Setting up classrooms: what works for you?
Posted by learnconnect on August 30, 2007
In this entry, we would like you to share with your colleagues how your class is set-up in terms of technology. What technology do you have in your class? How have you set it up for your students to use? Have you found interesting ways to make team-work at the computer easy and comfortable? Have you tried different things and found one that really works best for you?
Share your “yarn” here by clicking on “Comments”. You will be asked for your name and email. Your email will NOT appear on the site. Email pictures of your classroom solutions to the email address we have provided you at our first meeting. We will post them on our project Wiki.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
We are lucky here at Sherbrooke Elementary as each student has an MacBook and so ICT assisted PBL is much easier to set up. We also have a digital projector in our classroom, 2 digital cameras and a videocamera. Not having to share resources allows for greater spontaneity and we do tend to use them often. The students are allowed to take the cameras outside at recess and I have never had a problem with irresponsible behaviour. I just tell them how much they cost and the students handle them carefully. I would like to purchase a Promethean interactive white board by next year, so I’ll be saving up my student teacher money! I had one last year, but I’m new to this school and I’m missing it terribly. So, now we just need to pick a project! I have a harder time organizing project work than resources. Everyone ends up working at a different pace.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I have started a typing program called Kiram’s Typing (free download from the net)with Cycle One students and it is working very well. The students already know the proper fingers to use for the letters a and s and the spacebar. They are trying very hard to not look at the keyboard. I believe that this is excellent practice for them and will be extremely useful in later grades. Hope everyone had a great start to the new year.
Nancy
September 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Here at Laurentian Elementary School we have a portable laptop lab consisting of 30 PC`s. I like to use them in pairs or small groups. Kids can help each other and there is less problem solving with less computers. This works well for the little ones when researching topics.
We also have a pc in each class. I doesn`t get used much at the moment but I would like to begin involving it in my literacy centers. Ideas anyone?
I also brought an eMac, two digital video cameras and tripods into the school through a special intiatives grant through our school board. I used it for a soundprints project and for a digital yearbook project and various other little things. So far, I am the main person who has used the cameras and nobody wants to touch the Mac. I would like to allow others to use the cameras. I need to give a little mini workshop on their use and a sign out system. As a school, we need to get firewire adaptars for a few of the laptops so that we can use Microsoft movie maker with them.
Our school just received a smartboard and I`m looking forward to figuring it out.
Have a great year.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I am a cycle 2 teacher at Sherbrooke Elementary. In our school we are very lucky to be involved in a one-to-one laptop program. My 23 students all have a personal laptop and are connected to the Internet through a wireless airport . I have a digital projector and a digital video camera. I teach a lot of my lessons using the digital projector. It is a great tool when showing the students what to do on their laptops.
I have started my own classroom website this year and am really enjoying it. It is a great way to post links and to communicate with parents.
That’s all for now,
Dallas
October 12th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
October 12th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Bonjour mon nom est Esther, je suis le professeur de musique de l’école St-Dorothy et je travaille en collaboration avec Sherron qui nous est d’un grand secours à l’école. Je peux donc disposer de tout ce dont elle a parlé ci-haut et qui est portable. Pour ce qui est de ma classe je dispose de deux ordinateurs, d’un système de son et de plusieurs instruments de musique.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Bonjour, je m’appelle Anne Kamdem. Je suis professeur de français à St.Dorothy et j’aimerais travailler au labo avec les 25 ordinateurs disponibles.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I am a first year teacher – teaching cycle I, yr 1 at Sherbrooke Elementary School. Each of my 25 students have their own iBook and I feel very fortunate to begin my teaching journey in such a technologically involved environment. I have created a class website (which is temporarily having issues) and really look forward to including a Blog and Wiki to my site. My students are very motivated by the laptops and I am very motivated to keep up with their interests. My students recently finished a digital Almanac to study weather patterns across the world. This allowed them to be meteorologists on location (with the help of the internet, PowerPoint and the projector). It was a lot of fun!
November 27th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Oups – I’m teaching Cycle III, yr 1 (grade 5) – not cycle I (I forgot a couple of ones). *Blogs really should have an edit button *grin*