4J TILT Project 07/08

I have been using my document reader for daily oral language, showing my palm pilot and with our text books (showing pages to the class). It as taken the place of my overhead projector. I have used inspiration for for research, which students then turn into word documents. The clickers have been used weekly in different forms: pre-assess, post assess, quick quiz, etc.

I haven’t been doing anything too exciting, but the changes have been fun for me and, I hope, useful for the kids.

I’ve been using my document camera all the time. I use it on a daily basis for daily language practice. I used it to display pictures students brought in for presentations. I use it more often than the overhead projector because I can put things up without having to prepare ahead of time. The ability to put up things in color is such an advantage.

I’m also presently having students making brochures about icons, ideas, or symbols associated with American culture. We’re using the templates in Word because we don’t have Pages in our computer lab yet.

One good, one bad…

1) Comic Life personal narratives: I used Inspiration to brainstorm and organize an event, then had students create a comic book representation of the event. They used cameras and images from the web to bring images into their comic.

2) Clicker software is still being a pain. It has stopped saving twice more, and I have had to uninstall and reinstall the software. I can save my lessons, but keep losing classes and the data connected to them. I’d like to know if this happens to anyone else.

I have used CPS for clicker quizzes in my class called That’s Funny. We have incorporated Comic Life and Photo Booth in this as well.

Students have had occasion to use Comic Life to demonstrate knowledge of satire.

Additionally, I am using Garage Band to record my voice in a reading of The Martian Chronicles. I am hoping to create a pod cast to enhance the reading experience for all students as we move through the literature.

Though some of this tech stuff is fun and I do see the benefit, time is a huge hurdle in the path of my being able to incorporate TILT material into my curriculum.

I have been using the SMARTBoard for about a month and a half now. I use it for DOL. I also use the SMARTBoard software to do pre-reading activities for short stories. I used an interactive map my Greek Mythology Unit, specifically for The Adventures of Ulysses. The interactive map showed each stage of the journey - geographically where he was. The SMARTBoard was great because I could use the map - I wasn’t restricted to the overhead or my computer.

I have also liked the screen feature in the SMARTBoard - to reveal information slowly.

I have been using Smartboard regularly for our language arts warm ups. I have taken pictures of the transparencies with AverVision and imported those pictures into Smartboard.

I have also used CPS for exam and vocabulary review.

I also used Smartboard for a group activity on the branches of government. I had my students in different groups and each group used the Smartboard to match responsibilities of their branch of government.

I used the CPS to stimulate discussion on constitutional dilemmas.

I seem to be using the Smartboard for the same type of matching assignments. Anyone have a new idea?

My class has been busy creating Keynote projects. They will use them to present an issue to the class (such as hunger or pollution) that they think the class should take on as a project. The Keynote presentation requires internet research. They are using our classroom website (http://staff.4j.lane.edu/~vanderbilt) which contains links they can use for research.

My class is also using Pages for creative writing. It works well in that it flags their misspellings at suggests alternatives. This feature alone is really freeing them up to get their ideas flowing and recorded.

I have been working on using the document camera and clickers for regular classroom activities. I especially like the clickers for a quick review of where we are on skills acquistion.
I also used photobooth as part of a poetry assignment. Kids finished a self-portrait poem and took pictures on photobooth to decorate their final portrait.
I am planning on using keynote on the next lit circle unit for groups to report back on their novels, and to assess their understanding on plot and character development

I have been using the document reader & computer exclusively. Today, I went back to the overhead and students remarked how much easier it was to read. I will try to create clearer “capturing” of my documents.

I find it frutstrating that I can’t capture documents with the Document Reader and have them be editable. I realize I can buy additional software to do this, but it sure makes sense to have it as part of the package.

Unfortunately, the lighting is not set up in the classroom so that I can keep the right set of lighting banks on/off to help see the board and be able to write Hopefully, schools of the future will be geared to the new technology set-ups we are experimenting with.

I have been using my projector and slide shows every day, and using the document camera frequently. I have had some difficulty going back and forth between the document camera and my laptop. Urgh! I should not have to restart every time!

I am also feeling some frustration with the access to our COWS. We are feeling a major crunch when it comes to the amount of time we have tech support, and the number of computers we have access to. The language arts classes use the laptops frequently, and it is difficult for me to schedule them for my classes all day.

I love using technology as a tool for instruction, it is just difficult for me to get it into the hands of my students.

I am creating activities using the clickers in all 5 of my classes. Our health team is looking at using inspiration for creating and keeping track of student progress of health goals.

I feel keyboarding skills are necessary, too many of our students are lacking typing skills.imovie, keynote and unitedstreaming are a plus. I found if you struggle there is always a several kids who know what to do. If you find useful youtube sites you can download them and give that address or have it open as a link, but do not let them just play on youtube- too many problems, however ask your students- several of mine have videos on there.

I recently had students write personal narratives inspired by stories from Ira Glass’ “This American Life.” I encouraged students to focus on experiences that were dramatic, humorous, absurd, or moving.

After students finished writing and revising their stories, I had them dictate their stories into Garage Band. Students then edited pauses into their stories and inserted thematically appropriate music and sound effects.

When finished, students exported their stories into iTunes and took them home to share with friends and family.

Last week we used Keynote to summarize short stories. Students Identified the main characters, the setting, the main conflicts, a theme, and created a general plot summary using individual slides integrating images and text.

While I had the COWS, I had them use Keynote to practice their vocabulary for the week. Students made a slide for each word using the word in context with at least one image.

Now that students have been trained on Keynote, they will be able to use this program for their upcoming oral presentations.

We just started using the district server. This was a bit tricky at first, but will prove to be a useful tool.

I also let them play around with Photo Booth with a partner. This was, by far, their favorite activity.

I’ve had a great time using Keynote ( and regular old Power Point) with my yearlong 7/8 grade class. They created a plot line with the book The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - an activity that worked out particularly well around Halloween.
In groups, students decided which scenes would best illustrate
exposition,rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. I had a box of costumes and, using digital cameras, students designed tableaux scenarios and then created a side presentations with at least 8 slides. They loved playing with the slide transitions and matching music to plot line elements.

I have been using United Streaming video clips with my history students. It has been helpful to preview upcoming units. I have found many options to choose from. Many of the clips have assessments as well.

In my digital photography class, students are creating alphabet books as their first project to get them started.