October Entry
Crazy Compounds
Lou Ann Tilley
Second Grade
 Learning to recognize and write compound words is an important skill covered in our second grade curriculum.  Just by reading over the lesson plan it seemed very practical and appropriate for instruction.  I think this lesson also incorporated different student learning styles through direct instruction, group work, written work, as well as incorporating technology. 
 I have used Power Point with my class to introduce the naming and telling parts of sentences.  So, they were accustomed to using the computer for past English lessons.  They get very excited when I call them to the carpet as a group for technology instruction.  We discussed what a compound word was and the two parts that make up that word.  The students began to give me examples of compound words almost getting ahead of what I had planned for the lesson. So, I skipped to the What Am I ? game.  Volunteers read the clues on the screen and we answered the riddles together.  They really enjoyed this and I will probably add more riddles to the game for future use.  Students worked in groups of two for the compound concentration game.  They worked well together coming up with their own compound words which reinforced the learning.  Some students would go back to the screen and read the riddles again to write their compound words. 
 After this activity we used Little Explorer.  It seemed to be the best dictionary site.  I let a student help me with the search (as a reward for good behavior—which worked very well).  As he scrolled through the alphabet the children got more and more excited when they recognized a compound word.  I will definitely use this lesson in the future when I introduce compound words. 

November Entry
Lou Ann Tilley
Piedmont Elementary
11-4-98
 My class is involved in the pet exchange project.  My students were very excited when I explained the project to them.  In years past my classes have had pen pals in another state and this project is similar to using pen pals.  I like pairing up with other classes to exchange information and for my students to see what life is like for children in other parts of the United States.  Learning to write a "Friendly Letter" is a second grade skill.  Now I also teach how to use email in conjunction with writing a letter with pencil and paper.
 Our pet is Smokey, the mascot for the Tennessee Vols.  He goes home with a student each night.  The student also takes a journal home to write about Smokey's activities.  The student will then email their journal entry to our partner class in Indiana.  When our class finishes taking Smokey home we will then mail him to our partner class.  This is a great way for my class to feel more comfortable using technology.  We will also try to make a Power Point presentation as part of a journal to send our partner class.  We will insert pictures of the students and Smokey taken with out digital camera.
 I made a newspaper for open house at the beginning of our school year for our parents to take home.  I really struggled with the setup because I did not know how to wrap text around a picture.  After learning some short cuts at last months cyber exchange lab my next newspaper took less time and I was able to incorporate more pictures.  This paper was made for parents to take home when we met for conferences.    I set up the page and had my class help me write the articles in the newspaper.  The students were really excited.  They wanted to tell their parents what they had been learning in class over the past several weeks.  The students wrote the newspaper, I just typed what they said.  As I looked for pictures of Simple machines to put in the paper (I am teaching a simple machines unit this six-weeks) I found some great lesson plans to use in class.  The students were very proud of their newspaper.  I plan to let them write a newspaper every month as a class project.

December Entry
Lou Ann Tilley
 At our last session we spent time on the web looking for some of our favorite authors.  My favorite book is When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant.  I wanted to teach a lesson using this book.  I found a link at http://www.eduplace.com/tviews/hoyler36.html  with a review and activity ideas to follow for my lesson.  I modified some parts of the plan after reading the book aloud.  I am originally from WV where the story took place, so I think that interested my students even more as they got to know me a little better and some of WV's mining history.  I can tell that my student's map skills are improving as we located the state of Tennessee in which we live.  Then I asked them to go NE to find WV and most of them did very well.  We have been studying simple machines in science so they noticed several simple machines that were used in the illustrations. The story took place earlier in the century and most of the students journaled they would rather live in today's time with more modern conveniences.  There were no televisions or radios for children to use in the book. My students couldn't believe this and asked, "What did they do for fun?"  Another students said, "They made their own fun."  I heard a couple of students say they were going to go home and try this "making their own fun" with no television or radio.  Several reminded me of the picture in the book of  little girl sitting on her front porch reading a book.  What an advertisement to encourage reading!  One student suggested that we do a web search to see how WV compared with TN.  I think this lesson, along with our Pet Exchange Program, is helping my class to understand what different parts of the country are like and how people are alike and different. 
 My students love to work on our class newspaper.  I do this during enrichment time.  I am trying to train my students to help me create the newspaper on the computer so that they will soon be able to create their own newspapers.  This paper goes home for parents to read, and my students always want to start out with what they have been learning.  This is fantastic because it serves as a mini review for our class.  They love helping me pick the pictures to go along with the text that we write.  I've recently learned about some new ideas using the digital camera.  I hope for the next newspaper I can take some pictures that will illustrate what my students have been learning in the classroom to go along with the text.  As I type certain words students will pick out letter combinations that we code in phonics.  So, I bold or underline the letter combinations in the newspaper which again gives me a quick assessment of how well my students are learning the skills being taught.  Through creating the newspaper together I can see how well my students are relating learning which is an ultimate goal.
 I used a new software program called Kid Phonics.  This is a wonderful program especially for students who have trouble with vowel sounds and beginning or ending sounds.  There is a spelling component involved which uses first and second grade words.  I like for my students to have as much spelling practice as possible.  The program also reinforces the students as they work through the program.  It is a colorful and interactive program that would be great for first and second grade.

