This week we were all given new SMART Document cameras that communicate with our SMART Boards. They are similar to the old document cameras or overhead projectors but, far more advanced. We have taken time this week to "play" with them to see what they are capable of. This camera actually is cooked up to the SMART Board and also to your computer. When the SMART Notebook applications are downloaded onto your computer, you will be able to actually capture and save images that are placed either under the camera or on the screen. I have attached the flyer of information regarding what the capabilities are. As a teacher, one of the best features is the ability to capture any document that is placed under the camera. Then, students can use the white board and interact with it by using the pens. Their work can be saved and revisited for later use. I know that this sounds confusing but, once you play around with it, it's easy to catch on.

Yes, we are very fortunate to each have a laptop, unlimited Internet Access and SMART boards in each of the classrooms where I teach. I think that, unfortunately, many teachers use them as a display board or as a device to simply show movies using the projector. Unless teachers are trained or willing to do some research, it is hard to see what a SMART Board is capable of doing and teaching. One of the tools that I will share is actually a site titled SMART Exchange. This is a place where lessons are already created and uploaded onto the site for you to download and use instantly on your SMART Board.
It is free to join SMART Exchange and most of the lessons are also free of charge once you are a member. All of the lessons on the site are interactive and it is a great opportunity for students to get up and show what they are learning. I will note that in order to successfully download and use the lessons as they are supposed to be used, your computer will need to have the SMART board software installed on it.

Once you are on, you can search by subject, grade or file type. If my subject happened to be 'moon phases' I would type that into the search box. I would also select 5th grade and science. Before actually downloading the lesson, you have the option of previewing it first. This will show you a few of the slides that you will see once you have completed the download. These lessons are great because they are all interactive and if any of them require a student doing work, there is an option to save the work that is done to revisit it later. I have found that I use the SMART exchange lessons to enhance my current curriculum. They are excellent for review and the grade levels are right on target. Even if you do not have a SMART Board or the capabilities, I highly recommend checking out this site for lesson ideas!

I am going to discuss electronic white boards for my next blog topic. I have been teaching for 14 years and when I first started, I had two chalkboards in my classroom. Straight up white chalk and erasers. After a few years, we slowly started replacing the chalkboards with whiteboards and a few short years after that we were introduced to the first interactive whiteboards. These were available on a sign-out basis and could be wheeled from classroom to classroom. When they were first introduced to our school, we trained only those teachers who were interested in learning about the new technology. They were tricky to use because if the board was bumped or moved just a small bit, it would no longer be in line with the projector (which, at the time, was also not mounted) and it would need to be re-configured. Over the past few years, our school has been equipped with an interactive whiteboard in each of our classrooms that is mounted to the wall along with a projector that is mounted to the ceiling. I think that the interactive whiteboard has been an excellent resource for educators and for students throughout the learning process.

What is an interactive whiteboard?

An interactive whiteboard is a touch-sensitive screen that communicates and works with a computer and a projector. They were first introduced in education in 1991.
Educators were the first people to recognize the interactive whiteboard’s potential as a tool for collaboration and lesson planning.
An overview of possible uses in our classrooms include:
• Manipulating text and images
• Taking notes and saving them for later use, empaling or print
• Viewing websites as a class
• Interacting physically without having to sit in front of computer
• Creating digital lesson activities with templates, images and multimedia
• Viewing and writing notes over educational video clips
• Using presentation tools 
• Displaying student presentations

There is an option on Quizlet that allows you to attach pictures that will accompany your vocabulary words. For each word, you can search the data base to see if there are any pictures that you would want to use to attach to your word.

I thought that this feature was very easy to navigate and they actually have many options for each word.  The only downfall I found was that if there were no pictures in their collection that you wanted to use you could upload your own from the Internet or from your computer. This seems great but, in order to use this function, you have to pay $25 for the upgrade. I am going to investigate what the difference is between the free option and the upgraded Quizlet.

Slowly Learning

This week I worked on how I could use Quizlet to sharpen multiplication fact skills. I had to get creative because I couldn't find a multiplication sign to use. I figured that I would use the 'x' letter key and it seemed to work. The only function on Quizlet that didn't recognize it was the speaking function. Typically, when the speaker is clicked, it will read the definition. With the multiplication problem, instead of saying, "three times two" it just states, "three, two".  Other than that, it was very easy to set up the math facts and add them to my class sets. I also figured out that I can take any of my class sets and generate quizzes that can either be done online or printed to use in the classroom. I am going to take advantage of this and give a science vocabulary quiz this week!

