SRS 2.0

Kindergarten- No class.

1st Grade- Worked on typing short words with TuxTyping

2nd Grade- Worked on typing longer words with TuxTyping.

3rd Grade- No Class

4th Grade- Worked on typing phrases about time lapse photograph. We also looked at time lapse photography examples.

Kindergarten: We worked again in Tux Paint and began to collaborate our work with parents.

1st Grade: We tried out Tux Type. This is an opensource program which you can download by going to Tux 4 Kids.

2nd Grade: We tried out Tux Type and Tux Math. Again these are opensource programs and you can download them by going to Tux 4 Kids.

3rd Grade: We worked on our typing using Tux Type. I am so impressed with the skill of the students and how far they progressed this year.

4th Grade: We finished “The Day I Was Born” project. We are using date calculators, looking up information on Wikipedia, and weather trends for Minneapolis.

Kindergarten- We used TuxPaint to learn some of the various functions within the magic section.

1st Grade- We worked on our typing. Awesome typists we have here, I encourage you to have your child show you the typing program and other links on my del.icio.us

2nd Grade- We worked on typing, again look at my del.icio.us for more ideas.

3rd Grade- We worked on typing skills, we are developing some awesome typists, I recommend that you encourage your students to type this summer.

4th Grade- We began our “On the Day I was Born” project.

We are just starting NWEA testing so this post is fairly short.

Pre-K- We had our first look at Tux Paint

Kindergarten- We learned how to use Tux Paint

1st Grade- We worked on our typing and the last 10 minutes we used Tux Paint.

2nd Grade- We did typing using Dance Mat typing and looked Scratch.

3rd Grade- We worked on our typing.

4th Grade- Due to NWEA testing we did a lot of work on the computers, we researched nutrition, Little House on the Prairie, and worked on our typing.

Kindergarten- We became KidPix experts. The students used their knowledge of the alphabet to find stamps of corresponding letters.

1st Grade- We worked on our typing. What excellent typists we have!

2nd Grade- Did a practice run through of NWEA testing. They did an excellent job in learning how to take the test.

3rd Grade- Worked on typing. Again, what excellent typists!

4th Grade- We worked on Scratch and programmed Scratch to draw a complex square.

Kindergarten- We used KidPix to start making an alphabet book. Each of Mrs. Woyt’s students made a letter, worked wonderfully since there were 26 kids!

1st Grade- We continued our evaluation of TuxPaint students agreed that this was way more fun than KidPix. You can download TuxPaint for  free just google “tux paint”.

2nd Grade- We began class by working on our typing skills. Following we began to use TuxPaint.

3rd Grade- We started with 20 minutes of typing. The skills the students are showing is excellent, I am impressed with their hard work. We also used Scratch to learn how to basic programming.

4th Grade-We started with 10 minutes of choice typing- we have several activities on my del.icio.us to do typing. The skills the students are showing is excellent, I am impressed with their hard work. We also used Scratch to learn how to basic programming, this is an open source program which you can download.

In February, St. Raphael’s Catholic School hosted their annual State of the School. As I was assisting the teachers on their presentations and talking about various topics regarding educational technology, a nagging thought kept coming into my mind, “What is Global Contribution?” We talk as educators that we want our students to contribute to the community, but is today’s community larger than our local neighborhood? In fact, it truly is a global community, here are a few examples:

• I studied abroad at Oxford University and on my Facebook page, I am able to connect with friends from my time there.
• I joined a Ning and am networked with individuals around the world who have the same vision.
• My blog has been visited from every continent except South America

and a multitude of other things showing me that the world is much bigger than when I was a child.

Whether we know it or not little things have the potential to be contributed globally.

How did I ever come to this conclusion? What very few people know is that I speed skate. I picked up the sport during college, it was due to the fact that Bemidji was literally the “Ice Sports Capital of America”. I also tried playing hockey, curling, figure skating, but speed skating stuck. Over the past few years I have been so busy with other things: student teaching, writing my thesis, buying a house, getting married, that I reluctantly put my skating on hold.

This year I made a promise to myself to take my speed skating seriously and devote as much time as I could. However, the speed skating world changed in the past few years. With changes like: boots that are interchangeable from ice blades to inline blades, the Nike swift suit, and the fact that world record times are dropping. I felt like I had literally been moved to another planet, bad crossovers and all.

As a true millennial all of my answers to life should be found online, right? However, speed skating is not as popular here as it is in the Netherlands but rest assured this is the 21st century and I could connect to someone, somewhere that had a connection to speed skating even if it was in Danish.

