*Samantha+Mongrain

Samantha Mongrain Mount Savage School Allegany County Maryland

4th Grade All subjects

I just finished my 8th year teaching 4th grade in Allegany County. I teach at Mount Savage which is the school that I went to for K - 12. I have a unique opportunity to give back to the community that I was raised in.

1. http://mongrain.wikispaces.com/ 2. [] 3. media type="custom" key="20272940" 4. [|My Google Site] - This was updated on Friday. 5. Zest for Tech photos [] media type="custom" key="20279380"
 * Projects:**

media type="custom" key="20304330"

6. My edmodo site: [].
 * Updated Friday

7. My Google Calendar media type="custom" key="20315092"

8. My Sample Prezi

media type="custom" key="20329552"

9. Wordle.net media type="custom" key="20329692"

10. My Prezi presentation on book trailers: media type="custom" key="20330920"

11. Tagxedo media type="custom" key="20357394"

__**Finds:**__ 1. [] This is a site that lets you text parents without them knowing your number or you knowing theirs. I want to check this out! 2. [] An alternative to indiegogo.com which takes a percent of the funds that you raise. This site is strictly for education and they actually send you the materials instead of the funds so that they ensure their program is working the way it is intended. Operah and some other well known figures have endorsed this site. 3. Thought you might like this! media type="youtube" key="x4BK_2VULCU" height="315" width="560"


 * Reflection for Monday, July 9th, 2012**

Today was our first day with the Zest for Tech conference. It was interesting to hear the "history" of the event and how it came to be. I'm glad that Frostburg State University can offer such opportunities for the area's teachers. Our first speaker was Diane Coyle presented several sites that I was unfamiliar with. My big take-away from her was her recommendation of scoop.it. I think that publishing an online magazine for the parents of my students will be a great, innovative way to give them access to articles on how to help their child with homework, study tips, latest research on learning, etc. Next we heard from Jason Huber about My Big Campus. I think that this is a wonderful tool for older students. As a fourth grade teacher, I know my students are using social media, but at this time I'm looking at social media as more of a tool for reaching a population of parents who are becoming more and more apathetic about their child's learning and not having much contact with the school. I wish that My Big Campus would allow parents to have their own accounts so that the venue may also be used as a way to communicate with parents and keep them updated and involved. In the afternoon we created wikispaces, which was new for me. I can see using a wikispace as a class website that can be updated with student work, upcoming events, and resources. We also looked at using Facebook to create a teacher page. This is something that I'm very interested in. If I'm trying to reach that population of parents, why not go where they are.....Facebook! However, this is something that scares those at the Board of Education at this time. Perhaps in time, they will be more open to using social media as a format to reaching out to parents.

Today I feel like I've got information overload. So many things were presented and so many wonderful resources were shown that I'm afraid of forgetting! During our break today I set up my scoop.it page and I'm ready to give the link to parents! I'm excited about sharing this and see how the parents react to it. We heard from Stephen Schawalder who gave more resources than I could digest at one time. First up, Prezi: This looks like something that I'll have fun playing around with. I can see using it to post presentations on my webpage. I like the idea of putting book talks on it found on YouTube or vocabulary presentations. Perhaps one day I'll post student work on there to share. I'm going to be easing into most of this. First I'm easing in with the thought of me being the source of the information for sharing with students and parents. Then, after I am comfortable with the new tools, I'll shift to the students being the sources of information for sharing with me and their parents. This will also be true with Google docs and Google sites. I'm looking forward to adding more to my Google site and learning how to add more to it. I feel very comfortable with the wiki and it would be easier for me to use this as the avenue for sharing, but wikis are blocked in my district. Thus a Google site would be the better route for me. This year my main goal is going to be using technology to get connected with parents and to connect them to their child's learning. Having them visit a class Google site would be a great way to start reaching that goal. I'm excited that I now know how to embed videos that I can share with parents as well. I'll have to look into what policies are to having students in these videos or photos to share on Picasa. I need to get started with some of these resources so I don't lose what I learned today!
 * Reflection for Tuesday, July 10th, 2012**

If I thought I was on information overload yesterday, it doesn't hold a candle to today! Wow! I couldn't write my notes fast enough today. I must admit that I probably didn't do a great job taking pictures today because I was so into the presentations. The first presenter today was Ed Hampton and I was just in awe of his knowledge and skills. Discovery Education looks like a resource that I'm going to look into and possibly recommend to my school to purchase. From what I could see, it looked amazing. Next Eddie introduced us to edmodo.com. With each new capability he shared, I was just blown away over and over. This is a resource that I will be using for sure. I didn't feel capable enough to have edmodo up and running at the level Mr. Hampton does, but I really appreciated his assurance to start small and slowly build up to where you want to be. I'm planning on starting small with just connecting with some other teachers and having my students and parents create accounts. I want to post reminders and link it to spellingcity.com. I think that will be as far as I go this year, but I've got to start somewhere. I love the idea of awarding students badges. Our school is a PBIS school (Positive Behavior Interventions and Support). We work on recognizing the positive things that the students are doing and the badges are perfect for our school's philosophy. I also loved Ed's recommendation of Magnahigh.com. This looks like the perfect site for the direction we're headed with common core. I can see using this as a work station during my rotations in math. The students will love the graphics and the games! I love having students learn without realizing they are learning. To them, they are just playing a fun game, when in fact they are learning important math skills. My school has been looking for a way to get students to improve their number computation for years. This would be a great site to implement grades 2-5 to increase fact fluency. Eddie was such a wealth of knowledge. Please have him back next year! Dr. Rankin shared some very fun resources that are sure to add flare to the classroom. I love flowcabulary with its catchy raps! The students are sure to love it and I'm a big fan of learning through music. I'll also need to spend some time checking out teachers.domain.org. What a time saver to be able to search for video clips that are already sorted by common core standards! Now that I know how to embed them into a webpage and into a SMART presentation, I'll be able to save class time by pulling these clips up quickly. I was thrilled to see the updates in SMART Notebook 11, including the video embedding feature. I love my SMART board and can't wait to use the tricks that I learned from Tara today. Such a wonderful day! I'm learning so much!
 * Reflection for Wednesday, July 11th, 2012**

