers.
1. Computers: kids work on larson’s math program a program designed to help kids build their skills sequentially in math. They are working on fractions and whole numbers—some decimals.
2. Netbook mini’s: kids are exploring different interactive math sites. http://mysbisd.com/math/ is my math blog and the kids can hook up with math sites from my blog or from library resources. Their favorites are Brain Pop, , Statetris, KidsCom Tangram, PBS Tangram, Jig Zone (puzzles), Interactive Mathematics, , Fun Brain, AplusMath, Coolmath, Gamquarium, , Math Fact Cafe,

A new way of quizzing

2010-02-05T08:11:00.006-06:00

Ever since a teacher at the Power to Learn meeting mentioned it, I have often been using www.classmarker.com as a way to create online tests and quizzes to check on students' learning . The first time I dabbled with it, the copier was down and I was pushed to use technology. It was very easy to set up my classes. My French students seem to enjoy getting the feedback immediately and I can check online to see what errors they have made for reteaching. It's definitely a great "green" tool. The only complaint from students was that it was a little difficult to navigate using the iPod touch... [efm]

American Revolution and Support Class plays

2010-01-22T15:09:00.003-06:00

Today the class viewed the videos they made with the flipcameras about the American Revolution and critiqued their work for 1) clarity of purpose- stay on the subject 2)clarity of presentation -speak loudly and clearly 3)clarity of pronunciation- pronunciation in English is very understandable 4) Clarity of presentation-the event is clearly explained visually as well as audibly 5) Group cooperation-the group equally shared responsibilities.
The filming and critiquing were major elements that have made these important events stick like glue in their minds...! YEA FLIPCAMERAS!
IN ELL 1st year 6th grade SUPPORT CLASS the students filmed their first play...WHO NEEDS A FAN! The students translated the material, read through their parts 4 times,memorized their parts, made simple props, filmed and critiqued in 7 hours of work.

The weather in Spanish!!!

2010-01-15T14:16:00.002-06:00

The month of December was a really good experience for our Spanish IV students at SWMS. Not only did Mother Nature give us snow but the students were able to experience the process of researching, learning new vocabulary and podcasting the weather conditions in the region.
We reported low temperatures, snow, thunderstorms, tornado warnings and even hurricanes, thanks to the use of technology. It was a definite success. They learned, enjoyed and remember the lesson about the weather and how to report it with fluency in their speech.
MS

Blogging 101 with ELL Support

2010-01-14T12:07:00.025-06:00

Mack's ELL Support students have finally started setting up their WordPress blog accounts. To do so, we used the desktop computers because it is so much easier to see the whole thing on a large screen. A few students had problems because WordPress didn't activate their accounts properly and therefore they don't have access to all of the necessary dashboard features. Fortunately for us, Karen Justl is always on the ball and already working on finding solutions. I was very grateful to Laurie Pickup's detailed blogging lesson plan and followed it almost to a t. I wish I had been reading it more closely, so I would have realized a long time before our latest Power-to-Learn meeting that students could actually change the password that was assigned to them initially! Felt like a real knucklehead about not figuring this out on my own and also felt really bad for having my students memorize such a random and rather hard to recall passcode! Each student now uses his/her MMDDYY password, thankfully. :) We are at the point where most students chose a blog theme that they liked and created their own blog title. They have also dabbled with widgets and should all have a link to my blog, " Words Across the World of 2.0." At this time, my ELL Support students have only written comments on my blog and are yet to write their own blog entry. I intended them to do so yesterday via the iPod touches. Fortunately, I had figured beforehand out that I had to enable each of my students' blog account for remote publishing after school was out and had to manually do so for each of my students from my desktop computer. [setting > writing > Enable the WordPress, Movable Type, MetaWeblog and Blogger XML-RPC publishing protocols. ] After that time-consuming oversight, the plan was that we were going to wrote our first blog entry yesterday; unfortunately, it took almost the whole lesson to set each blog up via the app! For the time being, I have decided to put blogging on hiatus until our time in the computer lab next week to be fair to everyone, since it will take WordPress a week or so to fix the blog accounts that did not activate properly. I am looking forward to being able to have my students blog from the iPod touches soon, though. [efm]

