Welcome to "If You Give a Teacher Technology..."

We all know what happens "If you give a mouse a cookie", but what happens "If you give a teacher technology?" Welcome to the blog that follows one teachers journey to integrating technology into her primary classroom. I hope to also help other classroom teachers integrate technology into their primary classroom, even with the youngest and smallest of students! This blog will show examples of core curriculum with exciting and engaging technology applications. We will discuss and explore technology, such as digital photography, bookmaking, interactive white boards, document cameras, and the endless possibilities of the World Wide Web. This will be a blog you will want to check often for tips, tricks and help with technology for your own personal classroom!

Blogging with 1st graders!

Today was the lucky day in 1st grade! We got out the net books! With the help of my four fantastic 6th grade helpers, we started blogging. At first I passed out journals, planning to have every student with one computer and typing one journal entry. Of course, that would be too good to be true! A few of the net books were being difficult (ok more like 6 or 8!) so we went back to sharing with a buddy and playing paper, rock, scissor to see who gets to go first. :) Half way through the login process I decided to change and have the students simply copy a post from the board onto their computer. We started simple since many of my students are having difficulty with the keyboard. Any suggestions for helping them, as a whole class instead of individual, learn the keys? Some of them are unfamiliar with the space, enter, backspace, etc. It is difficult to get them to type accurate post, with punctuation, when they don't know the keys. My new goal is to find some kind of a large flipchart/lesson for the interactive white board that re-enforces keyboarding skills. I will share when I find it because I'm sure other primary teachers find that the typing is a huge interference when it comes to integrating technology into core curriculum. I am hoping the parents are patient and willing to take this as an opportunity to watch the children's writing improve. I used www.kidblog.org and am not completely happy or dissatisfied with it yet. I am still on the fence. I felt it was difficult for most of my kids to log in and then make sure they were on the correct page. I do like the fact that it is private though and that it will hopefully be easy for the parents to access. I will keep you posted!!

Classroom Websites

I decided to make a classroom website in 2009 as a way to keep communication open with my student's parents. I also know as a working mother, I love to be able to see what my children are doing throughout the day. The website gives parents an opportunity to review spelling and sight words, see pictures, and keep in contact with me. If you've never thought about making a classroom website, but always wanted to, please ask questions! When I started our classroom website I was having a difficult time finding resources. It would have been nice to have a source or someone who had already been through the building process (which was surprisingly easy once I got started!!) I will also be adding some of my other classroom favorite websites built by teachers. If you are proud of your classroom website, please include it as a link in the comments below! Your site might be an inspiration to other teachers who are looking to start their own classroom website!!

http://mrsmillerclassroom.webs.com/

3 Technology Goals for this Year

After returning from the ICE 2011 conference, my head has been full of exciting ideas that I would like to incorporate into my classroom! I have limited myself to my top 3 goals that I plan to incorporate into our core curriculum before the year is over.

1.) I would like all of my students to start individual blogs. My first graders are used to journaling, something we do 2 to 3 times a week. The goal is to take the journal entry and use that as a starting point to their blog entry. The students are also required to draw a picture to match their journal entry. I hope to take pictures of 5 individual pictures, each week and post them on www.artsonia.com for the parents to view and purchase if they would like. I have been blessed with responsible 6th grade helpers that come down for 10-15 minutes after lunch every day. We will utilize the 6th grade helpers to get the netbooks up and running, help 1st graders log in, and then sign them into their www.kidblog.org accounts. We will start this on opposite days of our media center. I will keep you posted on how this works with 1st grade students-I'm confident that they will do a great job with it!

2.) Publish a Classroom Book-we did this last year and it was a huge success for the students and the parents! I have attempted to start this project twice this year and did not have much success. Timing has been a major issue for us this year. When you decide to publish a classroom book, please allow for ample time to receive the information, give your students plenty of time to complete the project, and then the company needs a few weeks to get everything published and shipped back out. It is a timely process but one that is worth it! The students love to see their picture and their work in a published "real" book! If you have not taken time to publish a classroom book, I encourage you to try it. This will be the second year for our classroom recipe book :) http://www.studentreasures.com/ The company that I am familiar with using.

3.) Skyping! I have been in contact with a teacher in Texas and a few other teachers locally. I would like my students to have the opportunity to interact and learn from their peers in a different state. I am still waiting for a reply, so if there are other brave primary teachers out there that would like to blog with my class, I am eager and ready to learn!!!

Favorite Classroom Websites

Please post your favorite classroom (or a favorite of your child's at home) websites in the comments below. We LOVE to share!! Check out our favorite first grade websites located at the top of this page, under the tab~Primary Playground Handouts

Favorite Apps for Elementary Children

Please post your child's favorite apps in the comment area below. I know there are thousands of favorite games, but please limit this post to "educational" apps. My favorite apps are located at the top of this page under the tab~Favorite Primary Apps for Ipod Touches.