Who inspires you? Our Blog prompt for today.

Students continue to work on writing in Spanish via their personal blogs.  Some aspects I really love about  this activity are:

• Blogging is a fairly easy way to publish student work to a real life audience.
• Their past writing can't be lost or misplaced like with paper.  
• They create a living document/portfolio of what they have done throughout the year.
• Students can receive feedback from others to continually improve and discuss their thoughts in a motivating and interactive way.
• It's just more fun!! 

Google Voice App

I just downloaded the Google Voice App for both the Xoom and the Asus Transformer tablets.  I can now access my Google Voice Account and listen/ give feedback to students' on their speaking assignments and assessments on the go!  Here are some screen shots of the app taken from one of the Asus Transformer Tablets.

WASB 2012 Presentation

Am so grateful to be a part of the Pulaski Community School District and have the opportunity to implement one of the district's Model 21st Century Classrooms. Today our model classroom team presented at WASB on our district vision and the happenings in each of the model classrooms.  Take look at our presentation here!

Pulaski WASB Model Classroom Presentation on Prezi

Twitter - Powerful Professional Development

I can't express enough what an impact Twitter, used as a professional development tool, has had on my educational practices over the past couple of years!  It is amazing the number of useful resources, ideas, and advice I obtain from other educators all around the world on a daily basis!  

Twitter has also served as a great way to document and share what I am doing this year, implementing a 1:1 environment with Android Tablets (Motorola Xoom and Asus EePad Transformer), with others.  I have linked/fed my professional blog, www.fillingthetechtoolbox.blogspot.com to Twitter using Twitter Feed, which automatically sends out tweets when I post new information on my blog, including the link to that specific post.  If you would like to link your own blog to Twitter, please see the my tutorial below.  

One additional thing of great use on Twitter is the Hashtag(#)! Hashtags allow you to collect/research information about a specific topic within Twitter.  See the tutorial for more information on the Twitter Hashtag.

All in all, if you are not on Twitter yet, sign up now!  It is the best most convenient professional development out there and a great way to share what you are doing with other educators too.  Did I mention it is completely free???

Google Voice Widget Added to Class Blog!

Today, I embedded a Google Voice Widget into the Class Blog Pages for both my classes!  The widget directly connects and automatically makes the call from a student's phone to my Google number.  The student can then leave a message or I can answer the call, if I am available.  In addition, the teacher's number remains anonymous.  This is just one more option for students to get in contact with me if they need help or have questions.

How does technology make a difference in your learning?

Students were asked the following questions today:

• How does technology affect your learning?  
• What do you most enjoy about having technology in our classroom?

Here are some of their responses.

The use of technology is obviously very engaging and motivating for students and that can easily be observed on a day to day basis.  However, the main questions our Pulaski Model Classroom Team will be working on gathering answers to next is "Do the devices/technology in our rooms truly improve learning?"  "Do students with 1:1 access to a mobile device do better than those that do not?"  I look forwarding to delving into and researching these questions and will post more about what we find!