Technology Tools Advent Calendars

The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy.  Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students or yourself to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day.  Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit.  Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories.  

The potential curricular related advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.  

The technology tools advent calendars showcase a different Web 2.0 Technology Tool each day for teacher use, student use or both.

Technology Tools Advent Calendars

http://www.wix.com/ktenkely/advent

http://www.librarycraft.com/festive24things/2010/12/01/

Potential Curricular related Advent Calendars

http://dirtdirt.com/advent/09/?tillchristmas
Click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/calendar/index.html#calendar
This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world.  As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.

Morton Mondays REborn

While at Waukee I started Morton Mondays during the months that I was not committed to coaching HS Football and HS Track & Field.  I have extended the Morton Mondays to the Hampton-Dumont CSD again during the months that I am not committed to coaching HS Football and HS Track & Field.  So that means Morton Mondays takes place from the very end of October to the very beginning of February, during 2 Mondays of each of the months in between.  I am offering 1 Morton Mondays session on a Monday after school hours, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm and 1 Morton Mondays session on a Monday before school hours, 7:30 am - 8:30 am.
I will be holding my 3rd session on Monday, November 28 after school with the focus being on Creating a Paperless Environment.  So far my other sessions have covered Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Mail, and Pages, Numbers and Keynote.  The attendance at these sessions have been much appreciated with 1 HDCSD staff member attending during the 1st session and 2 HDCSD staff members attending during the 2nd session.
I am really hoping more HDCSD staff members will be attending the upcoming sessions in support of the topic being showcased and in support of using that time as additional technology support time.
Morton Mondays is being provided to the HSCSD staff members to allow them to learn a little bit more about technology and to allow them an opportunity to gain technology support during times when they are less busy.

5th Graders Using iMovie

About 2-3 weeks ago I was emailed by Mrs. Harr and Mrs. Carr to provide some ideas related to using iMovie in their 5th grade classroom so students can report on a mystery book they have read.  Instead of kids typing out their report about the book, the used iMovie to express their report about the book for others to view and learn from.  I was in their classroom each day for 1 full week for 1 hour at a time.
The 1st day I introduced iMovie and they were able to play around with it, while having the opportunity to create their Book title slide, Author title slide, and Reviewed By title slide for the start of their iMovie project.  Mrs. Harr and Mrs. Carr provided them with a checklist of iMovie skills that they had to try out and use to get graded on.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days the students kept working on their iMovie while adding their video recorded book review of their mystery book through the web cam on the laptops.  The students then were able to add music or sound effects to their iMovie project, before finalizing it on the 5th day and getting it onto Mrs. Harr's computer for her to look at and then showcase.

It took some time trying to figure out the right web site tool to be able to showcase each students finished product, but we finally found 1 that was free, so far has no limit on storage space and is easy to use.

It is: http://www.capzles.com/

and the students finished products are here:
http://www.capzles.com/#/4abfa7ac-e811-4b88-b019-d0f280f41def

Take a look.

Before Thanksgiving Break Continued

4th Grade students used a few web sites, learned about Pages (Microsoft Word), Keynote (Microsoft PowerPoint) and used KidSpiration.  They are becoming experts in using the laptops fluently and being able to login to any computer with their own account information so they do not have to use the same computer each time.
Their online activities were:
http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16
Pages
Keynote

5th Grade students used a few web sites, learned about Pages (Microsoft Word), Keynote (Microsoft PowerPoint) and used iMovie to create mystery book information.  They definitely are experts in using the laptops fluently, being able to login to any computer with their own account information and are quickly starting to learn all of the keyboard shortcuts to use the laptops more efficiently.

Their online activities were:

http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16

Pages

Keynote

iMovie

4-5th Middle School TAG students are starting to use iMovie to create digital portfolios with Mrs. Braun.  They just started but I can't wait to see their finished products over time with the information they include and with their final revised product with iMovie.

Before Thanksgiving Break

Well, I almost reached my goal of showcasing technology skills to all Kindergarten - 5th grade classrooms, 26 of them, before Thanksgiving break, but came 2 classes short.  Thank You so much to all of the classroom teachers that replied back to my email and set up a time with different technology activities and skills.  Hopefully I can catch all of the teachers next time I set up this endeavor, maybe between the start of the New Years and Valentine's Day.

Kindergarten classrooms focused on a couple online activities, but more importantly how to use the laptops, plug in the headphones, how to get to the Internet, and how to put them away.
Their online activities were:
http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16
http://www.abcya.com/

Hearing from the Students

You would seem that my presence in the elementary classrooms, related to using technology, has been assumed for a couple years.  I say this because the students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade already know my name for being in their classrooms 1 maybe 2 times so far this year, my first year.  That has been a huge inspiration as it tells me the students are sincere, they understand my purpose when I am in their classrooms to teach and/or help out and they enjoy what they are learning from me.  Case-in-point is today when I visited the same 3rd grade classroom I visited 2 days ago to do Keyboarding, and this time to assist with using KidSpiration.  I had so many kids come up to me stating they used the Keyboarding game/activities at home on their computer or at the library the past couple of days because they enjoyed the time they spent using the technology in their classroom.
This is what I want from the students when using technology.  A chance to take what they learned and apply it at home, at the library or anywhere they can get on the computer, and to be excited about it.  Then coming into their next time to see my introducing another piece of technology that they could effectively use on their own at home or again in the classroom.
A great surprise.

Technology Professional Development

Here are some Technology Based Graphic Organizers that you could:

-Create, print and individually provide to the students
-Create and project through your LCD projector to work as a class
-Put on your SchoolFusion page for students to individually use on the laptops and then print for their portfolio or as an assessment piece

http://classtools.net/
http://www.thinkport.org/technology/template.tp
http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/cc/vp_gle/2nd/more/graphic_organizers.htm





Downloadable Organizers
http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

http://edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm

KidSpiration/Inspiration

-Reading/Writing has Comparing, KWL Chart, Venn Diagram, StoryBoard
-Math has Fact Families, Measuring and Comparing Furniture Sizes
-Science has Alike and Different, Cause and Effect, Comparison,
-Social Studies has Community Comparison, Culture Comparison, Wants & Needs, Where I Live