4th Grade 
October Journal Entry
Dandridge Elementary 
Sequence It !

Context of Lesson 

We were working on the story,  Dear Bronx Zoo, in which main idea is emphasized.  The class completed some activities that addressed this skill.  The students were a bit unsure of this, and we did it as a group activity.  The students gained confidence and seemed to have a better grasp of the main idea concept.  At this point we did Sequence It !  in cooperative groups. 

Evaluation 

In retrospect of this lesson, I felt that I should have given some more opportunities with main idea skill being emphasized.  This will be a lesson that I will use later and adapt to new stories to finding the main idea.  The students wanted to list supporting details, rather than the main idea.  We were able to back up and go over in small groups, which I feel was extremely beneficial for all.  The sequencing proved to be a strength for my students.  Most of all, the students really enjoyed the process!  That was worth the entire activity. 

Recommendations 

This is an excellent activity to use with students after having many opportunities to deal with the skill of main idea. I would also do one together as a class to model the process required. This will definitely become a part of  my teaching portfolio.  I will use this in the second semester, expecting great success.
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November Journal Entry

My class started on the project Kids to Kids International.  After much discussion we decided do an ABC book.  We had a great time deciding what to draw for each letter that would be simple enough for all to understand.  They were confident they could draw lions, cat, goats, etc.  These quickly turned into ladders, carrots, and girls.  We are almost finished with the drawings.
 Creating a newspaper was interesting.  I had the class brainstorm ideas for a title and three days later we agreed on one.  Since we are not on Internet groups did articles on some things we are doing in class.  I discovered that my class has no idea how to write a paragraph and stay on a topic.  The clip art was not exactly what they wanted and that caused a lot of problems.  When we were done they were thrilled with the results.
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December Journal Entry

     I used the Tales of Wonder site in my reading class. This very motivational! The children amaze me on how much they love to read these tales or anything off of the internet.  They also love being able to have a copy of the story to keep.  I had originally planned to make hard copies to save to use from year to year.  That soon changed when my students started asking about taking the stories home and saying, “Do we get to keep these?”  Well, I love it any time a student has that type of response.
     There are many ways to use these tales from around the world.  The first tale I chose, we read silently and had a group discussion.  It was really enjoyable. It is also great for character development because each story has a moral.
     I intend to write comprehension and discussion questions to correlate with other tales that we will use in the future. 

You can find Tales of Wonder at this address:

http://darsie.ucdavis.edu/tales/
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January Entry 

I have really enjoyed having access to the laptop.  I have two young children who are very active!  When I am waiting on them to finish violin lessons or ball practice of some sort I can now use my time so much more efficiently.  Before I would play out in my mind things that I wanted to do in my classroom.  Now I can actually do them while I wait.  I love it! It has been a great way to improve time management.  Currently, I am putting together some ideas for a possible grant proposal. I have a feeling that I will be spending a lot more of time with my laptop.

My class has been participating in Postcard Geography.   It has been a worthwhile experience with an overwhelming response. We are currently thinking of ways that we can display our cards in a graph or table so that we can make comparisons.
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February Entry
I have used ICQ to send and receive files related to reading research.  I have also used it to discuss a reading approach with a teacher in our project at another school.  I find that it is extremely useful to send URL’s to my home computer and others back to my school computer. It helps me keep up with what I am doing between school and home in my reading research.

Our internet project, Postcard Geography, is beginning to wrap up.  We have a few more to send out to other schools. We will still use the postcards we have received to do some other social studies related projects with graphing. 

Another way I have started related to the internet is to provide enrichment for a child who masters all of his science and social studies requirements with a perfect score.  I have him do the material we are doing at his own pace (extremely fast and well), and then he is released to do a Webquest related to that subject area.  It has been a great experience for him, as well as myself.

One of the most exciting parts of this project is by giving me the opportunity to be involved in a Reading Renaissance workshop.  I cannot wait to see how it will boost my students’ reading scores.  I have had made the Accelerated Reader a part of my students’ reading grade.  The first six weeks, there was grumbling. Now, I have seen total attitudes changed toward reading. It has been unbelievable!  My resource students are even reading and enjoying it!  It has revived my entire reading program.
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March Entry
We are using PowerPoint as a motivational tool, at this point, in introducing and emphasizing skills.  We are looking forward to doing group and individual presentations. 
The laptop has been a lifesaver for me.  Not only does it allow me to do spend more time on developing presentations, but it has been a great tool in other professional goals.  In dealing with this reading project it has inspired me to research more and more about the teaching of reading on the Internet.  Due to this I was challenged to write my first grant proposal in reading.  This is where the laptop has really bridged the gap.  I do not have Word at home, so the laptop has been a great source.
Our Postcard Geography Internet has wrapped up with great success.  We are planning on doing the “Read In” on May 13th.   This is a day totally devoted to reading and being linked to famous children’s authors and talking to them on line.  There is also a great web site devoted to the project.  We are excited!
I have two boys in my class that have reading disabilities.  They have improved significantly in reading.  They are even volunteering to read out loud in class.  They have begun to read several library books on their level so that they can take Accelerated Reader tests.  It has been amazing to watch!
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April Entry

