One Room to Teach Them All

Light at the end of the tunnel...

2009-06-10T22:11:00.002-04:00

I have to try and squeeze in a few last minute rocket launches tomorrow, which are going great by the way. The best time so far is 9 seconds, which doesn't seem like much but for such a simple rocket it really soars into the air. I am actually amazed no one has gotten hurt, I was concerned the students wouldn't take the risks seriously but they seem to be respecting the power of a plastic bottle hurtling back towards the earth at high speed. Maybe next year we can start this project earlier and work on designing parachutes... I just hope the weather holds out in the mornings or else my last class is going to be very upset they did not get to launch. I was called into a meeting last Friday so we had to cancel our launch date.

They had the Kindergarten graduation today, they looked adorable all dressed. It was also a pleasant surprise that they went home after the ceremony so I had one less class to teach today.

I am officially done with classes and I only have two half days to finish my first year as a teacher. Now I just need to figure out what needs to be done to close out my classroom for the summer. I will be coming back for a month to help with summer school, but only three hours a day. I am not sure what it expected of me for summer school but I have no problem going with the flow. Plus it will give me extra time to get my room ready for August which will be here before I know it. For now, however, I am going to take these last two days in stride and take a week off to relax.

The Day the Internet Stood Still

2009-06-02T00:09:00.003-04:00

Apparently the internet and some electrical outlets were down today when I arrived at school. Every teacher between the entrance and my room made sure to tell me and ask if I knew how to fix it. Unfortunately, I had no idea, this was way out of my league. It made for a fun time because without the internet working correctly and our network being down, teachers couldn't print or check their e-mail etc. I was able to get my classroom working correctly minus the internet, luckily. I was worried that some of my activities would not work with the network down, seeing as I use 4 temporary servers to run Reading and Math Blaster, but they ran flawlessly. It was a mixed blessing when they did finally fix the internet during my last class and all of the computers started to freak out because their IP address was changing while connected to my computer for an activity. It made for a fun discussion with my third graders about the multiple Ethernet cables running throughout the room.

We started receiving our closeout procedure forms today, I am excited and sad to see my first year come and go. I will be happy to say that I am no longer a first year teacher. I just found out that the last two days of school I will not have any classes which will be great, though I anticipate having to do odd jobs to help the admins close the school.

Respect

2009-05-28T23:17:00.002-04:00

I had a moment today with my students that I have to share. My first class of the day was 4th grade. They were scheduled to come to me half an hour early because we were supposed to finally launch our bottle rockets...the weather did not cooperate. So instead we met at our usual time in my classroom. They were already seated in the classroom when I arrived and were talking. I thanked their teacher for waiting with them and as I walked into the room my students stopped talking and began counting down 3, 2, 1 and then dead silence. I was amazed and shocked...170 days of school and this is the first class to take my classroom signal and do it themselves. If the class is getting too loud or I need their attention I will say,"Give me three" and then we count down together. I will be very sad to see them move to the middle school next year. It was an awesome moment for me, I know it doesn't seem like much, but to have them get themselves together without a single prompt from me was great. Better yet, as I started our lesson a student started to talk and his neighbors promptly told him, "Yo get quiet, my teacher is trying to talk."

I decided to reward them by trying an unofficial lesson that I have been pondering for some time now. We had our first group chat session using the instant message extension of NetSupport School. We went over some ground rules and away we went. It was great, it was a casual experience of multitasking which is something I usual try to avoid because it tends to confuse my students to the point of frustration. However, they handled it really well. I enjoy having a secure chat environment that allows me to go over safety tips and monitor everything that is being typed whether the student sends the message or not. I set up a text filter that scans what the students are typing and identifies "innaprporiate words" Basically it is a cuss list that notifies me when a student types something they shouldn't. Lucky for me none of my students said anything inappropriate. In fact they were using it to send links to the activities they were doing without talking. I showed them how to copy and paste a link in the chat window so they could share the "cool" activities with their friends. Some of my students already knew how to do this but the more I work with each class the more I realize how wide the gaps are in ability between each student when it comes to using a computer.

Good News for some but not all...

2009-05-27T17:27:00.002-04:00

I came home last night to a piece of mail that decided whether or not I had a job at my school next year. The good news is I have been asked to return next year as the technology teacher. The bad news is not everyone was so lucky. I was worried there would be some weird tension but so far today I did not experience any. Although, I did talk to a few people who said how weird it is to have to come to school for the next two weeks despite having to look for a new job. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulder, I really didn't want to leave my school.

Today was a weird day, I was in a great mood till my fourth grade class. I had my first office referral form to fill out as well as my first parent conference. I had a blowout with one of my students that ruined the first half of the morning. I tried to look as calm and pleasant as ever. The funny thing is that what he did wasn't a big deal until I tried to talk to him about it and he started flipping out. Turns out I "ruined" his birthday because his mom came to pick him up early and his teacher sent them to see me. I was planning on calling after school when I would have plenty of time to talk, so it was a pleasant surprise to see the mother in person. In the end it all worked out. I am curious to see what happens when we meet again next week. I doubt this will have any lasting effect on his behavior. I have grown used to keeping a watchful eye on this particular student, but he has some major issues with authority and can not stand following directions. I think he might be allergic :-)

I need to get two more projects completed by the end of this week and then my schedule should be much smoother sailing.

Eureka!

2009-05-20T21:03:00.002-04:00

I have been trying to figure out how to broadcast video throughout my school ever since one of the IT admins mentioned it to me as they surveyed our school. I have tried asking every person at my school if they have any idea how it works or where it is even located. No luck there though, apparently our school was outfitted with television broadcast equipment and it has NEVER been used. I can not believe how true this is for so many things. I guess the old saying is true, if you want something done, do it yourself.

