Technology Centers

I am absolutely LOVING technology centers which I have worked collaboratively on with MOST grade levels (1st - 8th) ! Initially it took some extra work on my part to get the "buy in" because it can be time consuming and there is a lot of preparation up front. Once I convinced them that it wasn't "something else" to do or more time away from instruction and it could be their science lesson (or whatever subject) with a ton of integration of content and technology they were in! I have worked the centers a little differently with each grade level and experimented with setup! One thing that is kind of fun about teaching the same lesson three times is that by the third class you have worked out all of the "glitches"!

The 2nd grade team has fallen in love with centers and they now come to me asking to schedule time together which is a-w-e-so-m-e! This was our first round of centers (above) to help them prepare for a unit ia (interactive achievement) test and to begin researching ecosystems.

Laptop/Clicker Center:

At the Laptop/Clicker Center students watched the Solid Shape BrainPopJr  and then took a 10 question Clicker Quiz to review the areas they were having trouble with! Our school has had "Clickers" (SMART Response LE System) for years and have been taking whole group assessments but this allows for students to work at their own pace, read the quiz on their own and refer back to the video for help. It was also a great opportunity for the teacher and myself to help anyone who was struggling. All of the data was nicely collected as usual and made an easy grade for the teacher!!! The SMART Notebook file was housed on the computer lab page which made for an easy download.

Laptop Center:

At the second laptop center students accessed PebbleGo which is a phenomenal resource where students began researching an ecosystem of their choice (looking for three living things, three nonliving things and three interesting facts). If you are not familiar with PebbleGo it is a website that has leveled nonfiction/content text and will read out loud. It is a bit pricey but the students love it and it seems to be a favorite new site for my kiddos in 1st and 2nd grade! I love that it is bright, colorful, easy to read, easy to use, has great pictures and graphics, highlights academic vocabulary words and provides definitions, etc. Check out one of the demos.

iPad Center:

The third center was the iPad center where students used an app called Ecosystem HD to continue finding out information about their chosen ecosystem. The app is paid but it is well worth the $1.99 as it will read to the students and has awesome facts, pictures and videos.

At a later session we used the ecosystem research from the app and PebbleGo to create a Prezi! Since this was 2nd graders first time with Prezi they worked in pairs. First they watched a screencast I made using Screenr (I am also in love with this tool). Then they got to work! Check out a few Prezi's that they created and aren't they so much better than a POSTER?!

ShowMe

The more I work with middle schoolers the more I fall in love with them. OK, maybe I'm not completely in love with them but I am loving working with them and engaging them with technology!

Last week the 7th grade math teacher came to me with a question which is how every conversation we have begins., "Jones, I have a question." He wanted to visit the lab to use an interactive virtual manipulative site. He showed me the site and we scheduled two days. The whole day I kept thinking, "This site is really valuable but  REALLY? The whole class is going to come and do this at the same time? How will you differentiate? How will you make sure everyone is understanding? Why do I have to be here for this and how is this using my expertise with technology?"

The elementary teacher in me, the collaborator in me, the modeler in me couldn't be a second adult in the room while students used virtual manipulatives to solve equations SO I went to him with a question! I asked if he would be OK with doing "centers" rather than just one activity. He was willing to give it a shot and was open to ideas and that is exactly what we did! I suggested that he work with one group at the SMART Board teaching a new concept (solving an equation with a negative variable), one group work with the virtual manipulatives to reinforce what they had been learning and one group work with me to use the app Show Me (read more here and here) to assess what they had been learning (solving an equation with a variable)!

One thing I adore about elementary students is that they light up when they see you and are just happy to be at school! 7th graders, not so much! As I explained what they were going to do which took maybe 5 minutes tops they sat quietly, yawned and stared off into space. I sat in the hallway with these twelve 7th graders thinking, "It's going to be a L-O-N-G day." I allowed them to pick partners (because I bored them with directions) which I thought would be disastrous and turned them loose.

I have seen technology do this a million times so I should have known better but they blew me away. Each pair got their iPad, stylus and equation and quickly became engrossed in creating a Show Me. When it was time to switch groups they were asking to do another problem, listening to their Show Me, listening to another group's Show Me, trying to figure out how to share their Show Me with their parents, asking if they could download the app at home and they were not moving. Kids that normally "misbehave" I didn't have to speak to once.

Today kids came with their own equations and scripts and wanted to record an extra Show Me.
Several groups asked for "harder" problems. Here are just a few examples.






This child asked to do a second one on his own today. I love his commentary and pronunciation of neg-a-tive so I had to share it.
 

 Here are two girls who wanted to solve an "extra hard" problem.  

 Love their Show Me Credits haha!