Starboards increase Student Achievement in AYP (Blog 5)

We all enjoy using the starboard and having our students use it to interact with learning. I know my kindergarteners love to be able to use the "magic pen" during lessons! I have never seen my students as engaged as they are when we are using the starboard to create webs, match pictures and words, or using the flashlight to find words. These activities are simple to make and can be shared with other educators as well! Hitachi released an article about the benefits of using Starboards (and other interactive boards) in classrooms to increase engagement and AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) for schools. The newer Smartboards use a finger to interact instead of using the magic pen which makes them easier to use for students. They are able to write on the boards using their fingers instead of using a pen giving them an easier time writing and manipulating the material on the board instead of fiddling with the pen and its calibration.  A principal from a California school wanted to increase her AYP and engage students in their classrooms. Upon visiting another school, the principal found just the tool she needed in the smartboard.  Mr. Hill, a teacher at the visiting school stated, “We liked the Starboard for its durability, ease of use and, frankly, affordability." (Hitachi, 2011). If we could put these in every classroom and provide instruction for teachers on how to create lessons, and how to properly use this technology, we could engage our students better during lessons. According to the article, Hitachi provides free classes for teachers to learn the ins and outs of Starboards. (Hitachi, 2011)  Using these Starboards can increase our students’ independence during learning! I use my starboard as a center and allow my students to engage and check their own learning! It is exciting to see them engaging with the technology they are going to grow up with. I enjoy creating activities on the starboard because I find my students are more engaged during the lesson if there is a chance they will be able to use the pen and have a chance to manipulate pictures or words. I thoroughly enjoy being able to create lessons in any format and then being able to import them into starboard and have the ability to move the pictures that were once stationary. I know my district provides many courses for professional development to learn all the fun aspects of the starboard and I feel comfortable my students are learning more being able to engage with the starboard than if I was teaching on a simple white board.

Here is a video of a teacher using a Starboard in her classroom and the benefits she sees from using it!

Hitachi. (2011, March). Helping Increase Student Engagement and Meet AYP. Oceanside: Hitachi.

HitachiStarBoard (Director). (2011). See Starboard in Action at Moses Lake [Youtube].

 

Ipads for Kindergarteners

There have many times when I am using my iphone and ipad that I come across apps that I could use in my classroom. There are make handwriting apps that allow students to practice writing letters and will correct them as they are going! I think that being able to use the technology that is out there for our students in the classroom setting will be extremely valuable! Making parents aware of such programs could allow them to download the free apps (yes they are free) for the child to practice skills at home. There are games that work on letter sounds and writing, comprehension questions about stories the iphone reads to them, and memory games! I have been so amazed by the free programs available and I have been able to see first hand how they work! My nephew plays these games on this mother iphone and he has been showing how they work and he is only four. I read an article about a school district in Maine that is providing Ipads to their Kindergarteners. This particular article peaked my interest because this is the area where I completed my student teaching and to see such progress in technology in such a small area will hopefully show the benefits to use these measures in all schools. The schools in Auburn, Maine are providing half of the Kindergarten students with IPad 2's at the start of the school year in order to make a comparison to the rest of the student's who will recieve theirs in November (Toboni, 2011). The money provided to purchase the IPad's also covers insurance on the machines which eliminates the fear of students breaking the machines, but it would be the teacher's job to make sure their students know how and are hekl accountable for how they use the machines just as we do now with the computers and starboards. There are other states at are jumping on the IPad's for Kindergarteners as well including Tennessee and South Carloina. Critics of the programs are concerned that students will not be taught the basics before being exposed to the technology and therefore not be able to function in daily situations without it (Toboni, 2011). Another concern is the development of handwriting skills. This is the first year of this initiative and there are now results to show the success but I will continue to follow this because I think I could find success with my students who are struggling by providing them with a fun game to play on the IPad instead of basic drill for the skills they are lacking. Our young students are being exposed to the Iphones by their parents and if we can show them how to properly use the games and such they could be learning and not even know it! I am hoping the schools with find concrete data to backup their intervention and I will continue to use what technology I have (iPhone) to make my own grant request in the coming years! I found a video showing how the schools are going to be implementing the IPad's! This video shows a student showing teachers how to use the IPads and what he uses them for! Pretty exciting to see six year olds teaching adults about technology.

