October Entry
Name That Consonant!
Journal Entry 
October 6, 1998
With the start of a new year, I watched my students and wondered at the difference between the children who stood before me and those who left my room in June.   What a difference between the beginning of 1st grade and the end!  Keeping the current skill and attention level of my students in mind, I decided to teach a lesson that would be fairly simple.  I wanted their first experience with a computer lesson to be successful.   Thus, I endeavored to review the names and sounds of our consonants by creating the lesson "Name That Consonant." 

We danced and sang to the tunes of the “ABC Rock.”  We used our homemade fishing pole to capture our ABC fish.  Then we turned our attention to the computer.  I was surprised at the interest students showed in the letters as they were flashed up on the screen.  To add a little excitement to the lesson, I divided the class into two teams; a student kept score on the board for each team.  We finished naming the letters quickly.  I decided to add a new component to the lesson.  Using Word, I typed the sentence "I saw a __________."  I named a letter and asked students to generate words beginning with that sound.  Students watched excitedly as their answers appeared on the screen before their eyes.  I found that I could type words much more quickly than I could write words on the board. 

After the lesson, we decided to visit our related web sites.  I feared that I might lose their attention.  My fears were quickly erased as I saw my students eagerly raising their hands to tell me where to go next.  They enjoyed being a part of the decision-making process.   Without a doubt, my students are looking forward to using the computer again for class lessons. 

I plan to use this lesson again in future years; however, I expected that I will make modifications as I gain more experience incorporating the computer into my daily lessons.  This first lesson was definitely a success.   I hope that it is only the first of many lessons to come! 

November Entry
November 4, 1998
During the month of October, my students have gained proficiency with the computer.  We have completed several activities and taken a look at several new pieces of software. 

Early in the month we discussed an Internet project that our class will be involved in this year.  We plan to do a class pet exchange with a school in Illinois.  We contacted our school right away and soon received a reply message from our partner.  We were disappointed to learn that their school computers were currently down.  We contacted them again early this week to check on their progress, but we have not heard from them as yet.  In meantime, we are making plans to go ahead and start the project at our own school.  We are going to send the pet home with our class members during the month of November.  Hopefully our partner class will be back on line soon. 

In October we also made a class newspaper using Microsoft Word.  We used the template I made at the last Cyber Exchange meeting called Knight's News.  As I planned this activity, I hoped my students would gain an awareness for current events, as well as, practice important reading skills.  I took the children to the CNN web site and began to read the headlines.  I struggled to find an article that seemed appropriate for my students.   I finally spotted a story about 911 which related to our recent discussions about community helpers.  I had to paraphrase much of the article for them.  They did fairly well at recalling the information  as we wrote summaries for our own newspaper.  I hope to do this activity again as my students increase their reading comprehension abilities. 
 

As I introduce new programs, some of my students need individual help.  This month Sarah Lindsay, one of our Cyber Ambassadors, visited our classroom to help us.  We read the story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  I asked my students to complete this statement:  Cloudy with a chance of . . . .  Next I showed them how to use Kid Pix to create their own drawing and story.  I made an example slide with pancakes and syrup falling from the sky.  Sarah helped students as they painted and stamped their scenes.  She typed as they dictated their stories.  Finally she saved their slides to a disk.  She worked independently with a student and allowed me to continue teaching the rest the class.  By far, Sarah proved to be quite an asset.

As we move into the month of November, my students' reading skills are greatly increasing.  I am anxious to see what we will accomplish in the next month's time. 

December Entry
For the month of November, I selected a lesson plan about Dr. Seuss.  I hoped to reinforce the concept of rhyming words.  Though the lesson plan suggested using a book called The Sneetches, I substituted the book The Cat in the Hat Comes Back since we had already completed activities of our own with The Sneetches.  As always, the children enjoyed listening to the rhyme of Dr. Seuss.  When we read the book the second time, they eagerly followed along hoping to hear rhyming words on their cards. 

