efriendlylearning with Handhelds

iPhone post

2009-03-13T22:17:00.001-07:00

Hey. I am just trying out a new app on my phone that will allow me to pat right to my blog. Most of my writing is on the "go" so this might be one of those apps I can't live without!

Start of 2006-2007

2006-09-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Hello All Dana Users,
I hope that your year is starting off better than ours. We are having problems with the handhelds not digitizing correctly. We have also had just strange problems with a few handhelds. Students are enjoying getting to use them until something goes quirky.

We will continue to work out the problems and keep using them to increase our students skills and application of information.

TTFN Pat McReynolds

Masters Februrary Session: Sharing Activities for ISAT Preparation

2006-02-22T18:20:00.000-08:00

Describe one handheld activity that you have implemented to prepare for upcoming state testing.

Make Some Noise!

2006-02-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

It has been six months since you began using handhelds with students! What has changed in your classroom? Describe what you notice with students, the way you design learning activities, etc. What differences are you seeing?

Post your comment...

Mrs. L's Blog

2006-02-05T09:22:00.000-08:00

Mrs. L's Blog

Masters Session January 24

2006-01-23T21:11:00.000-08:00

Describe the one handheld activity you plan on implementing to help your students prepare for the upcoming state assessments?

Foundations Training January 12

2006-01-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

What is one handheld activity you plan to use within the next week to help your students prepare for the Illinois Student Achievement Test?

Masters Session December 8

2005-12-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

We began the morning by using To Do List to reflect on our comfort levels using the Hot Sync process in Memo Pad, AlphaWord, Inspiration, and Documents to Go.

Teachers shared some projects students created using Sketcher or AnimateMe! Kellie shared using BeamBox to beam all the frames used in a file in AnimateMe. (Please remember which file number you created the animation in.) Pull down from Hacks to All. Find your animation number on the menu and beam it. Use BeamBox to DELETE all the sketcher files at one time rather than one by one!! The file can then be accessed back in AnimateMe! They’d like to have student samples of AnimateMe! posted online. They will also be adding the handouts from our sessions. http://www.efriendlylearning.com/jolietweb/ehome.htm

A discussion began about QAR – Research based strategy – Many teachers in the district are implementing QAR strategies to give students better comprehension and also a better language to describe what they are reading in a more specific way. There are four main types of questions – Right There, Think and Search, Author and You(Me), or On My Own. Teachers visited efriendlylearning website and went to My eDesk to read the text for the QAR exercise. (Click on eNews to find a link to our blog.) We should do everything we can to teach our students the strategies to read, AS WELL AS POSSIBLE, difficult text. Put them in a tough situation and work with them to apply the strategies they have been learning in their lower level reading group. Coach them and then let them try independently. Mark up that ISAT test.

We split into two groups based on the comfort level we reported this morning.

In our small group we …
Placed a short cut to the program files on our task bars for quick access to our teacher’s backup files. Sketcher, AnimateMe!, and a bunch of those other files can be accessed through the laptop and put onto the Emulator to show.
Find your main handheld’s name in the list of Palm files.
Inside this folder lies folders that are associated with some of the programs on the dana. Click into the backup folder.
Inside of the backup folder rests all of the backup programs or PRC or applications on the handheld as well as all the databases associated with the programs - .PDBs. Note – All sketcher files are included in the ONE Sketcher PDB file. We cannot view any PDB files without viewing them in the emulator or having special knowledge about how to get a piece of FREE software that will allow you to save these Sketcher files (or other graphics) as REAL PICTURES!!! That means these “real” pictures to be used in PowerPoint, Inspiration, Microsoft Word. http://www.compupro.biz/PDBExplorer.htm Go to this website to download this software. This software allows us to “extract the pictures” from sketcher, animateme or litenotes – no actual animations.
Remember – Digital Ink are the images.
To view the PDBs on the Emulator, right click on the Emulator. Then click Install Application/Database. Open up the Backup Folder and find the SketcherDB. Click on it and then when you open Sketcher on the dana your Sketcher files will show up. This will work also for LiteNotes and AnimateMe! You cannot do this with Inspiration, Memopad, or Alphaword. These files automatically transfer to real computer files when you do a HotSync process.

