October Journal Entry
Piedmont Elementary 
October 13, 1998 

My 4th grade class has been studying sequencing both in math and reading so we chose the Sequence It! lesson plan for our first Internet activity.  This was also chosen because it was the lesson that I worked on in the Cyberspace training.  We did not get to spend as much time as I would have like on the lesson because our server was down for about two weeks.  I printed out the lesson plans at home to give our class a head start on the lesson. 

I divided the class into four groups and gave each group a copy of the fairy tale from the site.  They then just followed the directions from the Internet to sequence their story on index cards.   The students are excited about using the Internet in class.  We hope to follow up this lesson by illustrating the fairy tale and turning it into our own books in class. 

Cyber Ambassadors

I have been using the ambassadors on a daily basis in my classroom.   I worked out a schedule with the fifth grade teacher for them to come.  They take turns and come for 30 minutes during the time part of my class is out at Title I and Special Ed.  This is enrichment time in the classroom.  Even when we can not be using the Internet, they work with a small group teaching them how to use Word.  Each student is taught how to open Word, type a sentence, change the font and color, and then do a save to a disk.  Once each class member is taught this, we will go back and teach how to insert pictures and other neat things on Word.   I teach the students that are out of the classroom during this time myself during the day when time is available. 

Terry Sams

November Journal Entry

This has been a very busy month in fourth grade.   We have been involved in an art project with the high school, which involved several full days out of our schedule.   This involved going on a hike, doing art, journaling and having a guest speaker in the classroom. 

 My students are using the computer to type the stories they have written about the hike.  We have also done our first classroom newspaper.  Getting the time during the day to get all the students involved in this has been difficult.  I have decided that it would just be better to take the full amount of time on a given day and complete the newspaper rather than try to finish it in bits and pieces. 

 Our Cyber Ambassadors have not been as active this month.  Their own classroom commitments have taken more of their time.   We are still working on training every student in the classroom how to open Word, type, change fonts, colors, sizes and then save their work on a disk.  I do not have as many students with their own computers as I did last year, so many are starting from "scratch" on computer abilities. 
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December Journal Entry

I have used Sarah Lindsay as my Cyber Ambassadors this month.  Sarah does not get to come often due to the workload she has in her 5th grade class.  Even so she has now taught my entire class how to open Word, type a sentence about themselves, change font, size and color, and then save it to a disk.  The two other students have not been able to come at all because of their work in class.

My students enjoy working on the newspaper.  I will be assigning a reporter from each group to work with their teammates to write articles about what is going on in our classroom.  Each group will then be responsible for typing their articles for the newspaper.  I will have my Cyber Ambassadors help them then cut and paste these into the newspaper along with clipart or pictures.
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February Entry
ICQis an exciting new concept to use in the classroom.  We are just now beginning to see its value in our classroom.  The students are really excited about getting to "talk" to other classes with instant feedback. 
 Our Cyber Ambassadors have been coming in to help my students learn to use Word.  Many of my students do not have access to computers at home so the only time they get on the computer is what I can give them in class.  The Ambassadors are great about starting with the basics with these students.   I think the Ambassadors really enjoy the feeling of getting to "teach" other students.  They also help my students when we work on our newspapers.
 I have been introduced to our laptop but have not had a chance to work with it much.   I am looking forward to taking it home over spring break.
 The biggest achievement I have seen in my students has been in their writing skills.  Now that they know their newspapers are on the web, they are very conscientious about their writing and spelling skills.  We also looked at the web site on the T-CAP Writing Assessment before we took our writing test.   This was a great help!   The students were really interested in seeing what actual fourth grade students' writing tests looked like.   I believe they did a much better job on their own writing test after seeing these examples. 
 I turn my computer on the minute I walk into class in the mornings, and it runs all day.   I use a coupon award system for good work and behavior in my classroom.  One of the uses for the coupon is 15 minutes on the "teacher's computer".  The class has learned that this is not a "game" computer but is an educational tool.   There is always a long line of coupons taped to the top of the computer waiting for students to work on the computer. 
 Our work on the project "Going to the Mountain" has been updated with the high school students.   The class can view their stories as well as their own artwork on the Internet.  Our class quilt projects are now also on the Internet.  This has been a great way to communicate with some of my parents also.   Anyone that has a computer with the Internet at home has been sent the addresses for our classroom work.  The parents have really been excited about seeing their students' work published on the Internet.  What great public relations this has been.
 We still work in groups to publish our classroom newspapers.   Students take a copy of this home for their parents each month.  Seeing their work on the Internet was really a thrill for the class.
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March Entry
My use of the PowerPoint has been for review of skills.   I find it much easier to already have the presentations downloaded on a disk before showing them to the class.  The time to do this during class is just not available.  The class is very impressed with reviewing skills this way.   I am really looking forward to having the second computer that will read PowerPoint so students can use the presentations as review in a center activity.

Cyber Ambassadors have not been available very much this past month.  When they do come, it is often right in the middle of a lesson I am teaching so students are not free to work with them.  What I have done is used the ambassador to do work for me that I have not had time to do.   I have saved a lot of clipart from the Internet and other programs on a variety of disks.  The student has been inserting these clipart images into a document for me.  They reduce the size and move them around on the page so many images are on each document.  We then save the disk and the document in a page protector in a notebook.  My class is then able to find the clipart they want to use when they type something on the computer.  This has also been very helpful to me when I do my own newsletter, our classroom newspaper or PowerPoint presentations.

