Heather+Brechtel

__YEAR TWO REFLECTIONS Project Facilitator __ I enjoyed working with another teacher and seeing the excitement of two classes working with technology. Not only did the second grade teacher and I work together, our students' also worked cooperatively to complete their blog project. Our students' blogged together about their favorite second grade memory and what made it so fantastic and memorable. My class of 24 students also blogged independently throughout the school year. [|Chieffo's 2009-2010 Blogs]

My class also made podcasts of their Living Wax Museum presentations using photostory, they did a wonderful job! [|2010 Living Wax Museum Podcasts]

__Training__ I was trained on both the current CPS clicker system and new PowerPoint strategies. It was great to leave a training with a CPS quiz that I had developed. I learned how to scan in a paper and pencil quiz and use the scanned image to create a new "state of the art" interactive clicker quiz. I used the CPS clicker quiz two days later with my class and my students really enjoyed it. It was a learning experience.. the students took awhile to adjust to the clicker anwering system, but finished with flying colors as clicker experts. I hope to use the CPS system more next year because I know the more the students use it the more comfortable they will get working with it and it is a great tool. __YEAR ONE REFLECTIONS__ __Participating Class/Students__ I will be working with the 21 students in my fourth grade classroom.

__Blog Project Outline__ We used blogs for many reasons and subjects in my classroom this year. We blogged to share our Halloween traditions with others. We blogged to respond to literature and reading. We showed our knowledge of making change and the different coin combinations that could be used. We also blogged to share with other 4th grade classes what they would learn after conducting a hands on flower dissection lesson.

__Blog Outcome and Self__ The students started blogging in October as they and I got more familiar with the process, our blogs got better. I liked that students could work both independently and in a group to blog. They were able to review what they had learned, show/tell me what they already knew, needed to work on, or had learned, and could also teach others all through blogging. What a great classroom tool! Take a look at how our blogs developed throughout the year. [|Halloween Blog] [|Open for Discussion Reading Blog] [|Money Blog] [|Observing The Parts Of A Flower Blog]

__ Participating Class/Students __ I will be working with the 21 students in my fourth grade classroom

__ Podcast Project Outline __ The 4th grade classes have done a Living Wax Museum Social Studies project for the past two years. The students research a famous person in history, collect facts, and details of their life and then write and memorize about a one-minute speech. For the big presentation day, students dress as the famous historical person and give their speeches many, many times to different classes, preK-3 that visit us in the gymnasium. The students in my classroom will use Photo Story 3, to make a podcast of their Living Wax Museum project presentation.

__ Podcast Outcome and Self Reflection__ Wow! I was so impressed with the students' podcasts! They were able to find and attach the digital photos I took of them. Then they labeled the photo's with the name of the person they researched and were pretending to be, and were even able to mofify the font style and color. They recorded their speeches, and put all the pieces together. The products were fantastic. What I really loved was how accessible it was. Classes that didn't get to visit our live presentations, parents that couldn’t come, even teachers that weren't able to get around to every student, still had the opportunity to hear them all. The students were so excited to be able to see and hear each other after the fact, it was amazing. I heard many positive parent comments and thanks. All my students participated, were successful, and had a wonderfully impressive podcast to be proud of. [|Living Wax Museum Podcasts]