Class 3 — March 17, 2008

Present: Chris Thompson, Kristin Olson, Pam Wirtz, Lori Shinners, Nicki Dahms, Maggie Ferree, Shane Radosevich, Kristin Warner, and Lynn Syverson.

Absent: Rachelle Russell and Sarah Dupee.

Chris shared three updates:

1. Rachelle won't be able to continue with the group at this time.
2. Kyle has mocked up the lunch count with IC. Nutrition Services will convert their choices into a database that can be pulled into the lunch count. This means instead of "choice1" it will say "hamburgers", etc. Chris asked for feedback about the description and pictures. The group felt that having the description as a column header would be best and to leave off the item picture.
3. The district librarians have subscribed to Discovery Education Streaming (United Streaming), a great digital resource. Info will be coming from our building librarians.

As Rachelle was absent, the group shared facilitation responsibilities. (NOTE: future facilitators are Kristin O 4/7 and Sarah 4/21)

Sharing of "New Things I Tried Since Last Time" in Reading

• Pam shared notebook pages focused on "reading" music notation. Students name the notes in many different activities including words spelled by notes and notes "spelled" by words. She also incorporated the random number generator for taking turns.
• Lori shared her spinner activities and a new timely one based on Dr. Seuss books.
• Nicki tried Lori's Digging for Facts successfully.
• Maggie's class enjoyed a lesson using Brain Pop Jr. for Character Analysis.
• Kristin O tried Shane's Reading Status activity. She noted some changes she would make in future sessions based on her students. Kristin also shared information about Digital Wisconsin.
• Discussion followed regarding how reading is different using the SMARTBoard and SMARTNotebook. Consensus seemed to include student interaction with the lesson and the ease of incorporating many mini-lessons (less paper, running around).

Weekly Topic — Integrating the SMARTBoard into Writing

• Kristin W talked about how this had really changed in her 1st grade classroom with the advent of the SMARTBoard. She demonstrated use in shared writing which they can revisit later in the year easily, the importance of her "paper" matching the students' papers, scanning of student work as examples/samples for the group, the Sensory Hand, and scanning types of letters from The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters for examples at the board.
• Shane demonstrated how he uses SB and SNB with his Units of Study, a gallery interactive called Writing Concrete Poetry, and a limerick generator. (not sure of the site he used, but I tried this one tonight http://www.jjjwebdevelopment.com/306sites/limgen/)
• Kristin O does a Status of Class for writing based on Shanes Reading Status activity. Suggestions were given to add a key and infinite clone the key items. She and Sarah also scan examples of going from your notes to a written paragraph and an Expository Rubric which they use to go through a sample showing how it's applied using the highlighter tool. They also use it to help students identify main topics.
• Lori has been using it for her word studies. She also experimented with using dual page from last week to have her organizer on one side and writing on the other.
• Nicki shared doing word lists and demonstrated her KidConnection journal where the children highlight important things to remember to include in their journals fostering information inclusion as well as independence. She also shared My Idea Page, the author mentor technique explorations with each lesson using a different color text, shared writing, group editing of scanned samples, and scanning samples of student work.
• Maggie shared her work with Units of Study and demonstrated her SNB page for the writing process where students move their name block to the appropriate step and continue their work. This makes management easier and helps her see who's next for teacher editing.

Lynn walked through some of the links/resources she had emailed to group members earlier including a Jeopardy template SNB file, videos, websites, and podcasts. See the links in the right-hand column for links.

Members asked for the EdCompass subscription link (free) which is SMART's Educator newsletter. The link is posted in the right-hand column.

The 4/7 (3 weeks instead of 2) topic is Math and our assignment is the usual:

• Implement one writing strategy and reflect on its implementation in your journal. (may be a Word document, blog, whatever)
• Journal reflecting upon current integration into Math

Class 2 — March 3, 2008

Present: Chris Thompson, Kristin Olson, Sarah Dupee, Pam Wirtz, Lori Shinners, Nicki Dahms, Maggie Ferree, Shane Radosevich, and Lynn Syverson.