PTL Meeting 12-2 Preparing for guests

2009-12-03T16:27:00.004-06:00

Meeting of our Power to Learn Team
12-2-09
· Observation dates: 1-11 through 1-15
· Christa made a cool rubric for family interviews. Maya will check the Spanish.
· 1-11 through 1-15 who is doing what?
Estelle- I pod touches kids will listen and record dialogues French class. ESL support will use I pod application to look up their words and do flashcards.
Christa and Mary- Flip Camera’s- Christa will be doing a play. Mary research Hispanic writers and pretend to be the famous writer and interview each other.
Laurie- blogging , active board, 4 netbook mini’s in centers, Show visitors the power to Learn blog and the science and math blogs.
Maya – netbook mini’s- Introduction
1 computer with our blog.
1 computer to go to kids blogs.

Power to Learn Class Schedules for observations
Ms. Mack 7
107
Pd. 1,2,3,7,8
Mrs. Serrano 8
204
Pd. 3,4,8
Ms. Whitten 8
202
Pd. 1,2,3,7
Ms. Wolfe 6
105
Pd. 1,2,6,8
Mrs. Pickup 6-8
103
Pd. 1,2,7,8

Power to Learn Observation Schedule
Period 1 8:35-9:30
Period 2 9:35-10:30
Period 3 10:35-11:30
Period 4-5-6 are special classes for most of our kids or lunch.
Period 7 1:35-2:30
Period 8 2:35-3:30

What do we need to organize for our visitors?
1. We need to have a sign in log for each class. A regular spiral, composition, Tu Opcion.
2. Have technology open and easily accessible.
3. Make sure activboard presentations are hands on and kid friendly and touchable and all that good stuff.

Respectfully,

Laurie Pickup

No longer so DEL.ICIO.US!

2009-12-03T12:21:00.013-06:00

As a fervent user of Delicious.com, I am a little disappointed that I won't be able to introduce this social bookmarking website to my students as a way to keep track and share URL addresses. I have just found out that Delicious is now part of the Yahoo! company and you are therefore required to have a yahoo! email/ID account in order to sign up. Since I don't want my students to have a Yahoo! ID on top of their mysbisd.com email, I will try to find another social bookmarking service with similar features. I found a whole list online but will wait to meet with Karen Justl tomorrow and see which one she recommends or which one is suggested by the district. Since my students spend so much time typing in erroneous URLs accidentally, I think that having social bookmarking accounts is a must and will be a definite time saver. [efm]

flipcamera for Thanksgiving play

2009-11-30T16:02:00.002-06:00

The students in Wolfe's class created a setting for the characters, who were pilgrims, then wrote a dialogue for the characters as a project before Thanksgiving. After creating their dialogue, they took turns filming and reading dialogue for their Thanksgiving diarama. Monday, when we returned to school, we watched and commented on the lighting, the voice level, the filming and what we really liked best about each presentation. Fun was had by all! C.Wolfe

iFlipr Intro

2009-11-20T08:16:00.003-06:00

Estelle & Christa met this morning and went over how to create flashcards using iFlipr. Christa learned how to create them both through the app on the iTouch and via the computer through www.iflipr.com. She is really thrilled at the concept and picked up on creating the virtual cards very quickly. Way to go, Christa! I know your students will love using them and creating their own too. [efm]

Challenges using Google Docs for the first time...

2009-11-12T12:50:00.007-06:00

As the influx of signed technology authorization is slowly tapering off, I have decided to go ahead and have students log on and use Google Docs to send me their assignments electronically versus the old pen and paper medium. Alas, I didn't realize that accounts from www.students.mysbisd.com first had to be logged in through a computer before the service could be used through a mobile login, i.e. on the iTouches. Since I currently don't have the Netbooks and nor slot for the computer lab until later, I have set up all of my students' accounts by manually entering their email accounts and passwords, so we can start using Google Docs in the very near future. Needless to say, after entering data for close to 100 kids, I have a bit of a carpal tunnel syndrome! [efm]

FLIPCAMERA HEAVEN!

