About Me!

I began teaching fifth and sixth graders in the 2006-07 school year. Since that time I have taught 5th and 6th grade English Language Arts, reading and social studies. Currently I am teaching 8th and 9th grade ELA in my home district. I hold a professional teaching certification in New York State for both Elementary Education (1-6) and English Language Arts (7-12). and have my initial certification as a School Building Leader.

I believe one of my biggest strengths as an educator is my ability to integrate technology into the lessons. In fact, I earned a master's degree in integrating technology in the classroom. Many times I think teachers use technology as a bell or whistle and not as a tool to educate. It is great to get the attention of students with these bells and whistles, but it is even better to use these technologies to teach!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

iPod Touches: Lino Online Stickies

Every morning in my classroom there is about fifteen minutes from the time my students can enter the classroom until the time they are considered late and classes actually begin.  To avoid complete chaos for these fifteen minutes I have my students respond to a journal prompt.  These responses are written in a composition notebook that serves as their "journal."  As you can imagine some of my students are very resistant to this activity, especially since I require them to write at least a paragraph.

Now that I have a class set of iPod Touches I have changed the way journals are done.  Each iPod has the Lino app installed.  This allows my students to use Lino It, to see the journal prompt and pin their response to the virtual bulletin board.  So far this has been a major success.  My students love to type their journals and the quality of their responses has risen dramatically, due in part to the fact that they know what they post can be seen and read by their classmates.  This also allows me to vary the type of prompt, for example I can post an image and have my students write a caption.

It is no longer Beta

The coolest part of doing the journals through Lino It happened on Friday morning when a substitute teacher was in for me.  I am a huge Syracuse Basketball fan and along with my wife, sister, brother-in-law and niece took two personal days and made the trip to see SU play in Boston last Thursday and Saturday.  On Friday morning, while waiting at Sullivan Square Station for the "T" to go into the city for some sightseeing, I was able to use my iPhone to pull up the Lino It bulletin board, see what my students had posted, and respond instantly to their journal entries from two hundred miles away.  VERY COOL STUFF!
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