Today I decided to try a hands on experiment. I found where the equipment was located looked it all over and tried a simple test of playing a vhs tape. And what do you know it worked, it just had to be turned on...doh. I tested it on several televisions throughout the building and they all received the video on channel 8. This means we can do all sorts of crazy and fun technology stuff. We can do tv announcements, have a digital events calendar constantly playing or even play a movie for the entire school. We could also display student work as a slide show. I am very excited, though I can tell already that I am the only one at my school so far that finds this remotely fascinating. I hate to see materials wasted and unused, especially one as cool as this.

My next step is going to be to figure out how to get the video onto the multiple interactive whiteboards throughout the building so we don't need a tv in every classroom. Plus it would look much better on a 70 inch whiteboard. I also want to start looking into video production software, I think my fourth graders could handle some basic introductions to this area of technology. They could definitely help form a small tv news crew for morning announcements and weather. I can see this being a huge motivating tool for our students who seem to respond well to hands on real life lessons.

In more classroom related news, my fourth graders had a reduced class due to an assembly which sets them behind on our launch date. The rest of my classes are going smoothly. The students are getting the hang of how printing works. It is great to see them understand that they can "copy" what is on their screen to paper. The best part is that they are young enough that it is okay that it comes out in black and white, it means everything they print is a coloring page!

Another day bites the dust

2009-05-19T21:44:00.002-04:00

I had my interview today, I think I did well. It did not last as long as I thought it would but they seemed pleased with my answers. My principal is returning for next year which I am very happy about. She led the interview along with a parent on the PTCO and one of the school business partners. When I cam back to my room afterward there was a letter on my desk accepting me to the summer school program. The extra work/money this summer will be very helpful now that I just bought a new car.

17 days remaining till school lets out, and I am not sure if I will even have class that entire time. My principal hinted about not having resource classes the last week of school. I would rather have class. One of my kids told me that he bought a home version of one of the programs we have been working on. Many of the kids have been asking me what website we have been using because the first half of the year we used a variety of online sites that the students could practice with at home. They were very disappointed when I explained that we can only practice Reading and Math Blaster in my classroom. These programs have proven to be well worth the money, they are great at engaging my students and provide numerous ways to practice important skills for math and reading but also technology. For many of my students this was their first time printing. I let each student print one page for free and if they want to print more then they need to use a "Lion Loot" our positive behavior reward notes. It has also been helpful in showing the students how to log in to a program so that their results are saved for next time.

My kindergarten class is always so refreshing but I particularly enjoy today's class. I have four international students and they are awesome! Two Iraqi children and two Nepali. They are making tremendous progress and are some of my best computer users. The paraprofessional was surprised today because they said my name when they needed help, not just the first initial like most kids at my school, the whole last name, clearly and correctly. They were getting so excited because they knew they were doing well and wanted to show me. It was my highlight of the day. I get so excited when the students take pride in their work and want to share.

Time to Re-Apply

2009-05-16T22:41:00.002-04:00

I have officially signed up to re-apply for my job. We received a letter this week explaining that interviews would start this week and that by May 27th we should know if we have a job for next year. I signed up to interview and now I am waiting to hear when it will actually take place. I'm not sure if I will have the same principal for next year but I guess time will tell. I am visiting home this weekend for a friend's wedding so chances are I will not be getting that much work done for next week. I need to update my portfolio and resume...this is a much easier task for me as opposed to my colleagues who have buried their portfolios in the attic. A small part of me is nervous about re-applying but I know that in the end everything will work out. I didn't attend the job fair this past Saturday, I am putting all of my efforts into coming back to my current school. I am not surprised by what I am hearing about the experience however. What Baltimore Diary described sounds very similar to my job fair this summer to find a job. I can only imagine it being more frustrating when the schools can't actually offer a job with certainty.

In other news, my 4th grade classes have finished building their rockets and now we are using KidPix to create some designs to attach and make them feel unique. I was pleasantly surprised how much the kids enjoyed using KidPix.

My younger classes really enjoy using IXL. It is inspiring more teachers to sign up for my open lab times, so much so that I have started offering my prep times for teachers to come in with their classes.

Can you read me now?

2009-05-12T08:48:00.001-04:00

Good. Just testing to see if it gets through from Word '07

Whirlwind of activity

2009-05-11T23:49:00.001-04:00

My car is fixed and it did not damage my wallet too terribly. I am getting ready to buy a new car though; I am tired of pumping money into my old one. All I need to do is line up the insurance and I should be ready to go.

School is winding down faster than I can keep track. I am trying to decide what final activities I would like to do for the end of the year. I wanted to try Type to Learn 4 before next year; however, I am experiencing technical difficulties getting it to work on all 32 of the identical in every way computers in my classroom. It is rather bizarre. I plan on calling tech support sometime this week. I had to take a cell phone away from a student during class today. The student was a third grader and she said it fell out of her pocket, however, she changed her story when I explained I saw her take it out, turn it on and start checking her call log. Who calls a third grader during school? This was the first time offense so she got to take it home but I assured her that next time her parent would have to come in to get it.

I am experimenting with Microsoft Office 2007. I decided to upgrade (thanks to a wonderful education discount) and apparently I can post to my blog directly from word. I am curious if this will work at school seeing as the filter tends to block EVERYTHING. I was amused to hear at a meeting that the high school students of a colleague technology teacher are using Proxy Servers to bypass the filter. I made the mistake of saying, "That's awesome" out loud. Frankly, I admire the creative efforts students take to get around teacher roadblocks. I am not saying I think they should be breaking the rules constantly but that same creativity can be harnessed to solve other problems. It is no small task to figure out how to consistently bypass the content filter. If I wasn't so afraid of losing my job I would consider it. I know that when I was in high school I was trying everything I could to find loopholes and I honestly think that has helped me to be the problem solver that I am today.