Today was a day filled with information about ipads. This is a new technology for me as I currently do not own one, nor does my school have any for us to use. I was excited about being able to borrow one from FSU for the week. Even though this may not be a tool that I will be using in the near future, it was still an enriching day. Since this was mostly new information to me, I was quite taken aback about the capabilities of an iPad. Students can read or listen to books, I can write notes, my email accounts can all be merged, I can take great photos, and thousands of other things! I love to read and I love to get my students to love to read. Using an iPad may help that reluctant reader get engaged with a new tool. I also like that some stories can be interactive for those more reluctant or struggling readers. Ms. Saville teaches at the early childhood level and I teach intermediate children. However, I walked away with great tools that I could one day use with my son. We were shown starfall.com which is a great resource, and yet it becomes an even better tool with an iPad. The site helps young children with early literacy skills, but with children as young as my son, I have to be the one using the mouse. In comes the iPad and he can now manipulate the site on his own. Instead of needing to click and drag, he can now touch and move. He will go from an observer to the active participant. What an improvement in the level of thinking and learning, and all from a change in the technology! In the afternoon we had our iPad Playground session where we heard from several speakers who presented a wide variety of apps. I personally loved the app that Dr. Welsh presented where students can make their own cartoon stories. Students will think that they are just creating a fun story, when in fact they will be using the elements of literature to create this story. Students are directed to an organizer where they choose the setting, characters, conflict, and solution. They are building a plot map and applying their understanding of literary elements without realizing it! I love when students learn without realizing they are learning. They just think they are having fun. All these new resources brings up the question of how does this change our concept of teaching. For me the answer is a mix of opinions. I still think it is valuable for students to have authentic experiences with hands-on, real world activities. However, technology is now just as much a part of the “real world” as anything else. These students will grow into adults who will be used to jumping to the next new thing in the realm of technology. We as educators will need to keep up, or at least recognize that the students will be keeping up faster than we will be. Without question, technology needs to be a larger part of our concept of teaching.
 * Reflection for Thursday, July 12th, 2012**

This week has been so full. I think if I could somehow relive this week, I would learn a whole new set of skills that I missed the first time around. There was just so much to absorb that I have to remember that I need to start small and use the few things that I feel I got a good grasp of.
 * Reflection for Friday, July 13th, 2012**

The morning started out with three presenters who shared some awesome resources. First, Teresa shared about Photo Story. I can see using this with my class to create book trailers to use as book reports. It’s free and I immediately downloaded it! It seems like it will be simple enough for my 4th graders to work on by themselves. Perhaps I’ll have the students do a partner activity just to get used to the program and then move into book trailers independently. I already emailed my administration to request that the program be downloaded onto our mobile labs so I’m ready to go! The reading resource sounds amazing, but I don’t see my administration using funds on it at this time. However, as we get farther into common core and hopefully our economy improves, I will bring this resource up again. Our last morning presenter showed us Glogster. Little did I know that I already had some glogs bookmarked that other teachers had made for some of my reading stories. I had been using their work and not realizing what it was. This looks like a great tool for me to use to present material or topics in a very interesting way.

In the afternoon we had some much needed time to work on several of the resources we were presented with. I enjoyed finding out more about Edmodo and setting up my site. I was very intrigued by what I saw presented about Prezi and I was anxious to learn out to create one myself. I’m in love with this program! I created a Prezi for some book trailers I found and I’m looking forward to making one to show at our school’s open house for parents to see. I personally find it simpler and more creatively freeing than Power Point. It also has that wow factor to make presentations look more professional than maybe I really have the capability of.

So where do I go with all this? Well, I’m now so excited to meet with our School Improvement Team next week. I can’t wait to share with them Magna High to get our students motivated to learn their facts. We’ve been trying to come up with a plan that would work with most grade levels for years and this program will allow us to do that. I’m going to be using my Google Site this year as my class’s homepage to hopefully connect better with my parents. Through that site I’ll be posting announcements, updating our class calendar, posting student work (hopefully), sharing resources, sharing my Scoop.it site, and having parents sign up for emails. I’m also planning on starting Edmodo with my class on a small scale. The site has the capacity to do so much, but I don’t want to jump in too deep and not be able to swim. I’d hate to make promises of using it to only be overwhelmed with so many other new resources. I’m planning on using it only for spelling this year to see how it goes. I’m also planning on asking my administration if they would like me to present on any of the resources that I’ve learned about. As a member of the School Improvement Team, I also get a voice in what professional development we choose to have. It will be my recommendation to have Eddie Hampton come to our school to share his wealth of knowledge in the area of technology. It’s so nice to have him as a contact and he’s in our district!

Overall this was a wonderful experience. I plan to attend next year as well to learn new skills, deepen my knowledge, and be exposed to all the many new things that are just waiting to be invented!