Homework Day

The term “Homework Day” conjures up several images in my mind.

Students with overwhelmed looks on their faces
Bulging backpacks taking on rectangular shaped outlines
Frustrated parents bent over kitchen tables helping their children

When I think of “Homework Day”, I definitely don’t think of the phrase, “Lights, Camera, Action”. But that is exactly what Wolfram Alpha’s Live Web Event entitled “Homework Day” had in mind.

Mom and I were lucky enough to be asked to participate in this live web event after word got out that we have been using www.wolframalpha.com in our classrooms with our students. Not only have we been successfully using this site with our students, we have had rave reviews about it from educators with whom we have shared it during our workshops and presentations.

The Internet Cafe - Photo by Megan Bearder

We took a half day off from our respective 4th and 5th grade classrooms to drive to Wolfram Alpha Headquarters for our world-wide debut. Did I just type, “world-wide”? While we have done a ton of presentations for a ton of teachers, we have never participated in a global event. This was EXCITING!

After entering “The Set” I was immediately mic’d and placed in front of the SMARTBoard in order to go live within 15 minutes for a demonstration of how I have been using Wolfram Alpha in the classroom. It was just like I imagine TV personalities are queued. A number of cameras from a number of different locations all pointed and ready, a producer counting down, the host getting ready to hop in to crack a joke or ask a question, it was all surrounding me.

All of a sudden I didn’t feel too well. Nerves? Uhhhh….yes!

But something funny happened…as soon as the cameras started rolling and I picked up the SMARTBoard pen, it was like I was presenting at a workshop, or teaching my kiddos. I felt totally at home.

I was thrilled to show the ways I have been using this site with my students. I made sure to include a variety of examples for a variety of curricular areas…just like we do in our workshops. The host actually spoke with me briefly before we went live to make sure he knew what I was showing. “Math examples right?”

On a side note, the developers of Wolfram Alpha also happen to be the creators of Mathematica. This extraordinary software is used globally for upper level math. So obviously I would be showing math examples…right?

Wrong. Recess TEC prides itself in showcasing the use of technology across all different curricular areas, learning modalities, and ability levels…and I mean ALL. This demonstration was no different. I made sure to show how I have been using the site for Social Studies, English, Spelling, Reading, Science and Math. I even had a music example up my sleeve but didn’t show it only because they asked me to show how I use it in my class and I am not the music teacher. But if I WERE the music teacher, I would still be using this site…because there is something for everyone…which is truly the Recess TEC mantra!

After my demo, Mom and I were escorted by a young intern to the kitchen to make sure we had everything we needed.

Something to eat? Drink?

An autograph session with Richard Dreyfuss?

That’s right…not 10 feet from the potato salad bowl sat Richard Dreyfuss waiting for his interview segment.

Was this really happening?

I felt much better and my nerves were gone. I just had the residual high from presenting something about which I am passionate with anyone who will listen. What to do? Get something to eat.

I turned to Mom and asked her if she wanted to eat…the look on her face told me her answer. She was experiencing my same nervousness. Her interview was still an hour away.

During that hour, we had the opportunity to meet and speak with some of the friendliest people in education. It was fabulous…and sort of surreal.

I will let Mom tell you about her interview and experience during Homework Day from her point of view. But I can’t help but point out that she was awesome! The ever so calm and collected veteran educator who answers questions from the heart and continues to find new and exciting ways to motivate and challenge her students did just that during her Q and A session with Eric. (A.K.A the Conan look alike…according to the web chat that was rolling all day).

As Shannon described, this day was beyond exciting. It ranked up there above my skydive and… almost everything else. To sit and watch your daughter present at a global event and to feel the pride that only a parent would understand ranked up there with her birth. Shannon did a wonderful job and she did justice as a spokesperson for the “product” that is truly our future.

I did have a tiny butterfly fluttering before my interview, but I don’t think it was my nerves so much as the adrenalin that was picked up from the excitement that permeated the whole atmosphere. Even the “audio guy” who mic’d me up told me he was genuinely excited about the day, the event, and even seeing Richard Dreyfuss.

As I was placed shoulder-to-shoulder with the host on the “X”… even an “X” on the ground, “surreal” truly is the only word to have described it.

