Going Paperless: Morning Journals Version 2.0

Last school year I used an app/website called "Lino It" for my students to do a morning journal entry.  (You can read about that in a previous post.)  By doing journals this way I was able to completely eliminate the use of paper as well as instantly see and respond to the journal entries of my students.  Lino It had many advantages, but also some disadvantages.  A few of the biggest disadvantages was that students could edit any post, not just there own, the posts would pile on top of one another and at times pile on top of and block the journal topic and students had to remember to add their names to the end of their posts.

It was because of these issues that I decided to embark on a quest to find a new way for my students to do paperless journaling.  After searching and experimenting with several different apps and websites I stumbled across Kidblog.  Kidblog is a secure blogging system for my students that I, and any other adult I grant "teacher" status to, can control.  As the teacher I am able to see posts before they go out to the rest of the class, edit posts and delete posts that need to be deleted for one reason or another. 

Kidblog was very simple to set up and I was able to use the same passwords my students use in the computer lab as their Kidblog passwords.  For the past week my students have been responding to journal prompts that I post on Kidblog.  As my students respond I review their responses and then post my own response to their journal post.  Not only do students get a chance to virtually interact with me, but they also get the chance to interact with their classmates.  This serves as a writing exercise, an exercise in the use of technology and also as a way to practice digital citizenship.

This is what students see before signing into their account.

Using several QR Codes, that I have hanging around my room, and their iPod Touches students can instantly get to the Kidblog sign in page.  Before signing in the only thing visible (to them and to anyone who stumbles across the site) is the title of posts, the author's username and the number of responses.  They cannot see what was written by me or any of their classmates until they have signed into their account.

One of my favorite things about Kidblog is that students do not have to remember both a username and password.  All of the usernames, which I have set up as the student's first name, are displayed via a drop down menu.  This allows them to simply select their name from the list.  Once signed in, students can view new posts, view responses to old posts and, although we haven't started yet, create and post to their own blog.  As time progresses I plan to have each of my students create their own blog and respond to the blogs of other students.

QR Classroom!

This QR Code will take you to my blog.

During NYSCATE 2012 one of the most interesting sessions I attended dealt with Quick Response (QR) Codes.  Even if you are not familiar with QR Codes, chances are you have seen them.  One of the most common uses of QR Codes is as part of magazine advertisements.  If you see a QR Code and have a mobile device (cell phone, iPod, iPad, etc...) and a QR Reader app, scanning a code is a simple and quick process.  Last year, our library media specialist introduced me to QR Codes as a way to link to author and book websites, but I did not fully understand what they were capable of doing. Needless to say, I did not have a very good understanding of QR Codes and how they could be used in my classroom.  Walking into the session at NYSCATE 2012, I had believed that QR codes were only able to send you to a website.  That in itself is valuable and avoids users having to remember and type in long URLs, however the same could be accomplished by sending an email link to my students.  As the session began I was very excited to learn that QR Codes can be used for so much more!

In addition to URL links, QR Codes can be used to store and link to text, images, email addresses, Twitter accounts, map locations, Facebook accounts, videos, and even to send SMS text messages.  As you can imagine as a social studies teacher who has a class set of iPod Touches I was very excited to hear about these uses.  Less than a week of school after learning of these uses I have turned my classroom into a "QR Classroom."

The first thing I needed to do was make sure my iPod Touches had the capabilities of scanning QR Codes.  I was able to quickly download an free app called "i-Nigma" to each of the twenty-three iPod Touches I have in my classroom.  Teaching my students to use the app was quick and painless and after only a few days of experience many are "experts" at using QR Codes.  Now, only a few short school days after NYSCATE 2012, I have QR Codes hanging all over my room for several different uses.

Students can quickly reach my website with remembering the URL.

I even put a QR code in the hallway so parents can quickly reach my website.

One of the most common things I deal with in my classroom in regards to the iPod Touches is unsolicited advice from students on what apps we should download.  I decided that I would allow my students to suggest new apps.  On my classroom website I set up a form that allows my students to suggest apps.  The form asks for the name of the app, the price (free ones are much more likely to be downloaded!) and the reason why the app has educational value. After reading a few submissions I did edit the form to add a "Name" box.  This was not necessary, but I was getting a lot of very creative reasons that apps were educational and wanted to be able to pair the reasoning with the student who wrote it.  Another nice part about the form is that the submissions are emailed to me and automatically sorted into their own folder.  This allows me to examine the suggestions at my leisure.

