DreamBox Continued

This past weekend was the first time our summer classes were able to take their dreambox passwords home and use it with mom and dad. I was very curious to see what kind of feedback we got this morning when kids came back to school.

I was surprised that all the feedback was not as positive as the teachers were expecting. Many parents liked it a lot. They felt it was great practice and very engaging. Some parents though felt it was to hard for their children to maneuver and had to st with them if they wanted their kids to actually use it.

As us teachers discussed the feedback we realized we were not looking at this technology the same way many parents were. When the kids use the lab we monitored and observed what they are doing. Many of the parents seemed to think that they could sign their child in and walk away. We did not send this home as a quick babysitting option. We had hoped parents would do this with their children (as the letter that went home stated).

Part of the balance of using technology with young children is that they will need more help, especially at first. Many parents seemed to not understand this. I am hoping that they will continue to try this program. As their kids get better at it, they will become more independent.

Dream Box Learning

Not to long ago I was offered a free class to use DreamBox.com. It is an amazing interactive customized math site for kids Kindergarten to third grade. You can pay for you class to use it, but they often send out offers for a free year. You just need to get in their mailing list. Each child gets there own log in and when they sign in it has saved what they were working on a nd tracks it for teacher use. Here is the link to a quick video about the site:

http://www.dreambox.com/teachers/classroom_video

Our prek and kindergartners are using it at summer school this week. They love it. As the site explains:

DreamBox Learning K-3 Math is the online math game kids love!

DreamBox provides differentiated math instruction—as fun online math games! We provide over 500 kindergarten, first grade, first grade, and third grade math games, with embedded assessments in a rigorous math curriculum. Capturing every mouse click enables sophisticated adaptation. And a dashboard gives you detailed student progress reporting.

Epals Update

I am very happy to say that my epals plan is working out wonderfully. I have heard from more then half of my students and they are also communicating with each other.

As I had expected the communications are not very long, but at the same time they are actually happening. I know some parents are obviously helping with spelling, but some are just letting their kids go. It is great to see how my students continue to make progress over the summer. Many of them are really creative with their spelling and their ideas. I think I might have a few really writers in my bunch!!

Skyping take 2

I have continued using skype with my summer school class. I took David's advice and got an external microphone. It made a world of difference. My kids know they have to wait for their turn with the microphone if they want to ask a question or respond to one.

Several people also asked me about how I got to skype. I do bring my own computer with me each day. It is blocked if I try and get to it from a school issued computer.

My sister actually got us some children the same age to talk to at the program she is working with. This really gave my kids a new understanding of hat life in different places is like for kids their age. Definitely something I could not have accomplished with a book!