The host asked me if I was nervous, and I told him I was not.

I asked him if he was, and he said he was not.

I asked him if he was having fun, and he said he could not possibly be having more fun.

He asked me if I was feeling “anticipation” and I sang that one word of Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” because, as I told him, there is always a song in my head.

So it went as the producer with her headset and clipboard counted down to my global debut. And then the fun began. I was able to talk about teaching, my students, our passion for technology, and this wonderful new addition to our students’ lives and future.

I have always told my students that I will make as many oppotunities for them to present in front of their classmates, but to remember that when they talk about those things that excite them, they will not feel as nervous. They will only want to deliver their message. This was our day, and how could I have had, as the host told me, any more fun?

The next day I had to return to reality. My students knew where I was going. They had seen the Homework Day icon on Wolfram Alpha’s website, and I am not gone very often. They were mesmerized listening as I described my day and truly excited to see the pictures from the Wolfram Alpha’s site on the SMARTBoard.

My return day continued into the night as we are also in the middle of parent-teacher conferences.

Then it happened. That thing that summarizes the reason for the whole event.

One of my parents said that his daughter had asked him to ask me about my day with Wolfram Alpha. I tried to put it into words thankful I had a small break before my next conference so I could share the experience. Then he described to me the day his daughter had forgotten her Science book and he was concerned whether or not she would be able to complete her assignment.

“That’s okay, Dad. I can just go to Wolfram Alpha”.

She did and she did.

Wolfram Alpha, thank you for making all of this happen.

Wolfram Alpha’s Homework Day did not resemble ANY of the earlier images to which I alluded. This Homework Day was the essence of 21st Century tech integration to help students work smarter, not harder.

Homework Day – Now the teacher’s best friend, the student’s saviour, the parent’s support system.

It was an awesome day!

Enough said.

And the Winner is…

by recesstec reflections tips workshops

tech_idol_blog It happens every year, a large group forms to reunite, socialize, be entertained, and exchange the latest and greatest in their field. No, I am not actually writing about American Idol, but instead the Regional Office of Education’s Fall Classic Teachers’ Institute Day. This year was hands-down one of the best for Mom and me. Actually I can’t speak for Mom, but I thought it was GREAT!.

We decided to make our main technology integration session interactive this year. “Technology Idol”. We compiled a list of our favorite classroom ideas, gathered teacher and student examples, and made them compete against each other for the title of 2009 Technology Idol.

Since we use the Turning Point Student Response System in our classrooms to engage students as well as receive immediate feedback, we decided to place them around the room and have the audience vote for their favorite technology integration ideas as we presented them during the session. There was only one problem…we have 32 clickers and there were easily over 100 people packed into a high school social studies classroom. Don’t get me wrong, we were thrilled that the room was PACKED and bursting (sorry to those who couldn’t get in…maybe the ROE will have us do the session again in the upcoming months after school one day), we just wish we could have put a clicker in every hand! Nevertheless, we were able to gather responses from a fabulous audience cross section!

Round 1: Glogster Vs. Etherpad

These two resources are fun, student-centered, and highly motivating for students to use.

Glogster is an interactive digital poster that allows students to mix curricular-related content with their own personal styles to achieve a 21st century poster report.

Etherpad allows students to collaboratively write on a REAL TIME notepad. REAL TIME. Students can work on reports, essays, take notes, or even exchange ideas online in REAL TIME. Did I mention REAL TIME?

Round 1 Winner: Glogster

Round 2: Glogster Vs. Wolfram Alpha

Since Glogster had won the first round, it was time to give it a new contender.

Enter Wolfram Alpha.

This informational website is the teachers’, parents’ and students’ new best friend. I am here to tell you! We demonstrated how we have been using this online “brain” in our classrooms and the audience was blown away. We easily defined a word by typing in “word duo”. Not only do the definitions of duo come up on an easy-to-read chart, but this site also gives the word origin, synonyms, pronunciation and other “dictionary” related information. All WITHOUT the drama of using the dictionary or thesaurus.

We also showed its ability to factor numbers, give nutritional information on various foods, locate destinations using lines of latitude/longitude, generate words based on spelling patterns and phonics, as well as graph advanced mathematical formulas.

