Learning Voice Thread

Learning voice thread was simple. First, signed up for an account. Second, I jumped in the Digital Writing Workshop conversations. The most difficult part was figuring out what was wrong with the microphone. Luckily, my husband came to the rescue--or that is what he thinks. Once the microphone was working, it was smooth sailing. There is one more thing...I knew that I had a southern accent, but I didn't know it was that bad. I sound like I'm from the sticks. It's a good thing I teach in Loris because we all kinda sound the same.

Pause and Ponder #2

Camping at Playcard was very exciting! I do not know who overcame the most fears; my students or me. I went zooming down a zip-line 35 feet in the air with only a helmet, a harness, and a prayer.

While reading The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks, I learned that teaching in a digital workshop means that we teach students to compose new literacies and technologies. Hicks also writes that we need to teach digital writers to assess their own work based on authentic audiences and purposes, various genres, and self reflection. I realized that in order for me to guide, assist, and or faciliate digital writing, I am going to have to be a digital writer. That is a scarry thought! It is necessary for me to assess my own work the same way. For example, living the life as a blogger keeps me writing for real audiences and purposes. It is my desire to communicate my thoughts in a way that is captivating and comprehensible. With that being said, I am on the right track. I just need to put it in a higher gear.

While reading The Tech-Savvy English Classroom by Sara Kajder, I found the section called Ending Points very true. Kadjer admits that she believes strongly in using computers as tools in writing, but not for all writing. She continues to honor the power of pen and paper as well. It is important to choose the right tool paired with the right student and the right task. Keeping in mind, with an engaging and rigorous writing task, technology can enhance and empower our student writers. This means, building relationships and using multiple intelligences appropriate for each individual must be a priority in order to plan accordingly in my classroom.

So far, I have tinkered with various technologies that were both challenging and invitational. Being able to actually use these tools purposefully has enhanced my learning significantly. After this course, I will continue to use Photo Story 3, iPadio, Wall Wisher, and live the life as a blogger. Blogging has made sense to me as a teacher, writer, and social butterfly. The other technologies we have used did not make as much sense to me at this point in my life. This is most likely due to the information overload and complex interpretation my brain is balancing. For the most part, the majority of the technologies explored in this course are relevant and accessible in the classroom at some degree, either directly or indirectly.

Class discussion has influenced my thinking in several ways. Collaboration, support, providing and gaining information were and are the most influential.

Where I'm From

6 Days Until PASS Writing!

Ummmm...I don't know where to begin. I am feeling just a LIT-TLE FRUST-RATED! I want to be better at technology so I can share the knowledge with others. The problem I am facing is that I do not have enough time and energy to study and grow technologically while I am trying to keep my head above water. My thoughts are drowning in ideas, expectations, duties, meetings, chores, paper work, and field trip preparation. I must be crazy because I am taking my 5th graders camping the Thursday and Friday after PASS Writing. We are looking foward to that. I also need to be concentrating on the assignments for the digital writing course. On a better note, I am blessed to be healthy, alive, and employed.

Phlog #1- "The See Through View"

This story was written by a fifth grade student. This was a Pass Writing practice prompt. Pay attention to the descriptions.

MStephens_Pause and Ponder February 7, 2010

It has been an overwhelming 2 weeks. We have had Core Reading Specialists visit our school. I have had a sinus infection with a touch of bronchitis. I have had a data conference with my principal. I have had to turn in 10 explicit guided reading lesson plans in addition to the other curriculum requirements. I have had to organize and plan 2 field trips. I have had to make time to work on our new house. I have had a lot to do......So with great-a-do, I am pleased to take this time to pause and ponder on writing in the digital classroom!

I agree with Sara Kajder that through modeling and close monitoring of student thinking, teachers need to ensure that students have strategies for assembling knowledge and understanding content. She suggested that graphic organizers and structured reading activities were great ways to monitor student understanding hypertext. Kadjer emphasized that too much discovery can lead to wasted instructional time if teachers are not tightly controlling the outcome of student work.

It seems like yesterday when I started living the life as a blogger. I have enjoyed the purpose, invititation, and audience that blogging gives me. It is evident that teaching is a passion and a work of art. It has been inspiring to read how my classmates are growing as a tech-savy teacher. I have gotten several ideas from reading other posts. Blogging is like a reality show as well. I get into the teacher drama, stress, and frustrations too.

I am presently using moderate technology in my classroom. I use the internet a lot for various reasons during the day. I like SC Streamline, MS Powerpoint, Interwrite Pad software, and MS Word most of all. In the picture, I was happy to receive an external hard drive for my birthday. My loving husband proudly purchased this for me. Luck for me he has a keen interest in Populat Mechanics Magazine. The biggest hinderance in my classroom is that I have a smart board that is on a stand that I can not use. The projector light shines in our face and we trip over the legs on the stand. So the smartboard sits in the back of my room. I am supposed to be getting the smartboard mounted on the whiteboard and the projector mounted in the ceiling. Yay!!!

Grammar 911

My students wrote a pass like writing the other day. I have been using a checklist based on SC standards and the writing rubric to keep record of what each student knows or does not know. Surprisingly, the largest weakness was grammar. I have students in 5th grade who do not write in complete sentences. If they can't do that, you can forget varied sentence structure. They also do not understand subject verb agreement and commonly misspelled/ misused words like homonyms. I have a lot of wor to do to prepare my students for the assessment and more importantly for the world. It is my desire to teach them how to write grammatically correct. I am not so worried about the other aspects of the writing. I need some ideas beside skill and drill to teach grammar in a meaningful, engaging way. I did get an idea of using video clips with captions as mentor text examples. I could also model a podcast using the grammar skill and then have the students complete a podcast applying the skill in their writing. That is the only idea I have at this time. If you are looking for mentor text examples that are read aloud and animated visit this website http://http://www.storylineonline.net/.
I am also very excited about taking my students on a camping trip at Playcard Environmental Center. For more information, visit their website http://http://www.horrycountyschools.net/departments/learningservices/playcard_center/.