More technology in the classroom

"She's baaaaack!!" (Enter my students' brains last Tuesday morning :)

I'm kidding..at least I hope I am. For the most part, all 25 of my little sweeties seemed very excited to see me :) There were a few, of course, who had been getting away with a little (or a lot) more than I would've allowed and those few...well...they looked slightly less enthused. They'll come around!

With my return came some new tech tools that I had been waiting anxiously to try out with my kiddos! I wrote about one of these tools, Haiku Deck, here. Another tool I chose to use is called Coggle. This user-friendly site allows you to create a mind map with a simple click and type format. It's free and, as I said, it's VERY easy to use but you do need to create an account. I'd love for my students to create their own, but feel as though, on the SAMR technology model, it's really only a substitution for paper. I do feel my students were more engaged with the technology portion versus if I would've simply written it on the chart...and it DOES save on paper (which I think we're all trying to do this time of year)!

The other tool I used (which I've used in the past and LOVE) is Infuse Learning. This website allows you to create and save quizzes that can include images and be formatted as open-answer, multiple choice, true or false or one-question exit ticket. Once the quiz is created you can then "invite" your students to join the quiz using your room code. Students enter the code, their name, and then move through the quiz at their own pace. The best part is the instant data! As the students proceed through the quiz their responses show up on the teacher device in a sort of bar-graph format. I was able to use this multiplication quiz to check for understanding within various strategies and then make on-the-spot groups based on their results! Quick, easy and no paper required...what more could a teacher ask for? :)

Haiku Deck...Do you?

This past week I continued to expand upon my technology bag of tricks as I played around with a new tool: Haiku Deck (http://www.haikudeck.com/app/edit/r6WgFWkIwt). This website allows you to easily create and present a slideshow, much like a powerpoint. It is very user friendly as it walks you through adding text and pictures and even provides you with a large selection of pictures based on key text you've used. 

I'll be returning to my classroom in just a week and will be wrapping up a multiplication unit that my LTS has been working on with my 3rd graders. Since multiplication is a fairly new concept to many, it's essential that they understand the basics of mulitplication as well as the many strategies for solving! 

With this in mind I chose to create a haiku deck reviewing the various strategies (repeated addition, equal groups, arrays, skip counting, etc.). While adding a new slide and formating the text within that slide was very easy, I did struggle to import a picture from a source outside of the website itself. I found that pictures couldn't be centered, or fit to the screen, and would cut off important aspects of the picture. Another slight concern I had was the fact that you have to sign in with an email. I'd love to have my students create their own haiku decks but am not sure how they'd go about doing that without an email address. 

For now, I'll continue playing around with this tool as I find it to be an appealing way to present visual information. I'm hoping the more I play with it, the sooner I'll see a way in which to put this tool in the hands of my third graders! 

UPDATE!

I was able to put this bad boy to the test! (Why I used that expression there I don't know...)

Anyways, my students really enjoyed the simple, clean-cut illustrations because they could easily tell which multiplication strategy I was talking about. I chose to pull it up on my iPad and use AirServer to present it on my SMART Board as I walked around the group. It went like this:

I asked each student to pick a multiplication fact that they knew the product to (they couldn't use 1 or 0 as a factor). They wrote that fact on their white board. I then projected one of the slides on the board showing a way to represent that fact (repeated addition, arrays, etc.) and they had to represent their fact in that way. 

This served as a great way for me to quickly check-in on their progress and see which strategies needed more time (ARRAYS!!). 

Overall, great tool, easy to use and implement in the classroom and one I'd like to try and teach my students to create and use on their own!

Struggle and a strength..UPDATE!

Shortly after posting about my struggle to return to work after maternity leave I found myself awake around my little man's favorite time to eat (and be awake!)...3 am. I was having my own little pitty party as I'm still pretty sleep deprived and totally overwhelmed with the looming "return date." While he eats I typically find myself skimming the internet, reading blogs or "creeping" on Facebook. However, this time Facebook presented me with something more than just a bunch of random pictures and status updates about how cold it is here in Minnesota.

The first thing to pop up on my news feed was this article: "What Students Remember Most About Teachers."

As I got to the end of the article I was encompassed by emotions and, for the first time since my son was born in December, found myself rejuvenated by the idea of returning to work. I have 25 students there waiting for me to remind them just how special they are and, starting Tuesday, that's exactly what I intend to do.

Where there is a struggle...there is a strength (conference bloggers)

As I head into my final week of maternity leave I'm seriously struggling with wrapping my head around being Mrs. Geier and not just "mommy." I've had nightmares (for lack of any better word) for the past three nights that I'll return to my group, which I've worked over a year with to develop respectful, hard-working kids, and they'll have "turned on me." (Like I said...they were nightmares)

I know this sounds extreme, but that's where I'm struggling. I work with some pretty extreme kids! Not to mention I've gotten three new students in the past two weeks...one who has already been written up three times for fighting.

My fear is, when I left my classroom I was "only" a wife. With my husband working three nights a week I was able to stay late, when needed, helping students after school, making parent phone calls, and differentiating multiple lessons to ensure the next day would go smoothly.

Now, my #1 priority is no longer my job, but my family; especially my 2 month old son. My struggle is knowing whether or not I'll be able to continue being the teacher I expect myself to be; the teacher my students need me to be. How can I possibly find the time to plan, grade, read and research (grad school!), feed, burp and, most importantly, snuggle?!

However, as the title of this post states: "Where this is a struggle...there is a strength."

I've always been a believer that "If He leads you to it, He will lead you through it." I find strength in knowing that I can be a really great teacher, grad student, wife and mom. While I know it'll be one of the more stressful times in my short 27 years, I will get through it. My students will succeed, I will get my Master's degree and my husband and little boy will feel very loved through it all.