October Journal Entry
Rush Strong School 
 

I decided to implement the lesson plan Charlotte's Web-The Real Story. I was excited about reading the book and knew the children would love this old classic. However, I changed the lesson plan somewhat to include copying and pasting from the Internet to Microsoft Word. I was a bit apprehensive about tackling all of these new things at one time. 
 We began by reading the book orally in class. At chapter five, we discussed the differences between reality and fantasy.  I typed in both fact and opinion using Microsoft Word. The students came to the big screen monitor and loved the idea of writing on the TV.  They underlined the sentences they believed to be facts. 
Next, we had a lesson on copying from the Internet and then pasting on to MS Word. The students took notes in their computer notebooks.  I divided the students in to seven groups of three students. The students were to use a website that I had chosen for them. Each student in the group was responsible for finding two spider facts. They had to be careful to stay away from opinions. Then, each student copied and pasted their two facts. We printed the facts out when each group was finished. 
Then, we made a bulletin board out in the hall with a spider web made of yarn and a big spider that says "A Web of Spidery Facts from the World Wide Web. " The students stapled their facts to the web. It also happens to be just in time for Halloween, which fits in nicely with the other bulletin boards displayed in the hall. 
The lesson went really well and the students loved using the Internet and learning a new computer skill. I was very surprised at how quickly they caught on to copying and pasting. Students that usually have a hard time and will not turn in their assignments quickly copied the computer notes and paid close attention. One thing I should have remembered in the notes was to tell them to hit return after they pasted their fact on to MS Word. Several of the students pasted a new fact in the middle of an old fact. We quickly learned how to correct this problem.
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November Journal Entry