Next we learned about the Trash or Treasure Activity - Like explicit marking except students delete sentences in the text that have nothing to do with the question that is asked. This activity would help the kids figure out which words are critical to answering a specific question that has been asked.

Then we had time to search for alternate text using the Tools on the eDesk.

Docs To Go

2005-11-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
We just thought we would post this problem to see if anyone else has had this occur. When using any of the Docs to Go applications and you try saving it, the error that there is not enough space appears. However on the Dana there is plenty of memory left. Any suggestions.

Jane Richards and Pat McReynolds

2005-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Dana Training – November 15, 2005

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
Challenge: Input speed
Solution: Rethink activity to adjust amount of input

Challenge: Assessment
Solution: not always necessary – visual check for progress/on task activity

Challenge: Build on ISAT skills
Solution: Align Dana activities to state standards

Challenge: Time necessary to complete lessons
Solution: Set a timer

Challenge: Moving Danas
Solution: Train responsible students

Challenge: Activity too difficult
Solution: Be flexible. Don’t be afraid to stop activity and rethink it

Challenge: Glitches
Solution: If it can’t be fixed quickly, put in teacher basket to be fixed later and share
Dana with another student.

AVID FRAMEWORK
A – Activate schema
Opportunity for meaningful dialogue; conversation fosters understanding. Student discussion corrects students’ misconceptions about content by 51%. Student argumentation corrects misconceptions by 80%.
V – Vocabulary
Develop fully-formed memory records. Multiple exposures before, during, and after reading. In order to add a new word to their vocabulary, students must interact with the word between 9 and 25 times: listening, writing, speaking. Must encode in their own words. Every 10 minutes summarize. Students need multiple opportunities for active involvement: semantic mapping, word sorts, word splashes, synonyms/antonyms, root words and affixes. Use of imagery is effective – visual, nonlinguistic – think Dana!
I – Interact with text
Explicit study of physical text structure and organization.
D
INSPIRATION

File; open template; language arts; vocabulary; open

Hint from Bonnie: Students should NOT create a password.

Remember: Process versus Product!

Getting the inspiration webs on the desktops or laptops.
- Must be saved
- Perform hot sync operation

SPELL IT

Hand held activity only – cannot hot sync it
Create a name for your new group of words.
Good preloading activity
May play games such as Practice, Jumble, and Test.

LITE NOTES

Draw picture, write clues for word such as what it is and what it isn’t.
May beam to other students

SKETCHER

Similar program. Draw and write definitions.

Dana-Activitaing Schema

2005-11-15T06:12:00.000-08:00

Dana Training

October 4, 2005

Last time we met met we began our discussion with what was working in our classrooms and we shared all the activities that we have utilized. We were introduced the A of AVID for activating schema. Below is an outline of what we did during this traing.

REVIEWED DANAS
-Shared with each other what programs we used and what has worked well thus far
-Shared positives/concerns

AVID (A framework for building avid readers in Science and Social Studies)
-Checking Readability of texts-www.readability.info or Microsoft Word
-The importance of activating SCHEMA

HANDHELD ACTIVITIES FOR ACTIVATING SCHEMA (DOCUMENTS-WORD TO GO)
-Anticipation Guides
-Skimming for making connections
-People Search
-Preview Connections
-4x4 Anticipation Guide

INSPIRATION
-Model inspiration features on laptop first
-Introduce handheld Inspiration

QUIZ WIZ
-Need to use Memo Pad to create quiz
-Can import Memo Pad into Quiz Wiz

Foundation Teachers First Thoughts About Handhelds for Learning

2005-11-15T06:02:00.000-08:00

Now that you have been using handhelds for a couple months with students share your thoughts about using the handhelds with students and the impact they have had on student learning...
Reply as a comment here...

