Earlier this week, Vinnie Vrotny, my friend and colleague asked me to send him a lesson that I created using my TabletPC and the smart cart projector on my floor. He explained that he wanted to use it to show at our school auction in order to share how Lower School teachers are using newer technology. At first I was very nervous about this idea, but I have decided to jump straight into this with both feet by using a new technology tool called Jing to share this with the parent community.

First I must go back in time to an earlier post . . .

Their homework assignment sheet looked like this . . . and this. Just a normal Microsoft Word document

Then I imported the text from the document into Microsoft Journal. This is an application on the TabletPC that allows you to write using a stylus. SinceI never have and never will be a great typist, I have enjoyed using this program for writing and projecting brainstorming sessions (like when we voted on names for the class gerbil) and for teaching cursive.

By importing the text into Journal I could model what I expected the 3rd graders to write. We watched a scene from the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When the short scene was over, the kids recalled what was said, what the characters did as they spoke, and how they felt throughout the scene.

When they brought their homework back the next day, I first let them share what they wrote if they wanted to. The kids were very eager and as they shared I mentally selected “good candidates” for writing out the scene with all of the parts in one paragraph.

Here was a scene that a student shared from the movie The Parent Trap. We began our class rewrite with some of the dialogue she wrote down. Next we chose a sentence that explained the setting of the scene. Then came more dialogue and we inserted some action for the character, Hallie. The class decided to put in some of what Annie, Hallie’s twin, was feeling. Then we concluded the paragraph with Annie’s final statement and some more action.

What we ended up with was a paragraph that would give a reader a clear picture of what is going on in the scene.

The 3rd graders used this and other lessons to help them write their fiction stories which were presented at our annual “Hot Chocolate House.”

Parents and alumni, thank you for supporting the teachers and students by coming out the the “Green B. Lounge!”

However, there were often obstacles to being able to save this shared information in any meaningful way. I have sometimes stopped calling on kids because I have run out of whiteboard space – not because they have run out of ideas. Or what about the times when I had to erase for the next lesson before I had time to copy down what was written? To counter against this, I have used chart paper for recording ideas, but then the large pieces of paper are hard to store long term.

Today I led a brainstorming session using Microsoft Journal, a smart cart, and my new Tablet PC. Now I could write their ideas down and click for a new page if I needed more space. I could project what I was writing on the board so they could all see it. Then I showed them how I could convert the writing into text so I could insert it into our Friday Newsletter, turn it into a poster for the room, or just to save for another day.

I was afraid that the technology would distract them from getting into the writing activity, but they had the same great ideas they would have had if I had written them on the board instead. Now I would be able to catalog their ideas in ways I couldn’t before.

But, to be perfectly honest, the best part was how excited the kids were about doing it this way. And who can blame them? Thank you to my school for getting me this great teaching toy . . . OOPS . . . I mean teaching tool.