Write it down

Today my principal called me in to ask if I'd be interested in serving on a committee chaired by our superintendent. The committee will be making recommendations about opening up our district to using (and allowing students to use) more technology and social networking at school. From the way it was described to me, it seems as though the main focus will be social networking. Anyway, I'm going to do some research prior to the first meeting. I'd like to go in with research, anecdotes, lesson… Continue

I'm trying out a lesson with my students this week. We just finished reading "The Taxpayer" (from The Martian Chronicles) and we discussed the theme of being left behind. I had the students get into groups of 2 or 3 and each group was given the following multi-step assignment:



1. Make a web/graphic organizer with brainstorming related to the theme.

2. On the computer, write an 80-100 word piece (fiction or nonfiction) utilizing the theme. Save the document.

3. Use… Continue

I feel that I do a reasonably good job of incorporating technology into my 7th grade English class. I'm very fortunate in my access to technology. I have a Smartboard, a cart of 27 laptops that I share with 4 other teachers (who only use them sporadically), headphones with mics, 4 desktop computers, and a Flipvideo camera.My district offers outstanding support from the ed tech department - from lesson ideas to training to co-teaching opportunities.



In my class, we use the internet… Continue

Although we had a small group, I think the presentation went well. Most of the participants seemed to enjoy it and, even more importantly, find something in it that they could use. I will have all of the documents up on my teacher web page with the district, but I will mirror them here just in case anyone comes looking. I haven't used this site very much, but I'm going to start keeping more of my docs and ideas here.