Monday 1/25/10

SA Parochial School

Today was my first day with A at SA Parochial school. It is a K-8 school, but the middle school boys are located in a nearby building. The school has a computer lab with a smartboard and some classrooms also have smartboards.

There is a schedule for teachers to come down to the computer lab. During that period of time M, the computer teacher, remains with them while A and the teachers meet to discuss technology planning. A showed me how to access student data, change class parameters, set up reports, and assign work to students in orchard. She also showed me that you could drag and click a url to a folder (or the desktop).

The 4th grade will be doing a Black History project comparing Harriet Tubman to Sojourner Truth. A discussed how they might accomplish this using a powerpoint presentation. She scheduled time to model the powerpoint with the class. I looked up websites with information on each of the two women and created a folder with the resources for each of them.

A discussed individualizing instruction with the 2nd grade teacher. She suggested they start with the few students who needed the most help and assign them work in their weakness areas.
She mentioned that all of her students had trouble following directions so I found for her a few versions of the trick following directions test for her to use with them. There was a similar discussion with the 5th, 1st, and 3rd grade teachers.

Friday 1/22/10

I Charter School

W showed me the some of the many features of the Smart notebook, and places where I could learn more about it. I tried out many of these features such as the ability to save ink (notes) made in applications and web pages to a Smart notebook page.

W discussed some of the tech coaching strategies we could use. He sugggested leaving information for new to technology teachers in a Word document (or any software they already know) on the desktop for them so they don't have to navigate. I shared some of my favorite links and websites for teachers to use such as Voki, Voicethread, and Ning. W suggested using Portaportal, which allows users to create their own links, to keep track of links for teachers.

We did quite a bit of troubleshooting. We set up the projector, Document camera, and microphone for another presentation. We fixed a printer issue in one of the classes. We checked out some computers which were having issues loading programs.

Thursday 1/21/10

O parochial school

Mi
Students used the computer lab for writing program called Teaching Matters. They complete their assignments as Word Documents, save them to the site, and can edit them at home. The site also allows students to collaborate which is great for writing workshop. The teacher is able to view the documents and see when the students have worked on them.

Hy
Located Time/fractions activities and saved them for the teacher. Students did not come to the lab due to Midterms running long.

W
Students were doing a report on Constellations. M put up a website on the Smartboard with information and images on each one. I facilitated student navigation of the site to find information and finding of further research sites. Students took notes on information for their report.

Mu
Students used Rosetta Stone. It is designed to help students leaave taken a language (Spanish for this class) without translation. I tried out this software. I've had a significant amount of Spanish in school, so I started at level 5 and worked my way through 2 units. It was easy to intuitively learn the meaning and usage of the words in context. I also watched as students used the software. It was interesting to see how the software helped even the native speakers because they had to learn how to spell the words they hear.

H
Students were doing research for a Science expository writing piece. I provided the teacher with a list of sites (ex. discover education) they could use to research and put the list on the Smartboard. H and I facilitated student use of the sites and aided in their choice of keywords. Also showed students the difference between searching web and searching images.

Wednesday 1/20/10

V Parochial school

K/1

We reviewed the links I collected and how they might use them with their classes. I will provide them with a Smart notebook file of these and show them how to link to the activities from them. They have decided to switch off weeks using the Smartboard for 1/2 hour.

D would like to use it for AN Rhyming and Sentences.

P would like to use clocks and the groundhog activity.

2/3

We discussed some links I collected and set up a time for students to come in later in the day.

D gave me a new list of topics on which to find materials: energy (electricity and magnestim), forces/machines/work, sound/vision, matter, community environments, multiplication, division, linking/helping/"special" verbs. In the afternoon, the class worked on a multiplication activity

from the virtual manipulatives website. D started up and turn off the Smartboard.

M focused on the Olympic website I showed her. When the class came in she had them take a look at the torch relay and discussed the process with them. I showed them several features of the site, such as zooming in and out, pictures, and video. She then explored other features with them (such as mascots and sports) while I met with W.

4
W does not have Smart notebook on his computer. I will download if possible. I returned downstairs to view the websites I had saved into the notebook. I returned to W's room where I opened the sites for him to explore the activities.

5
P discussed her use of the Smartboard and provided her with the online activities we'd discussed. Showed her how to save websites into a Smart notebook file. Will schedule a lesson/activity to do together (next week?)

6
K had a list of topics prepared on a floppy disk. After some technical difficulties on how to access this information (computer with printer had no floppy drive and the computer with floppy drive didn't recognize my flash), I just emailed myself the information. I also showed her how to increase font size in a notebook file.

7
I showed Fa the websites I had gathered. She was especially excited about the tutorial on Scientific method as I took her through some parts of it. I also showed her some examples of video segments on Discovery Education. I put these on her computer so that she could try them out for herself.