2009-11-10T15:28:00.003-06:00

The students in ELL Newcomer - WOLFE's class- are excited about using the flipcameras to interview their families. We have written and edited questions that they will be asking and today they all had a camera in their hands after checking it out through the library. Tomorrow, we will begin using it by going outside and filming various things we find using the phrase: "This is....,These are....., That is....., Those are......" [cw]

Using iPod Touch to listen & talk French

2009-11-06T09:16:00.015-06:00

My 7th grade French students enjoyed listening to the skit that I had downloaded onto the iTouches. From the feedback I got from them, it helped them memorize the skit and focus the pronunciation better. My first podcast was without frills and I just read the script from a french dialogue about time. Students got to listen to the dialogue at their own pace for approximately 7 minutes --it was a tad noisy, since we didn't have headphones, but it was well worth it. Afterwards, students tested their own french pronunciation by recording the skit using the iTalk and listening to themselves speak. The app was a hit with everyone, and even the most timid kids were speaking aloud in French. It not only allows language-learning students to hear themselves talk but also offers the opportunity to correct their pronunciation and ask for help from me when unsure about how to say a word. Needless to say, the thumbtack microphones were the coolest gadget ever in their opinion! One thing that I need to work on with Karen Justl is figuring out how to use the iTalk sync that I downloaded on my teacher PC so that students can send me their their recordings without having to email it --not all of my French students have returned the parent authorization, so I haven't dabbled with email yet. We finished our very engaged technology journey with students filming each others' performances, and let me tell you that some are really ready for Hollywood! [efm]

Technology Update from the Woods.

2009-11-04T16:04:00.003-06:00

We will not have a technology meeting this Friday with Karen Justl, since most of us are on duty on 11/06/09. Everybody is feeling good about where they are and feels no particular need for a meeting at this time.

1. Estelle has been taking care of labeling everything with Tim’s thingy.

2. I have been getting my kids on line and blogging which was a nightmare. Talk to me before you do it I might have some tips for you. I will try to get them written up on line on our blog. I just have to think of the right words to use. I don’t think @#$%&*** is acceptable. Kidding. Definitely plan to do it in very small groups there are a lot of hitches. We are getting our first posts up and beginning to make comments to each other.

3. Christa is still working on her family projects and getting the kids to ask good interview questions.

4. Christa and Laurie have all of their permissions in.

5. Estelle is doing flashcards with sound. Today the students are going to listen to a podcast of a skit and then use iTalk to record their role-playing and check their pronunciation. They will afterwards film each others' "performances."

