Lovin' Elmo

I have found that the Elmo allows me to demonstrate activities that have multiple steps. Before the Elmo I would have to call smaller groups over to a table so that they could easily see me demonstrating several steps in order to complete a project. Now I can show the whole class and save a lot of time. I have more time to provide individual support.
Lynette

End of January?

Januray has gone so quickly!I was hoping to try out the document camera with my students but with the snow, children turning 3, and extra meetings it has been difficult to plan. My hope is to use the camera in small group ( 2 - 3 students) early next month to work on identifying themself and friends by pictures. We already do a similiar activity with low tech Photos, so I think this will be a good introductions since the concept is already familair all though the technology is new.

Students like it!

I collaborated with Joana Legg to teach a lesson using the Elmo. The students seemed to really like it. We did a few different things. We showed a book so that all could see. She had individual students roll a dice under the camera so that all could see the number. The student then loaded a construction truck with that many pieces of "load". The other students kept track on a graph. We switched over to the computer and showed the the students a Construction Tools video from United Streaming. We finished up by asking each students to display their completed worksheet using the document camera. They were very proud!

ELMO in action

Lynette invited me to see her class using the Elmo. It was a lot of fun. Her lesson was measurement. She was able to put common objects under the Visualizer and project for all to see as she measured. The students seemed to really be engaged. I can imagine that they would get a lot more out of the lesson when they could all see what she was measuring as opposed to a traditional model of having to wait their turn to squeeze in to see what was being measured. I left her room excited about trying out the Elmo myself next week.

Not THAT Elmo

Yesterday was our training on a document camera. It was basically a souped (sp?) up overhead projector. It was a lot of fun to get to play with something new. We looked at how other people had used the camera in classrooms (using manipulatives, having children show answers to each other, using it with a microscope) but none really seemed to apply to my age group of kids. I'm not really sure how I'm going to be able to bring this down to a toddler level and make it something beyond just watching a screen (passive entertainment is not what my students need).

I hope that I can brainstorm with my cohort and team to come up with a reasonable use for this cool new equipment.

-Kateri

p.s. It's called ELMO but it's not named after our favorite red friend :)

ELMO rules

We had our training on the Elmo today. It was great. I had used a visual visualizer before but this is so much more! It was really fun to hear the other STEP team members so excited too. I think we all had ideas about how we could use the Elmo in instruction and /or presentations. Elyse had the Elmo training a few weeks ago during Principals' training. Now I know why she was so excited when she came back. This new documentcamera is much smaller than the visual visualizers we used in the past. I have told Elyse I will think about ways we can make the Elmo available to staff.