I have enjoyed every minute of this year as I interact with students and teachers as they integrate technology in their classrooms. Welcome Elementary 4th grade students have the incredible privilege of participating in a Pilot Program 1:1 Ipad initiative, which means ipads for each student. Planning with the 4th grade teachers, assisting with projects in their classrooms,and designing lessons using Apps has been the most exciting experience of my 29 year teaching career. It is truly amazing what these students are learning by researching, reading, writing, drawing, taking photos, videoing, and designing. I have never seen anything like this.

Students in a 3rd grade class at Sue Cleveland Elementary are saving paper and time as they use the laptops daily to complete their assignments that are posted to Edmodo. Reading groups are differentiated using Edmodo. Tests are given and graded immediately and instant feedback is given using this program. Students are answering questions and sharing reflections as they watch Brain Pop movies about geometry, measurement, liquids and solids. It is extremely powerful and successful. They play games that relate to the standards and use manipulatives to solve problems, while using white boards to write and draw the steps of the problem solving process. Technology is improving student learning.

4th grade students in Mr. Rowland’s room at Monaview Elementary are using laptops daily to work on Edmodo, conduct research, and publish. His students use MP3 players to listen to audio books and they play games and record themselves using iPads for assessment. Check our Mr. Rowland’s awesome blog to see his students’ projects. Mr. Rowland’s Blog

When I had my own classroom, I used laptops with my first graders all the time. I rolled the laptop cart in my room and we pulled the laptops  to create stories and movies, they visited my website to click on links to interactive games based on the standards I was teaching that week, and they could use Word and PowerPoint effortlessly as they wrote stories or presented projects to the class.

Many teachers and principals tell me that they don’t have time to do this with their students which is sad. My goal is to help teachers and principals see that it can be done. I want to share examples of students and teachers using technology to prepare students for the 21st century. Common Core standards are more rigorous, so our planning and teaching has to incorporate ways to meet our students needs by addressing these concepts. Technology is just one of those ways.

I hope you will check out the photos of students engaged in learning and look at some of their finished projects. It can be done:)