On January 8th, 12th
and 13th I had the wonderful opportunity to observe Mrs. F.
integrate technology into her second grade class at Harold Martin School in
Hopkinton. Mrs. F. and I teach in the
same building. I was lucky enough that my
prep period coincided with work periods that incorporated technology in Mrs. F.’s
schedule. Mrs. F. is the type of teacher
that every student wants and every teacher wishes we had the energy to keep up
with. Our building looks to her often as she is
seen as an amazing leader and resource.
The first day that I observed
Mrs. F., she was introducing a new app to her class called Kid’s BookReport. Mrs. F.’s class was in the
middle of a Jan Brett author study. The
class was very familiar with a handful of Brett’s picture books: Gingerbread
Friends, Trouble with Trolls, and The Three Snow Bears just to
name a few. Mrs. F. used Gingerbread
Friends as an example and the class wrote a book report together as Mrs. F.
led them through using the app for the first time. Together, they came up with the title, the
author, the setting, the main characters, the problem, the solution and their
opinion of the book. Once the class
completed the book report, Mrs. F. broke students into groups of two. Students got to work writing their own book
report on one of the other Jan Brett books that they had studied. When they were completed, students took
screen shots of their book reports and printed them to be handed in. Mrs. F. plans on saving the screen shots and
using them in the future with the class to make a presentation about their favorite books.
On Monday, when I visited the
class, Mrs. F. was delayed in a meeting and her instructional assistant was taking over for her while
she was out of the classroom. While not
ideal, this is a reality in our building and I’m sure many other schools. It was amazing to see that everyone
was working and on task. You could tell
that Mrs. F. has worked hard at getting her students to be so independent with
technology. Even the
students who can be hard to keep on task, were on task. As I looked
around the room, groups of students were working on different assignments,
needing very little direction from adults.
There was a group of students who were working on their spelling using SpellingCity at a table with the classroom Chromebooks.
Another group of students where using iPads to finish their creative
stories using the app Write About This. Two students were using the desktops in
the classroom to practice an assignment with virtual manipulatives on Think
Central, a math website that supports our math curriculum, Math In Focus. The
rest of the students had finished their morning work stations and
were continuing on with an app called Tynker. These students were working on
coding. Their job was getting a monster looking
creature named Cody to complete different tasks by programing codes. They were
naturals...at age 8! When Mrs. F.
re-entered the room after her meeting it, the group didn’t miss a
beat. Mrs. F. feels as though technology
is another way to reach her students and gives them an alternative outlet to
paper and pencil. Even reluctant learners
were engaged and motivated. Mrs. F.’s
work assignments were differentiated so that all students were able to be
successful participants.
Learn to Code using the Tynker iPad app.
Tuesday morning seemed to be
getting off to a slow start but not in Mrs. F.’s classroom. She was introducing new software called iStopMotion
with Legos. Last spring, Mrs. F. and I
toured three different schools in the state along with other members of our technology
team to see how similar schools were using technology. This was all part of an
effort to gather more information on how to best spend our school’s allotted technology
money. We visited the Gilford Elementary
School and were instantly inspired. The
way their students talked to us about how they used technology made us feel
like we were teaching in a prehistoric era. In Gilford, a fourth grader shared with us her
work on Google Docs, kindergartners showed us how to use DreamBox and then we
walked into the computer lab…wow! A
group of third graders were using iStopMotion animation to make Lego movies and
it all tied into their writing curriculum.
There have not been too many moments that I have felt like a kid in a
candy shop as a teacher, but this was one of them. Students worked in groups of two in Gilford
to position Lego people and then take a picture. They decided how long each picture would be
displayed in a series of pictures that they turned into a stop motion animation
video. These videos tied into the stories they were creating back in their classroom.
Mrs. F. hadn’t stopped thinking about this
lesson. She wrote a grant and received funds
to buy the equipment and software so that she would be able to teach this in
her classroom. Her classroom was filled with excitement. Mrs. F. has lots of children who enjoy
creating with Legos. Some love to write and many enjoy making videos, but
this didn’t seem to be the reason they were so excited. Mrs. F. and the children were learning side
by side. Mrs. F. isn’t afraid to fail
and neither are her students. If it
happens, you learn from it and grow.
Together they worked to take the pictures, re-position the Lego pieces, and take another picture. They
experimented with how long each picture should be displayed before moving onto the next
one. The class and Mrs. F were learning
together and it worked for the teacher and the students.
Check out this video about iStopMotion
Advice
From A Connected Learner…
Mrs. F is a teacher who is always
hearing about new things and trying them out before the rest of us have even
heard of them. I asked her where she gets
all of her ideas. She shared that she finds a lot of information on Facebook. Whatever she is interested in
she can post on her page and go back and read about it later. She also
finds ideas on Corkboard Connections which is a blog by Laura Candler. Laura is a passionate teacher and creator
of the Teaching Resources website. Mrs. F. finds Twitter to be a great
source as well as Richard Byrne’s blog Free Technology for Teachers and
Proteacher.net.
Her advice to anyone who is
starting to integrate technology…just do it! She suggests playing with websites
and software like you are one of the students. Log in as a student and see what
they see. That way you’ll know what to
expect when you’re teaching it to your students. Mrs. F. tries
to integrate technology in any way that she can. She has a station of iPads in
her room for integrating activities during work jobs (guided reading), writing,
and math. The classroom has Chromebooks that they use on a daily basis during writing,
reading, and word work. Her class uses Tumblebooks, Kidblog, Think Central,
Google Classroom, Storybird, Write About This, Spelling City and others as part
of their daily routine. Mrs. F. also keeps her own plan book online this year
to fulfill her goal of going as paperless as possible.
Just Do It…
This seems to be the advice of many who integrate technology
regularly into their teaching. Maybe the
more you use it, the more comfortable you become. I’ve found myself jumping in
and trying more with my students since the beginning of this class. Learning alongside
your students is fun and it gives you great perspective of what it feels like
to be them!
Resources
Nussbaum-Beach, Sheryl, and Lani Ritter. Hall. The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2012. Print.
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