Our building is currently surrounded by geeks! 🙂 Some construction is taking place nearby, so my guess is the local squad of computer-savvy geeks is here to work their computer magic. I find it funny that I spent the first 20 or so years of my life trying not to be a geek, and now I think
geeks are totally impressive!
Speaking of computers and technology, I’m super-duper curious how you use technology in your classroom. If you use a computer, a digital camera, a document camera, an interactive whiteboard, a tablet, or any other electronic device, I’d love to learn how you are using it (or them!).
Oh, and the giveaway? To be entered, simply share your techno-success stories with us before November 15. Your name will be entered in a drawing for a free book from The Mailbox. And there’s more! The Mailbox editors will also be reading your suggestions for possible purchase to use in upcoming magazines. This means your comment alone could earn you a $20 gift certificate. Yippee!
Happy November!
Diane
Congratulations to Jennifer! She’s the winner of our giveaway!
I still am not completely computer literate, but I am determined to not stop learning!
Our latest school success involved a quick, hassle free fundraiser during our pumpkin patch parties. We set up a cute picture place with pumpkins, hay bales & scarecrows. We took the children’s pictures and then charged the parents $3 per keepsake picture. During nap time I ran the pictures up to Sam’s Club and added a cute border to enhance the pictures. They were passed out the next day and our school made a profit of almost $400. That will go towards things we need around our school. We usually have a photographer come in for formal Christmas pictures, but we think we’ll use this idea again for Christmas and other big events at our school!
I got placed to student teach with a super techno savy cooperating teacher and I was so scared! By the end of the semester, I knew it all and loved using all of it and the best part of all is that it helped a ton in my job interviews that fall!
I use a document camera that allows me to hook my computer up to it. I use different websites depending on what we are studying. The other day we read Stellaluna and then watched a clip about bats. My first graders were learning how to take notes on the video clip and then we did a compare and contrast activity.
I have a camera that I take pictures of the children actively learning in my classroom so I can sit down with parents and when I conference I have the documentation in a picture to show them what their child is learning. I put these in the child’s portfolio. I also take the camera on field trips with us then when we get home we can make a book with pictures for the class to read and look at. I even make posters with pictures put on the walls to get the class talking about what is happening with each other. They go around during center time and take pictures with their play cameras.
I use the camera in many ways to doucment things Children are doing. Great block structures have their picture taken and are placed in a book to be kept in the block area.
I heard a great one today though to take pictures of the kids doing things to add to the portfolio.
I use my color printer/scanner and my camera card to make instant prints of the kids. We then laminate them and add magnetic tape and use them to assign jobs, choose centers, show attendance, etc. It’s so nice to be able to edit and print with so little effort.
I like to take pictures of my students playing, reading, or working on an activity. I crop these and send them to my drugstore online. When I pick them up I cut away the background. I use these on our board outside our door to show their best work. I have the work in page protectors and their pictures are glued to the outside of the page protector. They love it and we get lots of compliments!
I love teaching with technology! It is an instant motivator! In my classroom I have a document camera, an interactive whiteboard, a digital camera, and a tablet has been ordered. I am fortunate to have a laptop computer for each of my students. These are shared with the other first grade class. No, we are not a rich school! All of these things have been purchased with grant money. We have a class blog. On this blog we share what we have been learning. Websites, videos and pictures are posted. Student respond to a variety of posts. This not only makes them tech savvy but they are practicing their writing skills as well. There are so many fun website with learning games on them. The kids hardly know they are working!
Tchnology in the classroom is great. I take pictures of my students in the classroom doing different activities to create a picture schedule. I am also using a flip camera to record activities we do within our classroom to share with parents at conference time. The flip camera can also be used to record events that the students maybe participating in throughout the school and we use these videos to go back and reflect on our favorite part of the event.
I have three computers in my classroom which the children use for many educational games involving math and literacy. I also have a digital camera which I use to take pictures of the children playing and working at the different centers. These are used for a year in pictures shown at graduation. I also take pictures for special times og the year and frame for parents. Pictures are also used for helpers and sign in.
I use my active board all the time. I have started making self check activities on the board. I teach the concept and practice as a class. Then the students do the self check problems. When they can do those they have to complete several “ticket out the door” activities that I check for understanding and can help the struggling students.
Currently, I am using my document camera and whiteboard daily and I have no clue what I did without them before! My students love using the Smartboard and playing games to learn, practice, and review games is so much more fun than using worksheets…….I use both pieces to share student work samples, pictures from books, introduce new activities and just so much more! Gee, technology is fabulous!
My preschoolers use technology on a daily basis and love it! During morning circle, students use our smart board to identify their name and mark that they are here today as well as go over the daily schedule. We also use our smart board during music time for songs such as “5 little monkeys swinging from a tree” instead of a felt board. We recently found an online timer that we put up on the smart board as a visual cue for students to be aware of how much time we have left for a certain activity. Every time we turn on our smart board the students get excited. They have so much fun they don’t even realize they are learning!
I use a digital camera to ake picures and I create a slideshow on my school web page for the parents and students to keep up wih what is happening in the classroom. I love my smartboard and my students love writing thier names and sight words using the fancy writing pens on the board. I still love my language masters and my overhead and I have three student use computers for student programs. I combine a lot of old echnology with new technology.
I do not have a lot of tech stuff in my classroom. I use my digital camera and take lots of pictures. I use this for docuumentation as well as art projects and class books. The kids love to see pictures of themselves. We just changed owners so I am hoping to see more technology in our classrooms.
I use my digital camera to show parents the activities their children are involved in: PE, music, library, art, working at their desks, free time play, and to make seasonal bulletin boards featuring the kids – I love Mailbox’s idea of full-body shots of kids, cut them out, display them on leaf shapes.
Document camera is great for kids to watch formation of words: left to right, top to bottom. I show good samples and we discuss poor samples (from previous years so that nobody is embarrassed!)
I record Kid Quotes on my computer – maybe I’ll write a book about them someday.
The computer is handy to record the kids’ stories, print them out and display them with the kids’ illustrations.
We use the camera to take pictures of the children. These pictures go on the cubby with their name. A great idea, which I haven’t yet implemented would be to put the picure with the child’s name on a label. Print out a bunch of sheets like that and use it to label the children’s arts and crafts. Everyone knows who’s who!
I use the digital camera to take pictures for our pocket charts. Then we can use them for graphs, for who is at what center, or who is absent. I also use them for the memory book at the end of the year.
I use the mounted projector camera to project my computer screen and we play educational games as a class, or we play educational short videos and educational music videos from YouTube. (for example Sesame Street short videos or Have Fun Teaching music videos). We also use the projector camera to have the kids work a problem and then the class watches them work it under the camera and it projects onto the screen. (We don’t have a SmartBoard yet, so this is fancy technology for my classroom)
We use a digital camera for slide-shows. We also use computers to send out weekly updates and monthly newsletters.
I use the interactive white board daily for sharing different work and activities. During read aloud time I use the Doc cam so students are able to follow along as I read and/or view illustrations. I publish a classroom website using the computer and share videos and music throughout the day. I also use my personal digital camera and iPad for taking and sharing photos and other educational items with students.