My Journey Through Cool Tools and Beyond

This activity was beyond helpful for myself and the staff . There are so many resources that I had to stop going teacher to teacher to tell them about them and I just made a file them according to projects I knew were being used and gave the resources out individually as the teacher's came seeking resources. Many teacher's were using similar products but appreciated having it all in google and being able to use them across curriculum- instead of having to toggle between different apps. We also discussed that gone are the days that google is a dirty word among educators. There is no limit to what you can achieve within google and our school has become a google school. So, this stretched us to commit even a little more to what google had to offer. My buried treasure in this activity was the discovery of Shake Up Learning. I have so many ideas bookmarked that if I retired in twenty years I would never get to them all. I am so excited to continue exploring the many possi

When asking my third and fourth graders about apps they were quickly versed in games that they were allowed to download onto their parents phones but were unaware that the apps on chrome books were considered apps. They just assumed that the computers came that way and had no idea that they could have these on their home computers. I borrowed from different areas of our school ipads, chrome books, tablets,desktops and laptops. This gave students the opportunity to see what each electronic had to offer. They spent 3 weeks using different types of electronics and apps and then were asked to pick one and tell me one project that they could complete with the available apps on their device type. By the end of the three weeks students were thinking beyond games to videos, news reports, science displays, virtual field trips, art, and ebooks and poetry.  Students also started coming in with names of apps that they liked using at home because they were exploring independently. One b

SOCIAL READING AND BOOK STUFF The Concept of Social Reading originally brought to mind reading for pleasure. As I learned more I realized that especially on the elementary level this was a concept that I had never explored. Everything I tried to develop became too structured and reflected pair share reading. This was too much like school work. Then I tried s digital book club but it was still too teacher led and not a social setting. So then with my 3rd and 4th graders I provided a venue in both lab and library who just wanted to talk about books they liked to meet. At first they just met and it was total chaos but as they started to listen to each other they decided they really wanted to share and read books. They realized that they had interests in things that they had never even thought of. They suggested books for future book orders and  explored places they could read them online for the time being. The amount of teachable moments that developed out of the opportunity t

This all the hot topic in schools these days BUT I find it is more bought the posters, taught the buzz words but a depth of understanding is lacking and possibly not the goal of districts. I started last year- planning what would I introduce to my elementary students. I thought I had a great plan. Then I started the year participating in a book study:  Digital Citizenship in Schools: Nine Elements All Students Should Know I quickly realized that there were holes in my plan. My focus was to try to develop a few more activities for my grade levels by January based on the book. One of my big holes was digital wellness. The students now have links to take mindful/ brain breaks, they can take a body break, and are becoming more aware of how much they are using technology and when. Now I have explored this Thing 11, I am feeling nudged to expand our scope even more.                               I have my digital citizenship differentiated

I am very new to this but I can see that this would be a fun tool to interact with the students. I am hoping to allow my third and fourth graders to develop their own. I have developed a bitmoji assignment for the end of January in our google classroom for grades 3 & 4. Later in the year I would like to add a comic assignment as a reflection piece for them.  I showed my students my avatar via their email and they think she looks too young ....so I guess I will need to keep working on it. As for using personal accounts such as Facebook and texts- they are not available at school....so my family were my audience as I explored far too many. I am not sure that they find my new account fun- but I do ! I told them we will need to see how accurate theirs look when they have a chance to develop their own. Until then: - looking young !!

This experience has been one of the most fulfilling pd experiences I have had in my 30 years of teaching. Little did I know that I would be facing some very serious health issues this year but the self paced experience enabled me to participate without stress. I also was able to dig deeper and go back and revisit former lessons to enhance what I was learning about. The "things" built nicely on each other. As the librarian and computer lab TA, I found that learning as I go gave me time to share as I went through these things. My computer lab grade 3 & 4 students would ask me, "Mrs. Ronan what are you learning about this week?" My experience was if I was modeling learning to my students they wanted to explore and learn more as well. I also shared throughout this entire experience with my administrator, tech team, one on one classrooms, and the elementary staff. These resources were well received because they were relevant to their every day classroom expe