Technology as a grade level
Aside from collaborating about Reading and Math lessons, student projects, and standards, my educational team takes the time to collaborate about technology as well. Since our school is a Technology Magnet School we want to find resources for lessons that make them more dynamic, interactive, and multimodal. The main goal for our collaboration is finding ways to integrate technology into our classrooms and to share those applications with each other.
We shared the technology skills we are teaching in the classroom in order to build on those skills or introduce additional skills over time. When we find a new APP for the Ipad, or a new website, or a new way to use technology resources we already have, we develop the most efficient way to use it. The grade level collaboration was the main impetus behind creating my classroom website. We were offering each other so many different websites, videos, and interactive resources that I wanted to put all of them in an easily accessible location. Through our collaborations I learned about programs like Imovie, Comic Life, Book Creator, Calculus Doodlus, Educreations, Puppet Pals, Socrative students, Splashtop whiteboard, and Audionotes; as well as ways to use them in the classroom. We share Flipcharts with each other for Math and Reading lessons, incorporating videos and interactive games/APPS in the lesson to better meet student needs.
I realized students needed a way to explore on their own time a lot of these resources. I decided to create a classroom webpage with links for students to explore. The website is mostly comprised of links and videos. I wanted to create this website so students who were struggling or even students who were advanced but wanted more information could have interactive digital examples for lessons. Using and incorporating the digital models and fun demonstrations and games gave the students a way to experience learning in a whole new way. I do not want to use technology in a haphazard way. I wanted to create a webpage where students can be interactive, and solve, question, play games and be constantly engaged.
Technology with Parents
In the past I have collaborated with parents using classroom newsletters and email. Students did not always give the newsletter to their parents. I had students take home their math journals to study but they would forget to bring them back I wanted to make sure the parents had a user friendly website that was linked in through the school. I created a parent website. This website functions differently than my classroom website. The classroom website functions as a hub where students investigate and explore links. The parent website is designed to relay information about the curriculum or news in the classroom. There are four pages on the website; 5th grade, math, reading and PBL. I post my classroom discipline policies and procedures, share upcoming events and important information, and give a weekly recap of instruction in all content areas.
Student Use of Technology
The focus of my science class is water use globally and water use in New Mexico. I teach the students about the water cycle, water as an element, and how water sheds work in New Mexico. Students perform science experiments with water and determine how water is polluted and wasted in our environment. Students use the information they have learned to create a website about water to share with others that incorporates other elements of technology. Students learned how to use video equipment, editing software and a website generator. Students learned how to upload and download files, how to cite resources and how to research information. They used a website generator to create webpages. They incorporated the use of movie editing and video tools, imovie and keynote to create interactive and educational websites about water. I have a new class each trimester with 5 groups, ending in a finished product of 15 websites. Please feel free to explore the pages below.