We Have Takeoff...

Going digital in anything is a scary process and sometimes people feel (including me) that they are moving at a snail's pace with integrating technology. There is so much information out there and so many resources for integrating technology, so some feel like being the snail is the way to get around that overwhelming feeling.

This opportunity has really helped me pick up my pace of incorporating technology. I am so excited to have this experience and time to bring my classroom to life with technology.

 My first experience with implementing my goal went successfully and no, I am not joking. When I signed up for this opportunity I knew it would sometimes be challenging; however, this goal went amazing. Being a Literacy teacher, thoughtful logs are a huge part of our teaching and of course ESAIL ;-). With this, I wanted to focus on students using the thoughtful logs independently during their read to self time.

 My main goal with my K/1 students is to help them learn independence and give them resources to meet their academic goals. Kids are in LOVE with their iPads so any chance they can get to use them is a bonus in their eyes. What better way to motivate them to use their thoughtful logs than with QR codes and scanning with their iPads. So in came my awesome tech coach who helped me create QR codes for all my anchor charts that we had co-created during Language Workshop. Then each student had their own set of anchor charts at their fingertips ready to be scanned when they needed a refresher on how to use a strategy.

This started when I would teach a mini-lesson about one of the strategies. Sometimes it was a refresher on the strategy we have learned about and adding on more ideas or a new strategy with a new anchor chart. I would ask the students to try out the strategy in their thoughtful logs and they would have that resource to use.

 Students were already so engaged in their books when reading, however I wanted to give them more purpose when we didn't have a mini-lesson to connect to their read to self time. So these QR Codes gave the students a way to show their understanding of the books. It has really helped them think critically about their books and slow down to understand the important parts of their book. Each time we create a new anchor chart they ask me if there is going to be a QR code that goes with it which makes me smile as a teacher. So now all the anchor charts that I have squished into my limited wall space are easily accessible to students! I highly suggest going digital with parts of your thoughtful log.