I understand the reasoning behind having a content filter for the internet at schools but I think there has got to be a better way to manage it. I think schools should have more direct control over the sites that are blocked as opposed to these global lists for the entire district. I think my main issue is that I hate having matters outside of my control and I would rather be able to choose what sites to block and when rather then have them blocked for me.

Car Trouble

2009-05-04T22:39:00.003-04:00

My car broke down today...wishing I would have signed up for AAA. Hindsight is 20/20 though. I'm calling off work for a day while I wait for the verdict on the damage from the garage, plus I have no real way of getting to work and I hate to bug a friend to drive out of their way to pick me up. I am trying to look on the bright side of things in that I now have a day off to try and get ahead on some of the work that keeps piling up. I have 6 more weeks of school and I can not believe how fast this year went. I applied to teach for summer school, I am not sure if I will get a position or if it will be as a classroom teacher or resource teacher. Either way I think it will be a good experience.

It amazes me how some days with my third grade classes can be so good and others can be such a challenge. Today was a great day, they were on task, much less talking, and best of all they were engaged in the material. Third grade has been my most challenging grade this year, with fourth grade close behind. These are my larger classes so it kind of makes sense that I tend to have more classroom management issues. I don't see my classes getting any smaller in the future, however, so I guess I had better work on an improved way of starting class for my third graders.

In Search of Software

2009-04-25T18:37:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention I am in search of quality science and reading software that will meet a wide range of grade levels. I am looking for engaging software that allows the students to practice important skills and help them develop. I am wondering if any of you are currently using a system that you would reccomend for elementary students K-8 or just K-5. I am fond of online based programs so that the students can practice at home as well but I am open to any and all suggestions at this point.

T-10 to Launch

2009-04-25T15:46:00.003-04:00

Friday seems like a whirlwind, I'm done with this week’s task of trying to train the classroom teachers to use our new online math activities at IXL. Friday, surprisingly, was my largest turnout of teachers this week.

I have ordered my bottle rocket launcher and a new bike pump for my 4th grader's bottle rockets. I have started collecting bottles from teachers at school and even told the kids that if they have any they should bring them in for class. I explicitly told them NOT to buy soda bottles just for this project. The last thing I want is the classroom teacher or myself getting phone calls from parents asking why their kids are telling them they have to buy soda bottles. I am still going to have to buy a number of bottles myself. But it is soo going to be worth it. My kids were filled with questions I couldn't answer them all before class was over. I told them we would be starting next week but I like to give them something to look forward to between classes. This will be much cheaper than robots and should take about three class periods to get them created with one more class period to do the launches. Even if we need extra classes to finish, for whatever reason, we will have plenty of time to complete the project before school ends. If I time this just right I should have time to end the year with an extra lesson in internet safety. I know that I am going to miss my fourth graders once they leave and I feel like I barely had any time to teach them all I wanted. But I guess that is the nature of being a teacher, I will have a lot of refining to do for next year to pack more lessons into the limited time I have.

I am going to try to partner with some of the other teachers to do another one of my favorite experiments. I figured that since I am going to be buying some soda I might as well buy some diet soda and mentos and make good use of the soda. If you have never tried what is called the "Mentos Experiment" It is an awesome experience. Just add mentos to any bottle of soda and stand back and enjoy the fountain of soda that follows. The students in my younger classes should enjoy watching that. We can time the blasts and possibly estimate height and create an excel sheet of the results.

In other news I will be missing my first day of school all year on Tuesday. My principal would like me to receive training on the new SMS --- student management system for BCPSS and I will be out of the building all day. I asked my principal if I should plan to have a sub or cancel class and we both agreed that we were torn on the idea. I explained that I was skeptical about having just anyone in my classroom and coming back to a years worth of hard work down the drain. The usual subs that we have are not what you would call tech savvy or remotely youthful. I am hoping to persuade them to just cancel class so I do not have a mess to clean up. I am probably worrying too much about nothing, but, we will see.

Going Zero Base

2009-04-21T22:43:00.003-04:00

Lots of meeting this week, I had a staff meeting yesterday about my schools alternative governance choices. We have opted to go zero base and I will be reapplying for my job sometime in the near future.I know that I want to stay at my school, not only because I enjoy my current classroom but because I think my school has a great deal of potential and all it needs is a push in the right direction. Time will tell if going zero base is a positive or negative push. Several of my colleagues are pretty shaken up about the whole process but we have been talking about it since September so I am not sure why they are so 'surprised'. I have come to the conclusion that if you want something bad enough occasionally you are going to have to fight for. I do not want to leave my school so I am more than willing to prove why I am a valuable asset. All in all I think that this has the potential to be a breath of fresh air and to help shake up some of the "entrenched" teachers.

The rest of my week will be dominated by a professional development that I am leading. My principal wanted me to provide training to the teachers about two of our new online resources and I figured if I offered three different days to attend it would result in more teachers attending and less excuses/no shows. Hopefully today is not an indication of things to come. I only had four teachers in attendance.The two new online resources are IXL and PD360. IXL is an online math set of activities paired to the Maryland state standards. Each teacher creates a roster of their students allowing them to sign into the website. This allows the teacher to track TONS of data about what the students are working on, how many skills they are mastering or need more work on. The site generates detailed reports for teachers to highlight troublesome areas to reinforce during normal instruction. The students are able to do the activities anywhere they have an internet connection which means they can work at home. To help motivate the students they will be earning "rewards" on the web site for meeting various criteria like how many problems they have solved or how long they have been online. The rewards are posted in a sort of digital stamp book of pictures that they can print. PD360 is our schools new on demand professional development video database and teacher forum to help us take control of our own professional development. The teachers at today's session were very excited about IXL once I started showing them all of the features. Now I just have to find a way to entice more teachers for the next two sessions.

