In Class Support - modelling

Today I went into a Year 2 classroom and modelled a writing lesson using the mimio.  Over the past 2 years I have taught myself how to use the mimo and projector as the white board. It's not rocket science just effort. This term I am going into to model a lesson to staff to encourage the shift in thinking from using the little board or modelling books.  I decideded to use writing as it gave me a chance to plan learning intentions etc for the students rather than off the cuff, when I went in as a specialist teacher with the laptops and the students used a programme.  Anyway, I had a lovely time with this class and they did some fantastic writing.

I used a poem about yellow things, and we talked about other colours and I wrote the things related to the colours under their headings.  One student wrote about the colour red, and the last line of her poem was red is the poppies, for the men who fighted in the war.  (fighted is her unedited word).

Red is like lava
Red is like blood
Red is like a fire engine
Red is like the sun
that makes me hot.

Orange as the autumn leaves
Orange as a juicy orange
Orange as the sun
that keeps our life and light.

Pink si like a rose
Pink is like a yummy strawberry cake
with some candles shining in the night.

Silver is a star
Silver is glitter
Silver is a tanker driving past my street.

Blue is the sky
Blue is the rain
Blue is Neptune
Blue is the ocean
that I swim in.

Sometimes I get more excited about children's writing than ICT.

Then this afternoon I went into a Year One class and we looked at a poem about the word big - My smile is as big as .....and wrote about My eyes are as big as....   Demonstrating the poem without a mimio pen and mimio but using the program with the laptop is much harder because you are dashing backwards and forwards from the laptop to the whiteboard.  Its not far but can be disjointed.  I am spoilt with my laptop right by my whiteboard.

Other languages on my blog

I have someone writing comments in what I presume is Chinese.  Since I don't know what the comment means I delete it.  I cannot risk it being a rude comment.

Getting the students to teach me

On Tuesdays I lose about half my class to choir practise so I have decided to have fun with ICT with the rest of the class.  Today I had booked our pod of 8 laptops so that I could get them to work out the Goanimate.com program from the Cool Tools for Schools website.  I don't know whether it is our server blocking but only the class work station would work the program properly.  I had had a go on Sunday an struggled to make the program work so I had the bright idea of putting the students on and they could then teach me.  They were definately enthusiastic but trying compatability views helped to some extent but I also don't know whether using the same login for all computers was stopping us too.  I think we were all frustrated.  I then tried some of the other website but had trouble loggin into them as well. Talk about best laid plans.

Lead Teacher Day

Saw an interesting video on students in California using ipods in class for their learning.  Belinda showed this after showing her photos of her Apple Road trip.  It was very thought provoking in that it demonstrated how learning is changing so fast with ICT.  I wonder what will be the PC equivalent to Apple in this regard.  I know that teachers are trialling cellphone use in high schools here in NZ but not being a big cellphone user myself, I know I lack the knowledge to totally understand how all this works.  I don't even know if I am ready for the concept.  I really liked how the students were engaged and responsible for their learning.  I am not sure that I like the idea of being paperless in regard of dictionaries and atlases or even just practising reading fluency from a sheet of paper but then, I am a confirmed book lover and hate the idea of curling up in bed on a Sunday morning with an ICT device (laptop, or ibook, or phone) to read. 

Mathletics and finding facts

We began a trial of Mathletics for homework this week for a fortnight.  I have been letting the kids get on at every opportunity.  They come in in the mornings at the moment and share what credits they have learnt with each other, or tell me they are on the Wall of Fame.  It is great to see them so enthusiastic.

My students have been taking turns or in groups to find facts to begin report writing dueing writing time.

Learning my Mistakes

I have just learnt to delete comments.  I had some comments in Chinese? but my ability in foreign languages is very small and limited to 2-3 phrases in French and Maori.  Anyway, I checked my settings and silly me and not made comments come to my email to for moderation.

Makes me worried what else I missed.

ICT integration Week 2 Term 2

Last week I was on Year 6 camp.  It was a great camp, and the most ICT was taking photos.  Anyway, back to school and getting back into classroom routine.  ICT on Monday was using the mimio to demonstrate handwriting, getting a reading group to make blogs for the class on their week last week.  Today, I was teaching 2 students to use movie maker to make a short film to share our Year 6 experiences. Sent a child out to photograph our new classroom that we will be moving into shortly and the camera died.  Luckily it was the lense not the SD card.

My new teacher laptop was set up while I was away, but it is not synchronising to the server, but connecting to the server so planning done at the weekend on my old laptop can't be picked up on the new laptop.  Also the wireless connection is not working.  Other than that, my new laptop feels new and lovely.