October Journal Entry
October 13, 1998 

 We tried the crossword puzzle using contractions.  I wanted to try using the screen and dry erase markers, but I'm still a little afraid to let the kids stand on a chair to reach the screen.  I have several students who are trying to learn to control their own pushing and shoving, so I decided to print the crossword puzzle and duplicate it for the class.  They enjoyed doing the puzzle.  I'm feeling frustrated because there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do all those neat activities.  We're learning Saxon math this year and it's very time-consuming.  I think once we get into the swing with it (I understand it gets better about lesson 40 - we're on 30 now), I'll have a little more time to work on some of these great ideas. 

 I haven't used the Cyber Ambassadors yet, but am planning to begin after-school sessions with them soon.  Hopefully we can update our school's web page and get them involved with other classrooms.  Terry  Sams gave me an idea today about getting the ambassadors to work  with students in small groups to learn word processing.  I plan to implement this next week. 

Carole Whitney
November Journal Entry

In October we continued our Class Pet Exchange project.  The kids have enjoyed taking Chubby home with them and he even went to the hospital with Hannah when she had her tonsils taken out.  We've had a few conversations with our exchange class, but can't get them to reply as often as we'd like.  I guess they're as busy as we are!

We continue to work on our newspaper and the kids are beginning to understand what kind of information is needed to make an interesting article.  They really seem to enjoy taking it home with them and several parents have asked to have a copy of the pages that have their child's picture on them.  I'm still feeling my way around trying to use Publisher.  I'm a little apprehensive aout the presentation on creating a class newspaper at TETC next week and am hoping Denise and I can find some time to practice this week.

I met with the Cyber Ambassadors and they are enthusiastic about working on the school web page and had some excellent suggestions for improving it.  We'll meet again Thursday.  Kaitlyn has been coming to my class on a regular basis and so far has taught about 10 kids to create a word document and insert a picture!

December Journal Entry

We used a CyberGuide this month.  It was focused on Annie and the Old One and included art, social studies, science as well as reading.  The class was divided into nine groups and worked through other centers at the same time as some were on the computers.  The students really enjoyed the activities, but it took awhile to get everyone finished with all the areas.  I look forward to finding more of this type of activity because I really believe the more we can link ideas, the more learning will become meaningful for the students.
Our class newspaper this month included a page about December birthdays, picturing students who had lunch in the room with a friend to celebrate.  We also wrote an article about the Terrific Kids program sponsored by the Jefferson City Kiwanis Club.  We used the digital camera to take pictures of the kids who were selected and wrote about the features that designate a terrific kid.
The Cyber Ambassabors, Colin Shea, Briana, Tyler, Hannah, and Kaitlyn meet with me after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays most weeks.  We are working on the Rush Strong web page, making corrections and additions.  Kaitlyn  has been allowed to come on a somewhat regular basis and has worked with about half of the students in the class using word or ms works, including inserting a picture.
I introduced the students to Math Blaster and they enjoyed using it as part of the centers I described earlier.  It's not something I would use every day, but it gave them some practice using the mouse and simple math facts.  I hope to set up the laptop soon and let them work with Art Dabbler, but I want it to be in connection with other curriculum content.  I think we will be working with simple machines soon and hope to incorporate The Way Things Work and Widget Workshop into that study.

January Entry 

I have enjoyed working with the Cyber Ambassadors.  One comes regularly to my class and has helped most of my students with word processing individually.  The others meet as a group with me twice a week (when scheduling permits) to work on our school web page.  They have been interviewing new teachers so that they can be added.  They have also made some changes to make our page more up-to-date. 

We have finished our Class Pet Exchange project.  The pets will be returned on or before January 21.  They children have enjoyed reading the journal and their writing skills have improved since the beginning of the year.  I need to remember to make a copy of the journal we're returning for them to keep in the Reading Loft.

I used the laptop over the holidays to work on our school's tech plan and my PowerPoint presentation.  Terry and I plan to work on that a little more today. 

Time hasn't permitted me to get into my address book and reorganize my mail, but hopefully a few snow days will help that problem be resolved.