We completed all the components of the lesson and added a few of our own. We visited the Seussville web site. Likewise, after we finished the bingo game, we sorted their cards into word families using a pocket chart.  I made headings such as -all, -ed, and -ing.  They quickly found the correct family, and we reread the words to end the lesson.  In the future, I plan to spread the lesson out over a couple of days. All in all, this lesson proved to be very beneficial.  Come read all about this lesson at the address below.

http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Lang_arts/Reading/RDG0012l.html 

In November, our class also made a newspaper.  We visited CNN and found a couple of articles of interest.  On that day, the children chose to take a look at the space station.  We needed to download a plug-in to view these panoramic pictures.  They voted to wait on the download.  I was a bit hesitant fearing to lose their attention, but I forged ahead.  Luckily the plug-in downloaded quickly, and they waited patiently.  I'll be glad to have more plug-ins installed on our computer.  Finally we were ready and found to our amazement that we could walk down the halls of the space station using the mouse.  Through this experience, my students viewed current technology as they learned more about the space station.

Once again Cyber Ambassadors have come in handy in my classroom.  Recently I was given a Power Point presentation about consonants.  This program was perfect for individual students to review sounds; however, my students have yet to learn the fine points of Power Point.  This month Sarah assisted individuals by opening and operating this presentation.  She provided one-on-one help with reading skills and technology.  I am looking forward to finding new ways to utilize our ambassadors in the future.

After leaving our last meeting, I returned to school with two new programs Kid Phonics 2 and Reading Blaster 2.  After previewing the programs, I anxiously awaited the time to test them out with my students. Kid Phonics 2 proved to be closer to their current skill level.  They were able to unscramble words based on the phonic sounds and change vowel sounds. With Reading Blaster 2, they lacked vocabulary needed to complete the reading comprehension component of the program.  In all honesty, I found that both programs were a bit difficult for first graders at this point in the year, yet I plan to use them again around February.  I'll just have to wait and see!

January Entry 

In December, we explored address books.  I have created an extension address book on my computer.  I have names of teachers in my school, as well as, colleagues around the county. I have used the address book to send information concerning upcoming events. 
To simplify sending email to school staff, I utilized the group feature of the address book. This feature also came in handy as I used email to discuss facts with other committee members as we worked on a project.  Address books definitely prove to be a value short-cut to sending email.

This month I allowed my students to print for the first time.  They were very excited to use this feature.  Since my students are still becoming familiar with the computer, I used the Cyber Ambassador to help them print.  Students created their own pictures in Kid Pix under the supervision of the Ambassador.  Once finished, they were able to print and take home their document.  I was able to continue teaching the rest of the class as the Ambassador monitored individuals at the computer. 

In recent weeks my Class Pet Exchange partner and I made definite plans to exchange our pets.  Our class is excited to begin the project.  Our pet is a small brown bunny.  The students voted to name her Sassy.  I took her home last night, and I will have the privilege to write the first entry in our class journal.  All students will take her home during January.  Hopefully we will be ready to mail her to our partner class near the 1st of February.  We are anxious to get to know our pet.  I hope she can survive the world of six-year-olds!

In December, we received our laptop computer.  At this point, I have not had the opportunity to use it.  I hope to explore its feature during the next month. 
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February Entry

In the month of January, we endeavored to put the ICQ program to use.  I began to communicate with other teachers in the school through ICQ.  My class challenged a 2nd Grade class to a rhyming word contest.   After finalizing the details, we contacted our opponent through an ICQ chat.  We started with the word cat and exchanged several rhyming words until our class failed to think of another word.  The children excitedly called out their answers.  I easily assessed their ability to generate rhyming words by listening to the various responses.  After the contest, we voted to have the contest again next month with another class.  We decided to study rhyming words in the meantime.

This month our Cyber Ambassador has continued to help us learn to print.  My students love to print their documents.   I believe that I have several students who have mastered this skill in Kid Pix. My students appear to be ready to take the next step--creating slide shows.  So far I have allowed my students to explore the Kid Pix program.  In the coming weeks, I hope to direct their work toward a goal.  We will create a class book and publish it through a computer slide show.  Only time will tell our success.

For our Internet project, we chose to do a Class Pet Exchange.  This month we adopted a class pet.  The children named her Sassy.  They have each taken her home and recorded their experiences in Sassy's journal.  I was tremendously pleased with the effort my students and their parents put into creating their stories about Sassy's adventures.  We plan to give Sassy a Bon Voyage party this Friday.  She will travel to Illinois to visit another 1st grade class.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a monkey named Macho Dude; he is the class pet from Illinois.  Our class also plans to exchange Valentine's with our partner class in Illinois.  We have enjoyed making these new friends through the use of technology.

