As most of you know, I am at a new school this year with a new twist on my former position. I still teach technology but now I have time to plan my lessons around what students are learning in the classroom. I did write a technology curriculum, but will only need to fall back on it when necessary. Instead, I have been reviewing the literacy and science curricula of my students and planning lessons that infuse technology into the concepts they are learning in the classroom.

As an example, my 2nd graders were focusing on synonyms and antonyms. Last week, we used PicLits to create pictures with synonyms. It was the first time they had ever used the computers in the lab, so the assignment was simple, but they did a wonderful job. First, we brainstormed synonyms of words and then they chose a group of synonyms to put on a picture of their choice.

You can see their work on our student work wiki.

Today, I will be pushing into a 6th grade class for a stream table lesson on erosion and landforms. The students will create streams and then create a birds-eye-view map of their stream, labeling areas like delta or canyon.  Tomorrow, they will come into the lab with their drawings and, working in their same small groups from the stream table lesson, they will use Google Maps in satellite view to find examples across the planet of various landforms. They will also have to explain how they think the landform was formed. These responses will be in the form of comments on our assignment page.

I will have the students take photos and video of the science lab today for use in making a documentary-style video about the experience.

Needless to say, it's exciting.