I just got a chance to spend some time with Kathy's first grade class.  We set up the computers in Windows Journal for them when they arrived in the classroom.  The students explored wring with different pen thicknesses and color.  Since they have been introduced to the Tablet in Art class, it was easier for them to write on the Tablet.  They enjoyed writing some words and sentences but most of all they enjoyed drawing pictures and coloring them.  We saved their documents so they can be retreived later.  Next time we plan to get together, we will plan to spend about an hour usning the Tablets.

I have started to really enjoy my tablet.  I no longer have to deal with "printing" problems the students conveniently have when submitting papers.  They can now email their papars to me and I can read and edit their papers right on the screen.  Gone are the stacks of papers on my desk!

I have also enjoyed posting notes on the board with my projector and adding comments and additional notes as we discuss the topic at hand.  I am starting off slowly, but I am definitely looking forward to becoming tablet savvy by the end of the year.

  

 

I have been using my tablet when my history class is working on reading comprehension and Cornell Notetaking skills.  I pull up a blank electronic Cornell Notetaking worksheet that is saved as a word document and project it on the white board.  My students have either completed the Cornell Notetaking form for homework or in pairs in class. To make sure everyone has the information I want them to have, we complete the electronic Cornell notes form together meaning I fill in the form using my tablet while my students give me the information to include on the form.  In the end, we have one electronic completed form which students can use to double check their answers.  After class I print out the complete Cornell notes and put it in my master class binder. 

My next adventure on my tablet will be pulling up a website and writing on it.  I think I can find a few good ones for my next chapter in history -Role of the Medieval Church.  It will be a nice way to show students different  architectural techniques of gothic churches.

My use of the tablet has been primarily used as a teaching tool rather than a whole-class tool. Implementing the Cornell-Note Taking System with the tablet in my fourth grade class was a perfect way to model how to properly take notes. Because this was so new, the students were definitely engaged during a lesson that without the teachnology would have been fairly boring.

I have also made power point presentations with pictures of various geographical features that the students would have to identify. They woudl run up to the computer and write the names of all the features in a given picture. They were only given a few seconds to locate as many as they could. They loved it. 

Another use of the tablet I find beneficial is to project pieces of student writing from Writing Workshop in order to model how to edit and revise them. After scanning the hand-written writing, I use it in a mini lesson. Afterward I print out it out for the student to use as a rough draft. All the students benefit from the whole-class mini lesson. 

I hope to use get the kids involved in using the tablets when we begin working on poetry after the new year. 

I have been wanting to use the tablets for science labs ever since seeing them used this way at the tablet workshop last year. So I finally took the plunge and while there were a few bumps in the technological road, it was a huge success.