The gasps were audible. The buzz in the room was electrifying. Teachers were DEFINITELY excited about this one.

Do I even need to tell you who won Round 2?

Ok I will…

Round 2 Winner: Wolfram Alpha

Round 3: Wolfram Alpha Vs. Prezi

Prezi is one of my new favorite presentation tools. It is just that, a tool. It is not something that will make the kids understand content any better. But it is pretty cool and ranks high among my motivators when asking kids to do an oral report with a visual aid. PowerPoint is maybe a bit overused and a little lame for the kiddos. (Sorry Microsoft…I still love you!) I showed a lesson on Author’s Purpose using Prezi that generated pleasant smiles from the audience, and they thought it was pretty cool that the presentation was online (no use of memory or flash drives here) as well as the fact that it was all on one screen, even though it didn’t first appear to be during the “show” mode.

I made sure to forewarn the teachers that while Prezi isn’t exactly the EASIEST presentation tool to quickly pick-up, the kids would have no problem and would more than likely enjoy doing reports in this format.

Winner of Round 3: Wolfram Alpha

Round 4: Wolfram Alpha Vs. Multimedia as Writing Prompts

Having difficulty motivating kids to write in a journal? Do you need new ideas and prompts? Why not use multimedia to spark a new story? We showed a series of videos and images as well as what types of prompts could be generated through the use of these two media forms. Teachers were in agreement that the kids would definitely like this twist on journaling. They seemed to enjoy the videos (lots of laughter and note taking and questioning us about where to get the multimedia). Therefore I thought for sure we would have a new leader.

Nope…

Round 4 Winner: Wolfram Alpha

Round 5: Wolfram Alpha Vs. Google Earth

We know Google Earth is O-L-D. We know it has been shown at many conferences. BUT…we also have been known to use it as an interactive learning tool and that is exactly what we showed. HOW to integrate Google Earth into interactive learning field trips with all levels of students and across all curricular areas. We also showed how to let students use it to build their own field trips as alternative forms of assessments. We love Google Earth and the audience seemed to enjoy it as well but….

evidently not as much as they enjoyed Wolfram Alpha.

Winner of round 5: Wolfram Alpha

Round 6 (final round): Wolfram Alpha Vs. Wordle

Wordle is an online word cloud generator that can be used across a variety of content areas. We showed several student examples and gave additional ideas for using this fabulous web 2.0 tool.

And while the teachers thought it looked pretty useful and some who had already used it shared some of their own success story ideas…

it didn’t win.

So…

The winner of Technology Idol 2009: WOLFRAM ALPHA…

…the site we have used in our classrooms, showed the parents of students how to use for homework help, introduced to teachers from across the region and call the Online Brain, Tutor, and One-Stop-Shop for homework help.

Thank you Wolfram Alpha for being such a motivating and exciting part of our presentation at ROE 11’s Fall Classic Teachers’ Institute Day.

Final Note: Since this blog is also used as a way to reflect on workshops/presentations that we have provided, I want to take a moment to explain something that I learned today. While I am constantly looking for new ways to excite, motivate and engage the students in my classroom, it seems that I often share with teachers the tools that I have my students successfully use to accomplish those things. However, today I had a light bulb moment. Not only do educators want ideas and resources for their students to use. They also want ideas and resources THEY can use to help their students. I think that is probably why Wolfram Alpha was the winner. A lot of the ideas we showed are pretty cool (in my opinion) with a lot of “wow” factor (also my opinion but since this is my blog I get to express that one-sided opinion). But the winner was a simple, easy-to-use and integrate, yet HIGHLY effective online learning tool. Interesting.