App suggestion QR Code and Kidblog QR Code.

Some of the other QR Codes I have hanging throughout my classroom are an "Email Mr. Hoover" QR Code, a link to Kidblog.org, and a link to Culture Grams.  Kidblog.org is a kid friendly blogging service that I have begun using with my students (this may the subject of a future post).  Culture Grams is a research database that my fifth graders use for state research and my sixth graders use for country research.

Email Mr. Hoover QR Code

Another Email Mr. Hoover QR Code

Kidblog.org and Culture Gram QR Codes

Hanging QR Codes around my classroom is not the only way I have been using QR Codes.  After a little experimenting I was able to determine the size QR Codes needed to be on my SmartBoard in order to allow students, even in the back row, to scan the codes from their seats.  I also have begun to use QR Codes in my social studies unit guided notes.  I have created QR Codes that lead to non-fiction articles (hooray, common core!), videos, and even definitions that students match with vocabulary words.  These QR Codes are included right on the guided note packet that each student uses throughout the unit. 

QR Codes directly on guided notes.

In just a short time I have been able to begin implementing QR Codes in my classroom.  The students have been able to quickly understand how to use the app and have become adept at scanning the codes in an even shorter amount of time.  QR Codes are one of the coolest and one of the most time-saving techniques  I have been able to implement in my classroom.  I should note that this works well in my classroom because of the 1:1 student to iPod ratio.  If you are not able to provide 1:1 technology in your classroom the way you use QR Codes would need to be tweaked and may not work well for you. 

Note:
The site I have been using to create QR Codes is www.beqrious.com.  It is free and allows you to create and change the color of QR Codes for a wide variety of purposes.

NYSCATE 2012

 

Earlier this week I had the exciting opportunity to attend the annual NYSCATE conference in Rochester, NY.  I wanted to give a quick recap of the sessions I attended, later on I will go into more detail and share how I implement what I learned in my own classroom.

My wife and daughter made the trip to Rochester with me, essentially to get out of the house for a few days.  I was glad to have them come and my four month old daughter handled the nearly four hour drive like a champ!  After checking in at the Radisson and getting situated I was able to register and catch the 3:00 session on Sunday. 

The first breakout session I attended was titled "Using QR Codes in the Classroom."  I knew the basics of Quick Response (QR) codes, but other than knowing that they could provide quick links to websites, wasn't sure how they could be used in the classroom.  Our former librarian had been adding them to library books allowing students to quickly go to the author's website, book reviews, and interviews (audio and video) with the author.  I thought this was a great idea, but most of the time students in the library didn't have access to a device to read the QR codes.  I was excited to learn about the many ways QR codes can be used; links, questions, email, text messaging and even for phone calls.  This session was especially exciting for me since I have a classroom set of iPod Touches in my classroom.  I now have a long list of ways I plan to use QR codes and will post to share my successes and speed bumps as I go.

The next thing I attended was a keynote address by Adam Bellow.  Adam had a very interesting outlook on technology and education in general.  Additionally, he was a very entertaining and fun speaker to hear as an audience member. 

The following morning after breakfast I attended "Real Results! Notifications that Positively Impact Community Engagement."  This sessions introduced and explained how the Honeoye Falls-Lima School District has implemented the use of Blackboard Connect to communicate with parents and community members.  This was one of my "future administrator" sessions, but I found that the session helped spawn a lot of ideas that I could also implement as a teacher.

Another keynote speaker, Scott Kinney, followed the first session.  The speaker was very engaging and shared a lot of great ideas and information, but really he was "preaching to the choir" trying to convince attendees of the value of technology in education.  Most of the audience was in attendance, because they already believed in the importance of technology in education.