8

Fe provided a list of upcoming topics. Social Studies topics included WWI, Wilson's 14 points, treaty of Versailles in Socials. Religion topics included the middle ages, monasteries, and Protestant Reformation. We discussed a project she had previously completed with students on advertising. She would like to do a project (powerpoint?) on WWI consequences and how it set into place the rest of the 20th century.

Tuesday 1/19/10

T charter school

We met with B, a Science teacher, to discuss her use of materials from last week. She had trouble getting the Science probe for the pH lesson to connect so we looked at that together and practiced using it. The links and video segments on pH and on human genome worked well, but she would like to use larger screen ones.

We also discussed her upcoming units. She has a Living Environment class which is currently doing Enzymes and Osmosis. Her 7th graders will be studying cells and their organelles. Her 8th graders will be studying the reproductive, endocrine, and immune systems. She also mentioned being available after 2:45 each day for lessons. I researched some activites and videos for these topics and emailed them to her. I spent the remainder of the day researching links that could work for other teachers.

We dicussed with L, the technology adminstrator, possible computer lab schedules. We can do this in advance, if we let him know what times we need for which teacher/class. I spoke with him about links to websites for teachers (as he saw me researching some young student websites). He would like some K/1 ELA websites and some links to learn to type sites for the teachers.

Monday 1/18/10

Today was a professional development day. We spent in the computer lab at a school in Harlem. Main topics were the use of Google forms, discussion the NETS standards, and how to reorganize the bookmarks page.

Google Forms allow you to create survery, multiple choice, or short answers questions and spits out the answers into a spreadsheet. showed us how she used it to create a tech survey for her cohort of teachers. Not only did the spreadsheet show the answers to questions such as "how comfortable are you with technology", but it also showed graphs to compare these responses. We discussed how these might be used in a school with classes, teachers, and administrators.

NETS stands for National Educational Techinology Standards. There are 3 sections: student, teacher, and adminstrator. The Standards are fairly similarfor all 3 focusing on creativity, collaboration, digital citizenship, and so forth. The main differences are that the teacher standards include a section for professional growth, and the administrator standards include a section for Vision. We discussed how these might be used with administrators

Bookmarks need to be reorganized so that they can work more efficiently at allowing tech coaches and teachers to find useable links. We discussed different ways to do this including by content and by skill. We discussed including the lessons in the same place as the links and using icons for powerpoint, smartboard, etc.

Friday- 11/15/10

I spent the day with W at "the best charter school in the state". He introduced me to just about every person in both the elementary and middle school buildings. The school has a computer lab, a smartboard in each classroom, and some computers in each room.

W showed me some of the differencesbetween Macs and PCs. For example, Apple Q Esc is used instead of Ctrl Alt Delete.

We spent most of the day working with hardware. We moved a computer from the middle school to the elementary. We put a printer into two classrooms. We set up the computer and made sure that the software the Kindergarden teacher was using for her students worked on it. We connected the printer and installed so that the two student and 1 teacher computers could use it. We used USB cables and switched from the middle school supply closet for this.

We set up speakers, projector, and document camera for the principal to use for the school geography bee. We observed the geography bee as it was scored and maps shown on the projector. We also dismantled and put away the equipment when the event was finished.

Thursday- 1/14/10

Today I spent the day with N at a charter school. The school is currently K-2 but will grow by a grade per year. They do not have a computer lab, but do have 4 computers per classroom and 2 smartboards.

N showed me the website: exchange.smarttech.com where you can search for SmartBoard lessons. We found some lessons there on rhymes for the Kindergarden teachers, money for another class, and music for a third class. He pointed out that the preview function is a flash application.

I installed Typing Instructor software on the 2nd grade computers.

We modeled a rhyming activity on the Smartboard for each of the K classes. The activity had students pick a word to see if it was in a word family (ex. cat and rat). The teachers were easily able to take over this activity and the students loved using the pointer to move the words to see if they rhymed.

I met with one of the 1st grade teachers while N met with another teacher. She had a math lesson later in the day on tables and wanted to use the Smartboard to put up the tables and questions from it. I created a notebook file (my first time doing so) and made 3 pages based on the textbook. I changed the text and background colors to reflect those in the problem. At the end of the day N and I co taught this lesson with her. The students were able to take turns coming up and filling out one box on the table.

Wednesday- 1/13/10

Today was my 2nd day. I spend at a parochial school with F. This particular school has a computer lab (w/o internet), 3 Smartboards, and some computers for the classrooms. We met with each of the teachers in the school to do some curriculum planning. They were open and eager for ideas on how to incorporate Technology into their current curriculum and upcoming units. We also discussed the school open house and the possibility of presenting Smartboard lessons to parents.


The 2nd grade teacher will be doing a unit on the winter olympics. and would like video clips and other online activities from the previous Olympics if they are avialble. In Science, she is currently covering fossibls and dinosaurs (including Omnivore, carnivore, herbivore) and will soon be moving on to a unit on camoflauge. The students could use some reinforcement on 2 digit subtraction in Math.


