First Week of School

We just finished the first week of school and what a whirlwind that was. Phew! I'm tuckered out. And what did we learn this week?

• don't let 5th graders make their own Edmodo accounts. Well let's just say that didn't go as perfectly as I had hoped. I was being overly optimistic and I didn't take them through the steps like I should. My mistake. Live and learn. I created the second class myself.
• don't make the needed copies of the schedule until you finish the first week of school. Yeah there were some errors and new versions had to be made. I only made one set. 
• I still haven't found the magic potion that gets students to put and keep their hands in proper typing position. Unfortunately some of them are getting really good at text typing so they transfer that to full keyboard typing and I must admit that some are pretty darn fast with two fingers. But we keep trying.
• Practice, practice, practice. We usually use typing.com for
  
  
  
  
  
  our keyboarding practice but for fun I had them go to ABCya and play the typing games their hoping something silly and easy would help them use the correct position. ABCya is a great site for educational games for K-5. I actually had 6-7-8 using the typing games also. I love typing.com because I can create classes and monitor or assign what I want my students to complete.
• I had a chat with the librarian and we decided to do a joint project after Christmas on the Iditarod. She was given a book called Granite by Susan Butcher  (you can find this book on Amazon) about a sled dog in the Iditarod. Very cool story. Have to start looking for resources. Found one already: Iditarod Just not sure what sort of projects we will do. Hmmm..... So be on the look out for more posts about the Iditarod.
  
• AND to top it all off, we are setting up a staff notebook inside of OneNote. It has been not without challenges. But it is going to be GREAT!

And so, the weekend, which so far has been non-stop rain, and back to it on Monday!

What to do new this year?

Getting ready for back to school? What is the one new thing you will bring to your class this year? I'm not really sure what I want to do that is new. I've taught and seen so many things it is hard to pick one. I have not yet seen my schedule but I am hopeful that I will have more time to actually sit down and talk to teachers and not have conversations passing in the hall about how I can help them integrate technology. There was much talk at TCEAtots about coaching/mentoring and assessing technology integration with teachers. There were sessions that included SAMR and LoTi as a means to evaluate where teachers are in their integration levels. I think this is where I will make my focus.

Diana Benner from TCEA has a great site with her presentation and links for Assessing Tech Literacy Of Staff and Students.