Roger Bush Podcast

Here's one of my 5th graders who loves microphones and talking! He's not shy and he knows his science just a little better.

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Thing 23, Reflection

Why is it that the more apprehensive one is about beginning a project the more enjoyable it often turns out to be?  While several of the 23 Things had their frustrating moments, once the tasks were completed the experience was a little like a moonwalk.  More than once it felt extraterrestrial, and more than once it was eye-opening in a positive way: the best part of my TIS experience!
There were several tools among the 23 Things that I can use in my classroom, and the exploration through them gave me the initiative to keep looking for more and not to be shy about using technology.
Initially, I knew nothing about NETS-T, but currently I definitely have a better understanding.  The method used in presenting the 23 Things makes the ISTE standards more meaningful and more logical.

Thing 16, Twiddla

I'm in the process of transforming my room from an LD learning environment to a Multi. Cat., so I thought I'd try Twiddla to see how easy it would be to get some "long distant suggestions."  I thought it was a little tricky to navigate at first, but after a few minutes it seems OK.

Thing 12, Find Something New

I'm always looking for something as far away from the mundane lesson as I can find.  I teach alot of remedial reading and it ventures into the mundane fairly often.  Game Classroom is a well-stocked, easy to navigate site that offers interesting and fun activities from K to 6.  It has games, homework help, study tips, help for parents, and some terrific videos that cover all the core subjects.  The educational games that are provided on the site are gathered by the site coordinators from other sites scattered all across the Web. (It takes hours of work out of finding the "perfect" computer activity.") There's also some links to tech-oriented educators who publish blogs and can easily be "followed" on Twitter.  Like most sites of this sort, you can dig and dig and dig and never reach the bottom.  It works for me!

Game Classroom

Thing 6, Voicethread

This was done by a couple of my afternoon "math guys" who, after getting the feel of recording their voices, enjoyed doing this alot.  It took the 2nd student 6 takes before he was satisfied.  They're ready for more!



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Digital-Age Assessments

The design of teaching in my classroom doesn't require much formal assessment.  There are times, of course, that I'm assessing in accordance to the requirements of an IEP, but for my use, usually I'm using assessments that are designed to simply monitor the student's progress.  To do this, I use informal observations and make notes of the student's progress that will be addressed later.  I've never in the past used a progress report.  But currently I'm doing a lesson plan that is addressing important techniques essential for finding successful solutions to word problems.  This IS the first small group lesson that I've taught that I believe a formal report would be appropriate. 
The small group of students that I'm working with has learning needs that vary from day to day.  In one lesson, they will understand one concept but not another, and in the next lesson the other concept is easily understook but NOT the one that was originally understood.  Using a formal record is making it much easier to recognize what concepts needs to be addressed at every lesson and those concepts that require only the occasional review.
It sounds so simple, which is probably why I've ignored taking the time to design a formal progress report all along, but taking an extra couple of minutes every day saves hours in the grand scheme of things.  (And the student's progress is regularly noted and noticeable!)

Thing 22: Reflect on a Conference Presentation

I attended Techsteps (K-2) - Let's do a project!!  This session's presenter was Gilda Haddox who is a technology trainer/consultant for IBM.  Gilda guided us through logon, assessment rubric, scope and sequence, state standards, class creation, addition of projects, addition of classrosters, and using the student activity book.  She also filled us in with the latest updates and improvements for the program.  The most important element for me was simply learning how to navigate and understand the sequence of using this program.  (I like this activity, but it's challenging to manage the time issues.) 
I knew from helping make the technology presentation at our 2009-10 school year's staff development sessions that Techstep was NOT getting a very positive reaction from our staff.  I've been able to use a little of what I learned to make it easier for some of them, but for the most part Techsteps is still a bit of an evil stepsister.