Team+2+-+eZine

**Seeing**    **the **    ** go on! Student Engagement with Technology ** 

 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 87.12%;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Written by:** //Cynthia Conn from Thomas Elementary School Pam Lasher from Christensen Elementary School Jillian Small from Killip Elementary School Katie Warke from DiMiguel Elementary School//

<span style="font-size: 144%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The beginning of this peer coaching journey seemed overwhelming with finding colleagues, facilitating how to use technology, and integrating lessons. One thing we have noticed is that throughout our peer coaching experience the change in student engagement has been evolutionary. It has made teaching and learning that much more enjoyable. Our theme for our section of the Coaching Chronicles issue is how technology integration through peer coaching has improved student engagement.



Michael Vogler says that "My collaborating teacher used Power Point to help improve a lesson on vocabulary. Students were asked to create a presentation using words, give a picture, a description, and syllabication. Students were much more engaged with this lesson than most other lessons on vocabulary."

<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Cynthia Conn commented on student engagement in the following integrated lessons: "This spring, I collaborated with the librarian, Mrs. Wheeler, to develop and deliver a unit called Let’s Write A Story! This unit integrated technology, reading and writing objectives. The unit was developed for 1st through 3rd graders. Robert Munsch, a well known children’s author, was the focus of the literature study. Mrs. Wheeler read several of his books to the classes, discussed story writing, fantasy vs. reality, and parts of a story. Then each student contributed a sentence to a class story. Students drew a picture that illustrated one sentence from the class story. Once this work was completed, students began creating their digital story during Technology Class. This process involved audio recording their sentence, scanning their picture, and building a slide in PowerPoint with their picture, sound file, and typing their first name. The youngest student’s faces lit up when hearing their recorded sentence for the first time and when the final stories were played for the class. With the older classes, one student was instructed on how to record their sentence and acted as the “teacher” and showed the next student. They were excited to help each other! As the stories are completed, they are being uploaded to the following website. <span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> []. <span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">





<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Another successful collaboration included working with the 5th grade teachers, Mr. Kilborn and Ms. Rees, on a Revolutionary War Unit. During Social Studies, the students in these classes studied the Revolutionary War and prepared a read aloud play with flat puppets related to one of the following topics: Loyalists and Patriots, the Boston Massacre, or the Boston Tea Party. During Technology Class, each group then performed their play and video taped it. With assistance from district technology specialists, Ms. Zeigler and Ms. Roach, the videos were then developed into digital movies using Movie Maker. The students showed excitement to be part of the production as well as to learn about how to video and create the digital movies. The teachers commented that the students comprehended the content at a higher level than they had noted with previous classes. Throughout the process of the project, one teacher commented that she received several questions from students about where to find their movie. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Compressed or low quality versions of each of the plays are available through Teacher Tube. To access, go to [|http://www.teachertube.com], click on the Video tab, and type Thomas Elementary School in the search field." <span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Katie Warke and her collaborating teacher saw strong student engagement during a culminating project for a social studies unit. The students had been studying Spanish Explorers, and for a final project they were able to create either a board game, mural or interview skit. The students worked in groups and used Inspiration, a graphic organizer program, to plan their project. All the students were actively involved in the creation of the graphic organizer, so as a result they were all actively involved in the planning process.



<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"I realized that the students who struggled to be engaged in class, were actually the students who became the most engaged with technology integration. They love using the SMART board and beg to set up the technology cart in the mornings. Students see a connection to real life in ways they haven't before in subjects like reading and math. Integration with the arts has been easier as well. So students are receiving and participating in integration that extends far beyond just technology. They are using it as a tool to explore music, art, and photography into their learning." - Jillian Small, fourth grade teacher at Killip