Writing with Digital Natives

    It is so hard to get my fifth graders to write anything that is what I consider a good piece of writing.  They resist adding details and organizing information in a way that makes it easier to understand.  I finally decided to embrace the digital natives inside them and broke out the laptops.  What a difference.  I won't say that I've noticed a huge impact on the quality of my students' writing, but I hear a lot less whining and the students are more likely to try to write a quality essay.  I'm trying to take it one day at a time and enjoy each small victory.  I have faith that we will have some good writers by the end of the year if I can just keep them intersted and keep them practicing.

Multimedia Project

     I can't say I had a lot of fun completing my multimedia project - I hit too many technology roadblocks that stressed me out - but I learned a lot from the process.  I was so proud of myself when I finally finished my Voice Thread.  I had my laptop at school and I worked on the project during my planning time a couple of times while I had a few students in my room.  They were interested in what I was doing, especeially once I started recording my voice, and wanted to know what I was doing.  I shared with a few of them (they thought it was so funny that I had homework with which I was struggling) and allowed them to watch me and give me feedback on what I was doing.  A few of them asked if they could do the same kind of project in our class, so I am now working on a way to include VoiceThread in my next novel unit.  I think its great when I can find a way to include something from my graduate school courses into my fifth grade classes, even when it is something that makes me a little uncomfortable.