Things are going well in class with my students, My younger classes are amazed by the laser printer that suddenly has come to life in our classroom. The Reading Blaster software allows the students to find various coloring pages and treasure pages that can be printed to color as a reward for doing well on the reading activities. I allow the students to each print one page each time we have class for free and if they want they can print more pages for one lion loot per page. Lion loot is given out by all teachers as a positive reward system. The teachers have been telling me that the students are so excited to share their pages that they printed from class when they get back to their rooms. NetSupport School is making my job easier by limiting students ability to just hit print over and over again. It sends their print request to my workstation so that I can approve or deny. This is handy since every time a student presses the print button in the game it instantly tries to send a copy to the default printer.

The customer is always right.

2009-04-18T21:32:00.003-04:00

My fourth grade class on Friday finished presenting their PowerPoint presentations with about 15 minutes left so we decided to brainstorm some ideas of what they want to learn about. I realized that there is not much time left in the school year and I wanted to give them a chance to tell me what they want to learn about before they go to the middle school. They had some amusing ideas :

1. How to build a robot and program a robot to function.
2. Lasers – how to make one, how they work
3. Internet – how to explore freely
4. How to make/build a website and publish
5. E-mail, how to create a personal account.
6. Jet Packs – how they work, how to create
7. Flying Cars – will they work, should they work and how to make one.
8. How to create your own computer games
9. How to create a virtual football (sports) player. Create a team
uniform and players.
10. Create your own television and videos

I told them that I would use the list to try and find some new activities for us to do before school ends but that I do not think we would be able to cover all of them. Robots and Jet Packs caught my eye. I found a website that will let the students build 'bots' and program them in a game. There are puzzles that they have to complete that introduces them to programming. It has a drag and drop interface that lends itself to kids learning the basics behind giving computers and robots instructions. I am leaning towards breaking my classroom into centers where there will be a different activity about robots or programming. I want to have four stations and I would one of the stations to be a chance for the students to actually create some sort of robot. I am getting ahead of myself, I sometimes wonder who is more excited about the activities we do in class, me or the kids. I am looking for ideas of any sort of kits that I could use that won't cost me my paycheck. The kids enjoy using the computers but I know that we are all longing for some hands on activities. I found that LEGO has some cool robot kits but they get expensive fast. I don't think it is going to be feasible to let every kid build their own robot but the LEGO kit would allow me to work with small groups to create robots to complete a task.

The jet packs idea caught my eye next, no... I am not going to be building jet packs and strapping students to them for testing...not till I am tenured anyway :-) What I was thinking we could do is create water bottle rockets and collect data about how well they fly, how long, how high and record this information along with taking some pictures and video and create a presentation to share with the other grades. I am thinking about letting them work in teams to choose a design and build a rocket from cardboard fins and soda bottles. I built a launcher 3 years ago when I was working at a day care and it worked pretty well, the kids loved it. The best part about bottle rockets is that if I have them work in teams it will be much easier on my wallet. I am thinking about having lotteries for each team to see who would get to take the rocket home or just tell them that no one can keep their rockets. I have a lot to think about and very little time to waste. If anyone out there has any experience with classroom robotics and bottle rockets I would love any tips or suggestions.

Who knew?

2009-04-16T22:05:00.002-04:00

This week is going much smoother than I had anticipated, especially following spring break. My classes have been great and the best part is that the week is already almost over. I wish I could get more done with the time I have each day though. I usually have a close eye on the time and have the kids ready to go promptly at the end of class(regardless if the teachers are actually there to pick up their class). But the past two days I have been so caught up with what we are working on and helping the kids that when I look up I see the teacher floating around the room as kids want to share what they are doing. I have begun using some new software called Reading Blaster and Math Blaster. I was fortunate enough to purchase unlimited network licenses though without a local server I have been forced to create 4 temporary mapped network drives using some of the student workstations in my classroom. The upswing is that I can install the program on any computer connected to the network. If anyone knows an easy setup with Samba to create a file server please share as I am currently researching open source alternatives after finding out that Microsoft would cost WAY too much. My hope is to eventually allow the students to work on these programs in the few classrooms that have computers as well as in my classroom.

The software itself is fantastic I highly recommend them. They are able to keep track of each students' mastery in the given exercises and adapts to become more difficult as the students get better. Best of all the students love the themes of the games which take the students on an undersea scuba adventure and a trip to a far a way planet to visit the intergalactic zoo. Each student gets to login with their username so that I can keep an accurate record of what games they are playing and how well they are performing. Each game correlates to various math and language arts skills. I was pleasantly surprised when even some of my stubborn 2nd graders dove right in and didn't say that they thought it was too kiddy. I was worried because they can be a tough read when it comes to providing programs that they identify with. Tomorrows class should be the true test as many of them can be very stubborn about trying the activities that I provide as part of a lesson. I have found that I really have to sell it with some major sales pitch but even then they have a hard time staying on task.

I was talking to one of the first grade teachers about her field trip today and she was telling me that I should be proud of myself. I inquired why and she explained that apparently while her class was on a field trip to the Nation Zoo in Washington D.C. all they could keep talking about was how they were going to have Technology Class the following day. That started my day off with a huge smile!

My to do list seems to keep growing despite me trying hard to cut it down. I need to do some major cleaning in my room since apparently my room is not included in daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance plans. I purchased a dust buster to try and combat the massive dust bunnies accumulating in the corners of my room. I have managed to keep the workstations incredibly clean and free of dust, but the floor is starting to make me mad. It has not been cleaned since the start of the school year, other than me using my swiffer vac and hand scrubbings. Aside from the cleaning I have the usual requests to help teachers with various tech issues and several surveys to fill out. If there is one thing Baltimore City likes it would have to be surveys. I have never filled out so many of these things in my life.

