June 2010-I received my new computer.  Heather K., Meg F., and I went to the west support center to receive our computers.  I took a podcast course.  It was a little intimidating; but I was able to get my students to produce podcasts within a short period of time.  My students were amazing and found the technology of Garage Band engaging and fun.  They created podcasts using a character from the book, Charlotte's Web.  They were to act as a reporter on the Zuckerman farm.  I learned to jump in and tackle whatever is in front of you.  It always ends up being easier than it seems at the time.  Stay positive!  I attended the ISTE conference in Denver for 8 hours.  What an incredible experience. WOW!!!

July- My first face to face DEP class as a digital educator occurred at the end of July/beginning of August as school was started.  Exciting and intimidating at the same time, yet looking forward to learning more soon. 

August- I jumped into 2 courses: Web 2.0 tools and Google Docs.  They both provided me with a tremendous amount of ideas and knowledge that I could implement into the classroom.  Web 2.0 tools & other technology: wallwisher, screen toaster, twitter (send questions out to kids), animoto,  wikispaces, Big Huge Labs, glogster, polleverywhere, Toondoo (motivating to boys) and so much more. Play time with new technology is important. Web 2.0 tools is great to use to help you differentiate within the classroom. 

September- I started another course that would go into October as well- Google Earth & Google Sketch-up.  Notes-2D graphic/ 3D modeling.  Great for special needs students and spatial learners-architects.  Follow me tool, eraser tool, click & hold=pull, text tools.

October- Worked on my first digital lesson.

November- I participated in a few webinars this month.  I seem to love them all as the take away is always worth extensive.  One was rigor & relevance: frameworks that help you categorize and measure student evidence of critical thinking.  Loved the "visible thinking" site and used in classroom easily. Learned questioning game, discussed bloom's taxonomy (color coded), "tell me about....", etc.   "All of the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind." ~ Martin H. Fischer

December- My students created individual Native American tribe powerpoints.  Students compared shelter, geographic location, food, clothing, tools, and other important aspects of Native American life from the past to the future.  then and now); created a card on online

January 2011- I am trying to catchup and stay up with everything.  In our DEP study group, we explored glogster, photobabble, bloom's taxonomy, and web 2.0 tools.  We worked on our igoogle home page and created events on our google calendars.  It felt great to get a handle on our calendar. 

February- LitPics lesson:  created my second digital lesson.  Felt a little more at ease.  For some reason writing it up is much harder than producing it.  DEP studying Pages-newletter and math websites and google docs and blogging

March-DE streaming lessons; set up DE Streaming classes

April-  Voice Thread Lesson #3: Used the book From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; created DEP websites and shared them, google forms

May- powerpoints with Consumer Awareness; parent presentations (treasury, enterpreneurial, stock market); collaborated and reflected on our study group; looking towards next year- I-Pads

June 2011- I made it!  :)

Monthly Reflections 2011-12

June-July- I receive my iPad and begin to prepare for having an iPad class.  I take a few classes at the Aspen Grove Apple store.  My children take an iPad class at the Aspen Grove store and they share their iMovie learning with me.

August- I begin my adventure as an iPad classroom with 30 ipads plus a teacher iPad.  We experiment with the apps and organize the apps into appropriate folders.  I have parent volunteers come in to help my third graders with the process.  Great idea and parents actually loved it!

September- I jump into the webinar series and enjoy several learning opportunities. Students are using iPads frequently.  I video student book projects and will show parents at conferences in October.  Filmed by a video crew with the district while using iPads- Grammar Dragon and Bluster.

October- I take a SchoolHouse Consultants course.  With RSE, we are taking two courses, World Class Education and Backwards Design in moodle. Kamala and I are both taking SchoolHouse courses.  Asked to be a part of a focus group with David Ray. Kim McMonagle visits my classroom with professor from University of Maryland.  Students are getting used to google forms and learning about Prezi.

November-I take a SchoolHouse Consultants course.  I take two additional courses through Diane Morrison Consulting to work on my KLA credits past my Masters. I will finish these over the holiday break in December. Students use gmail, google docs.  I use for data collection and collaboration with collegues.

December- I take a SchoolHouse Consultants course. Laura Wilson and I are asked to be a part of a technology media discussion (mics) with Kim McMonagle. Students use todaysmeet.com. Nominated as Redstone Elementary's Apple Award Recepient for school year 2011-2012. 

January- I take online course titled "Comprehension of Expository Text". When looking at my DigiEd Unit for December 2011, I am learning how to implement the 4 C's in my lessons.  Within my lesson, I did work to incorporate all of the 4 C's- communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. Collaboration: Students work with diverse teams and communicate effectively with others. Creativity & Innovation: Create a real life example of inference. Communication: They critically design and construct texts, search for and sort information, and implicitly communicate. Critical Thinking: Students can justify and evaluate responses to questions based on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. I also did a MangaHigh.com, Edmodo, and TIE Colorado Conversations webinar. 

February- 

March- I attend Apple Awards ceremony on March 17th.

April-

May-