January Entry 

 Email has been such an excellent tool to use in the classroom.  Our school has used email in the past with school to school projects, school wide projects, and interschool communication with teachers and students.   With the tremendous amount of email that my class has received it was becoming cluttered and too much to go through even with deleting some mail.  But, there was a lot of mail related to our school projects that we wanted to refer back to at a later time.  It was so helpful to learn how to create files in email for organization of projects and subjects!  Expanding my address book has also helped me save time.  I was glad to know that by double  clicking an address I could add that name to the adress book or automatically send a message without a lot of other steps involved. 
 I talked with the fifth grade teacher who has the Cyber Ambassadors in her classroom to work out a schedule.  At first it was hard for the ambassador to complete his work in time to come to my class.  Things have improved for this cyber ambassador and we have worked out a schedule for him to come to our class to teach pairs of students.
 We have been contacted by our pet exchange partners finally!  We are almost ready to send our pet!
 I have not used the lap top yet. 
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March Entry

• Uses of PowerPoint in classroom

• Cyber Ambassador experiences

• Laptop utilization

• Student achievement in reading through use of  technology

• Classroom newspaper experiences

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April Entry
 I have not been able to incorporate a Cyber Ambassador in the classroom this month.  My class has been very busy preparing for standardized testing as well as taking the test.  My students have been very receptive to the Ambassador that has worked with our class.  I would like for the Cyber Ambassador to help my students type in their stories for our class web page next month.
 I have not had a chance to use the laptop this month.
 My students were so excited to see their names on the screen on our classroom newspaper online, even more so when they found out that they would be able to write their own biographies.  Many of my students have Internet access at home so we will work really hard to get our page complete and uploaded before school is out.  This will be a project that I will begin early for my class next year.   I am working on more parental communication for my professional development plan and this is a fantastic way to keep parents updated and involved with our class.
 Each monthly newspaper continues to be a fantastic review of the skills we have learned each couple of weeks.  The students decide what they want to put in their paper.  They dictate and I type.  Without prompting they usually always comment on each subject area and what we have been discussing in class.  They also tell about special events in our class, school, or community.  We usually run out of space because of all the things they want to report.  I print copies for the class to take home .  I would like to put each monthly newspaper on the class web site for next year.
 Our Internet project has gotten off to a slow start.  We have had a little trouble communicating with our partner school.  We are hurriedly getting to know our new pet and introduce it to our school and our class.  The next time I do the pet exchange program I will send the pet to our partners first.  We took our pet home this year before sending him to our partner school and he is a little ragged.  We took a journal home to write in with our pet.  Next year I will have each child type their journal entry the next day on the computer rather than sending the spiral bound journal.
 I think using technology through teaching has benefited students who have different learning styles.  We practice with pencil and paper and board work, but using the computer also incorporates some tactile learning.  Using the keyboard helps with letter recognition and spelling skills.  I have been teaching food chains and food webs in a science unit with the three second grades in our school.  I read a book about the Web of Life and we discussed food webs.  We also made our own web using string to connect different animals in the web.  Then I showed several Kid Pix and PowerPoint presentations on food chains that some of my students from last year created.  For the first time food chains came alive and the class understood how the animals and plants were connected and depended on each other.   By creating curricular presentations it helps me think through each part of the lesson more thoroughly.  I just wish I had more time to plan and more time to create class presentations to use with my class.  An address that Connie published on the county web page was so helpful as we reviewed and quizzed before our state testing
(http://207.125.93.3/techupdate/basicskills.html).
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May Entry

I started using more technology in my classroom at the end of the last school year.  I was just beginning to "get my feet wet", but I needed more instruction on how to better access the technology that I was using.  Through the program, Cyber Exchange, I have been  given the opportunity to develop more computer skills and gain new information and ideas for my classroom. I have used the Internet throughout the year with my class as a supplemental source of information and visual learning to enhance my curriculum.  I have tried to adapt the Internet and technology to existing goals in my classroom.  Using technology has also helped me set some new goals for the future and challenged the thinking skills of my class. As opposed to last year, I now have a section of my planbook labeled Enrichment/Technology.  I am setting goals and forming objectives specifically for technology education in my classroom. 
We have taken virtual tours through Egyptian Pyramids and the famous ship, the Mayflower. While learning about food chains we have often researched different animals and what they eat.  Our county web page has been an excellent resource for the teacher as well as the students, providing interesting and educational sites.  We even used some great-specified sites to help review before taking our state tests for second grade. 

