Help Feed the Hungry

This isn't kindergarten level, but I thought I would let everyone know about this program. It is a simple way to contribute to the hungry. When you go to www.freerice.com you are given a vocabulary word and have to choose the word that best matches. Rice is donated by sponsors for each correct answer. Within a short period of time I donated 2000 pieces of rice. It is an activity that keeps a mind sharp while helping to feed others. My son (8th grade) said he spent some time in his computer class helping to feed the hungry. He was proud that he helped out and I am happy he spent time working on his vocabulary. If you have time, it might be something to try.

XO Laptops

I have had some time to surf the internet while on vacation and I found this XO Laptop program. They have a buy one/get one program. I decided to participate and one laptop will be sent to a child in another country and I will get one for my classroom. I took some time to research them and it looks like it is a great program. The laptops are durable, have long battery life, connect to other XO laptops and have some programs on them. I am anxious for our computer to come so the students can use it. I am hoping we will be able to do some awesome things with it. I will post an update when it comes. Unfortunately, the program ends Dec. 31st, but if anyone else is interested maybe the deadline will be extended (it was extended once) or they may open up the buy one/get one program again. I think you would still be able to contribute money and have one sent to a child in another country.

Reflections on using technology in the classroom

I am on Christmas break and I am taking some time to update the blogs and website. I have been reflecting on technology use in the classroom. While I love teaching using technology and know the students like it too, there have been a few frustrations. One frustration is time. Finding the time to update the sites has been challenging. In looking over my work, I see that technology took a backseat to other things in November and December. I have incorporated technology into my lessons and use it every day when teaching, but I have not updated the sites as much as I would have liked. This was due to many factors. The writing I would have had the students do for the classroom blog was replaced by a writing for a different purpose (one more important). We were writing to one of our classmates who was very ill and was hospitalized for a few weeks. Then, we had assessments to do and parent teacher conferences which took up lots of time in November. Which left us ten days in December before break, but we had 3 snow days and a party, which left us with only 6 days to work. We were so busy with our holiday projects that it was hard to find time to even get our Christmas wishes posted.
The second obstacle was equipment failure. The projector went down in November (Be sure to check the warranty on the projector when you buy it. Fortunately, mine came with a 3 year express warranty and I had it back within a week of sending it out.) While the projector was out we weren't able to use the laptop or the ELMO for our lessons. We were able to borrow the school projector for a couple days. The projector came back as good as new and then, the hard drive on my computer went out. Thank goodness it didn't go down until after conferences and I was able to have it fixed quickly at Nitro computers in town.
When people realized my equipment was down, I was often asked "So, do you still like using technology?" My answer was "yes". Even with the time and equipment obstacles, I really like teaching with technology. The time without the equipment made me realize how much I have come to rely on technology and I found out that the students had come to depend on it and look forward to the lessons we do with the computer and ELMO, too.
My New Year's resolution will be to make sure I update my websites more often and to make sure the students start to blog on their own.