February  Entry
 What a busy month!  Lisa Havely, Carolyn Greenlee and I had several sessions where our classes played a game of  synonyms and antonyms using ICQ.  We had a few glitches getting started, but everything worked out well and the students really enjoyed communicating with other classes in our school and county.  What we also discovered was that the teacher who typed fastest usually won.  Next time we'll let the students do the typing to encourage them to improve their keyboarding skills.
 Our Rush Strong Cyber Ambassadors have had a great time creating PowerPoint presentations for their classmates, and have also demonstrated them to other classes, piquing some curiosity about how they're made.  They have also been working on our school web page, which I hope we can finish up soon. 
 Our laptop has been used pretty regularly.  I worked on our Nouns PowerPoint presentation at home and the fifth grade teachers have been using it to work on their Internet project which is a postcard exchange.  Fourth grade is signed up for next week.
 One thing I've noticed through our Class Pet Exchange Project, is that the students have become better editors.  They noticed errors our exchange class made in their journal, which arrived last week with our pets.  It made them more aware that the things we sent to them probably also had mistakes, and hopefully they will be more critical of their own writing as a result.  An additional benefit of the exchange was to observe how much alike the students in the two classes were in regards to their interests and activities, yet how different their last names were from the people we know.
 We haven't done as much with our class newspaper lately, but the students really enjoyed using CNN to find out about the groundhog's shadow on February 2. They often mention things that should be included in our next newspaper…the problem is finding the time to do it more regularly.
Our quilting project we participated has finally been uploaded to the web!

March Entry
This month each of my students has begun a PowerPoint presentation.  So far they have 2 pages:  name and choice of three other things - favorites, pets, hobbies.   They have worked in pairs.  The Cyber Ambassadors have been working on their own PowerPoint presentations but got in a little hot water with their homeroom teacher for leaving class when they really weren't supposed to.  They're grounded for a couple of weeks.  We will have a telephone interview tomorrow with a teacher in Kansas who wants to know more about the program.

The laptop has been busy this month.  Mrs. Burchfield has had several projects going on simultaneously and has used the laptop and digital camera quite a bit.  Mrs. Greenlee also took the laptop home to practice.

We finished our Class Pet Exchange Project and our pets were returned.  The children continue to take "Nuts" home and write stories about their adventures.  I intended to get signed up for another exchange, but just haven't done that yet.  I guess it may be too late to start now.  We'll just continue with our current status.

As I've begun review for Terra Nova, the Basic Skills link that we received on the Tech Update last time has come in handy!  I have identified weak areas for certain students and scheduled a computer time for them to go with a partner and practice the skills.  I also believe the Accelerated Reader program, now that we have it operating as it should, is increasing reading ability in most of my students.  Most of them have gained higher levels of comprehension and word attack skills.  I have also noticed a greater interest in reading as kids use technology for research.  They are more willing to try to read a somewhat difficult piece if it's something they've found on the Internet or in an electronic encyclopedia.

I have tried a new approach to the newspaper this month.  Terry Sams told me how she divides her class into groups and each group works on an article for the paper.  We have brainstormed some topics and done some rough drafts, but don't have our completed paper yet. 
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April Entry
The Cyber Ambassadors were interviewed and appear on a website indentifying innovative technology in classrooms.  What pleased me most about the interview was that the interviewer noticed the students were oriented toward helping others…teachers, younger students, and each other.  One Cyber Ambassador continues to come to my class and help the students with word processing.  I will resume meeting with the kids on Tuesday and Thursday each week beginning this Thursday.

The laptop has been busy!  Mrs. Burchfield has prepared presentations for a visiting team that's coming for our SACS evaluation. 

About three fourths of my class have written their stories for their classroom web site, and they are saved on a disk.  However, I have misplaced the disk.  I thought I had put it in a safe place because I was planning to show it to our visiting evaluators when they come tomorrow.  So far I've been unable to locate it!  I may have to start over.  I haven't told the kids yet!

We still are having trouble getting our newspaper done.  I liked your suggestion about doing it earlier in the morning.  I may have to settle for doing it while the Chapter 1 students are away.  That has been my Accelerated Reader time, but maybe I could move that to the end of the day.  Forgive me for thinking out loud.

We have completed our Internet project.  I look forward to participating in the Class Pet Exchange Project next year.

I think the students are more aware of their writing skills since using word processing.  I wish I had more time for them to practice keyboarding.  Maybe I can get an Alpha Smart keyboards with the $200 TLG grant.  Then they could practice at home.

Students have used the computer recently on a project where we are trying to identify the ingredients in some of the things we eat.  They have begun research to learn what the food contains, where it comes from, and how it gets to the manufacturer, and then to us.

I think the students are more conscientious about their writing when they realize an audience will read it.  When they received the journal from our exchange class in Montana, they noticed errors in their entries.  I think it made them wonder what they had sent appeared to the class there.