Technology is making a positive impact on my students.  Daily we use programs which reinforce reading skills.  We began the year using programs like Bailey's Book House and Millie & Bailey's Kindergarten Adventure.  As our skills improved, we practiced our abilities with programs such as Kid Phonics and Reader Rabbit.  For those students who struggle with early reading skills, they have taken Reader Rabbit's Reading Journey.  As my students have become independent readers, we have begun to use Accelerated Reader.  In fact, a few of my students took their first tests this week.  With my students increased abilities in reading, I am hopeful that we will take great strides in reading during the second half of the year, and I am particularly looking forward using technology as a means of supplementing and enhancing my current reading program.

March Entry

During the month of March, I created a Power Point presentation about the book Frog and Toad Together.  Before introducing the slideshow to my students, I read the book Frog and Toad Are Friends.  My students loved getting to know Frog and Toad.  With their interest high, I showed them my Power Point presentation about the two friends.  I could see their excitement as they caught a glimpse of the book Frog and Toad Together.  Everyone raised their hands quickly at the thought of being the first to read the book.  I have two copies of it and have begun to circulate it among my students.  The Power Point presentation proved to be an extremely effective way to encourage my students to read. 

In the last weeks, I have continued to look for ways to help my students through our Cyber Ambassador program.  With limited typing ability, my students benefit greatly from the aid of Cyber Ambassadors.  As my students read books, I have them write a mini-report on the book; and in turn, they create a slide on Kid Pix.  Sarah visited our classroom to help, yet she had trouble finding time for all my students.  In the next month, I hope she will be more available. 

I took the laptop home for the first time this month.  I have a computer at home, but do not have PowerPoint.  After adjusting to the fingerpad, I enjoyed creating my show on Frog and Toad.   I saved a tremendous amount of time by taking advantage of the many images and sounds loaded on the laptop.  My husband was pleased to have our computer to himself while I worked.  Using the laptop made me want to buy on of my own.

The Class Pet Exchange has proven to be one of the best project I have been a part of.  My students eagerly await their turn to take home Macho Dude:  our monkey from Indiana.  Their stories have improved tremendously since we began writing in January with our pet rabbit Sassy.  We are almost ready to send Macho Dude home.  I think we will have a mini-unit on Tennessee before he leaves and create items to send to our partner class in Indiana.  It is nice to have friends across the country.

This month we visited CNN to find information for our class newspaper.  We also made a newspaper about our own class for the month of February.  I was surprised at their accurateness when I asked for the main idea of the stories we wrote.  In turn, they easily gave me several details to include in our article. I can see a great amount of progress since the beginning of the year.  At the same time, my students seem to be able to relate better to the articles about us in comparison to our CNN papers.  I think I will focus on this type of newspaper for the remainder of the year. 
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April Entry
The Cyber Ambassador was not available this month.  At our school, we have several classes involved in the Cyber Exchange project; yet we only had one student who was able to visit our classrooms.  I hope that we will be able to arrange for more students to help next year.  I would like to have a 4th or 5th grade student assist us for 1hour each week at a set time. Likewise, I was not able to use the laptop. With a little planning, I anticipate better results in the future.

Creative writing is an important part of our daily activities.  This month we published our stories on the web.  With the arrival of springtime, I planned for the students to write about themselves and spring.  I debated about allowing the students to type their stories and settled on a compromise.  They wrote their stories on paper, and I typed the stories exactly as they were written--misspelled words and all.  As we viewed our new page, my student appeared to feel very proud of their efforts and interested in writing more. I also hope they will notice a need to edit our stories before uploading. My students need to improve grammar and spelling skills. All and all, our web page may prove to be an excellent source of motivation and instruction.

For our class newspaper, I decided to stick to classroom events.  I found that my students appeared more interested in articles about us as opposed to CNN stories.  We reviewed the events of the last month and formulated our stories.  I was quite pleased with their ability to create a main idea sentence and details.  With a captive audience, I was able review this skill in an effective way.

Our class pet Sassy traveled to Indiana.  In return, my class received a monkey named Macho Dude.  I noticed a big difference in the stories the children wrote in Macho Dude's journal.  With Sassy, most parents wrote the story as the child dictated.  This time my students were able to write on their own and communicate the adventures of Macho Dude.  I was quite impressed with the imaginative thought and humor contained in their stories. After giving everyone a chance to take Macho Dude home, we sent him back to Indiana.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sassy.  In the meantime, I received another rabbit with a pink hat.  I told the children Sassy's mother had come to visit.  When Sassy returns, we will write a story about Sassy and her mother.  This project is certainly worthwhile and fun for all!