Bibliography

Toboni, G. (2011, 9 14). Apple IPad's For Kindergarten Students? Schools Try Them. Retrieved 10 20, 2011, from abc news: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-ipad-learning-tool-kindergarten-maine-tennessee-south/story?id=14509290

Journal, S. (Director). (2011). IPads for Kindergarteners in Auburn [Youtube].

Cyberbullying: How can we Help?

I have seen many articles on the news about cyberbullying happening today. Students are using and abusing the internet to hurt others and making it extremely difficult to use internet and social networks in schools. Many people see cyberbullying as simply using the internet to hurt someone else one time, but it is not always so. According to Dr. Sameer Hinduja, cyberbullying by definition is " willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices" (Hinduja, 2010). Dr. Hinduja, along with her colleagues has created a website where parents and staff can find out more information regarding cyberbullying and webinars to help keep kids safe on the internet. Cyberbullying is a form of harassment between two or more people with the intent of one person to affect negatively the other emotionally and socially. I have seen many of my friends, having been at the beginning of the technology age, in high school and college who have been victims of negative commenting on their social network pages and by texts. This is something that is unecssary and really does effect ones self esteem. I think schools need to find ways to educate the youth to use these social media outlets for positive outlets instead of negative. Now I know that there will always be one or more people who want to go against everyone else, but if the majority of students follow the right way and we help to build their self-esteem, we could see less cases of cyberbullying. I remember when facebook was only accessable to students in college. Maybe there needs to be an age cap on social networking sites so students cannot access these webpages and harass others. I am not sure what we should do but I know unless we start thinking of something, we are going to see more and more cases of cyberbullying especially as this generation grows and has more access to technology. One of the hardest things, according to Dr. Hinduja, about cyberbullying is that the child does not typically know who the person is who is saying negative things about them (Hinduja, 2010). It makes it hard to talk to adults about being bullied when the child does not know the source from which it is coming. The problem with trying to stop cyberbullying is that many people do not see it as a growing threat in our youth and many people do not stand up and try to defend those who are being bullied. As teachers, we need to stand up for our students and make sure to note changed in the behavior of our students. No one else may ask them what is wrong but it is our job to be there and support them no matter what we have going on in our lives. If we take an active role in our students well being and make sure to talk with our students about the harms associated with cyberbullying, we may help save one child from falling victim to this harassment. The hardest part about bullying is making sure that students understand what it means to bully someone. I know students say they were just giving someone a hard time or just playing but not everyone thinks it is funny. It is important to teach the students what the difference is and encourage them to report any behavior that could fit into the bullying category without penalty: socially or by law.

Hinduja, S. &. (2010). Cyberbullying: Identification, Prevention, and Reponse. Retrieved 10 7, 2011, from www.cyberbullying.us/Cyberbullying_Identification_Prevention_Response_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Skype: Connecting Classrooms Across the World