Blogging about handhelds in classroom

2005-10-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Pat McReynolds here about the use handhelds in my classroom to help students keep their goals posted so that they can go back to see daily and weekly goals. I also use the handhelds in the classroom to make graphic organizers for reading in the content area. Students are also using Grade Quick to find out their percentage on an assignments. This has been the biggest eye opener of them all. Students are beginning to see that pattern in their grades. When they have completed the work and studied the information, they find that they have a higher percentage. Students have found that they don't like seeing any grade that is below a 70%. We are using the handhelds to make a quiz bank of number stories in math using memo pad and quiz whiz. The fourth grade students are enjoying working on this project.

I that I have a few problems that have shown up with the first handhelds. I have alignment problems with the digitizer. I have set some machines several times only to have the student take it out of the cabinet the next day to redo the digitizer. This is frustrating!

I also have a problem with beaming in memo pad. Any memo pad document automatically goes into my alpha word application. How do I correct this problem?

In 4th grade science, I will have the students use the handheld app sketcher to record our lesson on planes. Students will be making and flying their planes. They will record information on a flight log in sheets to go and draw diagrams and pictures in sketcher. We will be working on this project several days.

Master's Session Professional Development Recap

2005-10-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

10/12/05 DANA Master’s Group Training

All attendees gave email addresses so we can be listed as a contributor to our blog. The end result of the blog is for District 86 teachers to have input from teaching units that include using the AVID tools.

Chris is the administrator of the blog and only District 86 teachers will be able to make comments about information on the blog. Teachers need to respond to an email from Chris and Kelly to become part of the blog.

Today we are focusing on quizzing software.
Quiz artifacts were shared
Large group about whether the activities were A-V-I-D
Teachers were asked to write up the lesson for their quizzing activity with the naming conventions to be used:

Teachers are going to email the lessons to either Chris or Kelly so they can put them on the blog

We were encouraged to use Active Learning Backpack Ideas to take notes on things that we have tried on the handhelds.

Two groups were formed for instruction, based on ability, to review hotsyncing for archiving student work or getting work to the students. These are the programs that can hotsync, and they each hotsync differently.

Alphaword
Inspiration
DocstoGo
Palmapps (like Memo, ToDoList, Calendar)

At the end of the day, Chris and Kelly offered to come for mentoring as needed. There was a handout with mentoring/coaching dates.

Group assignment – create an “interacting with text” activity using animate me or sketcher.

Managment Challenge

2005-10-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

My most difficult management challenge is when the Danas freeze while the students are working on an assignment. I am trying to figure out what can cause this. I will also have students work together when this happens.

One-to-one Computing With Handhelds

2005-10-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

Teachers,
What do you feel is your greatest challenge to managing one-to-one computing in your classroom?

•Describe the challenge

•The steps I am making to improve my management of this…

Chris and Kellie

Kids Comments About the Danas

2005-10-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

I was just reviewing comments students made on the Zoomerang survey about their experience with using handhelds. I know you all keep telling me that students are extremely engaged and eager to work with their handhelds, but I guess I never had a clue as to HOW engaged they are. Here are a few of my favorites:

I feel very comfortable using the Dana. I wish I could do my homework each day on the Dana and I would be able to take it home. I would take very good care of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm pretty much an expert because I've been using Danas for two and a half years (because you have to count this year.)
I feel happy about using these because I know I'm going to learn with them.
I feel really comfortable using the Dana for school projects. I use it for math and science and for language arts and pretty much everything.
If I don't know something I ask Mrs. McReynolds. She knows everything.
It's great using Danas to learn. I better have one in sixth grade.
When I beam to someone I remember it better.
I beam my writing to other kids and it helps me write better.
I like using the Dana to learn because I have my own. It's just like a computer but I have my own at my desk.
It's a great idea to use the Dana for learning because their fun while we learn.
It's really fun. I mean being able to send your work to your teacher is really cool.
I think I learn more because I do my work longer on it.
Someone had a great idea making those Danas.
I think we should use the Dana all the time to do our work because we don't always feel like working.

Does that last one mean that they don't feel like they're working when they use the Dana?? :-)

Welcome Handheld Using Teachers!

2005-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog that chronicles the experiences of classroom teachers using handhelds with students. Through our professional development and classroom experiences you will "see" how we are using handhelds with students!

Chris and Kellie
Designers of Professional Development for efriendlylearning with Handhelds
Email us with your questions!