A "Technology Leadership Roundtable" was the next session I attended.  Initially this was another of the "future administrator" sessions, but ended up being very valuable as a teacher as well.  The session provided a great opportunity to share the ways I am using technology in the classroom and hear about other exciting ideas.  It was also a chance to brainstorm solutions to some of the speed bumps we all face when using technology in the classroom.

Another keynote speaker followed during our lunch.  Mike Lorion talked about digital citizenship and different ways to teach the concept to students.  Many good ideas were shared, since we all know one of the biggest challenges when using technology is teaching students to use it appropriately.

Following an hour of exhibitor time, or as most people call it "collecting free stuff with logos of companies who no one can explain what they do," I attended "Edmodo for the Dodo."  I have used Edmodo here and there the past two years, but never really had the chance to dig deep into the features.  Not only did I learn about a lot of the ways Edmodo can be used in the classroom I also learned about many other online resources that can work hand in hand with Edmodo.

The last session I attended the following morning was "Get Racing with Mobile Devices."  This session showed how several teachers from different states collaborated to use iPods and iPads in an "Amazing Race"-like project. Students used math, geography, science and logic to plan a trip to the birthplaces of various Presidents.  As a social studies teacher I wouldn't be able to completely incorporate this project, but with a little tweaking, I may try to incorporate it in the state and country reports my students do each year.

Overall, I had a lot of fun and learned a ton of new ways to use technology in my classroom.  As I implement these new ideas, I will post about how things go on this blog.

Paperless Technology Usage in 2012-13

Every school year is a new beginning for both teachers and students.  This year is no different, in fact it is a year full of even more new beginnings.  This is the first year that our district has re-aligned to three elementary schools instead of four.  Due to declining enrollment and budgetary issues the district determined that it was necessary to eliminate an elementary school.  The students and much of the staff were relocated to the remaining three elementary schools.  In my homeroom class of 21 fifth graders 9 of the students are new to our elementary school.  This number includes both students who are new to the district and ones who attended fourth grade in the building that closed.

Last school year we had three sections of fifth and sixth grade.  Two were fifth grade classes with approximately 15 students in each class.  The third was a single sixth grade class with 24 students.  This year we have two fifth grades of 21 students and two sixth grades of approximately 18 students.  This realignment of the schools will allow me to work with more students.  It has also allowed us to truly departmentalize once again with a separate teacher for each of ELA, social studies, science and math.  Now instead of teaching three sections of social studies, a section of ELA and a section of reading, I am teaching four social studies sections and a single reading section.

Throughout the course of my teaching and especially last year, when I added the use of iPods to my classroom, I developed and borrowed/stole a lot of ways to use technology with ELA.  Some of the ways I used technology in my ELA class can be recycled and used in similar ways for social studies and reading.

Last year I had 19 iPod Touches to use in my classroom.  This made it possible to reach students 1:1 in my two fifth grade classes, however with 24 sixth graders I was unable to reach the 1:1 ratio. We were able to use the iPods, but the students were divided into small groups.  This year my original 19 iPods would not be enough for either of the fifth grade classes.  Since I knew this before the end of last school year I was able to gain access to 4 more iPods allowing me to have enough for 1:1 access for all of my classes.

Just as I did last year before we start using the iPod Touches in the classroom a Parent and Student agreement has to be sent home and signed by the student and parent.  (So far I have had about 90% of the agreements returned.)  Until I have them all, I won't begin any projects that involve using the iPods.  The agreement is a way to make sure parents and students are aware that iPod usage falls under the same technology usage agreement they have already agreed to follow.  It also makes sure students know they are responsible to immediately report any damage to me.  Additionally, it is a slight "scare-tactic" letting the students know that they may be responsible to replace iPods that are broken due to misbehavior/foolishness.

Even though we haven't started using the iPods, daily technology use is still a part of my classroom.  The first thing that we did in my classroom after going over the classroom and school rules/guidelines was to go over the rules when using the SmartBoard.  The rules are a simple, but necessary, step to ensure the SmartBoard can be used throughout the year and into the future.  Most days while I am teaching I feel more like a "game show host" than a teacher since I am constantly calling students to the front of the room to reveal notes, answer questions or do other things using the SmartBoard.  My goal is to allow the students to use the SmartBoard as much or more than I do.

