Pleasantly surprised

I am quite surprised how smoothly this class has been going so far. I was a little worried that we would be spending more time working on computer issues or kids not being able to follow directions and stay with us. That has not been the case at all!

Our focus was to make technology and this class work for all kids, those who struggle and those that don't. Jason and I brainstormed what we wanted our kids to get out of this class and how it could make some of their lives easier. To do that, we looked at what we wanted our kids to know and how we can use technology to teach it.

For the first unit, we had kids set up their sites, docs, and calendar. Jason made these tutorials that the kids could follow at their own pace. I must say every now and then he has a pretty good idea! The kids did better with these videos than I expected. These tutorials would work great in so many different areas. I would say by the end of the year they would need very little assistance.
By the second unit, kids had folders for each unit and were able to put all documents into the correct folders. The best part of that for me is that we no longer have notebooks that look like fire hazards! (at least not for Social Studies) We waste not one second looking for papers or papers they say they did, but can't find. Everything is right there! They either finished what they were assigned or they didn't. They can't conveniently lose it.

Another aspect of this class that has been great is when kids take notes. Jason has always had each student in a group research a certain part of an assignment. After they were done researching, they would share their part with the rest of the group. This was always hard for students with disabilities or kids with auditory processing issues because they would often be required to listen to other students and write down what they were saying. They had difficulty just paraphrasing what other kids in the group were trying to teach them, so they would miss some key information at times. Now, kids can just automatically share what they are writing with each other as they are doing the research. It eliminates one whole step and saves a lot of time.

Computer issues have been few and far between. I learn something new pretty much everyday. Jason or I can tell the kids what document or what powerpoint they need to have on their screens, and within a matter of minutes, they have everything they need.
Today, we wanted the kids to go back into their notes to highlight some of the important information that we covered. The kids actually showed us how to do that and helped each other.

Jason and I created our test that we wanted kids to take and put it in our shared calendar. We created it in Google docs. All they need to do is go to their calendar, click on the assignment for November 3 and copy and paste the website into the address bar. It will bring the test up and they can take it. When they are finished, they submit it and all of their responses will be put into a spreadsheet. We can then print it and very easily grade their responses. The next step would be for us to figure out how the responses will automatically be graded.

It is amazing what our kids are starting to do. We have lots of ideas of things we would like to do with this class. We really need to stay focused and pick a couple of things to work on a month. Otherwise, we could very easily get lost with everything we want to do.