Summary of My New Knowledge

When I asked my students what I am most commonly heard saying, other than frequently given directions, their response was, “I hate technology.”

While I wouldn’t go as far as to call myself a Luddite (BAM! SAT word.), I have realized in the past few years that I have had very little patience for technology in the classroom. Part of that may arise from the fact that I went years without having access to the internet at home and could not do any independent research on ways to use technology in the classroom while outside of school. Part of that may arise from the fact that I often see technology as a lot of work and inconsistent (for example, how Powerpoint crashed my computer TWICE when parents were all in for open house or how my computer freezes in the middle of class and wrecks the lesson’s momentum).

In taking this course, I have been forced to get over my technology avoidance and I am glad that I did. Today’s students have much wider access to technology and they will have a much higher need of technology as they get older and choose careers.

As I research, I have made many changes to how next year will run and will continue to make improvements as I grow my skill set and knowledge base.

From day one, I want to exhibit high expectations for student behavior. One way of doing that is my helping them to regulate their volume. In the past week, I have been using a website called bouncyballs.org which gives students a visual reminder of what their voice level should be and alerts them if they are getting too loud. It has worked really well in my classroom and has helped students to stay calm. I think that by introducing it earlier in the year next year I can help my students to develop good habits from the start.

Since my school has such big class sizes and behavior problems are frequent, the majority (if not all) of the teachers use assigned line orders to help separate students who should not be near each other in line. The app Popsicle Sticks: Teacher Picks is meant to be used for randomly selecting students, which is extremely helpful in itself, but it has another more helpful use. The app also has an option to randomly create lists or groups. Using this app, I can make a new line order with the click of a button. This is especially helpful when I haven’t quite gotten to know the students and their personalities. The random lists can also be helpful in fairly choosing students for special privileges. For example, many students like to use the computers to practice typing, write stories or play math games if they have finished work early. It tends to always be the same few students using the computers because they ask first. Using random lists will allow those opportunities to be fair to all students. The random group function can be useful for games, activities, and for choosing new table groups.

Every year I start third grade with “get to know you” type activities. Surveys, projects, and games that involve either verbal communication or pencil and paper have been the norm. Next year, while I may still include some of those activities, I will replace others with a research project. I will start the year by teaching my students how to search the internet, evaluate sources, and compile information to share with the class. Students will choose a future career that sounds interesting to them and figure out what it takes to get to that career. They will research what subjects they need to be proficient in, other skills that are required, the level of education needed and more. The information gathered in the research projects will be shared with the class so we can learn more about what that student values and the project itself will help give their education focus and purpose. Those researching skills will be utilized at least once in each unit. I have compiled a schedule of research topics to align with each season or ELA unit theme. I have never seen my students more engaged than when I gave them free reign to research animals. They found animals that I have never even heard of and were excited to share what they learned.

Too see the chart of monthly research topics bigger click here. 

Those research skills can also be used in other subject areas. My favorite subject to teach is math. Math is not typically an easy subject to research but one idea that I am really excited for is that at the beginning of each math unit, a few students will have an opportunity to research the relevancy of those skills they are learning. For example, when we learn about area and perimeter, students will research when they will need area and perimeter outside of school. The students researching will also scribe using the app Book Creator on the iPads. They will show the relevancy of the math using both text and images. As the year progresses, the book will get longer and longer. At the end of the year, the book will be printed and copied for students to keep as a record of what they learned in third grade and why they learned it.

Another way students can scribe to show math relevancy is using the app Comic Strip: Comic Maker. The difference with this routine is that when students see an example around the classroom of how a math concept is used in real life, students can take a picture of that example and use the Comic Strip app to turn it into a comic panel. The panels will all be printed and compiled into a class book that grows with each unit. This is a project that will be ongoing and completed at any time instead of just at the beginning of the unit like the Book Creator project.

This year my class tried using Explain Everything on the iPads. It was a huge success. Each group of students had chosen a topic to teach the class about. They solved a question, planned out how to explain it to the class, and scripted what they wanted to say. The students then recorded their explanations in the Explain Everything screen casting app. 

Once they finished their final recording, they shared it on Dropbox and we watched the videos all together as review for the math MCAS. I showed some of the videos to the principal and she loved it so much that she expressed interest in having students make videos next year to be posted on the school website or Facebook page so that parents have an extra special resource to see what math their children are learning. In order to achieve this goal, I will have students make videos throughout the year. It is something that needs to be completed in class since not all students have the same technologies at home so one option is that one group is selected for each unit to make a video. They can either stay after school with me to complete the project if they don’t want an audience or the group can record their video in the back of the classroom while other students are working.

As time goes by and it is getting closer to MCAS time, my students can watch the videos that have been made throughout the year as review. In addition to the video reviews, the website IXL.com is an extremely helpful resource for practice and assessment. Since its super expensive, the free 30 day trial is just the right amount of time to use in the month leading up to the math MCAS. Students can practice at school or at home, on computers or on iPads. There are tons of topics to choose from for review, the website explains how to solve a question to students if they make a mistake, and questions will increase in difficulty if they are getting answers correct. What is also helpful for me as the teacher is that when I log in on my account, I can see who has been practicing, whether it was at home or at school, and which questions they are getting wrong. If a student is getting a lot of questions wrong in a specific area, it will highlight that information for me so I can better pinpoint how to help them. If several students are making errors in the same area then that information is also highlighted for me with suggested intervention groupings.

These other technologies probably won't be used as frequently but may find their way into my repertoire.