Technology Reflections

I named this blog Technology Reflections because I intended to use it as a place where I could reflect on my use of technology in my Computer and Reading classes. As I was moving posts back over here from wordpress and reorganizing stuff here I began reflecting on the nature of my posts.I do feel that I reflect on my technology use in the classroom, but I’ve also started to blog about technology use in other areas of my life. That’s OK – I can live with that because often the technology that I encounter outside of school impacts the technology that I use in school.

An example of this is something that The Reflective Teacher posted a while back – The Literature Pocketmod. I thought it was really cool and I began thinking of ways to use it in my classroom.

We have state tests coming up and I decided to use it to review the terms the kids would see on the test. Well, being the geek that I am, I decided that I needed to figure out a way to have the kids do this project on the computer. The challenge was to figure out what went on each page before it was folded and cut so that when it was folded and cut everything would be in the right places.

After a few false starts I think I have it figured out. One big obstacle was how to get text upside down. Word does not allow for upside down text – even if you rotate a text box 180 degrees, the text stays right side up! I solved this problem by typing text in Photoshop Elements and inserting it into the word document as an image and then rotating the image.

I’m in the process of finalizing the template and instructions and creating a sample of my own. I have found that the kids will be able to understand complex projects like this better when they can see a finished product. I’ll come back to this post and link the template and instructions when they are finished.

PocketMod Planner

PocketMod Template

PocketMod Sample – this is graphic heavy – be patient with the download

I will use this project for my 8th grade computer class. I think it will be too difficult for my 7th grade Reading classes to do on the computer, but I will still have them complete a handwritten Pocketmod to review those test terms.

When blogging with students, my #1 priority is keeping them safe from outside influences. Recently on my edu and learnerblog sites there has been a rash of vulgar, inappropriate comments left on both my and my students blogs.

One way that I attempt to keep my students safe is that I used my email address when creating blogs for each of my students. During some recent updates over at edu/learnerblogs, that is no longer possible. That, along with the increase in spam, caused me to move my blogs here to Wordpress.com.

I looked at a variety of other blogs, but decided on wordpress.com because learnerblogs uses wordpress for their blogs and everything would be similar. Unfortunately, wordpress also limits your email address to one use. You can add blogs to your email address, but then all those blogs have access to all the other other blogs linked to that email. That doesn’t work for me – I can’t have students with access to MY blogs nor the other students’ blogs. What I have decided to do is to keep the student blogs at learnerblogs for now. I will have each student add me to their blog as an Editor. That will allow me to log onto their blogs with my username and password. Also, those blogs are still linked to my email so I will be notified of all comments posted.

Next year when I need to create new blogs for my new students I will have to send a letter home asking parents to create an email for their children to use solely as their blog email. It would be great to have all the emails at yahoo or gmail, too. I will get the passwords to each email so that I can monitor the comments that way. I will have each student add me to their blog as an Editor and I think I can also subscribe to the comments to keep tabs on them that way. I will test this procedure with some dummy accounts first.

I hate change…..but if I have to make changes I’m going to make sure that I have it all planned out before I start

As of today, October 22, 2006, this blog has moved to a new location – http://technologyreflections.wordpress.com/ (12/10 Update: I am now back on edublogs since all of the issues have been resolved)

The recent increase in spam and the loss of creating multiple blogs under one email address in learnerblogs has prompted my move.

In the coming days I will be moving the rest of my edu/learnerblogs to wordpress.

Reading the Thinking Stick 1 year anniversary post made me think about something that happened last week.

Instead of a chapter test, I had my 7th grade reading classes write a news story about an incident that happened in the novel we’re reading. One student was taking longer than usual. This student is constantly in motion and often needs reminders to pay attention. During this assignment he kept looking on the computer of the student next to him to see what she was writing and he just didn’t seem to be putting much effort into doing his own work. I’ve been a Special Education teacher for about 20 years and I have found that if I push some kids, they actually do the work and then they feel great about themselves. This student is usually one of those who thinks he needs help, but can actually do the work if he takes the time to focus on the work rather than complaining about it : ) (Note: The students in this class are not special ed [well some have IEPs] – it is a reading class for students who earned an average score on the state tests)

Well, Friday I was reminded that things aren’t always what they seem. This student was far behind the rest of the class. He had one paragraph written and seemed to be dawdling on writing any more…..until I took a closer look. I realized that he WAS trying to work, but his typing skills are so bad that he couldn’t do the work. He was actually in tears before I noticed and I felt horrible! He wanted to do the work so badly (he was afraid he’d get an F if he didn’t finish that day) that he wouldn’t even go to the restroom to wash his face and get a drink of water, even when I told him to go.

I finally asked him if he’d rather finish the assignment on paper and he said yes and look so relieved! I also asked him if he wanted me to email his mother and tell her that he needed a typing program at home, and he said yes. He will not get to take my computer class this year because he is in another all-year elective, so he won’t even get basic computer skills at school. I did email the mother and she responded quickly agreeing to get the typing program. I also asked the student if he wanted to take a break from the assignment or if he wanted to work on it over the weekend and he said he wanted to do it over the weekend. I told him he did not have to hand it in typed unless he chose to.

Here I was thinking that I was doing something fun for the kids by having them type a writing assignment – and post it on their blog – but for this child it was torture!

(Note: there are no links in this post because I get errors when I try to post with links – I will add links as soon as I can)