Then I found a blog, Zen and the Art of Speed Skating (www.andrewlove.org/blog). Who? What? An American a speed skater who decided to keep track of his preparations for the 2006 Olympic Trials and just posted his 500th post on February 29th. I learned that over 1,000 visitors come to his site daily, has had close to 3,300 comments, and will crack 500,000 visitors this year alone. He writes in his blog:

“I never intended to create something like this. I just wrote and photographed what interested me, and the world showed up.”

I could only think about how it is such a profound statement. Connecting to something I once saw in a picture, “From personal knowledge, to global contribution.” This is so true.

Finally, I just want to send out a thank you Andrew for helping me come to the conclusion about global contribution.

Last week, I received an email telling me to read a blog posting by another Director of Technology. It was called “What I Do”. As I was reading this, I began to think I too should write a post about this too and thought I would have a bit of fun with what I do with my day. Understand that is this is a really random post. A more educational post will be coming in the next few hours!

First, I process RSS feeds- I lost count a while ago on the exact number, I use Google Reader to track all of them. Google Reader is like another email inbox for me, it shows a (1) when there is a new post. I also have two email accounts both of which I use daily and I get in the neighborhood of 50-100 emails a day. On my bookmark bar in my web browser alone, I have five RSS feeds and seventeen other links, all of which, I use on a daily basis. On average I have seven windows (tabs) open in my web browser. I participate in five nings, write to four listservs, and contribute to three blogs. Oh and I am on MySpace and Facebook to keep in touch with friends who have found themselves distributed throughout the world. All of this just to keep me up to date what is going on.

Then, I do what I LOVE! I get in each morning at about 7 a.m. Right away in the morning, I check the schedule to see who has the labs checked out during the day and double check that our wireless is up and running. I double check my lesson plans for when I teach. I visit the classrooms and learn about the different projects that are going on. I help guide the teachers so that they can have their questions answered, answer the student’s questions, and talk with them about the project. I wore a pedometer once- I reached 10,000 steps before lunch time.

My week never starts or ends. I have a yellow electronic post-it note on the side of my screen detailing what I need to do. Somethings stay on there longer than others. In short, if you are familiar with PostgreSQL let me know! The jobs vary just like the technical support I will encounter each week. It is a unique challenge for me and like I said earlier…. I LOVE IT!

During my lunch time, I catch up on blog reading and the latest news (as I am in bed before the news is on). I send off interesting posts to others who might benefit from reading these as well. Then it is time to head back to the classrooms, teach, or meet with a teacher. I try to spend a half hour at the end of the day, reading and reflecting.

Once the day is done, I pull out my cell phone for the first time. Check all my missed calls, usually one or two calls from my mum or husband. Although, my phone does more than receiving and answering call. I also can read my email, scan the Internet, check for traffic delays, or look up what to make for dinner that night. I try to leave by four, although sometimes I will leave closer to six each night. Dinner is usually on the table when Erik gets home by eight.

What else? Well as of last week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was skating. Sometimes skating until as late as 10:45 p.m. getting home at 11:30 p.m. and getting up at 5:40 a.m. to begin my next day. The reward was skating in the National Long Track Marathon and a Senior National Championship. Did I mention I have a blog about that too?

So how do I keep up? Well, I can multitask with the best of them. I can cook dinner, blog, double check my lesson plans, read my newest library, and watch TV. I have a blast doing what I do. I thank you all for reading. That’s all from this peanut gallery.

Kindergarten- We explored Google Earth, this is a free download. All you need to do is google “Google Earth” and you are able to download it for exploration on your computer.

1st Grade- We continued learning about AppleWorks presentation. We are going to do an about me presentation and will be building this for the next few weeks.

2nd Grade- We started the presentation, we will be attaching this presentation to our emails for viewing, as well as learning on how to attach files.

3rd Grade- We worked on our typing this week. We then did typing tests for speed and accuracy. Our goal by the end of the year is to have 10 WPM with 90% accuracy.

4th Grade- There is an assignment this week to answer the questions posed on Mrs. Schulz’s book blog.

Kindergarten- We worked in KidPix. We also learned how to make PDFs (just the key commands) and send them to our teacher with help.

1st Grade- No class due to NO SCHOOL

2nd Grade- No class due to NO SCHOOL

3rd Grade- We worked on our typing.

4th Grade- We finished uploading the Roller Coaster Databas and worked on typing.