I developed a lesson plan that incorporated the book When I Was Young In the Mountains.  I gathered information from the Internet about the book and the author.  This information helped me to set objectives and find supplemental activities to incorporate in my lesson.  After I read the book and the class discussed it, we used the web to read a biography about the author and even found additional books that she had written.  Eventually I would create a PowerPoint presentation for the book with the help of my students.

Email has been a fantastic component of reading and technology.  This joint component has probably been the most used type of technology in our classroom.  We have been able to communicate with our pen pals in a nearby town.  We have also kept in touch with pet exchange pals from Aurora, IL.  Without technology, outside communication would not be as likely and take twice as long.  My students are the authors of our letters that helps them think about making complete sentences and using correct grammar. 

Our class used ICQ to play a game with another second grade class.  We played an antonym game and the students loved it.  The game was challenging and it appealed to the students because of the instant response.  A first grade class tried to ICQ us, but we were away from the computer.  We will try them again.

I have used word to create all of our classroom newspapers.  I have also used word to create vocabulary lists and supplemental worksheets for extra practice.  My students use word to keep an electronic journal.  They journal about their adventures with our class pet from Illinois. 
PowerPoint has been a great way to introduce lessons and spark student interests.  My students had to write their own word problems in math using two-digit addition and subtraction.  After they wrote their problems, I created a slide with the problem and a slide that followed with the answer.  Students were given time to read the first slide and work the problem.  Then we clicked to the next slide for the correct answer.  It took us about four days to get through each student's problem.   It was a great way to get the students to read and problem solve with the information given as well as practice math facts.
I also introduced books using Power Point such as Owl Moon and When I was Young in the Mountains.  Each presentation had links to the author, illustrator, and an explanation of a Caldecott Award.
In English I used a presentation to practice pronouns.  I used a dry board marker on the television to fill in the blanks as the students replaced the nouns with the appropriate pronoun. 

The classroom newspaper has been a great way to review skills learned throughout the month.  Each paper begins with a review of each subject area and what we have been learning.  The students dictate and I type their responses.  We involve the parents by telling them about upcoming events and happenings in our school community.  This gives the students a collective voice.  We also make flyers or special editions for open house or parent teacher conferences.  My students are great editors!  They catch all of my misspelled words and typing errors.  I am always so excited when they catch these errors because their spelling skills and mechanics skills are also being tested.
Our web site is still under construction, but my students are very excited about their stories being on the web.  Many of my students have Internet access at home and will be able to view our site.  This will be a great way to communicate homework assignments or project explanations and due dates.  It could eventually replace our call in Lesson Line.

The greatest benefit of these monthly training sessions has been TIME!  It has been so wonderful to have time to research and practice using the Internet without taking time away from my students.  I have been able to learn new skills by using ICQ and creating a class web site.

My usage of the laptop has been minimal although it is a wonderful tool.  I did not have enough time to create a PowerPoint presentation before leaving school, so I took the laptop home to complete the presentation for the next day.  How convenient!  The laptop is so easy to use and it is a great time saver.

The Cyber Ambassador taught my class how to:
Open Word
Open a file
Change the font and size of character
Change the color of the font
Save a document on a disk
Check spelling

After reading  stories from our basal readers, my class would ask more questions about the authors-so we would try to research more about the authors using the Internet. The students loved the author sites and it wetted their appetite for reading and writing.  In Language Arts my students learned how to set up and write a traditional letter on paper.  I taught a lesson on the differences between regular mail and email.  Using both the traditional letter and email, my students learned how to compose complete thoughts and ideas which are essential to reading.  Researching topics on the Internet has introduced my student to new vocabulary words and encouraged my students to use words in context to be able to figure out new words.

I am still so new at using technology in my classroom.  I  took part in beneficial training last year, but it has been hard to find time to practice what I have learned and create presentations.  It has been wonderful to have time to learn, practice, ask questions, and create projects that will be used in my classroom.  Everything that I have learned, or been exposed to, is something that I can take with me or access for my students.  This has been a wonderful professional development time for me as I have gained new understanding and useable ideas. 

I have shared ideas and technical support with a teacher at another school who has just received a new computer.  She has been hungry for ideas and ways to incorporate her computer and the Internet into her curriculum.  I have shared several PowerPoint Presentations with her which have been created through this training program.  Other Cyber Teachers at our school have been great supports for me when I have a question or needed technical support.

I think this program has been so well planned and thought out.  I would like to see this program continue next year for other teachers to have access to this technology.

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