 My fourth grade class is participating in the Class Pet Exchange program. We have emailed our partner class in Canada, but we have not received a reply in quite a while. Our dog Scooby is taking turns going home with each child right now. There are four homes left to visit. He is collecting quite a wardrobe to keep him warm when he travels to Canada for the first time next week. Jeffrey gave him a necklace to wear and Steven tried to pierce his ear. The rest of the class out voted Steven on that idea! They are very excited about the project and their journal entries are becoming more creative with each child. I have noticed more detail in their writing. We are very excited about receiving our pet from Canada. We do not know his name or type of animal yet.
 The class really enjoyed making the class newspaper. They had a hard time choosing which article to and picture to use from CNN. I was really pleased on their ideas for rewording the article about beached whales.  It really helped on their English skills. We had a good time reporting the news of the day. Every child wanted his or her name to be in print. I had to choose a few and the others will have to wait until next time. I would like to make a newspaper at least a couple of times a week or on Fridays.
 I asked for the use of a Cyber Ambassador this month, but apparently we did not communicate well. I would like to have an Ambassador come to the room to show the students in small groups some basic things about Microsoft Word such as right clicking to find out what the red and green lines mean and saving information on a diskette.
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December Journal Entry
Kim's December Journal Entry was really an entry into the world!  She is the proud mother of a beautiful, baby girl, Karli Autumn. She weighed 7 pounds 11 oz.
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February Entry
 I do not have much to write about for my February journal due to the fact that I have been on maternity leave. I have only been back to school for a week or so. I do not have ICQ installed yet on my computer and I have had no chance to use the laptop or cyber ambassadors. I hope to catch up with everything this month!
 I have heard from my class pet exchange partner in Canada. We were starting to worry that they had forgotten us. It turns out that the computer at school had "technical difficulties" and the teacher emailed us from his home. His teaching partner has also been out of school on maternity leave. What a coincidence! We did not finish the project during the first semester, but we plan to finish it this one. 
 The Class Pet Exchange really helped my class in preparation for the TCAP writing test. They have to write a personal narrative about a given topic on the day of the test. The practice of writing their personal adventures with their pet really helped with creativity and grammar on the TCAP test.
 We have just finished reading Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. In the book, Leigh Botts writes a letter to an author for a class assignment. After a Power Point presentation on the friendly letter, we are searching for favorite author addresses on the Internet (both email and snail mail) so that we can write our own friendly letters to an author. The students wrote their rough drafts yesterday and I was impressed with the interest and improvement in their writing skills.
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March Entry
 This month I created a Power Point presentation on the five parts of the friendly letter to use during an evaluation. It really held the children's interest. I tried to download a presentation but it was taking forever and I gave up. I think I just gave up too soon.
 We received the moose Quarter from our Class Pet Exchange pals. We finally know how Quarter got his name. There is a moose on the Canadian quarter. We will be sending a United States Quarter home with him on his return trip. The children are really enjoying taking him home. I see much improvement in their writing skills from the beginning of the year when they took Scooby home till now when they are writing about Quarter. 
 I planned to have the Cyber Ambassadors come to my room and then my computer went on the blink. I was not able to use them again this month. I also did not get to create a newspaper. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.
 I used the Cyber Hunt on Black History Month that Jean copied for us at our last meeting. The children loved looking up the answers. Fourth graders always hate reading questions and trying to find the answers in the textbook. They loved having questions and using the Internet to find the answers. They were reading all of the facts on the websites and even reading extra after they found their answer! I could tell an improvement in their comprehension skills.
 We are studying the rainforest in science and the students loved searching for and sharing information on the rainforest. They don't seem to mind the extra reading when it is on the Internet.
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April Entry
 I used Cyber Ambassadors, Colin Shea and Hannah this past month. They worked individually with students in my class to help them write their stories using Netscape Composer to put on our classroom website. They also started working with our classroom newspaper, but had to return to class. They will return this week to help us again. 
 My class has thoroughly enjoyed writing All About Me stories for our classroom web page.  We hope to search the Internet for pictures to illustrate our stories after the Terra Nova testing next week. We are also looking forward to adding to our web page. We have been reading the book Matilda by Roald Dahl. In this book, Matilda writes a limerick about Miss Honey. The children have written their own limericks with partners. We hope to add these to our classroom web page sometime this month. We also would like to add some more samples of creative writing. 
 We were sent an email from a teacher in Washington State about our web page. This really captured the students' interest in the web page and amazed them that anyone could read their stories.
  I fell behind on my classroom newspaper when I was out on leave. I am hoping to assign reporters and start doing a newspaper regularly for the next seven weeks of school.
 We are finishing up our Classroom Pet Exchange project. Quarter the Moose just returned from Spring Break with Katie.  He has really had a lot of adventures with the class and is really enjoying the warm weather in Tennessee. He will be returning to his class in Canada sometime at the end of the week. The children have collected many things to send back home with Quarter. Bruce found a book that explains every American holiday for Quarter to take home and read with his Canadian friends. We also discovered how he earned the name Quarter. There is a moose on the Canadian Quarter! We are sending him home with a quarter from the United States and a bicentennial quarter. The children are looking forward to Scooby's return. They are begging to take him home one more time and write in his journal again. I have seen great improvement in their creative writing skills from the beginning to the end of the year through the use of this project. 
 We are also using our computer for Accelerated Reading. I have several students that have earned over 100 points. I have one special education student that had no points last year, but he has earned over 50 points this year with a computer in the classroom. Carole Whitney gave me the idea of sending home the TOPS report to their parents in their weekly progress reports. This has really helped bring it to some parents' attention the progress their child has made in reading this year. Also, I had one child that would not test until his mother noticed he only had 5 points for the year. He had tested more times since I began sending home the progress report.
 I only have one computer in my classroom and this affects my ability to do all that I want to do with technology. I would love to have several more. One for accelerated reading, one for using learning software (or two or three) and another for working on Internet projects and using Microsoft Word or other programs for Creative Writing. I do not like being limited to one computer, but I am grateful for the one I do have.
 My children are more enthusiastic about using the computer as the year goes on and not just for "software games". They have really enjoyed our projects, creative writing, accelerated reading, and using ICQ to chat with other classrooms. This project had taught me many ways to utilize technology that I never dreamed of doing. I also love the opportunity to share ideas with other 3rd and 4th grade teachers in my county. I have learned so much this year through the Cyber Exchange for Educators.
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May Entry
I have participated in the Classroom Pet Exchange project this year and last year. I feel like I did more with the project this year. We stretched it out to a yearlong project due to my maternity leave and my exchange partner also was on maternity leave. Fortunately, she team-taught with a man that kept things going on both ends. I saw great improvement from the beginning of the year to the end on their creative writing skills, length of writing, and mechanics.