I am looking forward to diving into technology even more this year, while using the technology to help teach to the new common core standards.  Technology in education should not be used just as bells and whistles.  Technology can be a hook to get a child's attention, but it needs to add to the lesson and learning.  I feel that using technology to add to lessons and education is one of my strengths, due in part to my graduate studies.

As the year continues I will share some of the successful and less than successful ways I have integrated technology into the curriculum and classroom.

"Near" Paperless Research Practice

One of the skills that I feel is very important for students, regardless of their age, is the ability to find desired information while completing research.  When I was in school, and even during my early college years, finding research primarily involved looking through stacks and stacks of books.  Occasionally, we would get to use the microfiche reader, but the microfiche library was limited in regards to most topics.  Today information can be found with a simple internet search. Even though the searching process has been made easier, searching for information still requires a set of skills.

Instead of skimming for information while sifting through the stacks of books, today students need to know the best wording when completing an internet search.  They need to understand that sometimes simply switching one word can bring completely different search results.  Another lesson they need to learn is that being too specific, in many cases, will hinder an internet search.  Many of the students in my homeroom experienced this when working on a "Book Trailer" project earlier in the school year.  At first when my students were looking for a picture to represent a character they would search the exact name of the character.  In most cases this would lead to few or no images.  However, when students searched for "10 year old boy" instead of the character by name they were able to find many useful images.

My two fifth grade social studies classes are just beginning, World War II, our last unit of the school year.  For this exercise I created a partially filled chart (see the modified version at the bottom).  My students were in charge of using their Safari on their iPods or other sources (including their textbook) to complete the chart.  Some of the information to fill in the blanks in the chart would be easy to find, while I anticipated the information for other blanks would be more difficult to find.

Almost all of my students had a great deal of success when filling in the first two columns.  Most of the information was easy to find when using a search engine such as Yahoo or Google.  When creating the chart I had anticipated that the third column would be the most challenging for my students.  This was for the simple reason that despite many mini lessons a lot of my students still believe they are getting information from Yahoo and Google.  Of course, they are simply using Yahoo and Google as a way to search for information on other websites.

Overall, this activity was very successful.  It gave me a chance to reiterate that Yahoo and Google are not sources.  Additionally, it also gave my students a chance to practice their research and internet search skills.  In the future I hope to find a way (other than constantly switching between apps) to eliminate using paper for the chart.

Date	Event/Description	Source
January 30, 1933
	France surrenders to the Axis Powers
December 7, 1941
	Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.  The U.S. declares war on the Axis Powers.
September 8, 1943
	D-Day
April 12, 1945
	Mussolini is killed.
May 1, 1945
	Germany Surrenders
August 6, 1945
	Second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
September 2, 1945

This article appeared in The Daily Star on May 18, 2012

Project brings world to students through technology

A few of my students working on the project.

By Mark Boshnack Staff Writer

ONEONTA -- Fifteen Valleyview Elementary School students are working regularly with their counterparts from around the world -- without leaving their building.

School librarian Emily Gibson has teamed up with fifth-grade social studies teacher Adam Hoover and his students in the "A Week in the Life" global collaboration project. Many talked about the experience Thursday at Valleyview.

It allows Oneonta students using iPod Touch mobile devices purchased through a community donation, along with existing school hardware, to collaborate on the Internet with 600 peers in 31 schools on four continents, for a better understanding of their similarities and differences, Gibson said.

Besides the United States, other countries include China, Lebanon and Australia.

The Oneonta students started their work, using a variety of software programs, in March.

They have divided into groups to explore a variety of themes: school, leisure, housing and transportation, language and clothing, food and celebrations and environment. They are already working on their final project, a multimedia project that will share photos and comments showcasing their topics.

Hoover said he and Gibson were looking at different projects that deal with "digital citizenship" including Internet safety, when they found this program. It went beyond that while addressing a curriculum that calls for learning about different cultures, he said.

"The technology is the hook that allows teachers to focus on education," he said. "Students are learning a lot and having a great experience without realizing it."

The project started by students recording a "digital handshake," introducing themselves to others around the world, Gibson said.

