I'm learning new tools, but I still like to hang on to some of the old ones...

Keep a Back Up--Glitches Happen!
Call me old-fashioned, but as much as I love using technology in my classroom, I still like some of the "old-school" ways just as much. Case in point: Glitches!

Today one of my colleagues was not able to access his on-line grade book during a conference with a parent when the server went down. This was a big problem, since the teacher doesn't keep any paper records. The parent was not able to view the updated grades while in conference with the teacher, which irritated the parent and wasted everyone's time. I still believe it's a good idea to keep a hand-written record, in addition to the on-line record, just in case!

Classroom Presentations:
The quest to build my repertoire of technology tools for the classroom continues!

I have learned that another great way to have students create presentations is Haiku Deck, which is an iPad app. It allows students to add vibrant visuals and text to create simple, interesting slideshows. It has been useful for creating visual representations of vocabulary words and summarizing lessons in Social Studies. Although I wouldn't want to have students using their iPads for the entire day, I am beginning to see more value in this useful tool.

I'm still getting used to Prezi. I'm not an expert, by any means, and so far, I still prefer Power Point for its simple, straightforward format.  Prezi still makes me dizzy! I guess I still need more practice!

Each time we use a high-tech "cool tool," I still like to show students the "low tech" version as well. Some of them actually prefer creating semantic maps on posters or flap books to display on our bulletin board continuously, rather than using an on-line tool.

Research Papers: 
What about plagiarism?
When students are working on research papers, they enjoy keeping track of their findings on a Google Doc. They create a table divided into three parts: The main idea and key details in the far left column, important reflections or inferences as to how it relates to their thesis are recorded in the middle column, and the far right column is to keep track of the source citation.

This system works well for students who are able to remain on task and are not tempted to "copy and paste" everything they find. Some students won't even bother reading it--they just hoard information, even if it is not necessarily relevant. Therefore, until students have mastered the research process and can be trusted, it still may be a good idea to use the old note card method. Students write one major piece of information per note card by paraphrasing information. They must include a reference to a particular source using a numbering system, page numbers, etc.

I have found that this old-school method is still useful to help students stay organized, avoid plagiarism, and create subcategories.

It's good to have choices in all that we do...