Projectable Books and the Smart Board

Projectable books are another great resource to use with a Smart Board! Shena Ashcraft (1st grade teacher at Elda) asked if I would show the 1st grade team how to use them with the Smart Board. I had not seen them before and took a few minutes to learn about them. I'm glad I did! Here are the basics:

Projectable Books
Tools for Small Group and Whole Class Instruction
Reading A-Z integrates technology and reading curriculum with leveled readers and benchmark books formatted for digital projectors and interactive white boards. Projectable Book Tips guide educators to meet literacy instruction goals for fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, grammar, and more. Plus, our companion, printable format extends lessons with leveled books teachers send home for student practice. (http://www.readinga-z.com/book/projectable-books.php)

They are a fantastic way to share books to the whole class! Plus, there are several fun tools that make teaching and learning easier. You can draw and/or highlight over any of the pages. Plus, you can use the reveal and cover tools to show/hide only certain areas of each page. The software is super easy to use and it is web-based so you don't have to download anything! I highly recommend checking these out. For more information, check out:

http://www.readinga-z.com/book/projectable-books.php

Jumping Back into Great Technology Projects!

I want to put a big "Thank you" out there to all my friends at Ross for making my transition back to work easier! After 3 months of leave I am back to work and getting into the swing of things again. Everyone has been so supportive and welcoming. It really has made a difference and made it easier for me!

It sounds like classes did a great job keeping up while I was out and it is nice to be back and able to help where teachers find they need it. Teachers are signing up for technology help in all sorts of areas. We have research projects going on, multiple grade levels using the Smart Board for various lessons, classes using the Turning Point clickers, students using Pro-Ohio, EasyTech and CCI as well as student using the IRT (Infrared Thermometer)! I know there are even more projects then what I listed!

We also have the eTech Conference (Educational Technology conference for Ohio) coming up in February. We have a great group representing our Elementary buildings and district this year. Stacy Strawser, Jenna Rahrig, Lisa Hodits and I will be presenting "Using Blogs and Picassa for Classroom Communication". I will post more about our presentation after the conference!

Stay tuned for more project spotlights on upcoming Fridays!

New Pro-Ohio Feature: Web Test Bookmarking

Pro-Ohio has a new feature! Students can now bookmark a short-cycle assessment test when they don't have enough time to finish it. They used to have to just close out and not get scored on any of the answers they had completed. Now, they have two options when class time is up:
Click on
'Save Test and Exit' or 'Finish Test/Submit Answers'. There will be a new link up by the subjects called "Bookmarked". The next time the student logs in they can click there to get to a list of all unfinished tests. From there, they just click on the test they want to finish. The test will pop up just like the regular ones do and the student can finish answering the questions. Then, submit the test for a score.

The elementary buildings are just about ready to start using the web accounts! Morgan's database is up with just a few changes that need to be made. Elda's accounts will be soon to follow! Once all the accounts are ready, teachers can begin using Pro-Ohio with their students via clickers and/or individual web log ins.

Keep Parents, Students or Staff Updated with Google Calendar

Are you looking for an easy way to keep track of events and share then with others? If so, Google Calendar might be the right tool for you. It is a personal, web based calendar that lets you keep all of your important dates visible on-line and accessible anywhere. This is a great way to share important classroom dates for field trips, tests, project due dates and more. You can also use it to check availability for others to set up a meeting or event or just keep track of your own personal dates. Whether you are communicating with parents, students or co-workers it is convenient and easy to use.

Web-based calendars are great when you work from more then one computer or when you want to share your dates with others. You can get to your calendar quickly and easily no matter what computer you are working on as well as share your calendar with anyone. Some calendars can be hard to share when the other person does not have an account set up or use the same email system.

You can also embed your Google Calendar into your classroom wiki or link it to your blog. That way, everyone can see what important dates are coming up. I have two examples below. The firs is the URL (web address) to my calendar. Once you have a calendar created you can share it with others just by giving them the website. The second is an example of a calendar embedded in a website (a wiki in this case).

Sharing the URL for your calendar:
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=tak9nku%40yahoo.com&ctz=America/New_York

Calendar embedded in a website:
http://triciakluener.wikispaces.com/Schedule

There are many other web-based calendar options out there that are also great to use. You can always do a key word search and find more calendars. To learn more about Google Calendar or to set up your own, check out:

www.google.com/calendar

First Classroom Wiki: Kudos Mrs. Kingsley!

