October Journal Entry
Talbott Elementary 
Admirable Adjectives

Adjectives are always a fun unit to teach to third graders!  I was a little nervous though about the children needing to identify the adjectives in our vocabulary words.  We hadn’t officially studied adjectives yet, but as an extension to our noun unit, we played a game to “describe” our nouns.  After giving the children an introduction to adjectives, we were able to play the “Round Robin” game the following day.  This was a higher level thinking stage involving the vocabulary words in reading.  The children really loved claiming their words, then they were given the opportunity to choose another child in the class to name whether the word was an adjective or not an adjective. I was thrilled when we came to a word that was a verb and instead of saying, “Not an adjective”, the child excitedly said,   “ I know what that is, it’s a verb!”  We had not studied verbs up to this point so this was a spark in my day!  An extension to the “Admirable Adjectives” activity was to write a song, poem, or story using the vocabulary words, especially bringing out adjectives in the activity.  The Standard Banner newspaper gave us this opportunity the following week!!  They had run a creative writing activity entitled “Local Poems”, in which the children could write a poem of their choice about their community or school.  You can imagine how enthusiastic we were to use our new found adjectives to write these poems.  Hopefully my little authors will see our poems published in the Standard Banner in the next couple of weeks!

Cyber Ambassadors

I am a PowerPoint nut, but I had not had the opportunity to train my students in using this wonderful program! So, I was thrilled with the idea of having the Cyber ambassadors come in and work with a small group of my children one afternoon.  I had ask Grant and Brandon if they would mind showing my group how to use the templates to design their own slides, and they seemed eager to begin!  I am still adjusting to not having all of my students at their desks and looking at me while I’m teaching, so this was a true learning experience for me, also! Wow, though I was so impressed!  Grant and Brandon really took the lead and were very patient in working with the children.  They are so quick at it I wasn’t sure if my group would be able to retain what they were teaching, so at one point after they had worked for about 30min. I ask if my group could start typing and making some of the decisions concerning clip art and sounds.  No problem, they said and every once in a while I would hear my group enthusiastically make a remark concerning the slide being created.  This was a truly wonderful experience and one I would not be afraid to attempt again! I only wish we had more ambassadors as willing to help out!

Peggy Britt
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November Journal Entry

The month of October was very productive in the technology end for third grade!  Although a little apprehensive about beginning a class newspaper (due to the fact that I’m not a great typist and I was worried about time management) our class now looks forward to that time in class with great anticipation!  When we first began I was nervous about trying to type and prompt the children, plus keep us with classroom management.  But I am thrilled to say that all of these little worries I had have taken care of themselves!  First of all the children really love this time! I am still pretty slow at typing, but the children are very patient and use this time to think of news they are interested in adding to our paper. In deciding who would take the news book home each day, we came to the conclusion that we would nominate a “News Worthy Person” each day to be the happy news book recipient. This has led to some miraculous news watchers!  The children are even becoming more news aware and bringing in some of their own news stories.  I felt that at times CNN and NBC were a little hard for the children to understand, so after much searching I found some children’s news web sites to use.  One of our favorites is Times for Kids!  I feel so confident in what we are doing and so sure that this writing is making a profound effect in my classroom that my goal is to have the children so familiar with writing a newspaper that eventually we will have several pages daily in our newspaper, with at least 2 of these pages written by the children in small groups!

Internet Project

Our class is participating in the Kids to Kids International project on the Internet.  Last week we began searching the Internet to help the children to learn more about Cambodia.  We found a super site in which a child has written about his experiences in Cambodia.  This site in entitled Arin’s story.  After reading this with the children I don’t think there was a dry eye in the classroom.  By Mon.  I had children (with parental permission) giving up their ice cream money and bringing in their pennies to help raise the $25 postage fee.  I really feel that this will be one of the most touching projects I have ever been involved in!
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December Journal Entry
I am excited to say that our class newspaper is moving along wonderfully!  We have graduated to a daily newspaper that is as exciting to me as it is to the children.  This past month we visited Bill Nye the Science Guy’s web page and gathered some information and an experiment on a unit on Matter.  Then we inserted that info to our newspaper and wrote about what we had learned from Bill.  That was a fun way to recap everything we had learned about physical and chemical changes. This is just one of the many ways we have incorporated our newspapers this month.  My students are well on their way to developing their very own newspapers!! 

With Christmas quickly approaching, our class was anticipating a promise I had made to them that we would read the story The Velveteen Rabbit.  Enjoying the Internet the way we do, I decided to use a web page I had found the previous month on this story.  So, I gathered the students close together around the computer and we began reading the children’s classic.  We were enjoying it immensely and had read approximately ¾ of the story when we received a message that we could not access this site!  We were very disappointed and tried several different ways to access this terrific site, but we were not successful.  Luckily I had a hardcover copy of the book, and we continued our lovely journey to the ending of the story.  The children  were teary eyed as we finished the story and spent some time discussing the way we would have ended the story. The following day I decided to try to access the story again but this time received a message saying the site had been filtered and could no longer be accessed. Well, it’s obvious that all new technology has its good and bad days!!  Anyway on a good note a fellow teacher found the web page and printed the rest of the story out for us!!   All's well that ends well!!
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January Entry 

Internet Project
    We have completed our books to send to Cambodia!!  What a truly wonderful experience this has been.  I really feel that the children put their hearts into their books.  We had a variety of books made from ABC books to animal books and even one was on the states.  The next step is to mail these, I really hope that we hear back from Kids to Kids International to find out exactly where our books went and to confirm that they were received.  This is definitely a project that I would like to continue doing each year.  I think my students will think back on this project and how they contributed to some joy in another child’s life for years to come.