We have used the Internet for research on different topics for all subjects. The children have really grown in their knowledge of how to complete a search and to scroll up and down with the mouse and to use the buttons to move around on a web site. This is also a great way to practice reading.  I have used the Internet to search for ideas for different topics of study. I found a page on the rainforest that we used to make an information bulletin board with for the hallway. I found a web site to teach art with called Uncle Fred. The most beneficial have been the language arts web sites. Each time we begin a new chapter book, I can go to the computer and type in that author's name. It has been useful to find lesson plans to go with the books and just general information about the book and author. I have used different sites to drill and practice math skills such as division and multiplication. I used it during a classroom observation by my assistant principal to teach idioms. The children loved clicking on the idioms and hearing them said aloud on the computer.
I would be lost without the Internet in my classroom. I have become dependent on it. I need it to find out more information about topics, interesting lesson plans and ideas, and to make my classroom a better learning environment.   Last year, 1997-98 I rarely used the Internet to find lesson plans or projects. I didn't use it to research topics very often. I feel much more comfortable this year. Cyber Exchange has helped me to know how to utilize the Internet better. Last year, I participated in an Internet Quilt project. I took a year off due to my maternity leave interfering, but I would like to check into doing another during the 1999-2000 school year.

I developed an online lesson plan about Charlotte's Web by E.B.White.  I worked with Carolyn Greenlee in creating this lesson plan. My children absolutely loved this lesson and unit. We read the book and after Chapter 5 we looked through the chapter to distinguish fact from fiction and listed these on the big screen monitor. The class took turns underlining the facts on the screen with a dry erase marker. Next, we researched spider facts using Netscape Communicator. The children found spider facts and downloaded them for a bulletin board. We made a huge spider web on our bulletin board and placed the facts on the board on the web. It said "Amazing Spider Facts from the World Wide Web" or something very similar. It was Halloween so the bulletin board fit right in, but was a teaching board at the same time. Next, the children used Microsoft Word to type their own spider stories.  I have read Charlotte's Web in years past, but with this integration of technology the children looked forward to reading class every day. They also took the accelerated reading test on Charlotte's Web when we were finished with the book and the scores were higher.   I have also used the Bag A Book Report lesson plan. I changed it a little to a shoebox and they had to bring five things that start with their letter. Next, they will type a story using Microsoft Word using their five things in the box in their story. We will then print the stories and decorate our boxes with the story and things inside to share. The Bag a Book Report sparked this idea.

I have been using email for many different purposes. First, we are participating in the Class Pet Exchange. We use email to keep in touch with our partner at Webber Academy in Canada. The children love to communicate through email with Mr. Bantleman's class.   I have also received email about our classroom web page from several people. One as far away as Washington State. This teacher complimented our site and stated how useful it was to her. 
The children love ICQ.   I have let them participate in chats with a third grade class. This has helped improve their typing skills and keyboard knowledge. They are also learning how to use ICQ in the process. I have seen improvement on their capitalization and punctuation skills. They like to practice these skills on the computer far more than they do on paper.  I have also used email to send interesting websites to other fourth grade teachers. It is an easy way to share ideas. If I had to walk down to their room then I might just forget about it. Using my email or ICQ is very convenient to me.