I share all of Shannon’s reflections and thoughts here. This day was truly rewarding. I was worried as it began. Car troubles had me arriving just as Shannon finished unloading her car, and she had lost her cell phone (since found), so I couldn’t call her. It was raining, and both of us were more than tired from a full week of school and evening presentations. Then the teachers began to fill the room very early so, as they explained, to make sure they had a seat. This was going to be fun! And it was, as Shannon described it above. The two presentations, we agreed, are now our favorites. I walked over to Shannon after “Technology Idol” as we were waiting for the next session to begin and asked, “Would you have predicted that?” I felt that human nature would have changed the vote as we presented new, fun, and more “glitzy” Web 2.0 applications. No, not so. As the room emptied, a young man walked in, took a seat, and asked what all of the excitement was about. An administrator who had remained from the previous session to attend our next presentation explained, “It’s called ‘Wolfram Alpha’ and it’s going to replace textbooks.” How exciting for us to be part of Wolfram Alpha and its introduction to the educational community. I had to notice some of the difficulty that a few of the teachers had pronouncing the name. Not me. I’ve mentioned before that I am an “army brat”, grew up in Germany, and that my mother was a German “war bride”. When her brother (my uncle) was married, we hosted a huge celebration in our home. The bride’s younger brother’s name was “Wolfram”, and it was at that event I received my first kiss. And I’m sure if my younger sister were to read this, her only comment would be, “Eww…” Even though “That Wolfram” did not end in love forever, Wolfram Alpha is one new site that we will all grow to love in a much more practical way. It really IS a “winner”!

The Light Bulb Moment

by recesstec reflections workshops

All teachers know it… The light bulb moment. The exact moment when all of your hard work pays off because you can see the light switch on in the eyes of your student. The “I’ve Got It!” look. The “Oooohhhhh…now I understand” expression. I am not sure what causes this to happen for some students or why it takes longer for some to finally get there, but it is one of the best payoffs in the world of a teacher. Better than dare I say…the paycheck.

However, as wonderful as the light bulb moment seems, I have found another moment as equally as satisfying. The smile. The smile that creeps on the faces of my students as they watch their completed digital stories appear on their screens in full viewing mode. The moment they see their creative writing combined with music and real images is unbelievably fulfilling.

That happened to me a couple of weeks ago in the computer lab. As the kids were finally done searching for images on Microsoft.com, putting them in order to coincide with their stories, double checking transitions, recording, rerecording, and recording AGAIN to achieve their desired fluencies, the time came to insert their background music. That was when the smiles started to appear around the lab. Since they each wear a set of headphones, I don’t know what music they choose while we are working. I can just see the smile and the heads bobbing. Then more clicking with the mouse. Another smile, head bob and finally a hand shoot in the air indicating the readiness to publish. Once the program runs its course and puts the elements together into a movie-like story, the students can view the finished project on full screen. It is the easily the best part of my job!

I am SO looking forward to doing the digital storytelling workshop in November at ROE #11 in Charleston. It is one of my all time favorite workshops to conduct. So many times the exact same light bulb/smiling moment is experienced by the teachers in that session. It is amazing to see them realize the power of the digital story! And we love to show our examples for ALL grade levels and subject areas. This is not an “elementary” thing!

Please be sure to visit http://www.mrsssmith.com/ and click on student showcase. My students’ first digital stories are “Nothing Ever Happens at North Ward”.

Dove Chocolate’s Words of Wisdom

by recesstec SMARTBoard workshops

dove Today I had the pleasure of combining two of my favorite loves during one of our beginners’ workshops, Dove Dark Chocolate and the SMARTBoard . How, you ask, did I manage to combine those two items in a training? Mom and I had just finished our lunches of fresh ripe juicy peaches and Clif Bars and were heading back into the ROE training room when I spotted a basket of individually wrapped chocolates. Dove Dark Chocolates to be exact. Well, yum! I had to pick one up to finish off my healthy lunch. I mean come on, Dark Chocolate is full of healthy flavonoids and antioxidants. I couldn’t NOT have one. It would have been detrimental to my health.

After unwrapping and enjoying my after lunch treat, I noticed the message that was inscribed on the copper foil wrapper. It said “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Well…I love that. There is nothing I hate worse than failing. But to have that outlook regarding failure sheds a whole new light on the topic.

During the afternoon hands-on portion of our training, a participant asked if it was possible to hold down the shift key on the SMARTBoard and drag the corner of a circle to keep the shape in proportion. Well, to be honest, I had never tried that, so I wasn’t for sure if it would work or not. I pulled up the keyboard and gave it a shot all while Mom said, “Shan, that isn’t going to work because you have two points of contact.” Of course, there is that failure thing again…I immediately made my “zip it” noise and indicated that I wanted to TRY it.

