January 18, 2013

Technology Central!!

I think this is what an ulcer might feel like. My stress levels are out the roof and I'm considering running away. You see my husband received a promotion on his first day at a new job. That was this past Tuesday... Tuesday seems forever ago... Anyhow he was bumped up from 20 hours to 40 and became station manager... So basically a ton of responsibility.  It's a great opportunity. I just have no clue about where our almost 3 year old will be watched in the mornings / by whom / where??? So many questions and right now no answers. So 2 nights ago my stomach started rolling and I thought I has the flu... Then it came back the next morning and I wrote last minute sub plans and left school around 10 when the sub came... I'm a planner and its driving me nuts not knowing who to trust to send my baby to.

In other news...
I've reached the point in the classroom that I can trust my students using all the different gadgets.  It's been a process..  

I wanted to make sure that all my students were having a chance to utilize the different things, so I repurposed my laminated calendar. 
 
I changed up my calendar to just a regular calendar (since I don't need much room to write the different due dates/reminders) -  plus this allows me to NOT have to rewrite the calendar numbers every month.  My calendar now happens to be an extra Lego one since Santa brought one to my own boys and they didn't need the one that I had picked up from Scholastic.  


My other calendar (that has been on my wall) has turned into technology central on the side of my file cabinet.  

Students need to just write their number in the corresponding square for the different areas as they have a turn.  Technology time seems to be happening mainly during silent reading time - those 30 minutes that everyone is quiet and focused.  Students can use the MP3 players with their ear buds, they do an AR test or IXL on the computer or Kindle Fire, or they can talk into the microphones for a page and then plug their ear buds into the microphone to listen to themselves read.

I am thankful that I figured out a way that could easily tell me who is avoiding doing a turn.  Now I just have to keep modeling how to fill in the chart (picture taken on Tuesday when we had been in the computer lab).  My classroom helpers will wipe this off on Friday afternoons when we all pitch in to get ready for the next week.  

Hope this helps someone!

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