Kidspired Frosty Readers 2007

Hi,
I teach second grade in central New York. I have 4 computers with internet access in my room. I also have one printer. We have a lab that is open for classroom teachers every other day. On the other days we have a teacher assistant that teaches computer classes. The children have computer class once in our six day cycle.

I love how the children are so comfortable using the computers and they are so willing to help each other out.

My biggest concern is that they often sit unused day after day in my classroom. Learning centers are frowned upon in our district. The children can use them in the mornings when their morning jobs are completed but that doesn't give them much time and excludes those who eat breakfast or get brought to school at the last minute. I do use Bookadventure.com frequently after we've read a story. I use the lab for typing reports and math drill. I'm hoping someday to figure out a way to use the computers in our room on a more frequent basis.

I've combined the Frosty Reader project with writing a class book for publication through Studentreasures.com. The children have written many types of winter poems. One they did for Frosty Readers on Kidspiration2 and another poem they're doing for publication in our class book. Hopefully the snow will stop and we'll get back to school to finish both projects before being on vacation next week.

I'd welcome any suggestions on how to use the computers in my room during instructional time.

Nedra

Hi, there,
I thought I would say "hello" to the Frosty group!

This is my first attempt with Kidspiration, but it seems as if it will be an amazing tool.

I'm truly interested in seeing what others create so I can learn more!

Thanks, as always, Susan, for stretching me as an educator!

Lanise

I've did Frosty Readers last year and really enjoyed it. I'm using the webquest I wrote last year for the project, but this year we want record the children's voices reading the stories they wrote. We hope to post them as podcasts this year on our website.

I teach in a tech lab and am doing the project with our four first grade classes. We use Mac computers and received the new Intel iMacs this year. We also have a Smart Board.

Hello, I'm Christina Godsey, a second grade teacher and excited to start this project on Tuesday. I have done several online projects with Susan and always enjoy them. We live in Columbus, home of the apparently not so mighty Ohio State Buckeyes. lol Anyway, just wanted to post a quick hello.

Hi. I'm Laurie from Arkansas. I teach 2nd grade. I have 3 student computers in the room. We also have a computer lab once a week for an hour. Most of the time the students work on Compass program in the computer lab. On some days when I'm in the lab with them we have a lesson on using word, power point, internet, kidspiration, etc. It is difficult to allow students to use classroom computers to complete assignments. While I have 3 working on computers the other 20 kids feel like they have to talk to me right then, making it difficult to help computer people. It is easier to teach in the lab but we don't get to visit it enough for kids to retain skills learned on computer. I love the enthusiam the children have to do anything on the computer.
Laurie

Hello! We are Miss Luongo's class in Rockaway, NJ.

We haev 5 computers in our classroom. 2 are older MACs and 3 are brand-new flat screen PCs! We also have a wheel-able SMARTboard that we use 1-2 times a week. We use computers daily to use Successmaker and Knowledge Box software. We also write our journals on the computer once a week in the computer lab.

We are not sure how we will use Kidspiration for this project, but I have used it as a web creator in the past. Any ideas?

We will be reading The Gingerbread Boy soon and writing more!

Have a nice day!!!

Welcome to the Kidspired Frosty Readers 2007 blog. Please introduce yourselves and let us know how you use your classroom computers. How many computers do you have? Do you use them in learning centers? What are the biggest challenges you've encountered and were you able to come up with solutions? Once this project is complete, how do you plan to use our Kidspiration templates with your students? We have so much to talk about and learn from each other. Let the conversation begin!