In Rebekah Schipper's English 1 class students needed to review and identify different types of sentences - run on, fused, and comma splice. Poll Everywhere was used as a method for engaging the whole class.

In each poll students were given 3 different sentences to identify. They voted either using their laptop or cellphone. The results of the vote showed up live and projected on the screen for students to see.

It was an efficient way to review and get input from the whole class in the first few minutes of class. It also gave the teacher a sense of if students understood the material or if certain concepts needed to be reviewed. It was a seamless and transparent way to integrate technology into the classroom.

In 7th Science students used temperature probes and Logger Lite temperature graphing software to create a phase change diagram for water. Students started with ice and monitored temperature changes until the water boiled. From the graphs that were generated by Logger Lite students interpreted the phase changes of water. Through this lab students were constructing their knowledge and deepening their understanding of matter's states and changes.

Google Spreadsheets and Forms is an online collaborative tool that can be used for a variety of activities, in this case it was used for brainstorming ideas in a High School English class. It was used in two different ways: one) to brainstorm key ideas for a topic so that the ideas could be shared anonymously which eliminated the problem of the less powerful/more powerful voices in the class; two) to display five different "hooks" each student wrote as opening statements for their essay.

All of the students entered their thoughts in a Google Form in the first couple of minutes of class. Then together they looked at the spreadsheet of results and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of their contributions--again, anonymously. Students whose hooks were not discussed because time ran out still wanted to know what the class thought of them.

The Google Spreadsheets and Forms gave every student a voice in an exercise that typically only a few could participate in. It also was true brainstorming as every idea had equal weight because it was truly anonymous. This process also took less time so the discussion of ideas was more of the focus then the gathering of ideas.

The Holland Christian Middle School Lego Robotics Team is researching transportation in our community. The problem they have chosen is the safety of cyclists on bicycle paths. They are looking for input as part of the research process. Please take this survey and tell your friends to take it too. Thank You!

Survey address: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=g1ZkP6pLzms2qGMbZZ5GZQ_3d_3d

Eighth Grade Language Arts classes read and studied Edgar Allen Poe and his style of writing. Students were then challenged to rewrite a nursery rhyme and make it sound like something Poe would have written. Students were encouraged to create suspense by paying attention to word choice and sound effects. They were challenged to "create" which is at the very top of Bloom's Taxonomy.

After each student created their own poem, groups of three students combined the best elements of each poem into one. Groups then
storyboarded pictures and animations to go with the poem. Students recorded their poem in Garageband and added sound effects. In iMovie the soundtrack from Garageband was combined with photos from iPhoto to create a video story.

The final creative product is very open ended. Some students explored making a stop motion animation while others ventured into more sound effects to enhance the presentation.

Below are two examples of finished products.

Students from Holland Christian and Zeeland Christian have been working together to solve the crime of the Felix Mystery. They've incorporated a recorded Skype call, audio files (suspect statements), pictures, wiki template pages, and ongoing reflection journals. Students in each class, Mr. Lowe (ZCS) and Mrs. Kamps (HCS), comment between one another to share ideas. Information about the crime is accessible to everyone all of the time and they can read each other's postings for ideas and direction.

A movie was created using iMovie and Keynote to teach students how to do the forensic testing before they had to perform the tests. The movies were downloaded onto their computers and their homework was to watch the movie to prepare for lab.

The project used Pbworks which is a free wiki. To get a flavor of the project view the short screencast below.



Why was this project done:
Students learn to experiment, analyze, and gather information both qualitative and quantitative. They collaborate, discussed and came to conclusions from the data.

Tools used by students:
PbWorks, Keynote, iMovie, Skype, Garageband

Mrs. Jan Vogelzang, after using a document camera for displaying objects, maps, and documents through a projector onto a screen, decided to enhance student presentation using the document camera. Instead of pointing the document camera down Jan pivoted it up and was able to show a live, large close up of the students projects. The projects were all made in a box about the size of a cereal box so it was hard for students to see the details of the box during the presentations. Now the students held up their box to the camera and it projected it live onto the screen in the room. It was a great way to involve the whole class in the presentations and make it meaningful for the audience. It also gave the presenting student another tool to use to share their point with a large group. The video shows a short 15 second snippet of a presentation by a 8th grade student.

I was in a Spanish 3 class to observe technology in action. After class I asked the teacher about the lesson and she described to me the conversion process to the technology enhanced lesson. It was cool to hear what went into her plan. Allow me to share her story.

She is teaching the subjunctive, which is commonly used when giving advice. In the past she wrote in Spanish three "problems" seeking advice. The students then had to write a response back to her giving her advice about any one of the problems.

In the laptop age she designed the assignment this way. Students had to use their MacBookcamera and Photo Booth to take a video of themselves talking about a fake problem they are seeking advice on in Spanish. They then emailed this problem to a posterous site where the teacher had made them all contributors. In class that day the students had to comment, in Spanish, on each video. They had to make sure they did not repeat advice which meant they were always looking to post on a video that had the fewest comments and spread out the commenting to everyone's video. It also meant that the students had to read several comments. They also could get extra credit by correcting mistakes other students had made.

This lesson took no more time out of the teacher's allotted class time to teach the subjunctive. It had a speaking, writing, and reading part instead of just a reading and writing. On top of all that the problems were more diverse and more creative. A great example of the laptop difference.

I loved the conversation that took place about Facebook Hours. Thanks so much for your honesty and thoughtfulness. I have several questions to ask the community, which I hope will include more teachers, parents and administrators this time. This is just one. I noticed in the comments that there are students who struggle with balance when they have their laptops. If there are a few who commented this, then there are probably more who struggle silently. What do you think the school can do to help them? Should the school do anything to help them? What do you think you, their peers, could do to help a friend caught in this struggle? Thanks in advance for your comments.

Ever since we brought the laptops to the high school printing has been a disaster. The fact of the matter is that printers are not meant to work with more than about 100 computers each. We have about 900 computers in the building and only six public printers. This is part of why your laptop will somewhat regularly say it printed and nothing will be there.

Another problem with the current system is that there is constant waste. Many students, because they cannot rely on the printers, print their documents multiple times, then only take one when they find it. Many students will never pick up their printouts, probably because they cannot find it. Every day we throw away close to 500 sheets of printed paper because of this.

You may have noticed, from either walking past, the announcement in chapel, or the link on the front of moodle that the helpdesk has a new printer. This printer works in a way that will eventually solve many of the problems above. You upload your document to a website and the website keeps your document until you go to the printer and type in your student number. Among the many advantages of this are:

• You can print from anywhere that you have internet, not just at school.
• There are no wasted pages, unless you sent a document you no longer need.
• You get your pages and only your pages when you type in your student ID.

You may have had troubles with this printer too (nothing is perfect). The company is working with us on the problems and today, March 26, 2009 they applied many fixes. We hope that you try it out. If you do not know how to use it there are instructions online and at the helpdesk.

Facebook is obviously a huge part of how people communicate, especially people with laptops and the internet avaiable to them all the time. It also can be a huge time and attention drag. How do you think we as a school who provides laptops should respond to this? Should we save you from yourselves by limiting further the time Facebook is open? Should we try to teach you that going outside is healier for you than Facebook? Should we give you more homework because obviously anyone with hours to give to Facebook should be able to give 30 more minutes to homework? I would like to hear what you think. You may comment here or stop by room 236 at the high school after school on Tuesday March 24 where I will be gathering your thoughts on how much is enough Facebook.