PowerPoint Pandemonium

2009-04-15T20:52:00.003-04:00

No field trip in the works today, it was a long shot but with the weather being so miserable I am kind of glad. The upside is that I had no first grade class right before my lunch break so I had extra time to work on some projects. I managed to change my bulletin board outside of my room to a student display of the PowerPoint presentations we have been working so hard on. For most of my students this was the first time they took research from the internet to create a PowerPoint presentation. I am pleased with the outcome though I hope that they will improve over the next few years. I have to remind myself that they are just kids with very little formal computer experience.
I realize now that I am still setting my expectations too high for most of my lessons. I am constantly making adaptations after seeing the results with some of my classes. We have spent way more time on this lesson then I ever wanted to. The good news is that I can see the spark of curiosity beginning to ignite in some of my students as they took the project to the next level by adding sound effects and customizing color schemes without being prompted or directed. I am trying my best to encourage them to be adventurous when using the computers.
It is difficult to strike a balance though; I want them to follow directions and press the correct buttons within the programs we use, however, I also want them to responsibly explore what else they can accomplish. Almost every bit of technological knowledge I have today stems from the fact that I have always been curious about how to do more and taking the initiative to explore the possibilities. I want to instill that value to my students and I am not sure how.
I had a serious chat with my 4th graders about how it is okay to make mistakes as long as we take the time to take responsibility for them and learn from them. I could see that they were getting frustrated by the project so I tried to explain to them that they didn't need to check with me for every problem they experience. I am having trouble getting to every student when their hand shoots up. I told them that as long as they were not shouting I did not mind them talking to a neighbor for help to fix a mistake.
I am also trying to encourage them to take the time to send me a "help request" via the student toolbar I have installed with NetSupport School. Its a neat little button that looks like a life saver ring. When they click on it they can send me a message explaining what their problem is. I am notified by a beep in my Bluetooth headset and a blinking icon on their workstation thumbnail on my screen. I can then quickly share remote control of their computer from my workstation and talk them through it on their headphones. This seems to be working as long as the students take the time to explain their problem in full and not just say 'help!', but many of them are very slow typists still, so it is far from a perfect solution.
I am looking forward to our next lesson on computer viruses and can not wait till I finish designing the simulation. I am ready to take a break from PowerPoint and I think my students are just as ready.

Professional Development

2009-04-15T05:40:00.003-04:00

My principal asked me to organize a professional development for the instructional paraprofessionals for yesterdays PD day. I was not really sure what to cover at first but in the end it all came together nicely. We went over how to sign up for the PrometheanLearning.com site as well as how to use our new PD360.com site. Both sites offer chances to take PD into your own hands. PD360 is like having tons of videos on demand as well as a teacher's forum about almost any topic you could possibly have a question about, from classroom management to reading fluency tips. My school has signed up for a three year license with PD360, unfortunately it is not free. My principal ended up joining the session which had me a bit nervous, I must admit. However, she was very pleased with the presentation and was trying the activities just like anyone else which was very cool to see.

After my presentation I stayed in my room the remainder of the day to help other presenters use my lab. It became a great co-teaching moment that I was not expecting. I ended up learning a lot more about our online Blackboard website as well which is an added perk. I used a version of Blackboard during college but this is slightly different for BCPSS. I have been steadily trying to use it more and more because it does have a wealth of valuable resources,plus I am the designated parent portal approval guy for my school so I guess I should try to know what I am doing. Basically I will be telling the system that a parent has the rights to view their child's class information and grades online. I can not wait for online grades to start happening supposedly next year.

Today should prove to be fun, it is the first day back to school with students. As you can tell by my post time I am up way earlier than my usual roll out of bed at 7:30 time. I fell asleep on the couch last night and now I am wide awake at 5:30 in the morning. At least now I have plenty of time for breakfast. I am partly hoping that I will be asked to go on a field trip today. The first graders are going to the Washington DC Zoo and one of the teachers has been feeling under the weather so I volunteered to go if they needed. I doubt they will let me cancel a full day of classes to go however. Either way it should be a fun filled day.

Lets try this again.

2009-04-13T20:40:00.002-04:00

I know that it has been roughly 26 weeks since my last post but I thought that I should try this again. I have been longing for a way to share my opinions and experiences again and I remembered that all I have to do is remember to post...

I have been scrambling like a mad man trying to keep up with my students this year. Without a formal curriculum I found myself struggling to create lessons for every class. Luckily I decided to get smart and start using the resources available to me to see what other tech teachers are up to and make some adaptations. I have since been very busy trying to balance my responsibilities teaching with those handed down to me by my administrators. My wife laughed at me when I told her I was not going to take on any extra responsibilities, now I know why. I just can't help myself, I enjoy helping when I know that I can and this has led to me being asked/told to help with numerous projects that fall outside of the classroom. I can not complain though, I love feeling involved and especially enjoy that now I feel like my opinion not only matters but is making a positive impact on my school.

Going back to the curriculum business I have managed to lay out an outline of the curriculum I want to follow for next year and even managed to buy $5,000 worth of software to help me along the way. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my principal is placing an emphasis on quality technology and software throughout the school. My next step is to finalize my curriculum and start getting the materials in order ahead of time.

I have a professional development day tomorrow to mark the end of a fast spring vacation during which I accomplished very little work...oh well the break felt great.

I apologize for my long absence, especially to those of you who sent me e-mails and comments that I did not respond to, I dropped the ball big time in trying to keep up with this blog and I will not let that happen again :-)

For lack of a better title....Monday...

2008-10-06T22:18:00.002-04:00

I am working on becoming more familiar with ActivStudio so I can build better lesson materials that engage my students. I signed up to take the Level 1 Foundation course from PrometheanLearning.com, best of all the foundation course is free. I might sign up for more courses depending on the price. The tutorials are short and interactive with assessments to chart my progress. I even get a little diploma when I complete the course, which should look nice for my personal development plan. So far I am finding the ActivStudio software easier than programming with Adobe Flash and it actually looks like I might be able to use both programs together which would be a great combination. I feel like I am going through withdrawal of flash programming as it has been four weeks since my last program.

