Pinnacle Reflection Fall 2012

Pinnacle

• Learner-centered Teaching: Make sure to spotlight ways in which you have been able to focus instruction on the students and in small-group or centers. What has worked well and what pitfalls could you share for the rest of us? I have used my laptop centers twice a day everyday for both literacy centers as well as STEM centers. The students use the center independently mostly on websites that allow practice of the literacy skills being taught that week or as a math review game. Each day I rotate the group that goes to the center so each day different children get to use them and everyone gets to go to the laptop centers twice a week. The students are engaged and it allows for me to do my independent reading and math groups without being interrupted.I also am lucky to have Ipads to use with my small guided groups which I have used Big Universe, a website that has leveled nonfiction guided reading books. My students have really enjoyed these books and I have figured out ways to use it best and for differentiation. The Ipads are funny sometimes though and when I download a new app, sometimes the old ones disappear which has been troubling.
• Relation to Common Core & Essential Standard: How were you able to use technology while adhering closely to the new curriculum? The new common core standards are all about learning through hands on interactions and through play. The use of the laptop center allows students to learn through interactive online games. It allows students to think deeper and learn through experience and also keeps them engaged and on task. I love using the laptop center for STEM time because it is a great tool to integrate science. I use unitedstreaming.org a lot for students to watch a clip on the laptops about a science concept or to expose them to a culture through video clips. I have found that having this visual tool has also helped inspire the students in writing which is now with common core very self directed with topics of their choice. The Ipads are similar in the fact that the students can play learning games and I love the nonfiction guided reading books on the Ipads to help integrate across the subject area.
• 21st Century Skills: Perhaps the opposite of the prior question, how were you able to use technology and learner-centered instruction to promote the acquisition of 21st century skills? I am using the laptops to make my students more independent. Also we sometimes use them to practice typing and writing. My students read on the Ipads and they have become so good at using them. At this point they can already independently open the Ipads and get to Big Universe and choose a book to read for Independent Reading Time.

Student Work Samples: see videos

Laptop Center

I rearranged my room over the workday to set up a permanent laptop center for my students. It was a pain to pull them out and put them back each day and I figured if they are a part of our room, they will be more visible and more protected if they are stationary. We use the center each day for a literacy station and then again in the afternoons for a STEM station. The students are able to sit there and complete a task without interrupting my guided reading groups and they are actively engaged. I did post on the wall some Laptop Procedures as well as the daily task. I love having the laptop center and it adds so much to making my classroom a 21st century class!