6. Activ board- several of us have been attending Tim Stapley's activboard workshops on Tuesdays off and on.

7. Mary is working on her blog and using flip cameras

8. Maya has used the flip cameras and is working on getting all of her permission slips in. [lp]

Lesson plan for blogging, posting, and commenting on Word Press

2009-11-04T10:52:00.001-06:00

October 29, 2009 Blogging with the Newcomer ESL Students

Objective: Given a small group the learner will open an email account at UserNamemysbisd.com google. Then, open their blog account at word press. And make comments on other blogs by using technology. This took us about 8 -9 class periods mostly because of the problems that we had with Word Press and gaining access to the blogs.
1. Hand out student account and blog explanations.
2. Watch two short clips about blogging.
3. Open DELL net -book mini computers and go to email accounts (the shortcuts on the computer do not work so the kids had to go to “ed tech” button. Scroll to bottom left and go to google students. )
4. Log in with district provided user name and password and go to email. Use minimize button and put at the bottom of the screen.
5. Log in to http://mysbisd.com/wp-login.php and type in user name, go to bottom left of message and hit register, very small letters.
6. Help students think of a blog title that they will like. (I had them use their first name’s, a color and a place. Some chose other things as long as it made a little sense I let them do it. We can change it out later if there is a problem. I would play with blog titles before we start next time. )
7. Follow the directions on this page and have the students check the agreement and “gimme a blog.”
8. The next page says to go to their email and wait for a password and to activate their account. (Here is where the problems begin, I called in the big general, K. Justl to help me on this day. It probably would have been easier if I didn’t want them to have the same password as their email account but, there are so many passwords to know and remember that I felt that one was best for their sanity and mine.)
9. Close the blog site and go to the email account. There should be an email stating that they can activate their account. Read it carefully. Click on “activate my account”
10. You will be on a page that states that the blog has been set up activate the account. Have the students press “log in” Now you have to take them back to their email and get their new password. They have to go into the email and copy the password that they are given by Word Press. (I wanted mine to use the password that they were given by the district for everything. So, they will log in with their user name and then paste in the word press “password” and log in.)
11. Then, they will be on their dashboard page. Scroll down the left side of the page and look for “users.” Click or highlight that and go to “user profile.” Go to the bottom of the user profile page to the part that says new password. Have them type in their email/district password 2 times and save it with the button at the bottom left of the page. (I ended up having to do this for each student individually with K.Justl’s and C.Wolfe’s help. Many of the blogs got messed up somewhere in ether land and K. saved the day back at her office by cleaning up the little messes that I couldn’t correct.)
12. Then, take them back to the dashboard and click on view site at the top line of the page. They will see their site in the word press skin. Yuck.
13. Take them back to their dashboard. Have them go to “appearance” and select “themes” They will go to a page that has a connection to 15 pages of skins or themes for their blogs. They can push on preview to see what it will look like. Push on activate to select the one that they want. Tell them to find a skin with 2-3 columns so they can put lots of widgets. This will take a period.
14. Take them to the dashboard and have them go to posts and add new. Show them the title line. Type in #1 My First Blog. (I stopped here and had them write on paper a mini blog. I gave them these questions. 1. What did you do to make your blog? What do you like? What is easy about blogging? What is difficult about blogging? I proofed their writing and had them enter it as their first post. Remind and teach them how to publish with the buttons on the right of the screen.
15. Widgets are in appearance also, you can teach them about widgets now if you want. I had them all load “meta” as it gives them a way to go back and forth between their blog and the dashboard with one click. Also, you can have them load their friend’s blog addresses into blogroll widget if you like. I showed them how I have some of my favorite kid games on my blogroll under math or science depending on the subject and I did this easily in widgets.
16. Introduce and have a “netiquette” lesson from an activboard presentation so that students know about internet etiquette. Demonstrate for students how to go to each other’s blog’s by using http://mysbisd.com/computername/ Or using the blogroll widget if that is finished. Practice making, publishing, approving and responding to comments.

Always Ask an Expert!

2009-10-31T10:11:00.006-05:00

After dabbling with iFlipr for an hour or so on Thursday, I gave up on figuring a way to add sounds to the flashcards I had created. I had thought it was as simple as plugging in the microphone and an application popping up for me to record the word. Not so easy for the novice that I am! Fortunately, our techno guru Karen Justl came to the rescue during our Friday meeting and in less than 2 minutes solved my frustrating problem! She showed me how to access the application "Sound Recorder" on my PC and get files with wav extension that were easily uploadable to iFlipr. (start>programs>accessories>entertainment>sound recorder).

I am so thrilled to have that additional feature to the flashcards, so students can hear the correct pronunciation of the word in both French and English (for my ELLs). The sounds on my first prototype is a little garbled --be sure to speak LOUDLY when you record for best effect. :) [efm]

iPod Touch, en Francais, s'il vous plait!

2009-10-23T12:13:00.017-05:00

This morning, I jumped off the cliff and decided to the iPod Touches with 2 of my French classes for the first time. They used the app "French Lite" to review the vocabulary we had previously studied (numbers, months, days of the week ) and were so enthralled one could barely hear a pin drop. I like the fact that the flashcards on this app have an audio component and allow students to review the words by hearing them said aloud; the app also allows them to quiz themselves by answering multiple choice answers of the translations. French Lite's listening and spelling part were a hit with my students and I had never seen students more eager and more focused in their learning. Everyone was ready to share something they had reviewed as their "ticket out!" [efm]

Successful Technology Parent Meeting

2009-10-23T10:19:00.001-05:00

What a TEAM! The meeting last night couldn’t have been better…
Laurie was greeting everyone and making sure everyone signed the roster!
Serrano…( not Martinez J) was greeting and explaining to parents in Spanish and English…
Maya interpreted everything in Spanish and, of course, kept the audience mesmerized.
Estelle was running the Activboard and reminding me what to say keeping the meeting ON POINT! Good job!
…Angela kept an eye on all of us as she practiced being an administrator…
Stapley came to set us all up…What an amazing Activboard advocate and teacher he is!…without which we would have had nothing!
The custodians set up the room perfectly and did it twice because the mentors came before our meeting…Thank you Carlotta and your crew!
Mrs. Chai…thank you for always being an advocate and an inspiration! To me that’s a great leader!
Without Bill’s advice and guidance yesterday, we couldn’t have pulled the whole thing off! Thanks for the advice to make decisions in person and get information online! That was advice to be used in all negotiations, I think…Technology is good, but never replaces face to face humans!
I am so proud and happy and content to work with so many inspired advocates for kids. It is truly a pleasure!
AND…we had 86 families…with both parents attending in many cases…and with their kids! There was standing room only! Karen Justl, our district coordinator for the grant, was very impressed. It was so good to have her there with her smiling face and helpful ways.