I remember in elementary school, we have pen pals in our class that we could practice writing letters to and then "mail" the letters and recieve a response. This project was supposed to help us learn to communicate and be able to ask questions of our friends. When I began my undergrad for teaching, we had our students use skype to connect with their peers in other schools within the state of Maine. It was amazing to me to see how far "pen pals" could go! Skype has made it easy to connect students and teachers across the nation increasing the amount of resources we have access to. I think it would be exciting to have my students have peer pen pals across the world that they could talk with and relate to. This would help with their global awareness that has become the topic of many employers hiring the new work force. Teaching the students in school how to effectively use Skype would help them when they enter the job market by proving them with the tools to hold conference calls and interact through a screen with their collegues of potential clients. I know I use Skype in my personal life to talk with my parents (who live out of the country) and my friends and family in the North East. Allowing students to connect with others utilizing the technology we have could only benefit our students right? Although I could not see any negative reasons to not use Skype in the classroom, there are skeptics who are concerned about introducing the students to technology that could allow them to connect with the wrong people. I think if we teach our students how to use the tool correctly they will know how to handle situations that may arise. Not only would Skype be able to connect students to students and teachers to students, it could also be used as part of a lesson. I read an article about using Skype to bring the Authors of chidlrens books to the classrooms (Condron, 2011)! This was an amazing idea to me. Think about all the influential people our students could be exposed to with the simple use of a computer. The students would be able to formulate questions and ask the speaker in an environment where they may feel less intimated because the person is not right in from of them per say. Another suggestion they make is about having parent/teacher conferences via Skype (Condron, 2011). This could allow parents to not leave work and still have the face to face interaction with the teacher that a phone conference does not allow them to have. Below is a video using Skype to have an author talk with students! This is just another way we can use technology to better educate our students!

Artell, M. (2009, 3 19). Youtube. Retrieved 9 23, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI6jhq8kty0

Condron, A. (2011). News, Recommendations and Resources. Retrieved 9 23, 2011, from Teach Hub: http://www.teachhub.com/using-skype-classroom

Reading Intervention Programs that incorporate Technology: Better Results?

We as teachers have many different technologies available to us for use in the classroom. Many can be used for whole group discussion but I have come in contact with some that work specifically for one on one intervention. The reading program my school uses is called Waterford. I wanted to research to see what the benefits of this program and if there were other programs out there that accomplish the same goal and what the benefits are for the students. The specific Waterford program my district uses for intervention is the Waterford Early Reading Program. This program has resources for one on one lessons as well as whole group activities. The WER program uses research based practices to create lessons based upon the students needs. There are four areas that make up the reading program: Phonics, Comprehension and Vocabulary, Language Concepts, and Phonological Awareness (Institute) and these four areas are broken down into three different levels of difficulty depending on the pre-screening of each child. When my students first log into the program, they are put through a skills assessment to determine their strengths and weakness in the four areas of reading. Once they have completed the pre-assessment, the WER creates a program that caters to each child's needs. My students are extremely engaged in these lessons and ask frequently to go on the computer and play the "games"! The lessons are taught through songs and games that work on each skill the child needs assistance with. Something I find really interesting about this website is that it will adjust based upon the students current level of performance. If the child is making less progress, it will incorporate more lessons to develop those skills. The goal of the WER program is to enhance the classroom teachings of the students (Institute). I use the lessons whole group as well as for interventions and my students thoroughly enjoy the nursery rhymes, games, and songs! I like to incorporate the interactive games on my starboard for the whole class to be involved in the lessons. Having used this program and seeing a lot of progress in my students, I wanted to see if there was another program that worked the same way or if it was different, did it have better results. The WER program has research that supports the success of the program and when I used the program, my students went from non-readers to reading about grade level! I was surprised by the success of my students but by talking to other teachers, I found they have similar results with their students. I found a program through Pearson that is tiered in three levels the same way as the Waterford program. It also targets writing, phonics, reading fluency, and reading comprehension as well as monitors the students’ progress (Pearson, 2011). The major difference between the two programs is the use of technology for delivering the intervention. The PAL program from Pearson is a pencil and paper workbook that works on the necessary skills whereas the Waterford program is completely delivered online. The PAL program provides a response to Teaching First legislation for NCLB. I am happy to see many different intervention programs for students but I really feel that with the technology driven generation that is entering our classrooms now we need to find ways to engage them in lessons they can be stimulated by. The Waterford program really generates lessons that the students can understand and will cater to their level of literacy development every time they log-in.

Bibliography

Institute, T. W. (n.d.). Waterford Early Learning. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from The Waterford Institute: www.waterford.org/products.early-learning/learning-approach

Pearson. (2011). Pearson. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=015-8661-044