Outside of the classroom I find myself very tired when I get home lately, which is weird since I am getting way more sleep than I ever got in college. I averaged 3-4 hours of sleep per night and I feel more tired now with 7-8 hours of sleep. I am hoping it is only temporary as I feel like I am a lot less productive lately. I am constantly playing catch up rather than getting ahead like I want to. It could be worse, right now I am breaking even rather than falling behind or racing ahead.

Friday the Half Day

2008-10-04T12:45:00.003-04:00

Friday was a great day and not just because we got paid, but also due to the fact that it was a half day with parent teacher conferences. I looked forward to meeting parents and was hoping to get some visitors, though I only received one and that was because the student wanted to show her mom the computer lab.

The day was easy, only three classes and two were shortened to 15 minutes so they could get to lunch before dismissal. The best part about Friday was when one of the first grade teachers told me that a student started to cry when their parent came to pick them up. When they asked the student why they were so upset he simply said "It's not fair, I am going to miss technology!" So the parent left the student and came back to pick them up after my class. I thought that was cool, I try to make the lessons engaging for my students but I am not always successful. The headphones have served as a great way to pull my students into our lessons. They enjoy hearing my voice more through those tiny speakers than in real life, maybe I sound better through wireless transmission? What they really enjoy is when I play music from my iPod whenever they can work respectfully at their stations.

I would like to develop a group project for my students to work on but I am not sure which idea to try, I hate when a lesson flops after so much preparation. I have already made two lessons that I spent many hours developing the materials and when it came time to execute the plan with my students...well...it didn't go nearly as planned. I tend to get ahead of myself and have to remember that we are still developing our core skills. My students are getting much better at using the mouse and the keyboard, even my little Kindergartners are starting to get the hang of how to hold the mouse. This year is going by so quickly I fear that I will not cover all of the material that I want before school ends.

All quiet on the Technology Lab front...

2008-10-01T17:05:00.004-04:00

My first post using my new computer! I have finally bought my new computer after several months using a loaner from a generous family member. Between setting up all of my software and trying to implement some new material into my classroom I have not managed to post in quite a while. I have to find a way to make it part of my normal routine.

I have been given access to United Streaming(Discovery Channel Video Archive) and can't wait to use some of those. I plan on showing a short video clip tomorrow to introduce the next lesson material about computers, where they came from and where they are at now.

I have also found a way to use a Bluetooth headset to talk to my students so they can hear me using their headphones. This is turning into a great classroom management technique, my students are so excited to hear me in their headphones they are following directions faster and with less mistakes and best of all I do not have to shout over the class or repeat myself a million times. When they are working well and following directions I play music to each computer from my iPod, they really enjoy this feature and even my most rowdy classes are working hard to follow directions and procedures.

Overall, I would have to say I am becoming more comfortable in my classroom and in working with other teachers/aids. I am developing a positive and professional relationship with my co-workers. I have become the "go-to" guy for technical support in the building, it feels good to be needed!

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

2008-09-16T23:12:00.003-04:00

It surprises me how I seem to have so little backbone lately; I have never been fond of controversy especially when I am still acclimating myself. I find myself in a sticky situation. I am becoming increasingly unhappy with the attitudes and actions of some of my colleagues. I was told coming into this urban teaching environment that I shouldn't smile for the first 10 weeks and that I would need to be tough to get through to "these" kids. This does not bode well with my style as a teacher. I smile because I enjoy what I do, I can be stern but not angry, I refuse to yell but I will raise my voice, and I will never humiliate one of my students by insulting them in front of their peers. I am not sure how many details I want to give but basically I am getting fed up with hearing aids yell at students in my class and make insulting remarks. It is completely unprofessional the manner in which I sometimes hear statements being made to or about students. Who am I to say anything though, I feel like if I were to make a comment I would be disregarded because I am a first year teacher, a resource teacher to top it off. What is the chain of command when a classroom aid follows the students to their resource class? I am the one teaching, it is my classroom, my lesson, but do I have the right to tell them how to talk to their students? I am extremely disappointed with myself for not saying something to the teachers who are causing me concern. I do not want to accost them openly in front of their class but I feel like I should talk them in private at the very least; yet, the thought of bringing it up seems incredibly difficult.

My brain is a mess right now; I am trying to decide how to work this out with my colleagues while trying to get my emergency plans finished for my principal. I am supposed to develop three emergency lesson plans and I pushed it off while I was trying to get everything else worked out like my 23 class rosters that change every time I have a class. Three lesson plans normally would not be a problem, except that I am supposed to be planning for when I am unexpectedly absent and when you have 23 classes each in various grades it is not easy to make just three generic review lessons that meet all of the abilities/demands of those students.

Despite all of this I still feel like I had a great day with my students. I have modified my keyboarding lessons without creating a program from scratch and I feel like it is far more effective and efficient for me as well as the students. I am uplifted by my students accomplishments, especially students who are still learning English and from another country. I love that technology can be a universal language that transcends the oral language barrier. It was so great to see the excitement emanating from my students as they completed an activity while moments before they were frustrated but what seemed to be impossible. I keep telling my students that we are in training, like athletes, working to improve our skills and be professionals. They seem to like that analogy, even if it is just learning to type, I might just have to create a type-athalon.

Win some, Lose some

2008-09-13T21:51:00.002-04:00

It amazes me how each of my classes has such a wide variety of skills and abilities. The tricky part has been adapting my lessons to meet the wide variety of needs especially with the oh so exciting topic of keyboarding. My activity this week was a flop for the most part. It was too frustrating for the majority of my students. I found myself frustrated as I tried to come up with new ideas to make it an easier concept and now it is back to the drawing board as I try to develop a computer program in the next 4 days that will engage my students while providing a chance for them to develop their keyboarding skills.

