Tech. Support annoyance

I am wondering if everyone else has the same headache about getting technical support as I do. I emailed a month ago about a part and nothing was ever done about it. I emailed again about the part and the fact that our laptop was no longer getting the Internet. The tech. guy finally showed up to tell us he will find another cord for the Internet, but still didn't have the part that I need on Monday!!! Certainly, as big of a push as we have to integrate technology into our classrooms, there has to be a way to get prompt service.

UH Tech

I have really enjoyed the eClassrooms discussions with my colleagues. I feel like that was a wonderful way to ask for advise and share thoughts and ideas with friends who are going through the same experience. It allowed me to become comfortable with things that were happening with my Student teaching because I can hear that others are going through it as well. The Tapped In discussions with Dr. Thompson were short and sweet but allowed for instant clarification that otherwise would take weeks to hear a response via email. I have learned that many teachers use Tapped In in their classrooms for their students to discuss books and other things. I would love to find out a functionable way to use it in a 5th grade science room. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be an awesome place to post things for parents to access.

Digital Camaras

The other day we did a lab involving the retention of water in different types of soils. I thought it would be a good idea to photograph results and the process to put in the lab report. The idea was to take photos of measurements for accuracy. I let each group take 1 or 2 pictures and the results did not turn out exactly as planned. On the graduated cylinder you could not see the numbers in the photos. It was a great idea, and I had planned on printing out the pictures to put in the lab reports, but they didn't turn out right. An idea that I had that I may use for next year is to put the pictures in a student made powerpoint and photograph the entire lab.

Power Failure

In my classroom, on a daily basis, we use an Elmo, a projector and a laptop......unless the power goes out and you have to improvise. Yesterday was the Math TAKS test, so today I figured that the students would be using minimal amounts of brain power...I was right....so I planned for an easy day watching a science video and playing a science checkers game. In Deer Park there was a huge storm and the power went off from 1:45 until 4:30 which means my entire third group was electricity-less. Thankfully our class has a huge window along one whole wall for light!!! However, mt plan for the movie for this group was shot. Instead, I read to them. They LOVED it. The students really enjoy the use of technology and that I use it often, but the look on their faces when I asked them to join me on the floor for story time, was priceless. Technology is so neat, and a very useful tool, but as a teacher, you at sometime have to learn how to get along with out it. This was good practice :)

CPS

I planned and planned to use the CPS unit to play a review game with my students and it took several hours to imput all of the questions. It is such a neat little machine and I think that the students will really enjoy using their very own remotes. HOWEVER....we only have one in our building and of course it is an older model that does not have a USB port!! Unless a miracle happens I wont get to use it...YUCK! Wich me luck!

Reseach Projects

I just love reserch projects!!!! Especially when they are over something fun like animals!!! My 5th graders just loved the opportunity to learn interesting facts about the different animal by doing Internet research and then got to use Microsoft Word to make trading cards. They were able to print them out in color and get them laminated so the could actually trade them with their classmates. I think it was a wise decision to do them on the computer because this way the cards all looked nice and neat and were legible and all of the students were super proud of them. I got to watch the creativity and knowledge of computer bloom with some of my students. They put colorful borders and used different fonts and sizes. I could also quickly point out those who were less proficient that used only black, Times New Roman, 12 point font straight down the page with a tiny picture. This was an awesome idea!!!!! It will be used for years to come.

ELMO

This past week has been so crazy!!! We had Jump Rope for Heart, and Valentine's Day party so our schedule was very off from the norm. I taught a lot this week though, which of course was wonderful!! The ELA/SS teacher had a spelling bee to go to so I taught our science group by myself!!! I loved it! I used the ELMO a lot. ELMO is a gadget that enlarges, in color, whatever you put under the camara. I like it a lot better than a regular overhead projector because I can put objects, like circuits, underit so the students can more visibly see where they needed to connect wires. It proved once again to be a very useful tool. Its kind of hard to use sometimes because you have to adjust the brightness, how far in to magnify and all sorts of things for the images to come in clearly, meanwhile the kids are playing around because they are bored. I hope to get the hang of it quickly! Another strange thing is the way my SBTE has it hooked up, the projector is hooked up to the VCR, the ELMO and the computer screen so you have to quickly know how to switch between the 3. It is very neat to have all of those things at your disposal and it keeps the students very engaged!