Mrs. Kingsley (3rd grade teacher at Elda) has created the first class wiki in her building! She is hoping to showcase student work, spotlight her 'Super Star Students' and share class news with students and parents. Beth's site is a "work in progress" as any class website should be. There will always be new updates and pictures to add throughout the year. Check out her wiki and let her know what a great job she is doing! The link is below. It will also be added to the Elda school website 'Links' and 'Staff' pages soon!

http://mrskingsley-3rdgrade.wikispaces.com/

She used Wikispaces to create the site. Wikispaces is a website that provides free wiki sites to the public and free educator accounts to teachers. It is the site I use for my 'Technology, Tools and Updates' wiki and recommend it to others. There are other great wiki sites available too. It just depends on what you prefer. Check out Wikispaces to set yours up!

http://www.wikispaces.com/

Morgan will have several class wikis to share soon! We are having a training session on September 23 to get teachers up and running with their own classroom wikis. There is a lot of interest through out the building and I can't wait to get people started!

Morgan Has a New Art Blog!

Ross has a new addition to the elementary blog list! Jenna Rahrig (pictured Right: Art and Technology teacher for Morgan) has created a blog for her Art students. This is in addition to the web pages she has already created for her classes and the building website for Morgan. Jenna's goal for the Art blog is to be able to communicate with students and parents. One of her students has already posted a comment!

We now have 3 class blogs between Elda and Morgan along with 5 class web sites at Morgan, 1 at Elda and a few more on the way in both buildings! The list just keeps growing!

The links below will take you to Jenna's web creations:

http://morganartroom.blogspot.com/
http://www.rossrams.com/Morgan/art.html
http://www.rossrams.com/Morgan/tech.html
http://www.rossrams.com/Morgan/index.html

If anyone is interested in creating their very own class web page or blog let me know and I will be happy to help!

Create Your Own Class Web Page in Just a Few Easy Steps!

Have you ever wanted to create a web page for your class but don't have the right software or skills to do it? Well, all that is changing now! You can create a blog or wiki for free and they are super easy to use. It is a live URL (web page that you can share with parents, students, staff, etc) that you can update as often as you like. You don't need any special software to create the page, just internet access and a computer. Blogs and wikis are easy to edit too. Basically, if you can edit a Word document then you can edit a blog and/or a wiki too.

Blogs

Blog is short for 'web log'. It works as an on-line journal. Blogs can have many classroom uses. Typically, a blog is started by one person (a teacher posts a question to students or writes a paragraph to read) and others can post comments about the question/information. You can add pictures, files, widgets and links too! Here are just a few classroom examples:
o To post materials/resources for parents and students
o Create a class website
o Share student work/ group projects
o Post writing prompts
o Literature circle: student comments, observations, connections, predictions
o There are unlimited possibilities!!!

Check out these examples of Blogs in the Ross District:
http://eldamusic.blogspot.com/
http://trishtechnews.blogspot.com/
http://eldaartblog.blogspot.com/
http://mrsgriffith.edublogs.org/

Wikis

A wiki is a website that you can create or edit without any special technical knowledge, tools or software. Editing a wiki is very much like editing a Word document. The end result is a web page that you can share with other staff, students and/or parents. You can set the privacy settings on wikis to let others change and edit content (great for group projects and working with other staff) or lock it down so only the creator can change information. This use would be more like a 'traditional' website that others can visit and view.

Wikis are great for sharing/organizing information, web quests, posting study guides/homework, classroom resources, links to other sites, etc. You can add pages, links, pictures, widgets, content and more!

Here are a few ides of how to use wikis from: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas1.cfm

• An elementary class “encyclopedia” on a special topic, such as explorers or state history – to be continued and added to each year!
• Post new spelling or vocabulary words each week
  
• Family Twaditionwiki- elementary students share their family’s ways of preparing Thanksgiving dinner or celebrating birthdays (anonymously, of course) and compare them to practices in other cultures they read and learn about.
• An annotated virtual library: listings and commentary on independent reading students have done throughout the year
• Collaborative book reviews or author studies
  
• A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON- field trip that the class would have liked to take as A culmination of a unit of study: Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific or governmental processes: how a bill becomes a law, how mountains form, etc.
• A wiki “fan club” for you favorite author(s).
  
• A Where is Wanda wiki: a wiki version of the ever-favorite Flat Stanley project. Have each Wanda host post on the wiki, including the picture they take with Wanda during her visit. Even better: keep an ongoing Google Earth placemarker file to add geographic visuals to Wanda’s wonderful wanderings as a link in the wiki. WOW! Where in the world IS Wiki Wanda?

The link below is a fantastic resource for educational wikis. The site contains background information wikis as well as many ideas for classroom integration through multiple subjects and grade levels. Check it out!
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

Personally, I use Blogspot for blogs and Wikispaces for wikis. However, there are many great sites offering free space to create blogs and wikis. Wikispaces offers free educator accounts that restrict advertisements. I have found both Blogspot and Wikisipaces very easy to use. To create your own accounts visit the sites, check out my wiki (linked below) for handouts (created for Blogspot and Wikispaces) or contact me for help!

http://triciakluener.wikispaces.com/Hand+Outs

Good luck!