I would like to have an intensive focus for the beginning of the year on developing keyboarding and mouse skills so that we all have the right foundation for all these ideas I have racing around in my head. I have been pouring over the state standards as well as the National Education Technology Standards and I think I finally have a timeline/curriculum hammered out for the year, now all I have to do is try and get the lesson plans formally typed up and printed as well as all of my materials together.

I was uplifted when I was leaving on Friday, one of the 4th grade teachers commented that she thought it was great that I was trying to teach the students how to type and to see that we were actually doing activities based on standards. It made me feel like I am headed in the right direction and I just have to refine my efforts a bit more. Don't get me wrong I did have classes and groups of students that enjoyed the lesson and were doing really well, but it still gets me down when even just a few have a hard time or are not interested. I encourage my students to provide constructive feedback and I have received numerous suggestions on ways to make my activities more interesting. I wish I had more time with each class, they end so quickly and I feel like we always have so much more to do. It was very uplifting to hear students call my name so I could see that they passed the required level and were moving on to the next stage. I think I will save this activity for an assessment rather than a teaching resource. I have a great deal of work ahead of me to turn it around into a successful set of lessons for next week.

Keyboarding....and stuff

2008-09-10T21:37:00.003-04:00

I keep waiting for my optimism to run out but unfortunately for all of you pessimists out there I do not see that happening any time soon. Each day I am finding myself trying to solve new problems and I LOVE problem solving. I thrive on it, it feels so good to take a situation that others have given up on or turned their backs to and say...WAIT this might work. My current challenge is to find a way to make keyboarding a more engaging and invigorating activity than it really is. We had our first go with an activity today and I was not impressed, it makes me want to design my own application because I feel I could adapt it to be more engaging for my students, but this would take a great deal of time that I currently do not have.

I am thinking about creating a program that would act as my evaluation of keyboarding skills so that we would work through these tougher activities and have a motivating activity to look forward too. The truth of the matter is that my strategy is to create meaningful lessons that feel like games for my students, I had success with this during student teaching and last weeks activity was a hit but they take so darn long to make. I am working on a program that will act as a review game for classroom teachers and I want to get a classroom Web site created before too long as well. I wish I knew how to slow down and take everything in stride but my head is constantly racing with new ideas and I want to try them all now.

The Promethean ActivBoard is proving to be a great tool though it will take getting used to after having a SMART Board. The students love using it and if I can find a way to keep an entire class from getting too excited and noisy it will be even better. I have a higher tolerance for classroom noise than most teachers as long as it is stemming from the activity and the students are just excited, but its borderline ruckus and I don't want any administrators getting the idea that I can't control my classroom. I have decided that the best way to avoid students causing problems in line is to work until their teacher comes to pick them up. I managed to time it well today and was even able to finish my class summary before they were whisked away. I'll keep trying this and see if it becomes too hard to get the room ready for the next class, so far so good.

And then there was rain...

2008-09-09T19:34:00.003-04:00

The most interesting happening today was when the school had a fire drill and as soon as we began to walk outside the skies opened with a down pour of rain...man did I feel stupid. We were told to come back into the building and that we would try again tomorrow but the damage was done, my students and I were soaked by the time we made it back into the building. I can laugh now but at the time it was not very funny, though my students thought it was great.

My search online has found a great resource for teachers using the Promethean ActivBoards and software. You may want to check out PrometheanPlanet it offers a wide variety of free materials for teachers to use covering lessons in almost every subject area. The free materials are offered by other teachers who have submitted their materials for download. There is a collection of materials that can be bought as well, though I havn't really explored that area much, I love free stuff.

I am making my first activity with the software for lessons this week. The best way I can describe it is that it reminds me of powerpoint but much more interactive and dynamic. The students can click and drag any of the things I place on the screen plus we can use the pen tool to mark up the page or highlight important ideas. I am excited to explore the capabilities of these tools together, what many of my students do not realize is that this can be just as exciting for me as we find new tools.

I am going to need to try some new strategies this week when I dismiss my students to line up at the door because so far this is when I see the worst student behavior. I end the activity for the day and suddenly they think it is time to fight over who stands where in line. Each teacher has their own way of lining up their class which makes it difficult for me because when I try to line up my students they are arguing with me about where they are supposed to stand, maybe I should just keep them working until the teacher calls them? Time will tell what my solution will be.

How sweet it is

2008-09-08T18:36:00.002-04:00

What a great week I had last week! My first week of lessons went very well and the students enjoyed the activities that I created. This week I will be trying my hand at using resources that I have not created. One thing that held me back while student teaching was my inability to use other materials other than my own; I have the bad habit of trying to do everything myself. I have been scouring the internet and have managed to find a plethora of resources available that I think will be very effective. Friday was pay day and that was my first pay check which felt great! Plus I was invited to spend time with some staff members after work, the bitter sweet news is that I was unable to make it there because the crew had arrived to install my Promethean Board! Now my room is set in place, no more moving desks and rearranging cables, or so I hope.

I feel like each week is filled with new "firsts", this week I had my first Pre-K class, first after school staff development, and first time with my Monday classes. I am starting to get into a routine wth my schedule and how many classes I have, it is easier to turnover the classroom and prep for the next class. My plan is to try and get some plans knocked out this week so I am ahead of the game for next week. I want to try and get ahead now before I find myself overwhelmed in the middle of the year with projects. Well, it's time to find some more resources for class.

I see London, I see France, I see what's on your Monitor...

