Samuel+Chase

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Samuel Chase Elementary School

=__Teacher Portfolios __=

Romeo Casanova

Paul Dube

Cathy Livingston

Maria Zacarias

=__Participating Administrator's Project__ =

Beth Grote **STEP Reflection** **for the School Year of 2008-2009** Submitted by B. Grote As I started this STEP program I thought how would this be beneficial to me? But as I took this course I found it to be very beneficial. I learned a lot of information and so did the teachers. The wikis are a great tool to use in the classroom. For instance, for a class web page the wikis can be a valuable, class specific resource. Teachers can upload a class syllabus, expectations, homework assignments, lecture notes and powerpoint presentations, handouts, study guides, etc. They can also include links to useful websites that relate to the class. For discussion boards wikis can be used to host online discussion topics that reach beyond classroom walls…even across the curriculum and countries, for collaborative projects students can use wikis to create and manage group presentations and projects. No longer will you hear "so and so isn't here today and he has all our stuff." In fact "so and so" can now be held accountable for contributing from home if absent during a group work day! This type of online collaboration can even cut down on the amount of class time spent working on group projects. Homework can become less isolated and more collaborative as students can connect with their teacher and peers anytime, anywhere! Also electronic portfolios are wonderful because many types of files can be uploaded to a wiki, students can create individual wikipages to host their work. Students can easily upload photostories, movies, podcasts, powerpoints, word documents, google earth projects and other files. For peer to peer sharing because postings can be uploaded to a wiki, students can create individual wikipages to host their work. I found that wikis can also increase student engagement, showcase student work and teachers have a place where files can be kept for easy access anywhere and connections to other educators for exchange of ideas can be done. The next item I found beneficial was voicethread. The students I worked with talked about their overnight experience to Hard Bargain Farm as well as wrote about it. What I liked about voice thread is many students can comment about a particular picture or comment either by voice or typing their response. Most of the fifth grade students I was working with liked speaking rather than typing. However my shy ones did enjoy typing. Lastly, was my blogging experience, I found blogging to be a good way to communicate with my colleagues and share ideas; however, I found it to be time consuming and difficult for me to remember to go to the blog page. It would be easier to remember if it were attached somehow to our Samuel Chase Bb page or our e-mail page. I also thought two a month would have been better our once a month. At times I found it difficult to find something to blog about once a week.

__Trainers__
Linda Leypoldt Monica Kinney