Fifth-grader Erin Stalder, who talked about the project Wednesday, said she is working in the "school" group. "We are talking with people around the world, learning about their cultures." This includes "taking pictures of Oneonta and putting them online to show others where we live."

In comparing her experience to others, she has been surprised to see how big some of the other school cafeterias area. She was glad she doesn't have to wear uniforms like some other students do.

Internet safety issues are addressed because no student last names are used, Gibson said. The project is helping students use the computer in a productive way.

This includes several students who were working on their projects Thursday. Shaun Jones said he is focused on housing and transportation. He has taken relevant pictures to show students in other locations what can be found here.

"I like the project," he said. "It involved learning many new things."

Cassidy Fetterman, is researching language and clothing. She was looking at photos of students and was glad that students in Oneonta did not wear uniforms that some of her counterparts did.

She has enjoyed talking pictures with the iPod and being able to describe them. She also enjoys commenting on others.

Paul Zimmer was looking at photos from all around the world. Working on schools, he had posted several photos of Valleyview. It was interesting to see how it compares to other facilities.

Paperless Assessments: Using Smart Response VE

For the past two years I have been using the Smart Response software and technology.  For those of you unfamiliar with the technology; each student has a "clicker" that allows them to answer questions.  A receiver is attached to the computer through a USB port.  Smart Response software allows for class lists to be input or imported into the program.  Each student on the list is assigned an ID # and the software can track assessment results, much like a computerized grade book

Smart Response PE Remote

 There are many great things this system offers.  Probably the best part is that it can offer instant feedback to both students and teachers about how well students perform on assessments.  It can be set up to show the results anonymously or it can be set up for the results to be "recorded" in the virtual grade book.  With either method the overall class results (percentage of students answering correctly) can be seen instantly in the form of a pie chart.  This allows teachers to reteach topics when overall the students did not perform well.  While it is probably not wise to project the individual results of questions, this information is also available at the touch of the mouse.

This system is great when giving short assessments.  For example a five question review to begin or end class works very well using this system.  Personally, I have also given longer assessments, however that is when issues arise.  The issues are not with the software or hardware, but with class management.  You see the questions are projected onto the SmartBoard.  Therefore students can only move as fast as the slowest person answering  in the class.  A few times last year I combated this by printing off paper copies of the assessment and then having the students enter the answers using the clickers.  This worked okay, but it then brought paper back into the equation.

Before I was able to find funding to purchase the class iPod Touches I heard that Smart was beta testing a new program called Smart Response VE.  This program was aimed at allowing students to use their iPods and phones as a clicker.  Smart Response VE was aimed more toward colleges.  Since some colleges had begun requiring students to purchase their own personal Smart Response clicker, VE would allow those students to save money and simply use their smartphones,  iPods, or other internet ready devices.  While I did not know all of the details about the new software, for me one of the most exciting parts was that the questions and answers would appear directly on the screens of the devices.  This would allow students to work at their own pace and go back on their own to check or change previous answers. 

Since Smart Response VE is aimed more at colleges than elementary, middle or high schools licenses are purchased per teacher.  Fortunately, there was still some money in the software budget that allowed the purchase of a license for my classroom until June 1, 2013.  Since I have only had about a week to experiment with Smart Response VE my experience is limited.  In fact I have not used the program for a quick assessment, only for a unit test.  Nevertheless, I wanted to share what we were able to do and how it works.

Creating the actual questions and answers is exactly the same as it was when using the PE remotes.  There are ways to import questions from Microsoft Word and a few other programs, but I have not had a chance to experiment with that feature yet.  Just as I did before upgrading to VE I start the class and begin the assessment.  Now instead of the students signing in using their PE remotes they go to the Smart Response website.  My students used the iPod Touches, but any internet enabled device would work the same way.

http://response.smarttech.com

To begin students must know their Student ID, which is the same number they have used in the past.  When the "Begin Assessment" button is clicked on the computer a window pops up showing the Assessment ID.  This does slightly slow down the beginning of assessments when compared to using the PE remotes.  I should clarify when I say slow down, I mean it takes 8-10 seconds instead of the normal 3-4 seconds. 