WAY TO GO TEAM!!!! HURRAH!!!! We are ON OUR WAY!!! (cw)

Baby Steps with iPod Touches

2009-10-21T11:52:00.002-05:00

I am so thrilled! I took the plunge and had my 7th period ESL Support students experiment with the iPod Touches. It was nothing fancy --just learning to handle the equipment and the vocabulary that goes with it (i.e., "slide" & "apps.") I had students go to the iFlipr app and they search for the flashcards that I had created previously and they downloaded them onto their individual iTouch. They then each went eagerly through all of the flashcards and tried to guess the word that the picture was representing. It was really exciting to hear them say the words aloud to themselves before checking the answer... and that without any instruction from me to do so. I really think that using the iTouch as a manipulative helped them internalize the 17 words because they were all anxious to scream them out and share when we identified them later on the ActivBoard. A very engaging first iPod Touch lesson, indeed! [efm]

iFlipr

2009-10-18T09:16:00.008-05:00

Based on everyone's positive feedback at the PTL meeting this week, I went ahead & downloaded the regular version of iFlipr (cost $4.99) to play with making flashcards. The process to create them was more labor-intensive than I expected, since I had to use the computer to download from the Internet the illustrations of the vocabulary words that I wanted to use with iFlipr first. What made it difficult too is that I had to download these pix from home as www.veer.com is not on the district's list of acceptable websites, although it offers the best graphics for abstract concepts and categorized so easily --hence so popular with graphic designers!

Once the pix were downloaded, it was fairly easy to create the deck of flashcards that I plan for my students to use tomorrow on the iPod touches to review the vocabulary they have studied last week. However, because of my spotty wi-fi connection, I had to retype my words and uploaded the pix several times, which was a tad frustrating. One thing that I wasn't particularly fond of was that I wasn't able to find a "preference" setting for the font and its size, so I had to manually change each word to Helvetica and the identical font size. I think in the future I will just leave the font to the default, particularly when I will have my students create their own flashcards. I can't wait till Thursday's meeting to collect all the parent signatures and get that show going! [efm]

Our new jobs...

2009-10-15T14:18:00.009-05:00

Grant director --Laurie

Sign-in notebook for district people to sign --Laurie

Blogger --everyone's responsibilities

Minute taker --each team member will take turn, based on who is in attendance

Inventory/master list of equipment (with SBISD digits) & engraving --Estelle

Creation of calendar on blog --Estelle

Cart sync’er –Estelle

Parent meeting presentation & Activboard flipchart --Christa

Digital citizenship lesson plan + Activboard flipchart --Laurie & Maya

Making invitation to meeting & translating into Spanish --Laurie & Maya

Xeroxing copies for parents + invitations --Mary

Meeting Parents Soon...

2009-10-15T13:50:00.036-05:00

At last, we have set up a date to meet with the parents of our lucky students who will get to use the exciting new technology that the Power 2 Learn Grant has allowed us to purchase! The date is October 22, 2009 from 6:00 to 7:30 in the Spring Woods Middle School MPR. Laurie has designed a friendly invitation for parents that Maya is translating into Spanish; Mary is in charge of the 400 copies of the documents that parents will have to sign before their children get full access to the technology (particularly, gmail accounts). We are also thinking about having the phone system do a call-out to invite the parents and ensure that as many as possible attend the meeting. Our team is working assiduously in planning a successful meeting: Christa is designing an informative and engaging Activboard flipchart to let parents know about the opportunities and responsibilities technology involves; Laurie is creating a flipchart on Digital Citizenship that uses Brain Pop that we plan to use daily to as mini-lessons and stepping stones for meaningful discussions on appropriate technology use. [efm]

the Spanish Missions connected to our Mission!

