Using Technology with Reading

Teachers around the world are looking for innovative ways to capture their students attention and to teach them 21st Century Skills along with our required content.  I've attended a few workshops on how to add technology to our classrooms and am excited about the possibilities.  If you don't use any technology with your students, you are not preparing them for their future.  If we teach to yesterdays world, students won't have a chance at survival in this fast paced, technology based world we live in.  I sat in an Engaging the Net Generation workshop from the Schlechty Center and listened to a panel of students talk to a room full of educators about their experiences in school.  That was the most powerful 20-30 minutes ever!  One student explained to the educators in the room that while we think of technology as an option to squeeze in occasionally, they see it as a necessity.  Technology is their everyday world. To them, the technology component is a requirement.

As educators, we have to step up to the plate and provide these students with the best education possible.  That includes using technology!  I teach 2nd grade and my students, although very young, come in already pretty tech savvy.  Use their tech knowledge to help build yours.  Learn from each other!  Take risks!  Be honest with your students and let them know that you are learning too.  They will respect you for it.

I've been looking for ways to use Technology in all content areas of my classroom.  This past year I created a "Reading with Technology" Tic Tac Toe board of activities.  I started using this tic tac toe board with my highest Guided Reading groups.  These students were already able to decode, read with meaning, and summarize.  They were reading well above grade level and I was looking for something to engage and challenge them.  A friend of mine, Kyersten Karbowski, had created a tic tac toe board of reading activities for our grade level the year before.  (Thank you again, Kyersten!) So, inspired by her idea, I changed the activities to be technology based products the kids could create.  I chose apps that we already had on our classroom iPads.  Many of the apps I had already introduced to the class through other activities.  A few of the apps, I introduced to their reading group alone.  Now, they were able to have some choice and to show some creativity in ways to respond to their reading.  I soon realized, this activity was not only great for my higher readers. This was something that everyone in my class could do and enjoy.  It provided some choice and a great deal of differentiation.  It could be used whole group, small group, or as a one on one project for reteach or enrichment. The students who were familiar with some of the apps the whole class had not yet learned became experts.  They helped other students learn how to use the apps.  Students were reading for meaning, responding to literature, using technology, and having FUN!  Students wanted to work on their Tic Tac Toe boards every free second they had!

Even if you don't use this board as a Tic Tac Toe board, you can still pull ideas and/or activities for kids to use.  Maybe you want to try just one of the activities with your class - that's great!  I created two versions of the board and both are attached below for FREE.  Click the link, make a copy of them, edit them and make them your own!  Enjoy and share your ideas back with me.  I plan on making more variations of these boards in the future and would love your input - new activities, new apps, better instructions, etc.  They are a work in progress!  The idea can be used in other content areas too.

The only rule I gave my students is that they may not pick 3 activities that go up and down.  This tic tac toe must go side to side or diagonal.  Why?  Because the first column is character based activities.  The next is story structure based.  The third column is mostly full of extension types of activities.  Enjoy!


Reading with Technology Tic Tac Toe

Reading with Technology Tic Tac Toe #2

A Favorite Lesson

As I reflect over this last school year, I begin to think about which activities went well and which ones didn't.  Which lessons need to be tossed completely and which ones can be tweaked.  I know that regardless of what I plan for this summer, when I meet my new class in August, this very well may all go out the window!  Every group of students is completely different.  It's one of the many things that keeps teaching so interesting.  More tweaking may be necessary once I meet my new group of students, but this lesson was a HUGE hit last year and is sure to be again next year.

In Science, we were learning about the states of matter in my 2nd grade classroom.  We had already learned the difference between a liquid, solid, and gas.  We had filled up balloons with air, water, and then froze one of the balloons to represent the solid.  Students had felt the balloons, compared them, discussed the differences, and recorded them in their Science journals on the previous day.  I was looking for something fun and different and came across "The Lifecycle of a Snowman" from The Frugal Teacher's Blog (http://www.frugalteacher.com/2011/09/life-cycle-of-snowman.html)  I loved the idea and made a few tweaks to make it my own.  If you want to try this lesson, I would definitely recommend going to her page because she has an instruction page on how to build the snowman I will talk about later.


I told my class that we had a fun experiment planned for the afternoon and that we had a special visitor coming to help us.  Olaf from Frozen was going to help us get started.  I played this video of "In Summer."