Thank goodness my mom is VERY patient. She sighed a short sigh, smiled, and politely said, “Go ahead.” Well of course it DIDN’T work. Not only is my mom patient, she is one smart and tech savvy lady. That must be why I wanted her to be my partner in this corporation in the first place.

As soon as I demonstrated the “failure” of the shift key/circle drag, I reached over, grabbed my Dove wrapper and read it to the participants. They all smiled politely and then I proceeded to re-answer the question. “No sir, you are actually not able to press the shift key and drag the corner of the circle simultaneously while at the SMARTBoard. The reason this will not work is because you are trying to command the SMARTBoard to do two different things with two different points of contact and the SMARTBoard only recognizes one point of contact.” 🙂

You see, I was able to “begin again more intelligently” with my response to his question.

So thank you Dove, for the great piece of advice wrapped around a great piece of chocolate.

The Lemonade War

by recesstec Book Reviews

lemonade-war1 10.) The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies

AR Level – 4.1
Points – 4
Interest Level – Middle Grades

One of Mom’s and my favorite saying is “It isn’t how smart your are…it is how you are smart.” That is perfect tie-in #1 to this book. Evan who is getting ready to begin 4th grade is smart. People-smart. He is good at making friends, reading people, talking with adults, and knowing when the girls in his younger sister’s class are not being nice. His younger sister, Jessie, on the other hand, is also smart. School smart. She can easily do math problems in her head, write poetry, and read fluently. So much so that she is skipping third grade and entering 4th grade right alongside her brother. She is excited…he is not. However, since Jessie lacks the necessary skills to figure people out, she can’t understand why her brother is annoyed with her. They maintain a very close brother-sister relationship and are even more protective of each other since their parent’s divorce. So why IS Evan annoyed with Jessie for being in his class?

Evan is not good in school. At all. He can’t figure out math and is the slowest reader in his class. He is terrified the other kids will think he is even dumber now that his super-brainy sister will be shining as the smartest girl in 4th grade even though she is suppose to be in 3rd. But he doesn’t tell Jessie this and she is not socially smart enough to figure it out on her own. What results from this end of the summer conflict is a brother-sister war. They have decided to challenge each other to a Lemonade Stand War. The last days before Labor Day are scorchers and whoever can sell $100 worth of lemonade first is the winner. Winner takes all. All the money that is.

The second perfect tie-in for this book is the cross-curricular connection with math. The author does a fabulous job of integrating math problems with which kids can identify. Most students have had a lemonade stand at some point in their lives or have wanted one. These real-world math problems are great lead-ins to solving story problems. I love that!

This is a great book with not one swear word…yahoo! It is very current with popular phrases such as “oh snap”. I think my 4th graders will love it. Make sure you take a look at the book’s website. It is fantastic. http://www.lemonadewar.com/

Edusomnia Strikes Again

by recesstec reflections

I am cross posting an entry that I actually just placed on my classroom blog. Cheating? I think not. If you stick it out until the **end of the post you will see my Recess TEC relevance. tired-yawn

Here I sit at 1:49 on a Friday “morning”. Oh who am I kidding…it is definitely still Thursday “night”. Edusomnia has struck again and I have a gazillion thoughts running through my brain. I am very excited about some of the projects I want to tackle this school year but still trying to figure out how to balance it all and cover the IL learning standards all at the same time. The mention of learning standards just caused me to yawn. Could my edusomnia be coming to an end? I think not.

While the standards are definitely something that bore me to even contemplate, I must admit they keep me focused on what I need to cover in my classroom. It is easy to get distracted by all of the tools and fluff that make learning exciting for the students, yet educators must also stay focused on the task at hand. The standards aid in my focus.

Reflecting back to my Parent Orientation presentation, I wonder if I over-spoke about the tools that would be used in the classroom to aid in learning rather than their infused pedagogical use. Ugh…did I really just use the word pedagogical? I exhaust myself. Too bad I can’t use that exhaustion to aid in SLEEP! I digress.

At the end of both sessions I did have several parents approach me about teaching them to use the tools so they could be an active part of the classroom environment this year. WOW. I have actually always wanted to have a Parent-Class for this type of parent involvement, but figured the parents of my students would a.) think I was completely NUTS (ok, I am a little). or b.) tell me they had better things to do with their time (which they probably do).