Over the last several weeks, my class has continued to benefit from technology.  Through this project, I gained access to many PowerPoint presentations.  I downloaded these to use with my students.  One day in reading I took the reading group to the computer to view a PowerPoint presentation about drawing conclusions.  The children read the material and answer the questions.  I enjoyed this convenience of a ready-made lesson and appreciated this new way to reinforce a skill.  Other presentations included sentence parts, vowel sounds, and punctuation.

Starting on April 14th, my class entered into an Accelerated Reader contest which will last until May 14th.  My children are ecstatic!  In the 8 school days of the contest, they have passed 119 tests.  I set their goal at 10 books over the 4 weeks, yet I already have several students who have reach their goal.  I am anxious to see how many books we will read by May 14th.  My plan is to use my students' enthusiasm for books to improve their reading comprehension skills.   As I tell my students, let's read, read, read. 

Reading is undoubtedly a key to success as a student. Cyber Exchange has provided endlessly avenues to reinforce skills and spark student interest.  Through this project, my children have become better readers and in turn better students. 
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May Entry
This year my class chose to participate in the Class Pet Exchange.  We began an interchange with another 1st grade class in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Ms. Powell's class corresponded with us concerning our class pets Sassy and Macho Dude.  This exchange offered several opportunities for my students to improve their writing skills.  At the beginning of the project, each student took Sassy, our pet rabbit, home and wrote a story about her adventure.  Next we wrote a book about our class to send to Indiana with Sassy; each child contributed a page.  Once Macho Dude--their pet gorilla--arrived, we took him home and wrote more stories.  I noticed a marked improvement in my students writing.  While Macho Dude visited us, we taught him about our school.  I used the digital camera to take pictures of  Macho Dude participating in classroom activities, and we created a Power Point presentation.  Each student became responsible for writing about one part of our day.  Most recently we returned Macho Dude with good-bye letters written by the students.  This activity proved to be an excellent way to introduce letter-writing skills.  Now that Sassy is home I plan to do one last assignment.  I told the children that Sassy's mother came to visit; we will write dialogue between the two rabbits which will give me the opportunity to review quotation marks and punctuation skills.  Overall this project proved to be extremely beneficial.

Last year our entire school participated in an Internet project of our own called "Take a Hike."  In this project, we visited national parks on the web, corresponded with other classrooms about our findings, and wrote stories about plants and animals.  For two years in a row, technology in the classroom has enhanced my curriculum.

During the Cyber Exchange project, we created many lessons plans.  For my lesson plan, I chose to review consonant sounds.  At the beginning of the year, 1st grade students have limited abilities with reading and writing.  This lesson focused their attention on an important skill while acquainting them with the Internet.  As the year progressed, we used the Internet to learn about one of our favorite authors, Dr. Seuss.  We even found a quiz covering all of his books.  This web site gave use incentive to read more of his books to find out the answers. Dr. Seuss is a master of rhyme and fun.  The children enjoyed making up their own rhyming words and stories with the inspiration of Dr. Seuss.

As a teacher, both email and ICQ are invaluable ways to communicate with colleagues.  Our school uses email to send announcements to the faculty.  Committees discuss relevant issues via email.  ICQ provides instantaneous messages as we chat after school about upcoming events. 

Currently my students access email and ICQ on a limited basis.  As a class, we mail messages to other classes in the school.  We used ICQ to challenge a 2nd grade class to a rhyming word contest.  We gain access to video conferencing only recently.  In the coming years, I will be looking for more ways to use electronic communication to enhance my instruction.

In 1st grade--and I hope in every grade--we place much emphasis on writing skills.  We believe that reading, writing, listening, and speaking are directly related to one another.  My students write stories daily.  Sometimes we write stories together as a class.  I use Microsoft Word to instantly display our writing.  After finishing our story, the students read it back to me from the television screen as we edit our sentences.  Finally we print our story for all to read.  In addition, I use Word to display poems and stories already written.  We read these together.  I highlight key words to teach a variety of skills including rhyme, detail, sequence, and even fractions!

