What if?

As I am standing by the window of  my classroom so that I can get a signal for my iphone. so that I can download a blog I have just written on my phone (my phone is the most sophisticated technology in my room, although I'm not really suppose to use it because it's not county owned), my mind wonders to the "what ifs?"

I do have six outdated computers in my classroom that often work well enough for the students to get on the computer program that the county endorses.  I also have a laptop that works at a basic level but really cannot be used for much instructional because so much is blocked.  I do not have wireless in my classroom but can connect to the land... but because the county is always chasing a lack of bandwidth, you can never depend on anything on the Internet working - you might have a little better than a 50/50 chance that you can use what you've planned.  I can plan the most engaging lesson, full of pictures and videos only to have the entire lesson derailed once I get to school because I spend so much time trying to get the technology to work that I completely lose the class. What the children learn is just how frustrating technology can be instead of the engaging content planned.  Like many teachers, I often don't include much technology in my lessons any more...even though I'd like to. I don't mind spending the extra time planning and I still constantly look for the resources, but sometimes it's not worth the frustration.  So... even though it's not permitted, I use to my iphone - to look up a picture of a wallaby when a second language student asks what it looks like or to make sure I have a word in Skills Block spelled correctly, or to show a short clip on my phone that I enlarge with a doc camera... even though we are using technology that is in a time before our children were born, I still feel compelled to pull lessons into the century that they are living.

But what if?  What if children had laptops, as many of them do at home now, and they could learn to use them to research the things they wonder about... instantly?  What if they could learn to use them for educational purposes, instead of just for games?

What if I had an anecdotal system that connected everyone that sees each of my children so that all the information was in a single place?  My classroom is like a revolving door - with students leaving my room for Occupational Therapy, Speech, Language intervention, counseling, Social Skills group, Special Education services and now RtI intervention.  Four different interventionists come to my door every day, just for RtI, to pull each student at a different time for a 30 minute intervention.  How do I know what they are doing when they are pulled out?  I don't really.  Yesterday one of the interventionist came to tell me that two different interventionist were pulling the same child for the same intervention!  With 36 children in and out, I hadn't even noticed!  It had been happening for two weeks.  I was mortified!   There is no way there is time in the day or even in the week to catch up with each of these support folks to find out how it's going with each student or more importantly, to find out how I can reinforce what they are doing when they are pulled out of my classroom.  But what if all those folks were tied into a single system and when I pulled up Joe's name to do guided reading, I could see what he did earlier that day in his RtI intervention group and I could add a few extra words that reinforce the skills he had just done?  The possibilities are limitless for how we could support each other instead of each chopping up the poor child's day and wondering why he isn't getting it with all that support.

The technology is here.  My co-teacher and Special Education teacher and I all pay for an app, called Confer.  I have talked about this app before because it connects all three of us.  We are able to type in notes and then sync our phones to share our notes instantly.  Yes, that's my iphone again, the one I'm not suppose to be using.  And yes, we each have to pay $25+ to have the app, but what a difference it has made.  What if I also had the sounds that the Speech Therapist is working on when I sit down to do an individual writing conference so that as I am stretching a word I could make sure the child to saying the sound correctly or the specific pencil grip that the OT wants a student to use as I sit down for a writing conference or the skills that the RtI interventionist is teaching later today to reinforce during my few minutes of conferring during independent reading with the student?

What if we had visionaries in our schools that made these dreams such a reality that every single person could see the benefits?  What is we cared so much about our children that they became a priority and it wasn't money that was blocking our road.  What if...?

