Goal feedback

Edmodo creates  sort of online portfolio for students.  It also allows for quick feedback and is green too. :)

Etiquette

This post shows not only the use of goals and reflection in digital format on edmodo, but also of students' attention to online/digital etiquette. I feel this etiquette demonstrates a higher level trust and understanding in the digital world.

ILPs

A large part of having an Individualized Learning Plan is goal setting and working toward those goals.  This is more documentation of these goals and an example of what we see on edmodo from students.

Networking

Text says, "Does anybody know the web-sites for 3 and 4 math?"
Next text from Emma says, "If you guys need help with the .doc, talk to Bugs."
They are networking, collaborating, being independent and meeting their academic needs as well as facilitating that for others due to having their laptops.

Google Docs

Here is another way I have been gathering information and feedback from students.  With their continual access, I can easily get feedback from them in a very organized manner regarding pretty  much anything at all.  I am interested in teaching students how to do this as well.

This was the posting on Edmodo for the page above.

Ethan Connecting

For Ethan, it is very, very important for him to feel connected emotionally, which is very hard for him to do.  This sharing out of his brother and sister and the love he has for them breached a disconnect for him between home and school and also opened up an opportunity for his classmates and teachers to connect with him.

Homage and such

Each of the posts above tells a story and creates a web of connectedness in our classroom, even when we are not at school.  I particularly like Delaney's comment of not being bored, not a surf board, which pays homage to Ethan's earlier teaching regarding the homophones board and bored.  Too funny!

Feedback

Mackenzie used edmodo here to seek out feedback from peers and share her passion both inside and out of school.

Autumn & Ella Podcast

Autumn and Ella synthesized data in a meaningful way to share out to the world, starting with their classmates.

Andy is working on his math assessment portfolio.  Currently, it is solely paper and pencil.  In the future, the hope is to have this digital, however, there is something organic about the actual paper portfolio. Tangible.

Paper math portfolios.  Students create their own study guides for these assessments, then use tools, such as laptops, textbooks, and even peers to seek out additional practice on target assessment skills.

I can't even tell you how exciting the paper above is.  When it comes to writing, this child has been avoiding, struggling, and has such a sense of continual inner defeat.  The beauty of what you see above is that he DID it!  He typed his thoughts and experiences.  He is new to our school this year and has not had access to technology tools prior to this.  It is like pulling teeth trying to get him to physically write sentences...about two is all we can get.  The fine motor skills seem to be still developing.  However, now that he has become so comfortable with typing, he is WRITING!  Yes, WRITING!!!  This is thrilling.  Now, if you read the story above, you'd see that the writing is clunky, repetitive, with little organization.  But that's okay.  We can work with this!  First things first, he's writing ;)

Much of the learning we do is within a social context.  So, students have taken it upon themselves to  record collaborative ideas.  If you walk into our room with a small group working, you'll likely see one of them recording group thinking.  This, again, has organically evolved in our environment.

This is a simple image of a student's laptop widgets.  Students use their widgets quite a bit.  The purpose of this image is to show the personalized message, 'school rocks'.  Therese Jilek has always talked about students having the ability to make their laptop their 'own'.  This child's simple sentiment is actually more of a neon flashing light, fireworks, bells ringing and confetti popping into the air for those that know her and have seen her transformation this school year.

Students create and keep goals each week. They have specific times to work on those goals and  also chunks of time to reflect. 

This is a sideways image of Aly kissing a worm character from the claymation event she and Autumn have been working on since the beginning of the year!  

A sideways image of Alex, completing fourth grade math (he's a third grader) and moving on to fifth grade.  Aleks is a near essential option to have in a multiage classroom in order to meet needs on all levels of the spectrum. 

Students post their goals to Edmodo, a social networking site for kids that our class uses.

A Few Video Examples

3rd Graders are working toward fluency goals.  They are using their laptops to help them gain the most clear picture of themselves as readers, as they can.

All students 'look the same' when they have the same tools.  However, the tools can be structured to meet the needs of each student.  In this case, Angellee 'looks' like the rest of the students, but is in fact working at very different levels.  Simple, engaging, differentiation.  You can see the focus on Angellee's face as she learns her way, at her current level, and that there is still room for interaction with others, rather than isolation.

Mackenzie is being goofy for my camera, but I basically had her reenact the statement she had just made. Mackenzie is not a lover of math and avoids it like the plague.  However, the instant feedback she was getting through the Aleks program was helping her gain confidence.  She had lost it for quite some time.

And more...

Ella is working to take a photo of her hand.  She had to be crafty doing it on her own, but she succeeded.  This was the beginning of a class photo project, titled, "My Favorite Part of Me". 

 The owners of BEET.M. (Bugs, Ella, Emma, Taylor, and Mackenzie) created this sale advertisement/coupon as a marketing strategy to bring in additional customers.  This advertisement was created at home, as were many of the sales, organizational, and marketing plans for our young entrepreneurs.

Emma, a third grader, seems to like to organize most projects, plans, ideas, into charts or lists on her computer.

More examples

Christopher using technology as a means to take notes (at interviews for potential charter school teachers).  At this point, given that some have had access to these laptops for two plus years, many are very adept at typing and most prefer typing to writing.  Though, of course, they write. :)

Autumn proud of the Individual Learning Plan she created.  Autumn prefers laptop to paper.

Mackenzie sharing with the group.
This is not an exaggeration: Students know about the technical parts of technology.  They can 'hook things up', solve technical issues, and explain roadblocks with reasons and in ways I never have been able to.  This access to technology for these digital natives has allowed them to have a high level of confidence and know-how that is not likely to be evident in students who occasionally use technology tools.

This is a perfect example of a student processing learning in his own way.  Max knows himself and what he needs to learn.  One of the things he does to help himself process information is to use sticky notes to organize and then he further processes through reorganizing the information in the most meaningful way to him on his laptop.

This is an 'access to information' example.  Grandma Jeri came to teach us about knitting.  It was SO interesting.  Among many items, she brought in a full dress that her great grandma had knit 100 years ago.  She also shared with us something called 'Yarn Bombing' (see picture above).  A handful of students were enthralled by the yarn bombing.  Because of the ubiquity of information from having a class set of laptops, their busy little brains dove into learning about yarn bombing, the history, peoples' reactions in public, and the how-tos of it all.  The immediate access plays a big role in student engagement and interest in content. 

Photographs

Just a slice of a moment in time in our room.  Some students opted out of access to laptops for a brief time.  Most quickly came to notice the impact these tools had on their learning and the challenge they had not having that resource.

Robby presenting to the group about traveling around the world with an online  program called Globetrackers.

Many students used their laptops to document experiments for social science and projects.  Here, Bugs is documenting her stress level relative to her activity level.  She had her laptop set up to video document her experience as she ran.