#1: Tables – We started the year with 22 desks. However in preparation for the netbooks, I decided to exchange the desks for four long tables. This has really helped my kids collaborate more easily, gain an identity (the table groups include the Shark Sandbar, Barnacle Bay, Jellyfish Junction, and Stingray Station), and have plenty of room for notebooks/textbooks alongside their netbooks.

Tables at the Cove

#2: Chair Bags – These organizational miracles have helped for two reasons. Our classroom is in a mobile unit (we call them “Learning Cottages”) so there is absolutely no storage! In addition, due to losing the storage provided by the desks, we needed a place to keep our “stuff”. We decided all textbooks would be stored on a few bookcases we have in the room (which works out because we use them only for occasional support) and we sent home many notebooks that would not be needed now that we have our netbooks! We purchased the chair bags from a wonderful company called Happi-Nappi. They are made of very sturdy denim with extremely durable, reinforced seams. They have one large pocket for our clipboards, notebooks, and larger items, as well as two small pockets for our pencils/pens and little necessities!

The Cove's Chair Bags

#3: 15 foot long surge protectors – We started with an old laptop cart that was not being used. Thanks to our technology director, we were able to get several long extension surge protectors to replace it. This has been beneficial for several reasons. Storing the netbooks in a cart adds a lot of wear and tear on the computers and cords. Now, they stack nicely on our tables at the end of the day and I take about 3 minutes (literally) to bring the cords (already plugged into the surge protectors) to the computers. We call them our Octopus Arms! It has also added learning time to our classroom. I unplug the arms every morning before the kids get in the room, store them close to the various outlets, and the kids are able to get right into their work! Much less chaos and chance for accidents when the charged netbooks are already on the tables!

One Octopus Arm!

#4: Sharing bins – Prior to getting these dollar store storage bins, kids were always getting up to get supplies (borrowing pencils, getting crayons, sharpening their pencils, etc.) which takes longer than you might think in an elementary classroom! These bins have become community sharing boxes. They are each marked with the group name (Sharks, Barnacles, Jellyfish, and Stingrays). Each group decided early on they would pool their individual storehouses of materials and share with each other! How wonderful!! They’ve even taken pride in making sure their bin is more organized than other groups’.

The Sharks' Sharing Bin

#5: Clipboards – The tables I purchased for the classroom are not smooth on the surface (lesson learned!). They have minute grooves and bumps. The kids hate writing directly on top of them. In addition, we participate in a program called Clipboard Math (we call ours Pirate Ship Math) in which there are 6 posters around the room which house math problems that are changed several times throughout the week. The kids’ clipboards (which I purchased at the Dollar Store as well) play three roles. They create a smooth surface on which write, they make working while moving about the room very easy, and they organize the loose papers that are needed on a daily basis (spelling list, Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling, Pirate Ship Math template, etc.). We have almost no papers being lost since we put these to use. And, they fit nicely into our chair bags!

Colorful Clipboards

So, although these things may seem minor to the outsider looking in, they are crucial elements of our classroom’s efficiency and time on task throughout the day! Something to consider…

Dear Ms.Collazo,
I like nonfiction books because I like the facts in the book. I learn new stuff every time I read a new book I imagine stuff in the book I feel like the happiest kid on earth when I read nonfiction books. Nonfiction books make me feel like i’m the smartest kid on the earth. Nonfiction is great I would love to read them all the time. I hope everybody will like to read nonfiction books just like me?

Dear mrs.Collazo I like nonfiction books better than I like fiction because they give more information and they are true.They teach you about things you never knew like some bats eat about 500 to 600 bugs each year and they can be as big as your thumb. I never knew that until I read the book.

And, my favorite:

DEAR MRS. CALLAZO,
My favorite is fiction. Because non-fiction is hard to make notes with and because you have to remember all the real things that happened to the person. Fiction its easy because there are crazy monsters and you can remember what happens in the story because it is so funny. And you can picture it in your head while reading and taking the test because all the animals talking you can remember all of it, its just fun you get so in to the book that you don’t want to stop. Like the fiction books i have in the middle of the class i be in the book and then mrs.Collazo tell me to put the book up but she always be happy to see me read. I’ve read about 13 fiction books this year i just peak a book that i like and i read it at home and at school.

Teaching is so much fun!

Photo Credit: samie.shake’s photostream via Flickr

Then we looked at “Today’s Jobs” – a new section I’ve added to our wiki mainly to keep ME organized! It includes all of our activities for the day including any links we’ll be using (hopefully a time-saver).

We spent the majority of our language arts time visiting Disney’s Surf Swell Island to begin to learn and apply Internet safety. The kids kept some hand written notes as they traveled through the site for an activity we’ll do tomorrow as a follow-up.

Math time went very well again. We spent most of our time working together at the Smartboard reviewing telling time (which they continue to struggle with – can’t the world just go with digital clocks?!). They enjoyed the interactive practice and then really loved opening their Clams to try some independent practice at two cool sites!