Laptop Utilization
   We are so thrilled to receive our laptops!  Since these arrived before Christmas, this was a perfect opportunity to do some creative writing with the new computer.  We started out with a title:  Rudolph’s Christmas .  Then each group added daily to the story.  What a terrific story we ended up with!  The children really seemed to pick up quickly on the touch pad, I was very proud of them since it took me about two full days to adjust! 

Cyber Ambassadors
  Yesterday we were blessed with  some time with two Cyber Ambasssadors: Grant and Brandon.  Since some of my students had already worked with Powerpoint I asked Grant to follow up with that and help them to create a Powerpoint presentation on vocabulary words from Black Beauty.  I was very pleased with the outcome and the children are looking forward to finishing this up!  While Grant was working with one group of students, Brandon began helping another group with writing a letter to a previous Talbott student who is now in  basic training for the marines in Missouri.  This allowed me time to work with a group of students on the laptop on creative writing.  What a productive day!!
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February Entry
Student Achievement in Reading

    This has been a truly productive month in third grade! I am very pleased to say my students are progressing wonderfully in reading – both verbally and in written language.  Through the use of our classroom newspaper I feel that the children have mastered topic sentences, indenting for paragraphs, and developing an appropriate closing sentence for paragraphs, which are all important writing concepts in third grade.  I have also seen improvement in usage of quotation marks, adjectives, adverbs, and developing interesting, eye-catching titles.  I am excited about the fact that so many of these skills are being mastered and used earlier in the school year!

Classroom Newspaper Experiences

   What a fun way to gather information and review with my students!  Our newspaper is now being published both as a class and by individuals!  I was very proud when I overheard one student’s comment to another, “Remember we need a good closing sentence.”  What a joy as a teacher to actually hear those words spoken!  We have written so much that we now have two notebooks that are taken home each night to be shared with our families!  I was amazed how quickly the class showed knowledge of capitalization in titles, and the importance of using pronouns in writing.  This has truly been a wonderful teaching tool for the classroom!

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March Entry

 PowerPoint
  PowerPoint has become a fantastic way to enrich our reading lessons!  After we complete a reading unit, my students are developing PowerPoint presentations on the vocabulary words from that story.  I feel that this is increasing their use of the vocabulary words since they are given the opportunity to develop their own sentences, sounds, and images, which apply to the words.  I have seen remarkable progress (especially in low readers)  since this is an exciting way to review the words! 

Classroom Newspaper Experiences
 Our class newspaper has become an invaluable tool the past month.  In Social Studies we are exploring a unit entitled Our Trip Around the World.  Through our newspaper we have been able to keep parents and friends up to date on our travels.  I have seen remarkable increase in Spelling, sentence structure, the use of synonyms, and continued improvement in quotation marks.  You can imagine the excitement I experienced when one day I overheard a student explaining to another, “We have used the word said, remember we need to find some other words to use.”  Year after year I have tried various methods to teach this concept, but by completing a newspaper it has clicked for my students!

Internet Project Update
 We received a postcard from Kids to Kids International!!  My students were excited to read the postcard and already want to publish some new books! 
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April Entry

Laptop Use in the Classroom and Examples of Student Achievement

   This class is amazing!!  After months of working together on our class newspaper, I am excited to see the students working in their groups to create their own newspapers!!  I am thrilled to hear discussions which involve finding a topic, a topic sentence, and the use of  adjectives and adverbs to make their writing more interesting. I have tried to teach these ideas several different ways, but none have worked nearly as well in such a fun way! 

Web Page Creation and Positive Effects of Technology in the Classroom

   Wow, who would have thought that developing a classroom web page could have such a profound effect on a classroom!  Once our class brainstormed some ideas we had for our web page, the students took off with the idea!  It was a coincidence that we were studying poetry at the time that we started working on our web page, so the two went together very well.  My students were excited about the fact that their work would be published on line!  Almost every day it seems that a student shares that they are working on a new poem for our web page.  We are also working on illustrating our poetry, we are having difficulty uploading these, but with some help, we will soon have our illustrations on line as well.  For our students who do not have the Internet at home we have printed out our web pages to add to our daily newspaper book (this is taken home each day by a different student to be shared with the family).  I have heard several positive remarks by parents who are impressed with our web page, and the poetry that their children have written.  YEAH!!  It’s been a great month with technology.  I am so proud of the accomplishments my students have made this year using the computers. 
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May Entry
During the 1997-1998 school year our usage of the Internet in the classroom was basically limited to holiday web sites and research usage.  The Internet through this year has become an intregal part of our classroom instruction.  Our class has been fortunate to find several web sites that correspond to daily units in the classroom.  One unit in particular that we have completed this year in which the Internet has been very helpful, is our International Unit.  Through this unit we have had several “Virtual Tours and Exhibits” to other countries.  Of course this added to the enthusiasm and experiences of our travels.  One Internet project that corresponded well to our International study was Kids to Kids International.  What an eye awakening experience in compassion and multiculturalism!  This is a project that I feel my students will want to be a part of each year!

