The First Week.

I wanted to reflect on my first week of my journey.  I had a plan in place and I just jumped right in and got started.  I knew it would be a rocky start with some twists and turns, and I was right.  It certainly was!  There were times when I felt like pulling my hair out.  I kept pressing on and now, the things that took so long and were so difficult for my students the first week is like second nature to them.

Here are a few things that I consider MUST HAVES:  Dropbox, a class blog, Notability (or another app that will let you annotate on PDF files), and Edmodo.  I will explain why I am finding these things useful.

Dropbox is a place where I can drop all of my files (think cloud storage) and then access them from anywhere.  I can get to them on my computer, on my iPad, on my iPhone.  Anywhere.  I set mine up so that I have a class Dropbox account.  The students all use the same account and I monitor their usage of it.  They all have an assigned folder that they "drop" their completed assignments in.

The best part?  No more packing papers back and forth to school for me to correct.  I just hop on Dropbox, correct them, and put them in their student folder for them to see.  AMAZING!

Class Blogs are important to have because they give the students all a "landing place" where I can post assignments, videos, and other important information for our math centers and literacy stations.  I also post links to other sites that host information and learning activities that tie to our fifth grade curriculum.  I can't imagine running my classroom without a class blog!

I use Blogger (aka Blogspot) for my class blog because I find it very user friendly; however, there are plenty of other blog hosting sites out there.

Notability is an app that allows the students to open their Dropbox files and annotate on them. This is how I do most of my assignments now.  No more spending time in the copy room, I just add the work to Dropbox, my students open it up in Notability and complete it.  They place their completed assignment in their Dropbox folder and I can go there to correct it. 

Edmodo has been a valuable tool because it helps me to communicate with my students after school if they are having problems with their homework assignments or if they have any questions or concerns.

The best way to describe Edmodo is it is like having a very private and secure Facebook page for your class to go to and post questions or comments.  You can also post assignments, birthdays, and other calendar items there. 



That's all for today!

Until next time. . .

No Pencils to Sharpen. WHAT?

Let me tell you about one of my experiences last week.  Things were a little crazy at the end of the day (when aren't they!) and the students did not have time to complete their class jobs before they left for the day.  After I finished my prep work, I started doing some of the jobs that I knew would need to be done for tomorrow.  One of the jobs that is a daily MUST is to make sure we have sharp pencils for the following morning.  I walked over to my dull pencil container and it was empty.  What?  Normally it contains 10-20 dull pencils that need to be sharpened.

As I reflected back on my day, I realized that the only time my students even used a pencil was for their math test.  And quite honestly, if I had not already made all of the copies for the math tests over the summer, I wouldn't even of had them doing those with pencil and paper.  AMAZING!

Anytime I go to make copies, I stop and ask myself, is this something that I could put into DropBox and have students do in Notability?  If the answer is yes, then I don't make a copy.  Simple as that!

Another thing I have noticed is that my garbage can, which used to be overflowing by the end of each day, is rarely even half way full.  I absolutely LOVE the changes that are going on in my classroom and can't wait to see what other ways I can come up with to make my iPads a useful tool for each of my students!

Until next time. . .

Ahhhhh, Technology. . .

First, let me start by saying that I am no expert when it comes to using technology.  I have always been kind of a technology buff, but it is just because it fascinates me! Seriously, technology is amazing!!!  It is constantly changing and it just seems like there is no limit to the possibilities.  I find that very exciting.

Second, I should probably let you know why I started this blog.  I decided that I have already learned so much on my 1:1 iPad journey in my classroom that maybe, just maybe, it would be beneficial to someone else out there in their own classroom. 

I don't have any type of schooling in technology (just the school of hard knocks and trial and error), but I am still willing to share the little bit that I do know.  Also, I think this blog will be a great way for me to see how much I can learn and grow as I use technology in my own classroom.  It's always great to reflect and learn, right?

Let the journey begin!