It has been an amazing summer of learning... Thanks to my grad classes through UWOSH (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh), my Tweeps (Twitter friends), and the rest of my PLN, I've come up with 6 new projects for next year.
These include tools such as Skype, VoiceThread, Edmodo, Wordle, and Google Maps. I have already set up my class Edmodo page, and since I am looping with my class, I sent them the code. More than half of them have joined the group and are enjoying being able to chat over the summer! Since they had the opportunity to choose their own books for their summer reading assignment, I recently added a small group within the class group for the kids to post book reviews. I'm going to maintain this, so that when a student doesn't know what to read, they can look at the reviews of their classmates, and when they have read the book, they can comment on the reviews!
I'm looking at one more project now - to get my students blogging. I'll be teaching 4th grade next year, looping up with the kids I had last year. I remember the time we spent last year sharing journals. Many of the kids were hungry for an audience, and after journaling (spell check doesn't like this "word"), wanted to know if we could share. While I enjoyed having them read their blogs aloud for the class and answering any questions or comments, with 22 students, this can be a time consuming event!! With 1:1 netbooks in my classroom this year (finally!!), students can grab a netbook and respond to a journal prompt when they have free time. Students will be able to read and comment on each other's responses. Using this format, I could even post a YouTube video and ask students to post their reactions.
I'm currently working on my technology letter which will address the tools and procedures we will be using this year. Thanks to our PLP experience, we are adopting the CyberSmart curriculum for digital citizenship and are rewriting our RESPONSIBLE Use Policy (RUP). It's going to be an exciting year!!
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