School is officially out for the summer and my classroom is closed. Before the kids left for vacation, however, I had them participate in a survey about the technology we used in our classroom this year. I wanted to know how they felt about the projects and websites we used. To administer the survey I [...]

Our school recently purchased twenty-four new iPads.  Teachers, who are interested, now have three to keep in their classroom.  That means the original set of ten, are still in my room, and while they can be checked out by others, they will mostly be used by my kids.  More time for us!  That’s good!  As you [...]

There were a couple times today that I really wanted to cry from frustration.  I didn’t, of course, but I thought about it.  The iPads and Google Docs were at the heart of it.  My students are required to take a district writing assessment this week.  Since my students do so much writing using the [...]

There are those moments in the classroom, when the room is filled with the satisfying hum of kids working and engaged in learning.  Those are the magic moments, that make everything else worthwhile.  I treasure them when they happen.  I have experienced a few of those precious moments in the past two weeks.  It happened when [...]

Last year was the first year that I really used technology in my classroom.  The previous summer, I had taken an on-line class, called “Using the Internet in the Classroom.”  As part of the class, I built my classroom website, and learned how to make my first webquest. That was just a start.    Once I [...]

School has only been in session two days, and we’ve done the usual start up activities; establishing routines, reviewing school rules, and getting to know each other.  Those two days have been very productive and we’re already up and running.  There are a few activities that I thought went particularly well. Our Social Contract At [...]