Things haven’t slowed down my way with school starting this past week. Let me just do some celebrating real quick- I got my 5th graders logged into their Google accounts, into our Google Classroom, work on an “I Am” Poem and insert their picture, then submit it back to me using Classroom all within the first two days of school-which were minimum days (we did this AND did a fun Ice Break Kahoot quiz, talked about routines, rules, built independent reading notebooks, and picked out books). For a bunch of ten years old doing this while it being their first experience with the technology was AWESOME! This certificate program has given me the confidence to take risks in my class with my students.

Probably the most transformational idea that I have implemented into my class this year is switching my math assessments from paper to Web 2.0 tools. This is going to save me a lot of time hand-grading the assignments and also give my students faster feedback. I also played with Pinterest as a way to gather ideas that I find on the web. Last, but certainly not least, I got to play with a really cool Iron CUE lesson plan idea that I learned over the summer from the great Jon Corippo. I plan on using his shared Google Slide idea for social studies presentations this year and possibly expand on the idea in the future depending on my 5th graders’ success this year. We will be doing our first Iron CUE presentation tomorrow in my class–but it will be in slow motion and will be on “getting to know each other” rather than curriculum. Already two days into the year I realize the importance of slowing things down at the beginning of the year and let the students explore the technology and apps–I believe this will pay off down the road and really be able to unlock the potential of the tools.

My Google+ participation has been lacking as of late. I will jump in there this week and share some cool victories from my classroom.

Project Status: I have added a Resources page to the website. I have also added lots of local professional development opportunities that are happening locally in and around Kings County that educators can check. I plan on working on a Google Sites template that will allow other educators to use what I have.

 

 

Elective Status: I have not started my Web 2.0 Tools elective yet. I do plan on starting it this coming week.