A Short Reflection on My Tango with Technology

I'm so proud of my little teacher's confidence, as he figures out the time. This was intended to be an assessment showing mastery. Even so, I (and others) have derived much enjoyment from this video. Showing understanding of time and the clock wasn't nearly as exciting, before we learned how to makeTouchCasts! Students love to teach! Writing wasn't as engaging, especially for students with disabilities, prior to digital books, various apps, such as ChatterPixKids and digital story boards.

After reading a blog posted by Dr. Laurie Friedrich, I've been reflecting on the fact that my accountability partners became my students, rather than colleagues. It took months before other teachers began asking, "How did you do that?" "Did the students create that?"

At the beginning of this journey, I was excited; trying to share with everyone around me. Quickly, I learned there were no listeners. So, my students and I ventured into the world of app smashing and chrome-books with only the support of my beloved 880J and our encouraging, Dr. Friedrich. Soon, I began to hear from parents. I began to share more with parents, via Seesaw. It's been a blast! It's crazy to think that this tango into tech wouldn't last without peers to hold me accountable! It has become just another facet of my obsession with teaching.

On a twitter chat last night, there were several comments about technology taking over pedagogy. Well, we are teachers, knowledgable about pedagogy, we know how to incorporate technology into our lesson planning and assessment. OK, I'll admit, there are educators who only think of games, when we talk tech. But, they are just where they are right now. We all start somewhere.

"What will I do if technology is no longer as motivating for my students?" I don't see it happening. My lessons were engaging before, so we will manage. My students and I will continue to be creative in how we use tech to learn and to show our learning.

The personalization opportunities with technology 
take individualization to a whole new level!

Seesaw = Digital Portfolios of Progress!

The chromebooks have arrived!

Download for free!

Now that we are a 1:1 school, I can use technology any time. No making deals with other teachers, so that we can have the laptop cart. No searching for the cart that I did check out. 
So much to be thankful for!

Recently, I shared my initial impressions of Seesaw. Well, I was clueless! Since then, I've learned that anything shareable, can be shared on Seesaw.

I have printed my class QR codes to give to parents at conferences. As long as they have an iOS, Android, chromebook, or any computer using Firefox or Chrome Browsers, they can stay up to date on their child's work.

Other reasons for my love of Seesaw:

• Seesaw has student activity ideas. I will be using a few of those, so that my students can get comfortable with uploading their own work. I've been a bit of a control freak until now.
• Teachers can flag work. I have flagged a student's work that I want to share at her Annual IEP Review, this week! I don't want to be distracted by work that we have already discussed.
• Students can share to Seesaw from Shadow Puppet Edu, Haiku Deck, Storybird.com, ChatterPix Kids, and Total Recall!
• Simple to monitor IEP goals, without pulling students from grade level instruction
• Students can snap pics of their work. Then they can add text, drawing or voice, before sharing to the class journal.
• Your class can even blog, connecting with a global audience!
• If you are feeling especially proud of your students, you can tweet their work. Seesaw's posts remove all personal information, so that the students' anonymity is protected.
• Free!
• No Passwords!
• Promotes strong communication between home and school.
• I still love it most, because it is a portable, organized way to share multiple students' Portfolios of Progress!  

Bye, bye paper!

Seesawed at an IEP Meeting

I could not be more pleased with how easy and convenient Seesaw is to use! I have been putting if off, because I thought it would take time to figure out. Wrong! I looked at it after work and was using it at an IEP Meeting in the morning!

All you do is add your students and start uploading their work! With a few touches I was able to show parents the improvement their child has made in math and writing. You can upload documents and include links to work students have done on-line, such as Storybird books and Shadow Puppets.

There is so much more, such as the ability to share student work with other students and to invite parents to view on-line. I want it for organizing data to share with parents at meetings.

Folder portfolios are not too cumbersome, but this is less to muddle around with and it's technology. Gotta stay with the times, ya know!

New Haiku for Vocab and the Students' Storybird Books!

Unit 2 Week 4

I spent 10 minutes making the above vocabulary presentation. Even though we've been working on these words all week, the kids enjoyed a different representation of each word. It's also good for them to see meaningful sentences written differently than the ones that come with the curriculum. I'm wondering if I can put this into Nearpod to make it more interactive...

These stories were written after planning their beginning, middle and end with illustrations. I was impressed that J.K. who has autism and a very hard time with language was taking his time. He was asking for feedback and using it! I think he took pride in making his own book. This took him two weeks to complete. Whereas K.K.'s was done in about 45 minutes. ;)

J.K.'s Story

I'm having so much fun learning how to use these new sites and apps. My fear is that I will not continue to stretch myself once this class is over.

Shadow Puppet Edu

Everyone has Something To Say.

The majority of my students with social and cognitive issues initially hate writing. They shut down at the mere mention of a sentence. My primary goal every year, is to motivate them. When they are motivated, wonderful things happen. Three of the best moments in my young teaching career have involved writing.

The first one was a student with a learning disability, living in an unstable home. His positive attitude about writing was rare and refreshing. 

He said, "I love writing, because it helps me get my feelings out."

Another moment involved a student with emotional disturbance, who had rarely been in the classroom due to behavior issues until 5th grade. Although an extensive amount of scaffolding was required, he ended up having such a powerful message to share. He wrote about his brave dad helping the US Army in Iraq. He described feeling safe for the first time, when his family landed in the States. His dad was dying from cancer at the time my student was writing his story. Writing was a way for him to sneak out from under his anger to express himself. 

The final moment was a student with Aspergers, who wrote a story about his 4th grade teacher. It began with his first impression of her being an old hag! By the end of his story, there was no doubt he loved her and she was the best teacher in the world! When he shared with the class, he was a one-man show; extremely entertaining and not a bit self conscious. 

Most of the time, my students are convinced they have nothing to say. Shadow Puppet was a great motivator for them, making it a perfect first writing project of the year. Shadow Puppet is easy for students to use. There is no visual clutter on the site; just simple steps to follow. They loved choosing the background music and recording themselves!

I have shared the students' puppets below. Unfortunately, one of them works in the app, but when I share it via a link or in email, it doesn't play the music. It's a small draw-back.

AC's Puppet

JK's Puppet

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