Class Projects...

On Friday we began our first Glogster, and we are going to finish our digital posters this week. The students enjoyed the wide variety of customizable features that Glogster makes available with its free student accounts. If you have not yet created a FREE Glogster educator account, then consider clicking on this link and signing up: http://edu.glogster.com/product-information/.

This week we are going to begin using Voice Thread as a medium to create, listen to, and comment on “Book Talks.” Having an “expert” student blogger was such a success that I plan to use the same management system for our Book Talk projects.

Our PLC is “going Google” because we decided to switch from Excel to Google Spreadsheets to “house” our common assessment data. This will allow us to more easily update and share our data.

Reflecting on August...

The school year is off to an incredible start! I am working at the best school in Gaston County, and all of the professional development and research that I participated in/conducted over the summer has already had a significant impact on my classroom community. I hope that my students Gmail accounts will be created soon, because I cannot wait for my students to benefit from the collaborative and easy features that Google makes available. This year I am going to have my students create all of their reading and math Accountability Folder samples using Google Documents. Each student will have his/her own "collection" that will serve as a digital portfolio. Then, I will print out hard copies for the Accountability Folders. I am also excited about using Kidblog with my students. This is a safe and  "kid-friendly" blogging program. Each day one student will "blog" instead of completing one of my standard Exit Tickets. Parents will be able to subscribe to the blog, so that they can receive daily updates about what is happening in our classroom community.