Technology in the classroom

This will rock your world if you know even just a teeny tiny bit about computers. My teacher has Apple IIes in her classroom. Not just one but 4. The kids play games on the computers which they actually enjoy and get the job done but it is seriously shocking. I hadn't seen one of those in years. I mean even in less wealthy districts...we are in Bellevue, dahling. Anyway they are old and ugly and use those enormous floppy disks that you sometimes have to flip over but the kids love number munchers so I guess that is all that matters.

All the classrooms at this school have Smartboards hung up in the classroom. The only problem is that most...maybe none of these rooms have the projector mounted. Now in a classroom with 3rd or 4th graders that is no big deal but in the Kindergarten classroom it makes the projecter almost useless. One of the other teachers has a big tape circle so that the kids will try and avoid it because the slightest bump meanse that they will need to reorient the projector and the board. She has done some really cool things with it but my teacher is waiting until it is mounted. I don't blame her.

Bellevue does a lot of cool stuff with their curriculum on line and have a sharepoint calendar to let the staff share information and keep track of events as a group. This seems good.

Science Question...and you thought you were done with those

So I met the matriarch of Warren's family, Grandma Corey, and the subject of the Northern Lights came up at dinner. Here is the question:
What causes the Northern Lights and why can they only be seen in certain parts of the world? What are those parts of the world?
Okay and another Science question. Are we supposed to keep posting answers? I haven't looked at that thing in ages.

Literacy/Writing Issues in Kindergarten

The kids in this class write all the time. They have journals they write in daily where they have freedom to write about whatever they want. Students also write in Science journals and work with small individual books that involve some writing almost every day. They write sentences and draw pictures of their writing. They are encouraged to write with best guess spelling or bubble gum spelling (because they stretch out the words into sounds).

I can't quite remember but I think that I was supposed to post on my blog about a question or concern that I have about a student in my class. Then my group members will share their ideas. Hopefully I am correct and I am maybe even ahead of the game by posting before I am supposed to.

I have a student in my Kindergarten class who is having real difficulty with writing. It seems that she has been drilled in the area and can write and identify letters and sounds in isolation but she does not have the ability to do so in words that she is trying to spell. Today the kids wore heart necklaces so that they can work on remembering sight words or words they should know by heart the words were like and I. This girl could not tell which word was which. Other than continuing to work with phonics and reading with her does anyone have other suggestions about possible ideas that could build her ability. Might there be anything else interfering with her ability?

Also this week the students were given a writing assessment. The idea behind it is good. Assess the kids to see where they are and compare their growth throughout the year. Great idea. Here is the problem...the assignment that they were given lacks authenticity and is very abstract and complicated. Here it is "Student Page 1
Kindergarten
Narrative
Writing about yourself
Writing Situation
Each of us is a special person. We are all different from each other. We all look different. We all do things differently. We are good at different things. That makes us special
Directions for Writing
Draw a picture of yourself. Think about what makes you special. Thank aobut how you look, how you act, and what you do well. Write a story about yourself that tells how you are special." The teacher read this aloud but the district also gave out papers so that each student could have a copy. This is almost a half a page of writing. A lot for a Kindergartener to look at and potentially be intimidated by. Teachers were not supposed to deviate from the script or offer any additonal guidance.
The student were giving some of that old fashioned writing paper that is lined and is newspaper thin. To write and draw a picture. Teachers were not aloud to help at all and were told to do guess and go spelling.
Many of the children did quite well with this prompt but I think that it is strange to ask kids to talk about something so abstract and to not allow them any of the things that they usually have when writing. Sometimes they can spell words on their own but need a little prompting or encouragement from the teacher. Also it is strange to ask them to write about something that they may have no interest in or may not even understand the concept of. The weird paper with all the lines is a lot for them to deal with as well.

How could this be done better? Why does the district think that this is an appropriate assessment for Kindergartners. It is not suited to them developmentally.