Through Cyber Exchange, we gained access to several PowerPoint presentation.  Some presentations introduced books, including Frog and Toad.  To entice my students, I read the book Frog and Toad Are Friends.  Then we viewed the slide show about Frog and Toad.  At last, I offered them the book Frog and Toad Together.  With excitement they took turns checking out the book.  Even weeks later, we look for Arnold Lobel books.  Likewise, we learned more about H.A. Rey with a show about Curious George.

Other PowerPoint presentations enhanced the curriculum by providing supplemental practice.  For instance, one show emphasized drawing conclusions.  With "It's a Mystery" my students began to look for clues to uncover hidden meanings. In another show, we distinguished between short and long vowel sounds, which always seems to be a source of confusion for some of my students.  Likewise, we explored telling and asking sentences.  Undoubtedly the Power Point presentations we created through Cyber Exchange have proven to be an excellent tool for reinforcing skills.  I look forward to using these shows for years to come.

We began our classroom newspaper in the Fall of the year by visiting CNN.  These stories seemed to be a bit above the interest level of my students; thus, we changed our format near the middle of the year.  We began to produce a monthly newspaper about us--which always seems to be a favorite topic with my students.  They love to see their names in a story or recall recent events in which they were involved.  With the newspaper, we practiced formulating a main idea sentence and details.  We began by brainstorming ideas for our articles.  After deciding on our feature stories, I asked for someone to tell me the main idea.   I do admit that sometimes we had to start with the details and work our way to the main idea.  After writing our stories, we reread each article looking for our mistakes.  I particularly liked modeling editing, or as we refer to it double-checking.  In the end, we printed our paper to share with all.  Once again, our writing reinforced our reading.  Recently we completed our April newspaper, I noticed tremendous improvement in their abilities. 

Our newspapers also exposed students to important concepts about the computer.  They can recognize Word as a program to write stories and articles.  They realize that we can insert pictures into documents.  Most of all they view the computer as a tool to generate materials to share with others both electronically and traditionally. 

For our classroom web site, we wrote stories about spring.  The children proudly read their stories from the Internet.  I hope to use the web as a publication tool which will give my students the incentive to improve their writing.

These monthly training sessions have proven to be a source of motivation for me to use my technology skills with my students.  I am familiar with much of current technology, yet I have difficulty integrating technology with my curriculum.  This project focused my attention on finding ways to use the technology resources available.  Likewise, this project provided ready-made ideas for me to implement into my own instruction.  This project opened the door for me to explore technology integration, yet my journey has just begun!

Through Cyber Exchange, our school received a laptop computer.  Though I have a computer at home, I do not have every program I need to create materials for my students.  With the laptop, I constructed my own PowerPoint presentation.  I enjoyed the convenience of utilizing the sound and graphic files loaded onto the laptop.  Likewise, the laptop allowed me to work on projects as I traveled.  I look forward to using it in the future as we have recently been given a quick-cam to use for video conferencing.

Our Cyber Ambassadors possess the knowledge and ability to help my 1st grade students.  With our ambassador, my students explored Kid Pix.  Many learned to save and print with the help of this older student.  I do wish our ambassador's visits had been more frequent in order to achieve the maximum benefit.  I hope next year will bring better results.

As children begin to read and write, they need exposure to as many outlets as possible.  Technology provides one more avenue of practice and publication.  In our current age of technology, the computer is not only a teaching tool but also a tool of motivation.  My children relate to the computer and stand on "tip-toes" to see and do work with the computer.  The computer captures their enthusiasm and thereby becomes a source of focused instruction.   At the same time, the computer provides a relevant means of publishing student work  With technology, our stories can be read across the world.

By far, I believe the most beneficial aspect of Cyber Exchange has been access to teacher-made PowerPoint presentations.  Though I spent hours creating my own presentations for the project, I spent only seconds downloading the presentations of others.  Teachers helping teachers can only end in success! 

My mother works as a Technology coordinator for Knox County schools. She trains teachers daily. We exchange ideas about technology and integration.  I showed her our Cyber Exchange site and downloaded several PowerPoint presentations for her in an effort to share our work. 
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I recommend limiting the project to one aspect, such as electronic communication, video-conferencing, or Power Point presentations.  By focusing on one aspect, I believe we would be able to fine-tune that aspect of integration. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

I would like to see each grade level develop a web site to share ideas and information about their curriculum.  With a coordinated effort, we could develop a web site to put valuable resources at our finger-tips.
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