Absent: Rachelle Russell, Kristin Warner

Chris shared input from the Waukesha Collegial Study folks recommending group participants seek feedback from colleagues on their SMARTBoard lessons (i.e. IRT, RRT, grade level). This feedback can add power to our collegial study work.

Nicki facilitated the meeting. (NOTE: future facilitators are Rachelle 3/17, Kristin O 4/7, and Sarah 4/21)

Sharing of "New Things I Tried Since Last Time"

• Lori — implemented the lunch roster using an infinte cloner "X" instead of writing/erasing. This worked well with the exception of some printing problems which have been worked out. She also shared a new spinner activity she developed with input from her son.
• Shane — shared that his lunch roster was pdf-ed from Infinite Campus and also uses an infinite cloner symbol which he changes around for interest. He also shared his Reading Status Notebook that all students fill in with their info and then he chooses a couple to do oral sharing. (NOTE: Shane has heard the WCTC Math folks took down their boards and put them in a closet as their formula/equation lines didn't fit on the width; Chris will look into whether and how we could obtain them.) Discussion arose and demo ensued of using the SMART Control Panel to reset pen settings (width/color) to new defaults. Shane also uses Notebook with EDM with dual page display showing the answer (for self-correcting) and the Math Message. This fosters student independence.
• Maggie — added lines to her lunch roster and that seemed to help her students visually track to the correct boxes. She shared her new Place Value Chart tracking the days of school in multiple ways. Using the timer in the counting up mode works well with her students during Mad Minutes where they can then record the time on their papers themselves (limit of 3 minutes).
• Pam — converted and inserted some of her 400 CDs' tracks right into her Notebooks so she doesn't have to run across the room anymore to find one track.
• Nicki — used the dual page display and pinned her lunch count which allows her to change her Welcome Work page easily day to day.
• Sarah & Kristin O — used the number generator. They continue to use the Airliner Slate with their students (they love it) and have submitted an EEF proposal to purchase 3 for their classroom. The group provided feedback on their room configuration options/thoughts (Notebook diagram) and discussion ensued.

Weekly Topic — Integrating the SMARTBoard into Reading

• Lori — disappointed with SMART lesson resources she found so she created her own Digging for Facts which she shared with the group.
• Shane — has printed the Comprehension Tool Kit items into SMARTNotebook (SNB) and also does his Extra Text lessons using SNB. He plans to create "post-it notes" (probably colored rectangles) for the students to use on the board.
• Sarah & Kristin O — scanned overhead templates for Point of View lessons, etc. using the Lanier copier's scan/email function. At this point the group chose to adjourn to the workroom for a demo by Sarah. The steps are listed at the end of this blog entry. After returning to the classroom, Sarah demo'd for the group using SNB's screen capture (camera in the toolbar) to select/send what she wanted to SNB.
• Nicki — uses interactive Read Alouds, Brain Pop, Brain Pop Jr., and Fountas & Pinnell materials with her students utilizing the SMARTBoard.

The 3/17 topic is Writing and our assignment is the usual:

• Implement one reading strategy and reflect on its implementation in your journal. (may be a Word document, blog, whatever)
• Journal reflecting upon current integration into Writing.

Please send any corrections or additions to Lynn Syverson .

Lanier Copier Steps

1. Press Scanner button on left
2. Select Manual (unless you have been setup and see your name), type your email address (XXXXXXXX@elmbrookschools.org), and press OK.
3. Select a sender name (doesn't really matter)
4. Click File Name and type a name for the file
5. Select either PDF or TIFF (I found the tiff to be easier as you can just insert it as a graphic object rather than having to do the screen capture of the PDF mentioned earlier)
6. Select either Multi or Single — if you want all the sheets in the feeder to be one attachment then choose Multi, if you want each page a separate attachment then choose Single)
7. Click OK
8. Click the regular big START button! (Hopefully, these are the correct/complete steps)