My biggest frustration this year is in my teaching style.  I truly believe the Foxfire approach is the way for students and teachers both to enjoy learning .  Yet, with the addition of Saxon math (which, I'm certain will improve test scores) there isn't enough time to explore student interest and plan with the students in a meaningful way.  I would really love it next year if we could spend some time as a group sharing ideas about organizing the day so that our technology is more fully integrated into the curriculum
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May Entry
Our Internet Project was the Class Pet Exchange Project.  I believe it was an eye-opener for my students in a number of ways.  First, it gave them a glimpse of a part of our country that none of them had visited.  They noticed similarities and differences in geography, interests, etc.  As they received the journal from our partners and read their entries, they became more aware of their writing, wondering if the other class was as critical of their mistakes as we were of theirs.

We enjoyed using Cyberguides, also.  These are lesson plans related to quality children's literature including integration of other content areas.  One particular favorite was Annie and the Old One.  In this project we visited the Southwest using maps, saw Navajo weavings in museums, created similar art projects, did critical thinking about our sense of place and attitudes about the aging process. 

Last year I was involved in a couple of "commercial" Internet projects. What's In Our Water, sponsored by the National Geographic Society was one of these.  Though I enjoyed working with that project, I feel the ones we have been involved in through Cyber Exchange have been as beneficial and probably a little more focused on our particular interests and abilities.  My students this year have had a little more freedom to explore on their own because of the filter installed by our county.  I don't feel I need to be quite as attentive to their browsing and therefore they can work a little more independently.

There is a wonderful resource on our county's technology website with many of the lesson plans that have been created during this project.  It's great to be able to go there and find a well-planned, technology-oriented lesson plan that has been tested by colleagues.

One of the best things I have learned to use is ICQ.  It's a quick way to get help from colleagues in the building and other schools in the county, as well as our technology trainer.  We can exchange files quickly and get help when we need it!

MS Word comes in handy in many ways.  Most recently we have used it to write paragraphs for our webpage, using spell check and grammar check.  Included in the resource mentioned earlier several PowerPoint presentations are available for use that were created by colleagues attempting to teach the same objectives as I am.  I have used PowerPoint also with our Cyber Ambassadors, who have created presentations to take back to their classrooms and share with other students.

Our students have finished their paragraphs for our classroom website and are excited about seeing them on the web.  We learned a lot about editing and are in the process of deciding whether to leave our writing "as is" or help each other correct mistakes.  The children have enjoyed taking the class newspaper home to share events with their parents.  They really enjoy using the digital camera to take their pictures and insert them into the articles.

This project has been a wonderful opportunity for sharing ideas as well as learning new skills and practicing previously learned skills.  Many of us are learning as we go.  It is SO helpful to be able to get together once a month with a trainer who inspires us and with other strugglers who can offer support and suggestions for solving problems we all have in common.  It is also a benefit to have other teachers from my school involved in the project because we can help each other with problems that arise locally.  The frustration for me has been getting all these wonderful ideas and not being able to find the time to implement them as I would like to.

The laptop provided through the project has been widely used at our school as an extra computer in the classroom as well as a personal tool for working at home.  It is helpful to have PowerPoint and Netscape Composer on it even though it isn't hooked up to the Internet.  It's another tool for publishing student work and organizing materials.

It's been a pleasure working with the Cyber Amabassador students.  We have met twice a week as a "computer club" after school and worked on our school web page .  They have helped me with classroom publishing, helping each of my students create a document with  a picture inserted.  They have created PowerPoint presentations to use in their classrooms and in other grade levels. 

One program that is widely used in our school is Accelerated Reader.  Every child has read at his/her own level and taken tests which show their level of comprehension.  In addition, the Cyberguides available on the Internet mentioned earlier have broadened our curriculum, integrating content, curriculum objectives, and technology.

The most beneficial part of the project has been the opportunity to try out new skills in a non-threatening environment.  Our trainer has been very patient as we floundered around trying new programs and approaches to teaching and learning.  It has been wonderful to have the TIME to try out new ideas.  Working with colleagues who teach the same things is always refreshing.  Having up-to-date equipment available in the classroom has been very exciting ( if somewhat overwhelming).

As we meet monthly, ideas are exchanged and encouragement offered.  When we return to our schools, hopefully we will have a little more knowledge about things technological that may be of help to our colleagues.  Between us we are beginning to acquire a base of knowledge that will benefit all of us.

I would love to continue the monthly meetings and incorporate more time for management training.  It would be very helpful to me to hear how other teachers and students are incorporating all these wonderful programs and all the information that is available into their daily schedules.  I continue to be frustrated about the time constraints of getting everything done.  I would love to work on the Curriculum Framework as it relates to technology.

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