Once the students sign in, I can still see how they are progressing and if I choose what answers they have chosen.  There answers are not locked until they click submit after completing the questions.  There is a slight delay once the students have chosen their answers before it shows up on the computer, but it is not an extremely long delay (15-20 seconds in most cases).

Example True/False Question

Example Multiple Choice Question

In addition to the students being able to work at their own pace, students can also click the "Question List" link to see all of the questions and their current answer.  This can be extremely useful if the students need to go back and change an answer.  Using the PE remotes students could only see the question numbers, not the actual questions.

Question List, any question can be clicked on to change or review the answer(s).

Just like with the PE remotes, the software allows the teacher to determine if the students will see their results immediately upon submitting their answers or if they will have to wait until everyone is finished and the assessment has been stopped.

Submitting Answers

Overall, in my limited, experience I was and continue to be very excited about the ways I can implement Smart Response VE in my classroom.  To me the ability for my students to work at their own pace and the immediate feedback made the investment in the software worth it.

Avoiding Technology Distraction

As a teacher I deal with students being distracted on a daily basis.  Distractions can stem from just about anything and anywhere.  Some of the most common distractions are caused by tools that the students need; scissors, pencils, erasers, and even textbooks can be distracting for many students.  Even with the amount of technology I use in my classroom I spend much more time reminding students to stop playing with pencils than to stop playing with their iPods or other technology.

 

Imagination and a pencil can be distracting to elementary students!

The most common critique I hear about using technology in classrooms is that the technology is a distraction.  My response to this is simple; technology if not used correctly can be a distraction.  However, everything in a classroom, if not used correctly, can be a distraction.  If guidelines and expectations are consistent when using technology the distractions caused by technology can be minimized to that of the distractions of a pencil.

Here are the guidelines that my students and I follow in regards to using technology (iPod Touches, computers, SmartBoard):

1. Unless specifically told to do so students must ask to use any technology.
2. Students only have iPods at their desks during instruction time when they need them to do part or all of an assignment.
3. Students never have their iPods during lesson introductions or when instructions are being given.
4. Other than rare occasions or free time iPods are used for educational purposes.  Even during free time the iPods must be used in an appropriate manner.  One of the ways to ensure this is that the only game apps installed on the iPods have educational value..
5. No photographs can be taken unless they are part of an assignment (using the "Restrictions" function I can easily disable the camera if students are misusing them).
6. When technology becomes a distraction or an issue in some other way the student will lose the privilege of using the technology for a set period of time.

These simple guidelines have helped me implement technology in my lessons and overall classroom, while eliminating the distractions that can go along with technology implementation.  Another way I minimized the distraction was by giving my students some time to explore and experiment with the technology before we started to implement in lessons and assignments.

Moving Through the Paperless Writing Process

One of the most common types of essays that students are asked to write is a persuasive essay.  As a former 5th and 6th grade English teacher and current 5th grade English teacher I like persuasive essays for one main reason.  The reason is because you can tie a lot of skills to a persuasive essay; planning, reasoning, research, and editing are all skills that can be easily tied to a persuasive essay assignment.  It was because of these various skills that I chose a persuasive essay as the first writing assignment we would attempt to do in a paperless fashion.

The very first thing I do with every writing assignment is make sure my students know what I expect from them through the use of a rubric.  Creating a rubric and projecting it on the screen for the class, while also emailing it to each student's school email accounts allowed me to completely eliminate the use of paper from this step.  It should be noted that my homeroom students are essentially the only students in the district with their own school email addresses.  I am piloting this "experiment" with my students this school year.  Even before this particular assignment, in almost all cases, I have stopped printing a rubric for each student since the majority of them end up in the trash or recycling bin.  As an alternative, I have been posting the rubric on my classroom website allowing the students who wish to use the rubric the opportunity to print it on their own.

After going over the rubric I summed up the rubric by typing information and projecting it onto my SmartBoard using the "Notes" app which comes pre-installed on Apple devices.  For the time being I have to put the iPod Touch under my document camera, since the Apple Device to A/V cable won't work with our iPods (it works fabulously with my iPhone 4S).  While going through the information each of my students also typed the information on their own iPods.  This period of note taking was without a doubt the quietest and most successful note taking session I have experienced as a teacher.  Since things typed into "Notes" seem to get deleted (purposely or accidentally) frequently I also emailed the information to each of my students' iPods.  I had previously set up each of the iPod Touches with their own Hotmail account.  This allowed me to say, "Go back and look at what the format of the essay should be in your notes."