Finally, our day finished on a very fun note! Thanks to a tweet from my PLN last night, I found out about the New York Zoos and Aquarium’s “Build Yourself Wild” site! Although ultra fun, it also goes right along with our unit (and field trip) on animal adaptations. The kids created themselves as unique wild critters. The really cool part will come tomorrow. At the bottom of their picture, the site provides facts about the body parts they chose and what adaptation they are used for in “real life”. We will use the pictures and facts as a springboard for a narrative writing assignment.

By the looks of things, we’re a pretty wild group!

The asked for dictionaries?

HP 1101 Mini

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Mr. Moore, my principal, for allowing me to come back home to Ingram and his faith in my dream; Mrs. Johnson, our county technology director, for her continued support as I’ve begged for this project over the past 6 years; my superintendent, Dr. Moss, for meeting with me to hear my ideas and then making the plan work; and finally to my great friend and colleague, Danita Russell (one of the best Instructional Tech Facilitators you’ll ever meet) for taking my phone calls at all hours and continually keeping me grounded! Here’s to proving what kids can do when you give them the tools!

So, the adventure starts tomorrow! My goal is to blog (at least a few sentences) every day about what we are doing in our room as we incorporate our netbooks into our learning. Hope you’ll join us often for the ride!

The Writer

I let them take them home last night for the first time ever (used to guard them like a hawk, but I’ve gotten treatment in preparation for our 1:1 over the last few years!)  They were so excited they’d be able to finish their work!  4th graders!  I love it!  And, winning a bet with my husband, every one of them returned to class today with them in their protective cases.  They still don’t know what’s coming in a few weeks!  I can hardly stand it.

Catching up on blog reading tonight, I came across this video on Scott McLeod’s blog.  Couldn’t agree more!  Bring on the netbooks and new ways of teaching!

I Need My Teachers to Learn

Here are some of the super books I’ve read so far this summer (along with my grade for them!):

1. Why Don’t Students Like School? by Cognitive Scientist Daniel T. Willingham.

Thanks to Scott McLeod and Castle’s book club, I joined, purchased, and devoured!  It makes so much sense to tie what we plan and do in the classroom with the way our students’ brains work.  This book is a fantastic down-to-earth summary of the most recent cognitive research and how it can be applied to our work with students.  I had many “wow, really?” moments while reading this book.  I’m working on creating some new posts to let you know about those moments!  A+

2. What Great Teachers Do Differently – 14 Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker

Assigned to be read this summer by our administration, this is a book that aims at pointing out the 14 things that the author has observed great teachers doing.  It is an easy read with some common sense reminders of what we should be doing as caring, effective educators.  Nothing Earth-shattering.  C

3.  Not Much Just Chillin’ – the Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers by Linda Perlstein

This is a fantastic book written by a researcher who lived among the middle schoolers about which she writes.  It is a wonderful view of how middle school looks and feels from the students’, teachers’, and parents’ points of view.  The thing I like most about this book is that Ms. Perlstein combines the real-life experiences of middle schoolers with current brain research to support WHY they think and act the way they do.  If you ask me, this should be the book assigned by all middle school administrators for their staff members to read!  Very eye-opening!  A+

Okay, now on to Harry Potter!  I have until July 15th!

We have used the Smartboard daily in my classroom this year.  We are lucky to have both a mounted board and projector, so the kids are used to coming up and solving problems with the Smart Tools.  However, we had never used the Smart Tools with the laptops (DUH, Mrs. C.).

One of my wonderful students who struggles so  greatly with math decided she would just open her Smart Tools over her problem and be able to draw directly onto the online coordinate grid.  She also used the highlighter tool to highlight words in the problem.

I know this sounds simplistic, but I just had never thought of the kids individually using the overlay included in the Smart Tools!  She shared what she was doing, and what a difference it made to the others who struggle moving from pencil and paper to working out math problems on the computer screen.  I was so proud, I had to tell you about it!  Baby steps, but aren’t our students brilliant?

Please take a few minutes and read the inspiring words of this student.

Photo Credit via Flicker: Report Card 1944

Then, voila!  As is the norm these days, I read a post tonight addressing this very issue!  Again, one of my favorite bloggers at Teach Paperless, posts how he used a chat to differentiate a Latin grammar lesson:

I see Web 2.0 chats as having great potential for handling authentic differentiated instruction and I see best practices in a chat-enhanced classroom as having great potential for addressing issues of multi-sensory learning. The projected chat has all the benefits of being both visual and textural, and because we are talking about the material the entire time, the students are also using auditory and analytical skills. Not to mention the interpersonal skills necessary to take part in such a program.

How cool!  Side note:  His kids are part of a 1:1 initiative!!  You can do this kind of effective teaching when your kids EACH have the tools with them all day!

Flickr Credit: A Puzzle of Paint

This story, only to say that I’m sure she tries hard, but that is not enough.  Our students deserve more.  I’m sure it is not just coincidental that I read Scott McLeod’s post “It’s not ‘the tests’.  It’s us.” that same afternoon.  Wish my son’s teacher would read it….

Photo Credit: You’re Starting To Lose Me Now on Flickr