I have learned over the years that being organized is very important.  Finding the systems that work for you and your students is essential in a well-managed classroom.  

The same is true for all of this awesome technology. I wanted to make sure that the same students were using the same devices so if there were ever a problem, there was a select few who would be responsible. The first couple of weeks of middle school are such a huge transition for these 5th graders and there is so much going on.  After learning which personalities worked well with each other I paired my “technology partners.” Each set of partners has a laptop and an ipad to share. The students then worked together to decide on “home devices” so that if everyone needed to be using a device there would not be any confusion over who was on what piece of technology.

Then, there was the issue of storage and charging. Most of the storage for these devices was really expensive, so I improvised. I had a cabinet that I already had from Office Depot (appox $200) that worked just as well as the cabinets that cost thousands. My husband drilled a hole in the back for all of the cords, and put some wheels on it for me and I was ready. Then, using card stock and some peel and stick magnets I made the Device In and Out board for the front of the cabinet. Finally, I labeled all of the devices, and cords.  

I have also assigned specific responsible students as technology helpers to assist with getting the devices dispersed and plugged back in at the end of the day. So far the system is working well.  

After five months, these are my favorite things I have discovered with my new technology…

Edmodo: Great for assignments, quizzes, and polling.

Promethean: I love the active expressions with the open ended questions! This is great for math because I can not only see how many students are missing questions, but also why! I am still disappointed with Promethean not updating their software, but the active expressions and the touch board really are impressive!

My Class Website: Over the past several years I have worked hard to develop a class website, and now it is really paying off. I use it to keep up with all of their login links, and it is a great tool for early finishers and making web quests. They can just get on my site and go to the specific lesson that we are working on and find a host of resources and games that I have hand selected. This way they are not just browsing around on their own looking for recourses. 

Voice Thread:  I recently had to miss a day of school. Thanks to VT I could still give the lesson that day even though I was not at school! I simply pre-recorded the lesson which included pictures of the flipchart and real time writing on the board, and the substitute showed the lesson to my students, very cool! 

Discovery Education:  This is great for creating probes, I can test and quiz students here.

iTeacher:  Is an app that I really like for taking attendance and seating charts.

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