Using a projector and word

My ICT-use in the classroom has increased a lot this last year. The most important factor is the projector that helps me to show i e pictures, text and films on the whiteboard for all the class to see at the same time. We listen to and watch songs from you tube and spotify. We watch instructional films from ur.se via ne.se. I scan storybooks, save them as a power point-presentation and show the children the book at the same time as I read. This allow us to have discussions afterwards about the story, we talk about the pictures and the text and go back and forth in the presentation.

But the use I want to tell you all about is writing. I will not tell you about the use of the program since I believe you all know it, in stead I will tell you a bit about how I use it. From the beginning of this year (I teach a year 1-class with 26 pupils) I have written things in word whilst showing it to the children on the whiteboard. Earlier I would have written on the whiteboard directly and then copied it to paper to save it or to make copies to all children. Now I write on the computer and the children are used to see the markings the computer make – they are quick to tell me if I spell something wrong (which I do frequently :)) or if there is a grammatical problem. Then we can talk about it and change it together easily. I always start by writing down what the children suggests as they say it, then we talk about formulations and spelling and we change the text and print it out.

We started by writing something about what we have done during the week and I let them glue it into their logbook for the parents to see. Now that the children have started to write by hand we start the week by writing what I have planned for the week. I show the planning with the projector and the children write down single words in the logbook.

For example:

Sv Practice writing the letter Pp

Tell a story to some classmates

Ma Practice double and half

Practice the clock

SO Story from the Bible

Safe in traffic

NO Trees, animals and birds in the spring

On Friday they go back to check if we have done it all. And the children marks how they like it by using smileys. Inspired by Lina Rask I have started a class-blog for our class. I will let a couple of children write something about what we have done each day so that the parents can read it. I believe that will inspire the children to write quite a lot.

In Linköping we also use a program called fronter where we, the children and the parents can communicate both plans for the education and the class as well as send-ins in class work and the pupils results. On this site I´ll put a link to the blog and during these next weeks I will introduce both fronter and the blog to the parents as we meet to talk about the progresses made by each child.

We have also talk about mind maps and then I used bubbl.us to show them how to think when you prepare to tell or write something. As you can see the computer is a very good tool for me as a teacher – I just wish we had more of them.