SO…in summary…. Parents: If you ARE interested in learning how to add comments to the children’s blog pages or wiki pages… or if you are still wondering what language I was speaking during orientation, please drop me an email or even a voice mail and I will get several options scheduled. I think it would be fun to have you come to the computer lab one evening and actually have some hands-on practice with some of this.

Also, if you have any requests for different topics, please let me know. I would be happy to accommodate any type of “info” session that would benefit you and your child.

**Could Recess TEC Inc. be expanding its line of workshops to meet the needs of parents as well? This has my brain even more overloaded. I will NEVER get any sleep. Actually, I am a little nervous about feeling the need to catch upon sleep during our faculty meeting tomorrow afternoon. I may need to load up on the coffee in the morning….ok…later this morning. Geesh!

The Marble Jar

by recesstec reflections SMARTBoard workshops

jar I saw it…in a classroom on the first day of student attendance. The empty wide mouth glass container with the label “Marble Jar” scotch-taped to the side. And it reminded me of the “Incentive” slide in our SMARTBoard: “What’s It Good For Anyway?” presentation. We try to incorporate the use of the SMARTBoard into every imaginable facet of the teaching day, including the use of the marble jar. Or in this case to replace the use of the marble jar. But before I go any further, I must step back in time a bit. You see, we recently did a full day SMARTBoard training in a southern IL Catholic school. Mom had been looking forward to this training all last spring. (They booked us early). She taught for quite a few years in a small Catholic school and refers to her time there as “The Golden Years”. The strong parent-support, the church community and various self-contained groups of 8th graders all contributed to wonderful teaching experiences. So having this opportunity to go back to her roots (so to speak) for a day of SMARTBoard training was right up her alley. As we pulled into the black iron-gated and perfectly manicured grounds of the school, I couldn’t help but to be impressed. And it only got better. The school was old..and I mean O-L-D. I am not sure what year it was built, but it reminded me a lot of the 4th grade school that I attended in the City of Shelbyville, Illinois. The 4th grade school that was razed 15 years ago because it was not fit to house children. Not this school. As we walked down the hallways of this building to find the room in which to set up our equipment, the only word I could use to describe this old building was pristine. The floors were prefectly buffed, the walls freshly painted, the woodwork unscathed. I loved the fact that this old building was getting a technology upgrade. Two worlds collide. The VERY old, with the VERY new. After we got ourselves set up and the teachers were catching up after being apart for two months, Sister came in and led us in a short prayer service. At least that is what Mom told me it was. As far as I was concerned, it was a short mass. After all, it had prayer, singing, candle lighting…the works. My first thought…can you light a candle in a classroom…or in this case a handful of candles? My second thought… Sister can do anything she wants. Period. Since I have absolutely NO private school background, I learned a lot that day. Prayer can be held in the classroom, candles can be lit, students WILL obey their teachers since the class limit is 30 (with a waiting list).

Back to my Marble Jar story…

As I was showing our idea for using the SMARTBoard as a classroom incentive tool, Mom said she was thinking about a picture she had of a Catholic School 2nd Grade class.

St. Pat's

Notice the class size…with ONE nun in charge. I’ll bet she didn’t have a marble jar to keep these kids in line. And I KNOW she didn’t have a SMARTBoard. Now THAT is what I call awesome classroom management!

It is often assumed that this kind of classroom management includes the use of rulers and some sort of corporal punishment. Not always.

More than half of my education involved schools that were not local public schools. As an “army brat”, I attended 14 schools in twelve years, many of them parochial schools. I was never hit or spanked, and never saw it happen to anyone else. We were just good. Why? Because if we weren’t, we received the afore-mentioned things at home. We were taught to respect our teachers, whether they were sisters, brothers, priests, or anyone else who decided to take on the task of teaching us. The best reward was a “Good Job!” or a gold sticker star on our paper, and even, yes even, a hug.

Candles lit in the classroom? Prayers before class? Singing of hymns? Did Shannon mention carrying our equipment up and down stairs without any elevators? Nothing but the help of someone else to carry them? They have nobody to answer to for government funding. No ISAT’s. No NCLB.

Just God.

