October Journal Entry
Jefferson Elementary School 
October 13, 1998 

I teach in the Chapter reading program.  My students went through the process of changing reading books.  We had to go back to the third grade reader.  I had been teaching sequencing in the other book and decided to try the lesson Terry and I came up with.  “Sequence It”  deals with using fairy tales off the Internet.  We provided addresses for the fairy tales.  I was hoping  for a better response from the children.  I already had the fairy tales chosen and some children did not like their fairy tales.  Maybe next time I will allow the children to choose their own.  At least, that was the attitude of the children.  The children did like the fact that they were using the computer.  The only way that one learns is to try it.  I know what changes need to be made for the next lesson.  Hopefully, the next lesson using sequencing and the Internet will have a better response. 

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November Journal Entry

I selected one Internet project: The Classroom Pet Exchange.  I e-mailed a letter to my partner in Illinois.  I have not received any news from her on when we are going to start.  I hopefully will get to send another e-mail to her tomorrow.  My first attempt at doing the newspaper was an after school practice session by myself.  I did not feel comfortable with the newspaper process.  I could not remember certain steps in making the newspaper.  I had Connie Campbell come into the class and do a newspaper with my class.  This went very well and I remembered some of the steps that I had left out before.  Two days later was my first solo attempt with the newspaper.  I went very well.  The children enjoyed being involved in making a class newspaper.  I wish that I could use it more in the classroom, but I struggle getting all of the subjects in during the day.  I will have to make time for the newspaper.  I really enjoyed making the newspaper along with the children.  We will try it again! 
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December Journal Entry

     This month was an extremely busy month.  I did not get to do my newspaper this month, but I did get to teach my lesson.  I taught my lesson on propaganda techniques used in commercials.  I recorded some commercials from television.  I made sure that all of the commercials had a certain type of propaganda.  There are five types of propaganda:  bandwagon, testimonial, transfer, repetition, and emotional.  The lesson called for teaching students about propaganda.  Most of the students did not understand at first, but did catch on later in the lesson after the taped commercials.  My next step was to get magazines for them to cut out types of advertising and they would identify the type of propaganda technique used.   They made a collage that described the technique used .   The students really enjoyed this activity.  The lesson plan called for the students to make their own commercials, but I did not have time for the children to make their own commercials.  I really would think that the children would have a ball making the commercials.  Maybe next month I can get my newspaper done in class.  The address for this lesson is http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Lang_arts/Reading/RDG0004.html.
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January Entry
 My computer has been on the fritz.  I did not get to do any of the things that we went over in December’s meeting.  Something is wrong with my hard drive and it is in the shop.  I did, however, use another lesson plan off the Internet.  It was using cereal boxes in reading.  The objective of the lesson was for the students to read the nutritional label of the cereal and then answer questions pertaining to the cereal.  This lesson went very well and the students enjoyed this very much.  Hopefully my computer will be ready to use this next month.  I really need to get some newspapers finished.  I did not use any Cyber Ambassadors, because of my computer problems. Hopefully next time. 
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February Entry
 I have just got my computer back from the shop and have not had a chance to install ICQ yet.  I am looking forward to getting back into using the computers during class.  While my computer has been in the shop, I had one of the Cyber Ambassadors come to my class and clean the mouse on each computer.  I believe that her name was Meredith Milligan.  She came and did an excellent job!  I hopefully will get her to come back and preview some new programs that I have purchased for the class.  I also took the laptop home and started to familiarize myself with it.  It is really neat, but I have a hard with the little keys and the mouse.  I have not done the Internet project yet, but I plan on doing it.  I haven’t had a computer so I have not had a chance to contact my partner.  I probably have lost a partner since I have not contacted her.  Again I cannot report any progress in student achievement due to computer problems.  I have noticed an increased interest in wanting to use the computer.  Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things, since I have gotten my computer back.  I will probably have to get Connie to come to my class and refresh my memory and the kids’ memory also.
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March Entry

 I did a short PowerPoint presentation with my reading class.  We are reading “Old Blue” in our class.  I used only three of the vocabulary words.  I created a PowerPoint presentation on those three vocabulary words.  It was a fill-in -the-blank using context and the learned definitions.  The kids loved doing this and they want me to make another presentation.  I might start using this as an introduction to the vocabulary.  This was about the only thing that I had time to do this month due to scheduling conflicts and surprises.  I ordered some new computer software and will try to get the Cyber Ambassador to either take it home or come to the class and preview the games.  I ordered “Oregon Trail 3” and “Math Shop”.  I have let the kids play “Math Shop” and they seem to enjoy the game.  We were going to try to create a newspaper and was interrupted by a tornado drill.  I just let the newspaper go for that day and started a PowerPoint presentation.  Hopefully, I can get a newspaper done this next month. 
 I did not get to use the laptop computer.  We have only one computer and 7-8 teachers in the program.  If we had another computer, it would make for easier access to the laptop.
 I have noticed a slight increase in motivation while I have started using the computer in the class.  I do not get to use it often, but last week I gave my reading class a vocabulary test on the computer.  The children really loved doing this.  They wanted to know why I had not thought of that before.  I guess next time I will give the test on the computer again.

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