Technology

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iEngage at MVCS

Happy day!  At our staff meeting Wednesday, our administrators revealed a huge answer to prayer!  Mr. Bracy successfully matched our school with a foundation willing to generously sponsor the first phase of our iEngage plan.

The teachers unwrapped an iPad for each classroom!  Yeehaw!  I’ve been waiting for this day!

The second and third graders cheered as I revealed the iPad the next day, and many of them have already had a turn trying out one of our new math apps.

I can’t wait for the next day of training, as well as the chance to put into practice a number of sessions from the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference on using iPads in the classroom.

We are all engaged, that’s for sure.  Our whole family has been trying out educational apps today on the snow day.  This one, Monster Physics, kept all ages occupied and challenged solving physics puzzles with rockets, levers, ramps, and gears for well over an hour.

If you have favorite ideas for explosive learning with an iPad, do share by leaving us comments!

 

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Blogging Fun

If you’re looking for another fun way to use your blog, take a look at this.  My nephew just arrived for a visit to his New England relatives all the way from Louisiana, his first time flying alone.  To keep his family up on his escapades, he started a blog and is posting each day about something that tickles his fancy.  Check it out here.

His blog is helping me get ready for school, for I am using it to experiment with the new safety feature upgrades on edublogs. This week I will be changing all of our student blogs over to this system, which allows me to safety monitor posts and comments even when you are writing at home, or at a hotel, or from the deck of a pool, or . . .

So if you haven’t experimented with your blog password at home yet this summer, try it out! Post about your vacation, or your dog, or your tree fort, or the greatest book ever that you just finished reading. Your readers await!

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QuadBlogging!

Welcome to QuadBlogging!  We are matched up with three other classes from around the world, and each week we will focus on one group’s writing pieces.  Three weeks of reading and making quality comments are followed by one week of receiving comments on our writing from all of them!  We can’t wait to meet them, to read their work, and to hear what they think about our writing.

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Networking, Sharing, and Persisting

Friends make us better than we could ever be without them.

This is my tech friend, who is also a forever friend as well.

She is a model of the best when it comes to sharing and inspiring.  She transformed my technology life as my tech mentor, coming alongside me to model a new practice, then to assist me in trying on my own, and finally to problem solve with me as I worked independently on each new skill.  She peruses a constant flow of  books, blogs, and websites and passes on great ideas.   She knows how to sift through the zillions of tech applications available out there and focus on the ones with great possibilities for a particular group of students.  Just a few minutes with her energizes you to take on anything!

She has walked the whole blogging path with me over the last number of years.  I initially learned to blog from her as we worked together on one of her grant ideas.  We have explored many ways blogging can be used to promote writing enthusiasm among students.

One key problem has been persistent.  You need commenters to maintain the energy.  Having a global audience for their writing catches students on fire for writing, and I have had trouble consistently finding partner classes over the years.

My tech friend never gave up looking along with me, and over Christmas break she discovered it!  She sent me an e-mail with a link to  . . . . . . QuadBlogging!  Stay tuned as we put QuadBlogging into action and meet our new blogging friends from around the world.

So thank you, Friend.  I look forward to tackling the next tech challenge with your brain to keep me company.