Texting in the Classroom

I have written often about how pitiful the technology resources are at my school - not that administrators don't work to stretch every single resource and get as much usage as they can.  The county simply doesn't supply the needed resources.  We're on a list somewhere to be updated at some time, but in the meantime...  So often I have a lesson planned and can't get on Youtube or the Internet is down or whatever - seems like there are always more problems than solutions.  Our Media Specialist, who works tirelessly to keep everything going and helping us find solutions, is amazing, but the resources simply aren't there.  I do have four land computers that are old, but they work as student stations and a laptop for my desk. I am thankful for those.  However, I do not have wireless, so even though I have my own ipad, I can't get wireless and I'm really not allowed to use it anyway - rules about not using your own stuff, because...  there's a long list (most of it probably justifiable). 

Anyway, we have been struggling with ways to take anecdotal notes in Writing, Reading and Math and even Behavior with two teachers and a Special Education teacher all servicing the same students.  We've used lots of systems over the years - notebook (it's too inconvenient to keep one notebook for several teachers), sticky notes (they fall off over time and they still go into one notebook so you can't see the last note that was written), individual notebooks for each student at their desks (they get so ratty by the end of the year and there's really not enough room at their tables), stickers (they aren't  big enough for everything I want to write), and on and on and on.  Nothing has really been very efficient... until...  we found an app!

Although we can't get a signal on our iphones in much of our building, we are able to get a signal in our classroom because our room is on an outside wall, so one piece of technology that I can use is my iphone (although technically, I am not suppose to use personal devices).  For two years we have been using an app called Confer (we have had some recent syncing problems, but it was flawless for the first year, and I'm sure it will be again).  It was developed by a Nationally Board Certified Teacher - imagine that?!  A teacher with a solution! This app allows each of us to take notes during the day and then to sync at the end of the day and get each other's notes.  So, if I'm working with a child tomorrow, I will know that my co-teacher worked on conventions today during a writing conference or that the ESE teacher worked through a total melt down with a child yesterday in her room so I need to reinforce a specific behavior today.  We have very little time in our packed schedule to actually talk to each other about all the little conversations we have with children or all our noticings or wondering about specific children but this is a way we can keep in touch and keep a record of the progress students are making.

I never really thought to explain to the kids what I was doing while I was taking notes, so today one of the children asked me who I texted all day on my phone!  I wonder how many adults or other teachers have wondered through my class and asked the same question?!  I quickly pulled up my notes on this particular child so he could see what I was doing, but for anyone that has peeked into the classroom and seen us "texting," we really are taking notes!

Stop by.  I'd love to share what we are doing!  LOL!

Reviewing Student Work

I brought my writing folders home over the long Labor Day weekend -  all 35 folders! - so I could analyze student writing and get a good idea of how much of the teaching I have been doing is getting through.  I also want to try to learn each author as a writer.  As I go through each folder I have been writing and printing notes on labels to post in our Writer's Notebook under each child's name.  This is an example of one child's note:



Name      9/1/12       Pattern Books 
+good spacing with sight words spelled correctly and phonetic spelling of unknown words
+good fluency
+has started "Have you seen my mom?..." pattern book

-work on finishing pattern and creating a "changed up" ending
-add question mark to "Have you seen my mom?" and capital after the question mark

These notes are a little more thoughtful and longer than I am usually able to write after a conference because we always have a number of children waiting for a conference and the time seems so short... so my jots during the Writers' Workshop are quicker and more to the point.  I do like the + (plus) to indicate noticings and things they already do well and the - (minus) to indicate next things to work on.  Because we have more than one teacher using our Writers' Notebook, we generally write our notes on sticky notes during the Workshop and add them at the end of the day under each child's name.  When you have more than one teacher involved, it is extremely important to make sure you know what the other teacher(s) may have talked to the student about the last time they had a conference so it's important to review the notes before each conference.  The Writer's Notebook becomes our way of detailing the progress of each learner.

I learned so much about these writers... As I was reading the pattern books I came across one student's pattern book that broke my heart.

Translation:
My Dad does not have a job.
My mom does not have a job.
My brother does not have a job.
I do not have a job.
My uncle does not have a job.
Does anyone have a job?

The pattern is perfect.  The message... heartbreaking.