Connecting Classrooms, Part 2

On December 18th, Kate's 2nd grade class and my 4th grade class connected via WizIq for a second online math lesson. We would have liked to connect sooner, but conflicting schedules, pesky assessments, and various holidays thwarted us. Still, Kate and I prepared using the same website, and we were able to successfully implement all the parts of the lesson we wanted to try. So, how did it go?
The lesson went... fairly well. There were some lingering technological issues, but I feel both classes were able gain some educational results from this math lesson. My class prepared for this lesson by first adopting the mindset that the 4th graders would be teaching the second graders, and we had a discussion where we tried to spell out the steps of learning. I gave them the goal the 2nd graders wanted to achieve, and then guided my students towards what they would have to scaffold for the younger students. We hoped the 2nd graders would be able to identify the values of coins, name the coins, and then select multiple coins to "purchase" various items. My students helped me create multiple pages, and for the final page we found images online of popular toys (they were particularly excited about the trampoline) and created prices for them.
We started the lesson, and the 2nd grade class joined us. The pages we created on WizIq were shared seamlessly, and both classes were able to simultaneously interact with the online tools. The biggest problems was that the video wouldn't work (despite working just fine in practice) and that the sound was behaving oddly. The amplified speakers in my class, and maybe in Kate's too, were giving all sorts of weird feedback, pretty much making oral discussion useless. Nonetheless, we watched as Kate's class worked through the pages and added up the coins they needed. I think for our next connection I would like move towards giving all my 4th grade students an opportunity to blog or discuss a science or language topic online.

Room 25 update

After trying several times to get a hold of each other, Wesley and I finally connected late Tuesday afternoon. We discussed in more detail what we would like the session to look like, again deciding that math is the best subject area for our classes (mostly because of my students’ levels of English). We swapped ideas and Wesley was very open about integrating my money unit into our collaborative lessons. I sent him my Smartboard money lessons that I am using with my students so his students can get a better idea of what level we are at cognitively when they are developing problems for us.

We have rescheduled our classroom conference session for Monday, December 8^th because Wes had an appointment this afternoon. We are hoping that Dave or Joe will be able to join us! I am especially excited for this session because I feel as though my students are becoming more comfortable with the use of the Smartboard.

I use popsicle sticks with their name on them to choose turns (otherwise the chaos ensues, and research has shown that while we are unaware, we can unconsciously choose the same students all the time.) They have recently started using the “skip” pass when they aren’t feeling particularly comfortable. I still do a little gentle coaxing ;)

I am using the Smartboard in multiple lessons a day and had been setting up and taking down several times a day. This all seemed ridiculous, so for the 3^rd time this year I rearranged my room. My students seem to be as keen to rearranging as I am, thank goodness! Since then I have set up my Smartboard in a permanent (for now) location. I also did some trouble shooting by setting all of the brakes, and taping off a “hot box” that leaves room for the students to work on the board. (I also created a “bubble” for myself that cannot be popped- mostly for sanity reasons).

I’d like to try the Smartboard as an independent reading and math center, but I’m still unsure if they can handle the responsibility. Maybe after the new year.

Webcam Woes

"Please stay tuned... we are experiencing technical difficulties." THIS seems to be the current motto for my classroom.

As previously stated, Wesley and I have tried (on multiple occasions) to collaborate with our technology but have hit many brick walls. Persistence is key. I have no doubt that we will work out the kinks and have an awesome collaborative classroom environment. My worry is when? If I had a genie in a bottle- I would wish for more hours in a day. Then I could finally have enough time to sit and perfect all of my technology skills, among other things.

In my graduate courses for my teaching certification, one of my professors was adamant about being prepared: "Always prepared, often OVER prepared" she used to say. Never more has this rung true than with the integration of technology this year. I can capture and lose their attention in a matter of seconds- depending on how prepared my technology lesson is.

Granted, there are days when you are ready to rock and the technology doesn't cooperate. Our WizIQ session was a perfect example of that. This is when I come full circle to persistence. I started the year gun shy, afraid that if I wasn't fully prepared that I shouldn't use my technology. I soon realized this was a silly justification (almost like saying I shouldn't pull out my Spanish/English dictionary in the middle of class) We are all learners, and the students seem to become more invested when they understand that I am learning along with them. I have now realized that my students have more patience and dedication for the implementation of technology than I do. They'll wait quietly while I figure it out, that is, if they aren't already helping me.

First Collaborative Project

Just before Halloween Kate and I connected our classrooms for a cooperative project. Using the online WizIq service, we tried to share a lesson on the four basic math operations between Kate's second-grade class and my fourth-grade class. My class created math problems, in both English and Spanish, and discussed how to teach the math to the younger, but no less eager, students.
Well, the lesson did not go as smoothly as we would have hoped. While we did test run the WizIq service ahead of time, multiple problems still cropped up on the day we tried it. Kate scheduled the lesson, but we were unable to share control at the same time. Her students' work solving the problems never appeared on my Smartboard, so we couldn't quite guide her students through the problem. We also couldn't get me webcam video to appear on her board, no was the sound clear enough to really be helpful. Needless to say, the lesson did quite meet our expectations. Still, our students were very engaged by the experiment, and we look forward to try again sometime this month with another collaborative project. Have any ideas about another service where we could work together online?

Starting the Year

Kate and I were excited to finally meet last week for an after-school meeting. While I already knew Kate, as my wife works at her school, we had not had the opportunity to talk technology yet. We had wanted to meet earlier, but between DNC events (Go Obama!) and moving, it just didn't happen.
We spent an hour setting up the Smartboard, Clickers, and discussing online options. Kate was particularly interested in the variety of possibilities with the Smartoard. Her second grade bilingual class needs ways to visually manipulate language and images to build their English skills. The Smartboard would allow them to organize the sounds and phonems of English, and then link them to pictures. While we thought this would be a great way to enhance the curriculum in English language learning, we were also a bit daunted when we started exploring what else her students could do. We discussed how picutes could be used in Clickers, so that the benefits of this tech could be used by those who were not fast readers. At some point we threw in some GLETs talk too, but we'll have to further discuss that sometime soon. We look forward to meeting again soon.