My computer was down for several days this month.  The laptop was very useful when I could not be using my own workstation.

We are still involved in our bird watch program.  My students have been entering the data themselves about once a week.  Our second hike with the high school art class is scheduled for April.   The artwork and stories we did in the fall have been uploaded to the "Going to the Mountain" link.  I am also making plans to communicate with another 4th grade class as keypals in a quilt project. 

The computer technology in my classroom has done wonders to help motivate my students in reading.  Several of my students have shown more interest in reading stories and doing research about subjects that come up in class.  Many times through out the week, questions will come up that we do not have the answer to in class.  The immediate response is often, "Let's look it up on the Internet."  My few students that have access to the Net at home often bring in reports they have done at home.  Also having the access to the computer in the classroom allows me to put students on reading programs that are keyed to their reading level. 

We are still working on doing the monthly newspaper.  Each month a different group chooses the topic for their article and then works as a team to write, edit and type it for the paper to go home. 

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April Entry

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May Entry
My class has been an exciting place to be this year because of the things I have learned through this program.  I always try to make it an exciting classroom but this has been much easier to do with the things I have learned in our workshops. Already other students want to be in my classroom next year, because of the things they hear my students tell about that we do using the computer in class.

Our school has been using the Internet for a couple of years already, but my participation through the Cyber Exchange program has really helped me far more than I dreamed possible.  Anytime we have had a question come up about any topic in the classroom, the first thing my students will say is, "Look on the Internet, Mrs. Sams."  Participation has given me more confidence on the Internet and has kept me exciting about teaching. 

We have used online lesson plans to supplement what we were doing in the classroom frequently.  This has been especially helpful for writing skills and language skills.   Being able to get away from the textbook has been exciting for both the students and myself. 

I emailed our page "All About Me" to everyone in my address book.  Three different people in different parts of the country have written back to my class in response to this.   The class was very impressed to know that someone had actually read their entries and taken the time to respond.   This gave us an opportunity to write back to each of these people.   I let the students answer these email messages themselves.  What a great way to work on writing skills!  Parents seem to be particularly impressed when seeing things their students have done on the web.   Of course, this does not happen a lot as so few have access at home.  I feel that if we can impress even one parent this way, we have done something good!

Students work in small groups as reporters and editors to write articles for our classroom newspapers.  This has been an important part of developing writing skills in 4th grade.  Each group writes, edits, and revises their article before going to the computer to type their article in our newspaper template.  They then get to add clipart, change the fonts for the titles and "dress it up" as they choose.  Newspapers are then sent home to parents. 

For me as a teacher, being able to correspond immediately with our technology instructor when I have had a problem has been wonderful.  The quick response to questions has often "saved" a lesson for me.   I also keep the address of anyone in class that has a computer at home.  Anytime I find a link that looks good for students or parents, I forward the URL to those addresses. 

We use MS Word frequently in my classroom.   My students have to write on notebook paper first, edit, revise and then go to the computer for the final draft.  My few students that have computers at home are allowed to do this at home and bring in the disk to work on more at school.  This helps to give those students without computers more time in the classroom.  I also use the students that have their own computers as peer teachers on computer skills for the rest of the class. 

I use the PowerPoint presentations to introduce new skills in class frequently.  I am working on my teacher's editions in Language now and writing "see PowerPoint" on all the pages that have a presentation to go with that skill so I do not forget to use them.  These have been real "attention getters" for the students.  Now that I have been taught how to do and use PowerPoint, I hope to spend time this summer developing more lessons that students can do themselves as a center activity.

The best part of the staff development meetings have been the time to actually get to practice what we are learning before being sent back to the classroom.  I still have a lot to learn by practicing what we do, but it is just wonderful to actually have the time with the instructor and other teachers to practice what we are learning.  There just is not enough time once you get back to class.  Even when you do get time, you have forgotten what you are supposed to do when you have to wait to practice. 

I really have not used the laptop this year.   Our technology teacher has trained me on it for our school but I have just not been able to work it into my classroom.  I have a computer at home so it has not been necessary for me to use it there.  I did request it a couple of times during class when our computer was down, but another teacher was using it at home so it was definitely being utilized.

The Cyber Ambassadors have helped me train my students on Word.  Sometimes they come to my class when my students are not even in class because of our schedules not coinciding.   At these times, I have them help me clean up things that are on my disk or save clipart off the Internet for me. 
At other times, the Ambassadors have worked with some of the special education students on a one-to-one basis to teach computer skills or to help them learn to use new software.  They have even helped me by using software that I have not had a chance to use and then teaching me about it. 

One of the main uses of technology and reading has been the Accelerated Reading Program.  It is wonderful to be able to have students stay right in the classroom and work on the AR test without having to send them to the library.  We also use the Internet to look up our favorite authors after reading some of their books in the classroom.  This has helped them seem like real people to the students.  It has also been useful when we did a unit of folktales.   We found many wonderful links to other stories that we were able to print off and save in a classroom notebook.

I download the PowerPoint presentations and saved them on disk for the other teacher in my grade level to use.  I also send her information on the great links we have developed and used.   I also send our links and other information to teachers I know in other states.   They have been very impressed with what we have done this year. 

I think that more practical suggestions on how to actually take time out of the regular curriculum and not feel so pressured about teaching from the texts would be helpful.  The classroom management problems of trying to utilize technology when there is only one computer and 25 or more students also needs to be addressed.  I also believe our administrators need to be more aware of what is available in training and take advantage of this training themselves. 

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