Inspired by my students!

     This week was truly an eye opening experience in my classroom. It's always a struggle for me to turn power over to my students in order to let them be accountable for their own learning; however, this week my students took control on their own in various areas and did a tremendous job! It began on Tuesday in the computer room when 3 of my students were able to walk around the room and log off the computers after their classmates were done. This may seem like a rather simple task, however, it usually takes me an extra 5 minutes to do on my own and another 10 minutes to teach students how to do it. Another example of student use of technology came when they were able to record themselves using the headset and microphone in order to help make our class interactive book! I am so impressed with their interest for technology and their ability to take charge of their experiences! 

     Sidenote: Throughout the week, while looking for ideas for classroom activities, I came across this link on Technology tools called, "Technology Tools - Tools you can use." I found many useful tools and ideas through this site that I'm excited to try and use! Hope you can use it too! 

Contract Points as of 10-22-12:

IT History Exhibit: 25 

Wimba Worksheet: 5

Interactive Online Games: 10 

Prezi Time Capsule: 10 

Prezi Toolbox: 10 
ToolTime: Littlebirdtales 6 points

Total: 60 points

Update on contract...

It's been a crazy hectic week in Kindergarten...so it's been a slow week in the IT area. I did spend alot of time working on the history project that I am collaborating on with Dawn and Kim. We are doing a great job and working very hard...can't wait to present next week!!

I have begun to update my resource toolbox (annotated bibliography). This seems like it is going to be a great tool so hopefully I can keep it up to date!

My students and I have started to write a book together about the joy of our bucket filling classroom to create a storybook online! We will work together to use Littlebirdtales.com to create our final copy of our story! Stay tuned.... =)

Lots to do but so many great things....very exciting!! =)

Progress on contract...

I returned to my epals account only to find several spam emails in my mailbox. I was completely disappointed because I believed this website was going to be a safe way for my kids and I to communicate with other schools globally. While I am unconfident about allowing my students to interact on their own, I am excited to use the various activies that have been created to use worldwide! I have begun my log and summaries of our journey through epals and hope to have a complete report by November 12th.

In addition to beginning my epals project, I also strated my toolbox project and my article on the challenges of BYOD. I am disappointed that I was unable to completely finish these projects, but they became more complex than I expected and I need to spend more time to complete them efficiently. I know, after this week, that I must get in gear, get moving faster and quit procrastinating, to complete these projects!!!