I have truly enjoyed finding lesson plans that revolve around particular stories and poetry that we are enjoying in the classroom.  One particular story that evoked interest in the classroom was The Velveteen Rabbit.  It was interesting to see the children compare and contrast the hard cover book of  The Velveteen Rabbit to the story we found on the internet.  I think one of the positives to online lesson plans is the fact that by using online lesson plans it is similar to sitting with a group of colleagues and sharing lesson plans – thousand and thousands!     
                     
The fears and intimidations of electronic communication are a thing of the past!  I think the most progress I have made as a teacher this year has been in the electronic communications department. Our school overall keeps ICQ open for communicating daily.  When the other third grade teacher and I want to discuss lessons, cooperative grouping, etc. ICQ allows us a way to accomplish that in an easy, quick way.  My students also enjoy ICQ because it is so friendly and simple  to use.  One instance in particular that my students enjoyed was communicating with a gentleman located in Iowa.  This allowed the children to discuss weather, natural resources, etc.  Then we compared and contrasted this information to other geographic regions.  This was a real learning experience!  In our school  we have found video conferencing to be a great way to introduce the pillars of Character Counts. It is so exciting to see first graders chatting with fifth graders, fourth graders, and the principal about the importance of honesty!  Electronic Communication has definitely enhanced instruction in our school! 
                
We have used PowerPoint and Word in many aspects in the classroom, such as:  poetry, creative writing, class newspapers, writing word problems, just to name a few of the most academically profitable.

Although I was very anxious to begin our class web page, I have to admit I was terrified!!  Just the idea of “Uploading” scared me to death!  Well, naturally after I shared what we had started on our class web pages during our Cyber teacher meeting, the children were ready to begin publishing their work on the web.  Suddenly I had children begging to write poetry and autobiographies to be seen on the Internet!  They day had come when the children had composed so many works that I knew I had to at least try to upload their material.  So step by step, I started the process, my hands trembling as I pressed the upload button!  I waited with anticipation as I went to our class web page and there to my wondering eyes appeared the creative works my students had completed!!  You can imagine the sparkle in each child’s eyes as they saw their creative expressions on the internet for the whole world to read!!  The next day as the children came into the classroom I was transported to a new level of happiness as several students excitedly said, “ Mrs. Britt, look what I wrote last night, can we put it on the web?”  Wow, can they ever!!  All of a sudden creative writing, poetry (of all forms), and letter writing, have become a thrilling new part of the school day, as well as a motivating at home experience!  

The laptop has had many benefits.  Not only has it provided our classroom with another technology tool, it has also provided me access to take what the children have done in the classroom home with me!  Also, the laptop had room for many more graphics, sounds, images, etc. which allowed for the production of some really interesting PowerPoint presentations.  I am spoiled and would love to have one of my very own now!

The Cyber Ambassadors have been a wonderful component to the Cyber Exchange program!  They are comparative to having another technology teacher in the classroom.  I feel that we have been much more productive in the classroom with their assistance!  They have been available to help with word processing skills, story writing, Internet research, and many other areas.

My reading curriculum has been enhanced in many areas.  I have seen improvement in proofreading skills, writing, (both creatively and letter writing ).
The most beneficial aspect of participating in this project, to me, has been the class newspaper.  It has completely changed my method of teaching.

It has been very easy to share what I’ve learned due to the excitement that I’ve felt about this project.  From the beginning I felt comfortable and encouraged by the other teachers and instructors involved in the project.  When I would return to school the day after being to a Cyber Exchange class my fellow third grade teacher would be waiting to hear all the details of the class.  When our class began a newspaper we shared the book with his class and later invited his class in to walk them through a class newspaper.  You can imagine the excitement my students felt when they were able to “teach” the other third grade class how to produce a newspaper!   Then the day came that I received an ICQ message from a teacher in another state who had seen my web page and wanted some input on a Spelling unit she was designing. It was so wonderful to exchange ideas and find a new friend at the same time!

Knowing how inadequate I felt as an educator using technology before this year, I think that the importance lies in more hands-on training.  My confidence has grown in the areas of technology immensely.  I feel like this has overflowed to my students, also.  I would like to see staff development in other subject areas, other than language arts, as well.  I think it would be remarkable to have training in incorporating math, science, and social studies into all areas of technology.  I feel very fortunate to have had this training and am excited about the growth I have seen this year in myself, my students, and even my parents, who have shown tremendous interest  and encouragement in technology.  My suggestion would be to continue energizing and empowering 

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