2009-10-15T10:18:00.004-05:00

Ms. Wolfe's ELL Newcomers recently studied the trail and purposes of the Spanish Missions in their Social Studies class. In the culmination of this study, the class wrote and word processed a short story giving details of the purpose and architecture. Their writing was recreated into a visual presentation by using the flipcamera. Everyone enjoyed watching this first filmed "speaking lesson" so we watched each one's presentation about 4 times! The students have increased their spoken vocabulary by this activity and are eager to write another story to be read on film. CAW

Flipping on Friday!

2009-10-15T10:06:00.003-05:00

My Spanish 3 Pre Ap classes will be using Flip Cameras on Friday! They will present a poster they have been working on in groups. The words are: CIVILIZATION, MYSTERY, LEGEND, MYTH and BELIEF. They created a poster with the definition and a picture or symbol that describes the word. Before we started "Flipping", my lesson will be about how to talk in front of a camera, what do to with hands eyes, voice, etc. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can find a good spot outside and get the cameras rolling! The kids are super excited. I will post a video and my comments next week. :)

MW

Flip Cameras and Formal Presentations

2009-10-14T13:17:00.004-05:00

In Spanish IV, the students have taken 75 videos to practice formal presentations in Spanish. At the beginning of the lesson they had to research a famous Hispanic, since we were learning about Hispanic Heritage, and write about that person. Then they had to present it to the class as a formal speech.

They were able to see themselves and their classmates , evaluate and improve their speaking skills on a formal setting, for our next topic.

They loved being in contact with technology and I loved that they met the objective!!!.

MS

Lesson: Net book Mini's and the Periodic table

2009-10-14T11:01:00.004-05:00

Objective: The learner will apply research skills to research and create a poster about one element of the periodic table.

Activity: Hand out and explain the project and the research needed.

Hand out the mini's and have the students log on.

Show them how to get to library resources. Look at several sites in library resources. Check out #8 Encyclopedia Brittanica in Spanish and English. Also look at # 9 Discovery Streaming and show them how to get movies on their topics of interest. Brain Pop #11 is another good resource.

Go to google and type in Table of periodic elements. find the DOE.gov energy site and find the periodic table in that. Show students how to click on the element and find out information about that.

Demonstrate and practice log off and shut down.

Finally, return the mini's to their docking places.

The lessons went well. the kids really liked the mini's. Our biggest problem was logging on. since all of our kids are new their passwords and log on stuff is in a variety of different situations.

The 7 and 8th newcomers did really well and enjoyed the exploring and the new sites a lot.

The 6th graders had trouble logging on and using different user names and passwords at the different sites. To fix this for next time. I will print out a sheet with the name of the website, the user name and the password for each site. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=periodic_table is a good site for kids to poke around in for information about energy and the periodic table.

Using the FlipCamera for Vocabulary Presentations

2009-10-13T13:07:00.007-05:00

Here is one of the videos that I have taken while my students were giving their presentations about a vocabulary word they had to explain for ELL Support class. I think they did rather well in spite of having the camera lens focused on them and for it being the first time. My intend was to download each of the presentations onto the iTouches but somehow it didn't work out. I will have to play with the sync cart some more. Regardless, within this week, we'll be viewing the presentations and students will be sharing some feedback on what they liked and what they feel should be improved. **The students appearing in this film have parent authorization to be in it** [efm]

Enlightening Morning Meeting

2009-10-09T08:21:00.017-05:00

This morning Maya, Marie & Estelle learned how to import movies into iTune to play on the iPod touches. Karen suggested that we upload one of the ESL students' vocabulary presentation on our blog to show at the meeting on 10/15/09. Of course, we'll need to check in SASI first for parental authorization. There is an update as far as Google Apps on the netbooks are concerned. The Google app shortcut/icon that is currently on netbooks will need to be updated as the student URL has changed to www.students.mysbisd.com and teachers logon through www.educators.mysbisd.com. All previous issues about the site have been resolved and it is now kid-friendly and clean. Students will be able to use the Google apps and send an invite to their teacher via email to share the document they have created. Yeah, we are on our way to becoming greener! :)

