Moving Forward

The end of the school year is coming quickly.  I'm excited about all of the things that my students and I have accomplished this past year.  I'm also happy that I will be able to slow down a bit and spend time reflecting on what changes I want to make for the upcoming school year.  In the fall, my classroom will become paperless and I am  even more excited than when I discovered that you could get different colors of "dittos" for the ditto machine back when I first started teaching.  I've gone from having a grade book that you calculated by hand to online grading that calculates everything for you.  I can't even count the number of hours I have spent throughout my career laying out all the pages of a test or packet in order, collecting them one by one, and then stapling.  Now our copy machines staple, punch, and collate.  Technology has changed our jobs. 

I now have a Qomo, a projector, a laptop computer, an iPad, and several digital cameras at my disposal.  I also have my own smartphone.  All of my students have a school issued computer.  Yes....It's time to keep moving forward.  I am going to spend the summer finding on-line resources.  It's the 21st Century folks! 

Technology in the classroom

Our school went 1-1 with technology this year and it's been a learning experience for all of us.  With our students having access to the Internet all day long there have been new classroom management techniques to implement.  I now say things like "45 your computers" (in Spanish of course) and instead of turn in your assignment, it's "post" or e-mail me your assignment.  Kids don't say I lost my homework..... it's "my computer froze" or "it wouldn't save".  One of the things that has been fun is discovering all of the tools that are out there to help kids think and create using their Spanish.  Now that our feet are on the ground, I can't wait until next school year to take it even further.  Here is link to a site that I found that is full of great ideas! 

http://www.scoop.it/t/ensenanza-y-aprendizaje-del-espanol?pa

I have also been collecting resources and pinning them on Pinterest.  What a great place to find new ideas!  You can follow me here http://pinterest.com/carmenstark/