Olaf set up the perfect Science Experiment!  What would happen if he went to summer and felt the effects of heat?  Students were then asked to share their predictions.  Then, in the back of the room, I had set up one of Olaf's friends on our hot plate.  The "snowman" was made from 3 frozen balloons.  I learned from The Frugal Teacher's blog that after you fill the balloons with water, you set them in bowls with plates on top of the balloons when you set them in the freezer to help create a flat base to stack the snowman's body parts together.  (Do this at least 2 days before your planned experiment to be sure your snowman is frozen solid)  Use salt to help the body parts stick together.  Add cut out pieces of felt for the eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons.

Here is a picture of our class snowman.  I was only able to get two of the frozen pieces to stick - my third plate must of slid in the freezer because it was not level at all and would not stay on!  But, it didn't stop our experiment!

I let each student pick a name for Olaf's friend and then drew a picture of what their snowman looked like in the solid state of matter.  We continued to turn up the "summer heat" and watched as Olaf's friend changed from a solid, to a liquid, to a gas.  We recorded our observations of the changes as we went and drew pictures of what the snowman looked like in each stage and always predicting what would happen next.  Here is our snowman friend towards the end of our experiment.

We watched as he turned into water vapor and disappeared into the air.  A few students were upset that we killed Olaf's friend.  But, we decided that really we were helping Olaf.  He wanted to go to summer time and we did this experiment to see if he could survive.  Our conclusions show that summer time would not be a safe place for Olaf to visit.  So, we wrote letters to Olaf explaining the changes he would go through and why summer time was not a good idea for a snowman.  I had seen this picture below at https://projectoriented.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/sb-snowman.jpg?w=487 and decided to use the paper bowl idea.  We glued our written work and melted snowmen onto large pieces of blue construction paper and hung them out on our bulletin board.

Writing the letter helped students make the full circle and not be upset about our melted snowman.  It was the perfect way for them to reflect back on the experiment and what they had learned.  Only, they didn't realize they were reflecting on their learning.  They were concerned friends of Olaf helping him to survive.  This was such a fun day of learning in class!  The students were talking about this experiment for weeks!

Why blog?

As I start this blog, I am doing so to help me grow as a teacher.  Why?  There are a few reasons really.  First, because I have learned that other teachers are the golden key to success.  I have always been one to share information and new ideas.  I have taught for 7 years now, and each year has been different.  New students, new team members, new curriculum, new ideas, etc.  The saying "beg, borrow, and steal" is very accurate with teachers!  I love to get new ideas from other teachers.  It's great that I was sharing with teachers on my campus, in my district, and in my friend circle, but then I started the Summer Learning Series with Todd Nesloney.  (If you haven't heard of this, check it out at http://summerls2014.blogspot.com/ or the newest set of challenges called Educator Learning Series at http://educatorlearningseries.blogspot.com/)  Todd and I went to Elementary school together until 4th grade.  Now, Todd is leading the nation with his ideas in Education!  He has inspired me to do more.  Think globally!  I participated in his Summer Learning Series last summer.  I was encouraged then to start my blog.  I even created my account.  But, I still didn't know what I wanted to say.  I began connecting with educators through Twitter and realized that I love that other educators put themselves out there to share the amazing things happening in their classrooms.  Amazing things are happening in my classroom too, so I need to do my part and share too.  I still have TONS to learn, but maybe you can learn from a few of my mistakes or "aha" moments.  It may have taken me a whole year to finally take the plunge and publish my first post, but I am taking the next step in creating a network of peers to help each other all be the best educators we can be. I will use this blog to share my knowledge and the new knowledge that I gain from others.

The second reason is for reflection.  I always take the time to think about the activities I do with my students.  Did it go well?  What worked or didn't work well?  Was it successful?  But, blogging will give me another way to reflect.  One with more time and thought.  And, it will be a way to document and look back over time to see what has changed.  I don't want to ever be the teacher that isn't constantly learning and changing with her students.

The final reason was in a tweet I read this week.  It said something about teacher's should be required to blog before asking their students to do it.  I have introduced my students to KidBlog and I love it!  They love it even more! They want to "blog" me.  (Which really means they want to post a blog and they want me to read it and comment back)  Getting students excited to write is awesome!  But, I myself have never blogged, and I love to write!  I need to lead by example and practice what I preach.  So, here goes - my first blog!