JoNelle's Page

Elementary Technology Teachers teach how-to.... and integrate technologies. We must spend time teaching how to use software and hardware so that students can apply tech skills in other areas. In our struggle of encouraging everyone to integrate SMARTBoards and other IWBs, I find that we do not have many of the tech How-To... lessons for the IWBs. SmartBoard and Promethean lessons for curriculum topics are springing up all over, but we still cannot ignore the basic technology knowledge needs.… Continue

Cross post from my other blog :Scratch@MIT Conference We just returned from presenting at the Scratch@MIT conference at MIT in Boson. If you are not familiar with Scratch, it is a new programming tool developed at MIT. Students imagine, create, and share games, animations and more. This past year we used the software in my fifth grade elementary technology classes. Also, students formed a club to continue to learn more ways to program using Scratch. I did not realize how important Scratch has b… Continue

"Get your cat to teach reading," my email to the district office read. I had previously received a picture of a cat, Steve McQueen, via email and in return I made a video clip. The animated video is of Stevie the Cat reciting a poem about....cats. This clip is making the rounds in classrooms and sparking many ideas of how to motivate students. How did the digital photo trans… Continue

Podcasting can improve your child’s reading and writing skills. It’s true. The steps of the Super 3 plan / do / review to create good podcasts require many skills. Students communicate with peers, think through ideas, write (or type), talk, record, evaluate, and edit-edit-edit. Their favorite part seems to be the challenge of making a satisfying recording. Students repeatedly listen and record and build fluency skills with each edit. Some of… Continue

We have first hand experience with the many faces of authentic audience with Skype and ooVoo. Research projects have brought about audiences in our classroom, down the hallway, up the highways, and across the oceans. Student classwork is seen by many more eyes than just their teacher (with a red pen). Their research,writing and voices are being shared with partners, other classes, on the web, and through video conferences. Let me explain. Students are researching and using web 2.0 tools.…

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