I have used Word in many different ways. The first way I have used word is during English instruction. The children like to do practices with the different parts of speech using Word. I will type in a sentence and let the child come up and circle the part of speech we are looking for with a dry erase marker on the big screen monitor. They love to write on the "TV". I have more participation in English class when I am using Word. Last week, we were studying adjectives and I would change the font color. The children really loved this! In years past, adjectives were always very hard for my classes to pick out. Not this year, they have done excellent work. I think it is because of the interest of the computer. They all paid close attention to the lesson because I was using Word.   I have let the children use Word to type creative writing stories to share with the class. I have really seen their writing grow from the beginning of the year to the end. We have also used Word for our classroom newspaper.   We used word with our spider reports to cut and paste from the Internet. I have used Word for letters home to parents, classroom news, and permission forms for various things.  We studied the country of Italy. We used the Internet to research facts about each topic. Then, we typed some of our facts for our projects using Word. At this point, I wished I had at least two computers or even ten computers to make this process go faster and everyone could have worked at the same time. (With a partner) One computer is not enough in a classroom of twenty children. 

 I have used Power Point to introduce classroom rules and procedures at the beginning of the year. I used Power Point to teach the three branches of Tennessee Government and the United States Government. I also used a Power Point presentation to present the five parts of a friendly letter during a classroom observation by my assistant principal. She really liked the use of Power Point. The children love the presentations! Next year, I would like to let children make their own Power Point presentation. I have learned so much through cyber exchange that I feel I would be capable of teaching them about Power Point next year.

We used our web site to type stories about ourselves. This developed an interest in the web site. Next, we read the book Matilda. Children worked with a partner to develop their own limerick. Next, we used Netscape Composer to type the limerick and uploaded them to our web site. We are in the process of finding images to illustrate our limericks. With next year's class, I would like to make an accelerated reading point page, birthday page and book review page. I could also include classroom announcements or make a link to our classroom newspaper. I have several parents that have gone to our web site to read our stories. They are impressed with their writing ability and their knowledge of computer skills.   Our newspaper needs some improvement. I need to set aside a specific time at the beginning of the day to complete a newspaper and assign reporters to have topics to write about each day.

I have changed my methods of instruction over this year. I have used my computer monitor more and my chalkboard less. It has captivated their interest far more than the chalkboard alone has ever done! I have used Word in creative writing more often, though I wish I had more than one computer because I could have utilized Word and the computer even more. I use my technology more this year and everyday it keeps increasing. We are learning about classroom web sites in Cyber Exchange and my only regret is that it is almost over for the year. If we could have one more year with the same teacher's involved, then it would be incredible the amount of technology we could integrate in to our classrooms. I have come so far this year that I feel that if I could have the chance to go further it would be beneficial. I am very excited about all the possibilities for my classroom web site. I have used the Internet more to research topics and to find lesson plans. The ICQ and email have been wonderful for communicating about projects and to share ideas. My teaching has changed immensely since I first received my computer. I am surprised with the amount of knowledge that I have gained over the course of this year. I look around at my Cyber Exchange partners and I can see how we have grown. It has also been a wonderful way to get to know your fellow grade level teachers from your county to share and exchange ideas with. 

I have been limited on my use of the laptop due to the fifth grade's interest in this equipment and my being the working mother of a newborn baby. I plan to use the laptop more next school year to create PowerPoint presentations. I have had to work at school on my computer because it has been impossible to complete anything at home right now. 

The Cyber Ambassadors have come to the room to work with the children. They have helped the children to write their stories about themselves for our classroom web site. They have worked with the children to complete searches on the Internet. They have worked with the children on a classroom newspaper. 

This project has been wonderful for our reading program. The children are more interested in the chapter books when they know we will be using the computer as a tool in our unit of study.

The opportunity to share knowledge and ideas have been most beneficial aspect of the program. I have done things with technology this year that I never dreamed I would be capable of accomplishing. The ideas that my partners have exchanged with me have been useful in making me a better teacher. Without this project, I would not have been able to do many things with my computer. I would not have had the confidence or the resources to use when I needed them.

I have shared knowledge by sending email with the Cyber Exchange address to others, so that they could download the PowerPoint presentations or find ideas. I have helped Mrs. Greenlee and Mrs. Schrader by answering some questions they had about the use of the computer. I could not have done this without Cyber Exchange.

I think this was a wonderful project and I cannot think of anything to improve it. Perhaps, the only suggestion I have is to continue the project next year with the same people to take their knowledge further than it has already gone.

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