Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

During the weeks of January 14 and 21st NWEA M.A.P. testing will be taking place in my lab.  We've been relegated to the second lab which has altered some of our plans. K-1 :  No change for the young ones this week.  We continue to practice opening the Internet and typing in URLs independently. Students spend their lab time these days visiting ABCYA.com , Starfall.com , ABCMouse.com and Game Goo (works best in Chrome). 2nd Grade : As most readers know I wasn't given much notice about my assignment in the technology lab this year. Because of the short notice I've come to rely on a few websites to help me find materials. Especially for the younger students (I was a 4th grade teacher prior to becoming the Lead Technology Teacher).   Oakdome.com  has been an invaluable resource for me this year. With Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday falling in this week's lessons I decided to work on a poem generator with second grade.  Although the students know how

image source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCffFIQ2Wpwvaeuw2F5TIsVyfchVBwJ018aXtUpuDY24q6iCCM37WPNNvI9dTSnuSaowaKiu5bT-1fYuSvPizgjYk5DTBLf9_MsRr7RTMnjK5CaB_FNqCwPfTgZlzTiztYJUPpq1aAw_0V/s1600/happy-new-year-13.jpg Happy New Year! Welcome back from a great 3 week winter intersession!   K-1st Grade : This week the kindergarten and first grade students were introduced to a new website for little ones.   GameGoo  is a site that makes the foundations of learning to read fun for students.  There are three levels of games: beginner, intermediate and advanced.  Games are available to introduce the alphabet, understanding and following directions, identifying synonyms and antonyms and spelling concepts.  The students seemed to enjoy GameGoo but no matter what new sites I introduce them to they always gravitate back to their favorites, ABCYA.com and Starfall.com ! I learned about GameGoo through one of my PLN's on Edmodo .  If you are