Chapter 4 & Article

Chapter 4 - Foundational Lessons for Independence

This chapter is a great way to get started on how to prepare your students for using technology appropriately in the classroom.  After being in a classroom that has ipads or laptops for years, most of these are second nature.  However, it is always a good idea to have a refresher because we sometimes forget what the kids know or don't know.  Taking time at the beginning of the year and creating and establishing these SOP's are important.  It is equally important to revise them when necessary and revisit them as needed.  I will be the first to admit that teaching digital citizenship has taken a back seat due to the number of expectations put on us.  I still incoroprate it periodically but not nearly as much as it needs to be done for children at the elementary level.  All the same, if I would remember the value of teaching more digital citizenship I wouldn't be having discussions with my students after the fact when there has been an issue of cyberbullying or inappropriate use of technology outside of the classroom. For a teacher entering a classroom setting with technology, I think this chapter or something along the same guidelines should be read for them to have a good foundation on how to teach these things. Personally, I was glad to see that the "tech help" chart in my room included most of what was noted in Fig. 4.3 but I have it set up so as that it indicates the problem and the possible solution.  I love the idea of students as a specialist and while I have utilised this in my classroom setting I haven't provided those students with the credit they deserve by giving them a lanyard or identifying them directly to the entire class as a specialist and therefore I will be incorporating this into my classroom next year. Moreover, the priority hierarchy is a great lesson that I fully intend to use because student have a difficult time managing work time when using the ipad and this is a great visual way for them to see they need to spend a proportional amount of time creating, polishing and presenting their work. Finally, I was shocked to see there wasn't a page at the end of this chapter similar to the rest, "Three Things to Try Tomorrow".

Article Formative Assessments in the Digital Age

This past year was the first time I tried something along the lines of blogging with the my students.  A fellow teacher and myself created a Google Classroom where students could blog about books they had read and respond to other bloggers.  We created some pretty simple guidelines for this activity and introduced it slowly from our higher readers down.  After reading this article, I have signed up for KidBlog and plan on paying for it for my students next school year.  Unlike the article suggest, we had students blogging about books they had read rather than blogging throughout their reading which we could have been using as formative assessments which this article explains. Unlike the article, we had established times our students could book blog, almost within the reading rotation schedule as a station.  This article discusses having the students have the freedom to do it when they choose to encourage them to record their thinking.  The most valuable part of this article for me was the rubric that I can use with my bloggers next year!  I am anxious to approach my book blogging and be able to take grades and assess my students thinking!