2008-08-31T22:06:00.009-04:00

...okay so that doesnt rhyme but I forgot to mention that I have been exploring classroom management software to implement in my lab. It can be a controversial issue; however, I feel that they are powerful tools that allow teachers to do more than "spy" on what their students are really up to. I have been debating between Vision and SynchronEyes, leaning more heavily towards the latter due to its ability to create and distribute virtual tests as well as grade those tests in seconds. I am able to see a small thumbnail of each student's screen on my computer as well as block programs and internet sites. To help with my instruction I am also able to project my screen on all of my students screen, project a students screen to allow them the chance to demonstrate their work, or I can send students files or receive their assignments all with simple clicks of a mouse rather than floppy discs or flash drives. I am currently trying the demo of SynchronEyes and now all I have to do is figure out a way to convince my principal to fork out the $1000 to purchase a license. Oh yeah, that's the huge downside, both softwares cost an arm and a leg. But from what I have seen so far they are both more than worth it. I can't wait to test all of the features in class this week as we move away from introductory material/rules and into activities.

The First Week...

2008-08-30T14:05:00.002-04:00

...and I am exhausted. I will have to try harder to spare some time to post on here. It is a bit of a shock to go from sitting around all summer and now having to go to work everyday. Though it still doesn't seem like work; I can't believe that I get paid to teach Technology, my favorite subject. My classroom is finally starting to come together the way I envisioned it. I enjoyed my first week in the classroom and I have keys to lock my door now which is good seeing as I have a classroom full of computers. I never imagined myself being a "resource" teacher but I hope to redefine the term. I have always felt like there is a negative connotation towards the term "resource" that makes me feel like I am not a "real" teacher. There are differences especially in procedures compared to classroom teachers, however, I feel like I am still just as important to the success of the students at my school.

The real challenge that I will be dealing with is the wide variety in ages of my students. I have pre-K through 4th grade and despite my initial fears of working with Kindergarten I am finding them to be one of my favorite classes. They are so curious about everything in my classroom and they are all so eager to learn it's inspiring. We opened a computer to explore the inside and their eyes were huge with excitement, it was a great feeling. The trick now will be to stand and deliver with exciting and engaging lesson plans. I plan to create my own computer programs to match the objectives of my lesson but this can be a very time consuming task, especially for multiple grade levels. I need to get some major planning done this weekend; I want to get ahead of the deadlines for once instead of always rushing at the last minute to meet them. For now though I am going to settle on cleaning up my apartment after this whirlwind of a week.

The Schedule has Landed

2008-08-21T21:34:00.002-04:00

I officially know my schedule for the academic year, there might be some last minute changes in the first week but for the most part it is settled. The greatest part of which is that I also now know what grades I will be teaching, kindergarten through fourth grade. I am little bummed that I will not be working with fifth graders although I must admit I am looking forward to the challenge of working with kindergarten, an interesting trade off to say the least.

Today I continued the task of organizing and setting up my room for the arrival of students on Monday. I came across an unexpected obstacle as I used bolt cutters to remove a lock hiding a closet of materials. Yes, I had to break into my own closet. It appears that much of my furniture has been pulled from various corners of the school as well as the space-time continuum. No complaints, I love free stuff, some of the materials were dated as far back as 1997 with the closest date being 2005 on a student paper. It was like having a time capsule in my classroom. I spent much of my time sorting through the materials making sure that I did not throw away anything useful, as I mentioned before I LOVE free stuff.

Tomorrow will prove to be a big day as I hope to finish setting up my room...though I have doubts as to whether this is possible or not, I can't seem to stop brainstorming ideas for decorations/displays which distracts me further and further from accomplishing anything. I plan on designing and making my own displays and decorations to add some personal touch to my room. I hope that I don't get in over my head, school starts Monday and I have a lot of work to do still. Oh well, one way or another I will get it all done and be ready for the first class.

First days of Work

2008-08-20T18:49:00.005-04:00

I have officially started working as a teacher and have begun the process of setting up my room. I still feel like I am behind despite reassurance from my assistant principal that I am right on track. Today was the first day I have been to my classroom since my brief walk through during my interview. I forgot how wonderfully large my classroom actually is...seriously it seems huge. I did some measuring today as I try to plan my layout of tables and such and I discovered that I have roughly 990 square feet. This should be plenty of space, though, I am sure that it will fill up quickly as I get carried away like every other teacher as they begin to decorate. The only downside so far is that I do not have a key; hopefully I will have one by Friday. I just hope that I can finish juggling some last minute tasks and get everything set for that "epic" first day of school.

I have attended two off site training sessions this week and enjoyed them both despite missing a great deal due to my physical exam. I still don't understand why we bother to make appointments. I was scheduled to go on the same day as my school's first training session. I thought it would be okay because they said it wouldn't take long. Well it took three hours, so I missed the entire first half of the training which made me feel a little uneasy since I was hoping to meet the teachers I will be working with. I appear to be joining a very friendly and caring group of teachers; they all made me feel very welcome as a new teacher. Today's training was a speaker, Dr. Donna Ford, at Morgan State University. There seemed to be a bit of a mix up however, as I was sent to the wrong session time. I don't think it will matter much since she said she was giving the same lecture to both groups. The session was long but I did enjoy hearing data about reasons for student failure. I am a sucker for data and enjoy thorough analysis...weird I know.

The Beginning

2008-08-06T11:03:00.001-04:00

I am a recent college graduate and I have managed to land my first job in Baltimore City Public School System. Upon the recommendation of friends I decided to create a blog to share my experiences with friends, family, and even total strangers. I am hoping to enjoy an open forum of discussion and questions but time will tell as this is my first blog and I may find myself overwhelmed as many are warning me. It probably doesn't help that I am going on a ten day vacation just before school starts but it's not every day that you get to go on your honeymoon. I guess you could say this is the beginning of many new experiences. This is the first time I have lived outside of Pennsylvania or in a city for that matter and now I am married, getting my first job that pays based upon a salary as well. I am excited to face the challenges ahead because every challenge is an opportunity in disguise.