After reading what many of you have responded to my recent blog posts, I dug a bit deeper into the Quizlet world and found it even more useful that I thought! I did a 5th grade Astronomy search to  see what would come up and I was surprised and thrilled to see how many vocabulary sets were already posted on the site! There were even some posted by some of the teachers who work with the students in my school! Ha! I was very intrigued to see how similar my definitions were to the definitions that other educators use. Although the general definitions were similar, a lot of the language used was different. Some of the definitions were a lot more complicated and some were on the easier side. I wonder if definitions and language used  is determined state by state or if it is by district. I know that I  use the definitions that are given by NY State. Many times, though, I have to actually further define words that are in the definitions so that the 5th graders can better understand the word. 

So, I officially have my first Quizlet vocabulary set to use with my class. I decided to start with Science since there seems to be a lot of new vocabulary. We are currently working on the Astronomy Unit and I included words that we have already discussed in class along with words that will come up this week. Once the words were entered, I created my class and now I will be able to add as many study sets that I want to include throughout the year. What is great is that, I won't have to create new study sets year after year. They will already be here unless I delete them! The name of my class is : Mrs. Quinn's 5th Grade J-D. Feel free to go to quizlet.com and find my class study set!
a What the students can do to begin is, look at the list of vocabulary words. They can 'star' words they want to study together, they can listen to the word and the definition or I can record my own voice with the word, definition and any additional information I want to share with them. Once they have entered the set there are many different activities to choose from. I will share one of them with you now. The name of the game is Scatter. In this game, all of the words and definitions are scattered throughout the page. The students have to drag the words to their corresponding definitions while a timer is displayed in the corner of the page. The idea is to clear the page and the timer will stop. After completing multiple rounds, the hope is that it takes less and less time the more familiar the words become. I like this because although it is a competition... it is against yourself and not other kids. Try it!

So I have successfully survived the first week back to school (barely). I was pleasantly surprised by the number of kids in my class who already know how to utilize the Quizlet website. I don't know why I am surprised seeing they are the ones who always keep me informed of the latest and greatest technology and learning tools. I went to the Quizlet homepage and found it incredibly easy to set up activities. It is a studying tool for students and has a variety of practice and strategies for vocabulary memorization. There are also mobile apps available for iOS and Android. This is a free online tool with an option to upgrade for an additional fee. It appears that the free version has PLENTY to offer for teachers, parents and students. The Quizlet mission, as stated on their website is that "Every person on earth deserves access to free, powerful, and inspiring learning tools- and our mission is to build them."

Signing up to use this program was very simple (see below) and once you join, it is very easy to start creating your class study sets.

Next, you will make vocabulary lists with words and definition that will only have to be filled out once. These words will become part of a set that can be used for various study games. Sets can be created and updated as often as you'd like and there is no limit as to how many you want to make and organize.

I am still trying to figure out how I want to use it in my classroom. I currently teach ELA, Math and Science. My initial thought was that I would use it for science vocabulary for each unit beginning with Astronomy. With the new Common Core Math, however, it may also be a good opportunity to introduce some new vocabulary for that subject, as well.

If anyone has used Quizlet and/or has any ideas as to how you think I should use it, please share! I am excited to start creating my study sets and I am hopeful that it will be as easy as it looks. To be continued...

INTRODUCTION:

Hello! I'm Melissa Quinn (Dardaris) and I was born and raised in the Syracuse area. I received my undergrad degree in Elementary Education from Oswego State and worked on my Masters Degree while teaching in the Jamesville-DeWitt School District. My Master's Degree is also from Oswego in Literacy Education. I have been teaching in the middle school setting for 14 years and I currently teach 5th Grade. Along with teaching, I also coach the modified soccer and lacrosse teams.  I love my job so much and over the past few years I have noticed that my students pick up on technology so quickly. I know that I need to get on board in order to best instruct them and be on their same page!

For my topic of discussion throughout this semester I will be focusing on Quizlet. This is something that many teachers in my building use and I am very curious about how it works and how I will be able to adapt an implement it successfully in my classroom. I thin that it has the potential to be a powerful tool to help facilitate my teacher and the learning for my students. If there is anyone in the course who is familiar with Quizlet, I welcome any ideas/advice that you have!