Webquest Lessons

Webquest lessons are a great way to give your students limited access to the internet. It is smart to have a lesson set up so that you can guide their learning while letting them do there own thing. It seems like it scaffolds student work on the internet because it makes it easy for them to access a variety of resources from one central location. I know how difficult it is to find things on the internet without a guide so I would not expect young children to be able to do it either.
I will be using my Webquest assignment as an opportunity to compile resources in a kid friendly way. The language and directions I will use will have to be simple enough for a Kindergartener to use. Providing links to various sources that have information on the topic I have chosen, Pirates, will allow students to learn more about the subject and be independent.
One concern that I have is that the webcomposing tool that we have learned on is not a very good one in my opinion. Although I have limited abilities in this area I know that Mozilla is not that great of a program, it is easy but will not be accessible to us later on. I would rather work on something that I will be able to use later on. I also could not get this software on my Mac making it impossible for me to work on or add to my webpage if I was not at school.

Lesson Plan Reviews

This is a review of two different lesson plans that I found from different sources on the internet.
Lesson Plan 1
Citation
Author: Carolyn Wilhelm
Title: A Bear of a Poem: Composing and Performing Found Poetry
Date Posted: 2002-2005
Affiliated Institution/Organization: ReadWriteThink.Org
Date accessed: 10/15/05
URL: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=835
Review
Accuracy: This document does not have direct contact information listed however their is a biography of Carolyn Wilhelm that lists her degree and if needed she could be contacted through the organization that created the website. Her credentials show that she has considerable experience and degrees to qualify her for writing this lesson plan.
Authority: The site that this lesson plan is published from is quite reputable. It is endorsed by the NCTE and International Reading Association. To be published on this site you must meet both sets of standards.
Objectivity: This lesson is not opinion based but sets up a guideline for a lesson. It seems that it was written for use in her own classroom and then was shared on through this organization.
Currency: None of the links on this page are dead. The site itself is current as it was only started in 2002.
Coverage: This site is free and does not have any special linking software. There is also a form where you can leave feedback for the editors of the website in order to meet the needs of the site users.

Lesson Plan 2
Citation
Author: Carol Gosset
Title: Addition Grab Two
Date Posted: Not Found
Affiliated Institution/Organization: Honey Pot Press/Gosset's Kindergarten Connection
Date Accessed: 10/15/05
URL:http://www.kconnect.com/kc-addgrabcds.html
Review
Accuracy: This lesson plan does have contacted information listed although it seems unclear about if the information is from the actual creator of the plan or if it is from the publisher of the plan.
Authority: The author of the lesson plan also seems to be the publisher of the website. Her qualifications are not listed.
Objectivity: The information in this lesson plan is again basic although whether or not this plan has been used in a classroom seems unclear. Because the author of the website also has a business associated with this lesson it is not without bias
Currency: This particular lesson has no information about when it was published however the main webpage says 1997 which could imply the information is outdated.
Coverage: The main page requires flash and is not always centered correctly with graphics. There is no fee associated with this lesson or website. It does not appear to have a text only option.

Some Really Good Books that I want to share

I am currently reading the new Jonathon Kozol book Shame of the Nation. I would highly recommend it but it is pretty heavy. Seattle made the cut though so that is cool...well actually it is kind of bad since I think that Seattle people tend to think that they are forward thinking liberals. and I will just leave that subject there (it is probably for another time and another blog)
I would also highly suggest reading The City of Ember and The People of Sparks, both by Jean DuPraux. They are for 4th, 5th or 6th grade and they are awesome. They have some really interesting themes and The People of Sparks hits on the idea of war. It is very interesting.

Professional Development in Digital Literacies

It is important for teachers to develop their digital literacies because it is a medium of communication that is becoming more and more familiar to students and the world at large. In order to offer students the most quality education available technology should be incorporated whenever possible. Teacher's need to practice these skills because they are not that easy and they are constantly changing. At the school where I am student teaching each classroom has a smart board. They have had a few trainings but it seems like the best way to get to know and understand how to use the technology is to get your hands on it and experiment. As long as you feel comfortable enough not to make your computer die or catch some kind of virus what do you have to lose.

The word of the day is...

Okay kids the word of the day is technology. Everyone in the UW Teacher Education Program is getting tech savvy. We are getting some blogs and talking about kids.