The in-service training that has been provided through this project has definitely strengthened my teaching.  I have been able to take in new ideas and tools to provide a large variety of activities for my students.  It has been motivational for my students, which affects student achievement.
I have used computer proficient students to assist with troubleshooting which has freed my time to do what I must.  I have found that this makes all of our activities go smoother and more efficient.  The students really enjoy being a part of the process.
We have finished the project “Postcard Geography.” . In the last 6 weeks of school we will be doing much more on the computer and computer related projects.  My students are excited and ready to begin.  We will be implementing PowerPoint presentations and webquests.
The laptop has been a beneficial addition to my teaching portfolio by allowing me to access computer programs that I use at school, but do not have on my home computer.  It also allows me the ability to use prepare for my class in a more time efficient manner.
I have been so excited about the progress of some of my resource students in their reading improvement. They have been so motivated to improve their reading.  I can honestly say that I have never seen this response before.  It has been a beautiful thing to see. 
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May Entry
I have used the Internet extensively for the past two years in my class room.  Virtually, every subject has had some impact via Internet.  The way that this project has helped most in this arena is the fact that a lot of the work has been done for me.  Time is the bitterest enemy that we face as educators.  The bookmarks and links that have been implemented through this have been invaluable.

One activity that really was inspired out of this project was for my kids to edit other students' writing.  We had used the computer to do editing skills, but I took it a step further.  Our state displays examples of students' writings from the Tennessee Online Writing Lab on the Internet. There are examples from each scoring.  I simply pulled those up on my large TV screen and the student’s began to edit as a group.  I used the dry erase markers to make the appropriate editing marks.  The students loved it!  I have to say it was a great success.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to be creative and actually have the time to put my ideas into action. I aided in the development of at least three online lesson plans.  It was inspiring and will promote the continuance of this in the future.  The importance of teacher collaboration was invaluable and helped to spur my creativity.    One activity I really enjoyed was watching my students glean from was the use of Aesop’s Fables.  There is a Internet site with one page fables that can be downloaded for a hard copy.  My students were divided into groups of four, with each group having a different story.  The groups read their story and begin to write the main events on cards.  The story copies and the cards were then passed to another group.  This group would read the story and order  the cards in their event order. It was great and the students really enjoyed the taking over their learning experience. 

The use of ICQ has been a lifeline for communicating with other teachers within the project. Whether it be technical or academic, access to a quick question is there.  It takes some stress out of the changes.   Through ICQ, my students have also chatted with a 5th grade class at another school within the district.  They have also seen the wonderful progress of technology by sending a sound file via ICQ to a principal of them singing “Happy Birthday”.

I use MS Word almost everyday in some form.  One of the best ways that I feels affects our classroom is sending home a weekly newsletter.  It has been a great source of communication between home and school.  This leaves no room for complaints, because everything is understood.
 I use PowerPoint to introduce new skills the most.  We have just begun to develop PowerPoint presentations as a class.

The staff developmentprovided through the Cyber Exchange project has been probably the most beneficial aspect of the program.  The training as been excellent and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it.  It has been rich in both the technical aspects as well as the instructional strategies.  Also, I feel that it is beneficial any time that we have the opportunity to share ideas and problem solve with other educators.  It is refreshing and helps us to think in new ways.  Through this project my interest in reading research as been heightened. In the reading of research, my mind started turning about finding effective ways of changing the way we look at teaching reading. This inspired my to write a grant, Project Second Helping, which received fundign through the 1999-2000 Goals 2000 program. This is where the laptop was particularly invaluable.  I used the laptop almost daily during this experience.  It was great to have the ability to take it home or while waiting for my own children to finish extra-curricular activities. It would have been a more difficult feat without the laptop.

I have not been able to use students from the 5th grade to help, but within my classroom, I have seen a multitude of Ambassadors develop.

At this point, student achievement is highly subjective.  I am anticipating increased scores on the Terra Nova especially in reading.  Through this program I was able to participate in a Reading Renaissance workshop, which I know has highly influenced reading in my classroom.  I have had students who did not enjoy nor want to read library books, now they are avid readers.

It is difficult to choose one aspect of this project as most  beneficial, because it has been a great overall experience. If I had to chose, it would have to be the training sessions.  It has given me wings to change the way I do things.  In so much of education we are given the demand to change, but rarely the tools to do it.  This has put action behind the call.  It has been great!  I love helping other teachers.  I am always willing to help solve a problem or share a new idea.  I think that’s because I want new ideas and help with my problems when I need it.  Teacher collaboration is often overlooked as an effective tool of change.

I would recommend more, more, more staff development projects.  The research shows that teachers can deal with the most difficult changes better if they are given the opportunity to experience or learn about the direction in which they are being steered.  I think staff development is a critical process in the blending of technology and effective instruction.
 

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