To be ready for the meeting on 10/15/09, Karen suggested that we download the iTalk apps to the iPod Touches and also iTalk Sync onto our teacher Dell computers (choose .zip file --it downloads really quickly). This will allow us to compare it with VoiceMemo and choose which app we prefer to use with our students for their oral language portfolio. iTalk Sync will allow us to review and wirelessly save the recordings students make on their iPod Touches to our teacher computer. efm

Productive iPod Touch Day

2009-10-05T20:08:00.006-05:00

At last, I've gone ahead and set up the restrictions on the individual iPod Touches so that everything downloaded is "clean." I also did my first solo sync'ing of the cart and thought I had downloaded a bunch of free educational apps onto the Touches... But I guess I counted the eggs before they were hatched!! The apps were nowhere to be found. Regardless, it was really exciting to get things going... Once I get everything sync'ed, I am planning on playing around with the flashcard app to get more familiar with it and see how I can use it with my ESL Support class. Following Mary & Christa's footsteps, I filmed my ESL Support's vocabulary presentations today and will use the movie as a vocabulary review session. efm

Google Aps Meeting October 2nd 2009

2009-10-05T12:37:00.005-05:00

Karen came by to our weekly Friday meeting and helped us to learn about google aps. I of course feel like the student at the back of the class with the dunce cap. Karen's patience won out and after a weekend of playing around with a large variety of passwords I found my way in and set up some of my widgets. We need to be a little careful about this part with the kids.. They can gain access to some pretty inappropriate widgets. so we might hold for awhile on this until Spring Branch can find a way around it. i tried to add a couple like beach scenes- I love the beach but, it was blocked by Spring Branch so I assume it might have a problem.
Karen gave us this address. http://partnerpage.google.com/springbranch.com for staff members and showed us some really cool things we can do to get the kids communicating with us on line.
She also showed us the kids site. She had sent us the kids passwords last week also.
Kid site for google aps. http://partnerpage.google.com/mysbisd.com
Karen also sent a good article for us to check out. It is a sort of training for google aps. You can find it here, http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/collaboration.html
So I hope my links work for you. Have fun exploring.
LEP

September 18, 2009 Technology Meeting

2009-10-05T11:47:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Karen Justl, Laurie and Maya learned how to sync the iPod touches.
The rest of the team is very grateful to Laurie & Maya for sync'ing things throughout the whole day and Laurie thinks they are all done. Karen says the netbooks will be in next week.

Next meeting possibilities.
1. Parent meeting?? When, Where, What issues do you see?
2. Student introduction to the technology? Big meeting in auditorium or done in classes. What issues do you see???
3. How do we want to divide it all up for use. By interest first or monthly, weekly?
4. Is anyone interested in setting up a 23 things for kids with netbooks with me for the kids?
5. Student permission for usage .
6. Lessons for teaching the equipment??? I think it would be great to work in teams and write them up so we can share them. Is there anything already done?

Christa and Mary use flip cameras in class

2009-10-02T15:40:00.004-05:00

Christa and Mary used flip cameras to the students' great joy in class this week.

Mary noticed that the kids were participating without complaint and were comfortable talking in small groups. They taped each other speaking about Hispanic heritage and famous Hispanics. The kids were practicing their formal presentations and were happy to be able to go back and correct themselves with the cameras.

Christa's group loved making speeches about their Spanish missions. They heard that their voices were too quiet the first time so they redid their speeches with louder voices. Watching the presentations was a great joy.

We know that their portfolios are going to be wondrous.

We are still working on our parent meeting date and time. We have the materials that we need thanks to Karen Justl.

Karen has spent a lot of time training us on google apps, blogging on Word Press and basic skills like that.

Laurie was super excited to get the netbooks in this week. They are awesome. [lp]

Flipping about Flip Cameras!

2009-09-10T21:28:00.004-05:00

Wow, I have just opened the Flip Video box and feel like it's Christmas in September. I can't stop playing with the gizmo --it's so easy to use that I think my 83-year old Great-Aunt could figure it out! I love the fact that it's basic yet it has the zoom in/out features. I can already envision our students turning into future Ken Burns! How exciting! This is my first experience with the many items our technology grant got us and now I am looking forward to tomorrow's meeting on Podcasting with our iPod Touches even more!

efm