Treasure Chest of Thoughts

Until Thursday afternoon, I had spent very little time in our teacher copy room.  At that point, I wasted a lot of paper.  Just couldn’t be helped.  Because my daughter had a heart check-up,  I had to miss on Friday; therefore, my students did not have access to their mini laptop computers, which, by the way, have been a HUGE success. 

Never let it be thought that students cannot learn a new task very quickly.  They are quick to enter the classroom, remove their very own mini from the cart, log-on, have it ready at “half-mast,” and are waiting for their first instruction. 

The only complaint I have heard so far is that the keyboards are too small.  At which point, I ask them to hold both hands out from their chest area, palms facing toward each other, and then request that they move their thumbs, symbolizing their use of their cell phones.  They cannot repress the grins, for all know that the mini laptop keyboard is much larger than the true mini keyboard they have already mastered!

The only deviants so far have been two boys sitting right beside each other chatting within their Google emails.  Quickly got a “sorry” when I quietly reminded them that the use of a mini remains a privilege and that to loose the privilege of the mini would certainly result in this class being both less fun and more work when they had to complete the day’s work the “old” way.

In the eight days we have been in school, I have utilized our class blogs more than ever…daily, as a matter of fact.  This, I am modeling, partially, after seeing Siegmund’s English Weblog , where each post begins with state standards; this I really like!  Also really wonderful examples of detailed posts.

Another change has been my increased use of Google Documents, where I have created several forms for my students to complete; am finalizing the “Digital Fingerprint” form this weekend, a form where the students will share their logins/passwords to accounts created for our class.  I request this information for two reasons:

1. to help protect them from Internet stalkers (and others) who might leave inappropriate comments.  Should I find it I want to be able to log-in and delete.  (Some call this efficacy.)
2. to provide log-ins/passwords to those who forget, which by the way has already happened once.
3. Last year, I kept that information in one of my many three-ring binders.  This year, this data goes in a Google form, which I can access immediately from any computer that I am using.  Very cool!

So far, the tools we are creating accounts for include…

1. Google/Blogger
2. Penzu
3. GoodReads
4. Delicious

In addition, each student will have “writer” rights to his/her class’s wikispace page.

What other accounts do you think are a necessity in a (nearly) paperless classroom? 

Now, as I discussed with one of my peers who is also a part of our Classroom Redesign, if we only had a week off from school to plan for these paperless lessons!  Just another reason for promoting the concept of a year-round school…more breaks between sessions to allow for teacher-planning on a need-to-create basis!