I've been trying to create a digital grade book without spending a great deal of my budget for years.  While playing around with Aeries I noticed the grade book.  My first thought was, if this takes more than five minutes I'm going to use the free Excel spreadsheet I got off TPT.  It worked, and it didn't take very long!!!  When I went to enter my students IT automatically generated the list. I created a grade book and entered grades from two assignments Friday evening.  Since I spend hours after the work day doing things for my students, this was a nice change.  My class blog is up, and I have a Remind account that I plan to share with parents Thursday evening, at our back to school night.  My little second grade students wrote thank you letters to Miss Hurt, and Angie Marshall is coming Monday to record the little sweeties reading their letters.  We plan to present Miss Hurt with a Vivavideo of their recordings sometime this week.

When ranking the sub standards of ISTE standard 1, I have to say this is the order d, c, and b.  I am strongest in modeling collaborative knowledge and construction of digital work.  My weakest point is engaging students in exploring real world issues because I think of lofty projects.  If I'm going to strengthen that standard I need to start small.

In order to strengthen my digital pedagogy I need to take it a step at a time.  Perseverance is key, that successful project is going to take a bit of time.  I'm proud of the progress I've made this year.  Certainly, my self-assessment since the beginning of this course has changed.  I know more, and I've been exposed to more, yet I have so much more to learn.  Administration would be so helpful if they would just realize it takes time, lots of time to implement new strategies.  I was at school until 8:00 Friday evening, and there's still so much more to do.  I'm so lucky I enjoy my profession, the kids, and my colleagues, because the amount of time and money I spend on education adds up.  

Digital Citizenship and the beginning of a new school year

This was my classroom the week before school started.  If you look carefully you can see some of the classic computers the tech guys told me were 13 years old.  I cross my fingers each year and hope they will continue to work with Scholastic Reading Counts.  Ryan smirked when he said Gateway no longer makes computers.  I'm glad I have them, but I'm even more grateful for my MacBook Pro!

While looking for more information and resources on this topic I found this information on Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/search-results?search=digital%20citizenship.  It referenced a Pinterest board oooh I love Pinterest and immediately went searching.  I added a new digital citizenship board and found some great information.  The more I delve into this topic the more I realize I am a novice in this field.

Novice Chicky

Finding resources appropriate for second grade students was a little difficult.  This was a challenge I was unfamiliar with tackling. While viewing Rae's video on digital citizenship I found a valuable tidbit of information.  Silly me, I was unaware Del Norte was using Common Sense Media's Digital curriculum.  I would like to know more.

ISTE Standard 4A
My PowToons digital citizenship presentation will cover this standard.  I purchased a TPT product cited here https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Digital-Citizenship-with-Elementary-Students-343272, and used that product as a springboard to created my presentation.  I plan to use the presentation and the information from the TPT product to begin my digital citizenship curriculum this week in the computer lab.  Here's the link to my digital citizenship presentation, be nice, it's my first one, and I'm actually really proud of how it turned out.  https://www.powtoon.com/show/bvvz0KiLsbq/digital-citizenship/#/

ISTE Standard 4B
With this particular standard I'm focusing mainly on the equitable access to digital tools.  Equity is a big deal in education, particularly second grade.  One must be fair or a wee little student may just explode in your class.

We have 6 very classic computers and 8 Ipads in my room.  We also have access to our computer lab 2 times a week.  I use one of the computer days to pull students for special instruction.  Students staying with me work on selected Ipad aps while I work with individual students or small groups. Our classic computers, Ipads, and listening center items can be accessed during our morning work block on a rotating basis.  I am working on that schedule this weekend.  If I rotate 12-13 students through the Ipads and computers each day we should have a equitable schedule to work with.  I've listed a few of the programs I use:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashtopass-free-math-flash/id330482882?mt=8  FLASH TO PASS

https://www.splashmath.com/   SPLASH MATH

https://student.frontrowed.com/#login  FRONT ROW

These Ipad applications give students autonomy to tailor their instruction and allow me that same autonomy when I want to specify certain skills.

ISTE 4C

We have a very positive principal, who is continually keeping us up to date regarding school matters.  As our school has been working to have a positive learning environment, we have been asked to express our thoughts when someone does something nice.  Next week, as part of our writing curriculum, we will be constructing an email to Lara Hirt.  I plan to have the kids write letters to thank Miss Hirt for things they've noticed her do for our school.  When they are finished I will take photos of them with their letters and upload them Wevideo.  https://www.wevideo.com/  

ISTE 4D

Kathy Williams and I are collaborating through google docs.  We share learning materials we've created in other programs and upload them to google.  When we make copies of the files we've created we can tailor lesson plans to meet the needs of our individual students.  Our newest teacher created a spreadsheet in google sheets which saved me time collecting the data for the mounds of paperwork at the start of the year.  My lesson plans are on a google template, and I have a separate file for them in my google docs.  This makes planning so much easier.  This week alone, when I didn't get to something in my plans I just cut it out of the living document and moved it to the next day.  Our principal has our monthly award list on a google doc as well.  I can't tell you how many times I've entered those names from the comfort of my own home.