The 3rd grade teacher, though admittedly afraid of technology, is open to finding things that will work for her class. They are currently studying communities and will be moving on shortly to holidays and celebrations. She would also like to practice turning the Smartboard on and off.


The students were struggling with 4 digit subtraction, so we modeled a virtual manipulatives lesson to reinforce this concept. She engaged the students by asking questions and choose student participants. F had her turn off the SmartBoard with her student helpers. He also reminded students that they are the teacher when at the Smartboard and should explain what they are doing clearly and loudly.


The Kindergarden Teacher wondered if there are religion activities for very young students and some about making friends. They are currently working on the letters S and W (sounds or lowercase). In math, they are covering the numbers 11-20 and will be moving on to sets of 10 and number sequencing. They are study the og and word families and turning vocabulary into simple word sentences. Is science, they will study the seasons and would like some Winter activities. Also, they looked at frogs and would like some frog and polliwog pictures. She would also like some holiday information for her students.

The 1st grade teacher also wanted some holiday activities for her students. They are studying scarements in religion. They are struggling with money in math and need some activiites to clarify that topic and some for when they move on to time. They are studying vowels and will be reading Tommy Di Paolo books. She would like some vocabulkary/picture matching activities (as would the K teacher) to help the students with Language Acquisition. In Science, they are studying winter, groundhogs, and hibernation, They will also be completing experiments such as forms of water, plants needing light, and making colors.

The 5th grade teacher was eager to implement more SmartBoard lessons and came with questions and suggestions. F showed he how to use the Smartboard as a blackboard by writing or typing, and explained the benefits of doing so. She would like some activities on mean, median, and mode to aide students understanding and might like to use this topic as an example for parents for the open house. In Science, she is currently working ecosytstems/rainforests including habits and herbivore, carnivore, omnivore. She will soon be moving cycles (Nitorgen, Phosphorus). In math, she will work on probability, statistics, and adding/subtracting deicmals next. They will read the book "from the mix-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler". She would like to show the students Michealangelo's artwork that can go on the Smartboard. They are also learning about verbs and grammer in writing.

The 7th grade teachers does 8th grade Science and ELA. She would like some hlepful demonstration experiments to get the students started practicing for the state tests. They are currently working on plants and solar systems. 8th grade ELA is covering grammar, diagramming sentences, and famous poets/poetry. 7th grade is covering Food & Energy, nutrition, and calories in Science and Short stories and prepositions in ELA. In religion, they are studying the 7 sacrements.

The 8th grade teacher will provide us with a list of topics next time.

The 6th grade teacher uses the smart board for Social Studies and will be covering the American revolution then moving on to westward expansion and so on through World War I. We demonstrated how to use Google Earth to show maps of various locations.

The 4th grade teacher uses the Smartboard to focus on Math. He also would like a chance to practice using the markers with it. Students in his class are struggling with 2 digit multiplication. He would like some online manipulatives to practice this. He provided a list of future topics in math to find resources. Multiplication, Division, and Decimals are the main topics to be covered.

Tuesday- 1/12/10

Today was my first day of my job as Technology Coach. I shadowed B in a charter school in the morning. We pulled together a lesson for a 7th grade Science teacher on Acids, Bases, and pH. the lesson included an experiment to test the pH of 6 solutions using Vermier probes, a worksheet for recording data, and 3 video segments on the topic.

Bob showed me how to access my work email account, united streaming, Webx, and Educate bookmarks. He made certain to greet (and introduce me to) any staff members we saw. He also discussed the upcoming technology changes for the school. Currently they have only a computer lab and 1 Smartboard but a grant will allow them to purchase more.

After the charter school, we grabbed lunch and headed over to a parochial school. There, I shadowed N who is also a Tech coach. He spent the afternoon in the computer lab. There were 3 teachers who came in with their classes.

The 6th grade teacher had the students working independently on essay writing. While they were doing so, she discussed with N Technology lessons she would like to do. He suggested some websites for her to use, and topics such as typing, which might be helpful to cover with her studens.

The 2nd grade teacher used Study Island with her students to go over the concepts of place value and Odd/Even. N used the Smartboard to show students how to log in and they were able to use the same logins as for their Ticket to Read accounts. The students were very excited about the games they could play (when finished with the questions) to practice these concepts.

The 7th grade teacher came in prepared to ask many questions. Her students also used study island, but their lesson was on ratio and proportion. Students used the scratchpad included with the program to help them complete problems. While they worked N and the teacher discussed a unit on mesopotomia and how powerpoint could be used to have the students present in groups. He suggested breaking up the material so that students would each be responsible for answering one question on a slide.

We had a meeting at 3:00 via conference call. We signed into a computer and made a call on speakerphone. We discussed reorganizing the bookmarks on the educate website in terms of different categories.