The Key to One of My Biggest Problems

by recesstec tips

The Key to Student Email Troubles

As a 4th grade teacher I stumble across one problem again and again throughout the course of the school year.
How can I allow my students to use some of the web 2.0 tools that require a registration with a valid email address?
There is the gmail trick where you can add the + sign and set up the filters.
(A little tedious in my honest opinion.)
Today I discovered another way to involve my students without the hassle of them not having individual email accounts.
You see, I have my own domain name purchased through Go Daddy (very cheap by the way).
It is www.mrsssmith.com and is the address of my classroom website.
Looks can be deceiving.
I don’t pay any hosting costs since the site is actually stored on our school district’s server.
I just point that address to my school district issued webspace. It has a really funky address that is hard for my fourth graders and their parents to remember. It is something like http://localweb.k12.il*morewordsandsymblostofollow.htm.
Anyway…my point is coming, bear with me.
Once you purchase a domain name from Go Daddy, you are given a free email address with a web mail server on which to check it.
When you are setting this free email address up, you can check a box that makes it a “catch-all” inbox.
What does that mean??
It means that I can give each of my students their own email address this year…sort of.
Let’s say that Sally is in my class. I can tell her that her email address is [email protected]and if someone sends her an email, it will go to MY inbox!
So…with that being said…do you know what that means?
They can each register for different web 2.0 applications (under my guidance and discretion of course) with their real/fake email address! Woohoo!
I will keep you posted on this actual application. Right now I just have it in my head that it will ACTUALLY work. But honestly…I think it will!

Everything I Know I Learned From My Mom…

by recesstec tips workshops

…ok…well, not EVERYTHING. But today during our afternoon session, Mom did teach me something. It is definitely a short cut that I will be showing my 4th graders this year while in the computer lab. When I have students go online to gather pictures for a multimedia project, I always send them to the Microsoft Clip Art site. This site has high quality stock images that have no copyright restrictions for student work. It is also SAFE. I have never seen any inappropriate images on this site.

Once the students find the image they want to use, I have them copy and paste, or drag and drop the image into a powerpoint slide. The students then right click on the image and “save picture as…” to the desktop or some other easy to find location. Today, while demonstrating Animoto, I showed this method of gathering images to our group. Mom asked, “Why don’t you just drag it into a folder?” My response was something like…awkward pause…”Uhhhh….I didn’t know you could do that.”

What you heard next was a rambling mixture of my mom saying, “Try it,” and me sighing and making remarks like…cool…and duh!

So there you have it folks. Another useful tip learned during a workshop with my mom! Here are the screen captures of the exact picture I “tried” during our session.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

If I am the late to the game in using this new method of downloading images…well…better late than never. If you didn’t know about this, you have my mom to thank!

Thanks Mom.

Oh…I almost forgot. She also shared a new online timer with me today. I know there are many available, but I hadn’t seen this one. Egg Timer Check it out for yourself.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

by recesstec Book Reviews reflections

crooked_kind_of_perfect 9.) A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

AR Level – 3.9
Points – 4
Interest Level – Middle Grades

This book has been perfectly titled. 6th grader, Zoe is living a crooked kind of perfect life. She has just been replaced with the popular girls by her best friend and is realizing that she doesn’t quite belong…with them. She has a dream of being a famous pianist like the great Horowitz but when her crooked kind of perfect father goes to purchase her a piano, he returns with a Perfectone D-60 organ…sigh. Her smart and pretty mom seems to prioritize work before family. And while there seems to be a pattern of conflict within Zoe’s life, she takes things in stride, keeps her head on straight, and makes the most of each situation. You can’t help but to love this girl. (Don’t get me wrong, she is not superhuman…she is 11.) I wish I had her in my class! I think the best part of this book (within a school setting) is the fact that it will generate discussion that everyone has his or her own problems with which to deal even if not brought to the forefront at school. Zoe is inspirational. I wish I would have been more like her when I was her age. Great read…add it to your middle grade bookshelf (grades 3-5). There is no questionable content…ANOTHER reason to love it! I guess I am still pondering the question, “Why DO author’s feel the need to add the token swear word in an otherwise perfectly good book?” Thank you to Linda Urban for not doing so. This will be on the my book club list this year!

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