Notes for Persuasive Essay

Once we had taken time to go over the rubric and the expected format for the essay, each student had to come up with a list of five possible topic choices.  These lists were also created using the "Notes" app.  It was quick and simple for my students to email me their five topic choices directly from the app.  Once I had the lists I collaborated face to face with each student to help them choose the topic that would be of most interest, would fit the assignment the best, and would be possible to research.

After the topics were selected, my students had to do some pre-writing planning.  Going along with the expected format I required them to come up with three reasons to support their stance on the topic and one opposing reason.  To find and fully support the reasons research was required using the internet and "Safari" app  My students were able to bookmark and/or use "Notes" to record the information they found while searching the internet.  When each student had three supporting reasons and an opposing reason they used the "T-Charts" app to create a t-chart and email it to me.  When emailing the app converts the information contained into a list in the body of the email.  This makes it easier to see and edit if necessary.  One of the bad parts of this software is that if you are halfway done it is very easy to lose the progress you have made.  Once again I had a face to face meeting with each student to go over their reasons, both supporting and opposing, offer suggestions and in some cases have them come up with different or better reason.

T-Charts app

At this stage my students were ready to type a rough draft.  This was also the stage when the only three sheets of paper were used for this project.  Those sheets were used for students who have modifications as part of their Individualized Education Plan (IEP).  Another way the assignment was modified was through the use of "Dragon Dictation," however the app doesn't always work as well as I had hoped.  It also became important to make sure my students cut and pasted what they had dictated into "Pages" or "Notes" frequently so it did not get lost.  I encouraged my students to use "Pages" when typing their rough draft.  Documents typed in "Pages" can be easily translated to "Word" documents and emailed within the program.  Documents in "Notes" become part of the body of emails and there are added steps to get them into an easily editable file.  When emails started coming in containing rough drafts I met with students face to face and in some cases emailed suggestions back to them.  In the future I intend to implement peer editing exercises using the iPods, but for this assignment I along with the writer edited the rough draft.

emailing using Pages

For most students a few edits here and there led to the submission (again through email) of their final drafts.  There grades were sent to them via email along with comments on what they can do to improve their essays in the next time.

In the future I hope to use the mind-mapping app "iThoughts" that my students and I have just begun experimenting with for pre-writing planning.  I also hope to find a way to attach comments as part of the actual rough draft file instead of having to put them into the body of the email and/or tell the student face to face.

Overall, I was able to implement the writing process from start to finish using only three sheets of notebook paper.  Editing and collaboration took place via email, as well as through face to face conferencing and was very effective.  I recognize that this may not be ideal or even possible for some types of writing assignments, however I found it to work very well for this particular assignment.

A Paperless School Newspaper

Before deciding that teaching was what I wanted to do, I was considering going into the “newspaper business.”  Throughout my schooling and still today I love to write.  For this reason one of the things I wanted to start when I began teaching was a student newspaper.  Many high schools have school newspapers, but not many elementary schools have a school newspaper.

My first few years teaching, my students and I were able to create a student newspaper.  Since writing, collecting, and editing stories takes a great deal of time (especially when lessons and teaching, rightfully, takes up most of the time in school) for the first few years we normally “published” three or four issues of the newspaper.  These issues turned out very good, but the time of distribution and consistency of distribution varied greatly from year to year and issue to issue.

When my district upgraded our website design they also made it easier for staff to create and update their class websites.  This gave our librarian and I the idea of making our school newspaper digital.  Now instead of having to wait to collect an issues worth of stories we would be able to post stories to the website as they were completed. 

Overall this method has increased the excitement for our school newspaper.  Since changing the newspaper to an online format students in all grades have submitted stories and artwork.  Students can write stories at any time and then use the forms that have been set up to submit their stories to the student editors and myself via email. 

By going “paperless” our school newspaper, The Valleyview Buzz, has grown significantly when compared to our paper versions of the past.