Tech for the not-so-techy, techy teacher.

Welcome to Technology for the Primary Classroom! This blog is dedicated to the not-so-techy, techy teachers. 

We all know them; in fact, you might consider yourself one of them. The not-so-techy, techy teacher.  The one with all of the technology the district has available in your classroom but very limited knowledge on how to use the tools at your fingertips.  That's what I'm here for. I'm here to help you figure out the tools you have and how to use them for your primary-grade students. 

I've taught second grade for eleven years. I have been blessed with an abundance of technology during my teaching career.  When I first started, I worked in a small district where my eleven (yes, 11) second-graders were 1:1 with iPads. Three years into my career we consolidated and after a few years we made the switch from iPads to Chromebooks. For the last seven years my students have been 1:1 with Chromebooks. In my district, each classroom has a ClearTouch board, a document camera, two teacher Chromebooks (one being a larger Chromebook with a 10-key and the other being the same as the students) and each student has their own Chromebook.

The purpose of this blog is to help you learn more about the technology that is available to you and your students. I am not a hardware person, my goal is to help you learn the tools that are literally at your fingertips. I'll share the tools that I use daily in my classroom, and you can connect with me via the "Contact Me!" widget to the left with tools that you have and would like me to explore. 

I'm a sharer.  Some might say I'm an over-sharer, so I communicate what is going on in my classroom with my families, a lot.  I was the parent who wanted to know what was going on in child's classroom, I never wanted to miss a thing. My nephew was in high school when my son was young, so we had a busy life bouncing between little league events and high school events, and I wanted/needed a calendar to keep everything straight. Knowing that other families are just as busy as I am (or was, life has slowed down now that my son is in college) I try to keep everyone informed. Our school is on a six-day cycle, rather than the M-F schedule you might remember from your childhood, so I send home a monthly calendar with our schedule, as well as the home sporting events for our high school varsity teams, birthdays, no school days, etc. I send a paper copy home for families to post on their refrigerator, and I use the message center in JMC to send a pdf copy to families. 

I also use Remind as a messaging app. My families join our class group and can message me with questions or dismissal changes. I use this for snow days, early dismissals, late starts, etc. 

Each year I create a private Facebook group for my families to join to "see" our class. I share our district events on here, as well as photos of what we are doing in our room, so our families can see the students and connect with what we are learning.  I want to reiterate that I create a private group, so only members of the group can see the content. I do not have a Facebook page that people can "like," due to privacy. I also do not have a classroom Facebook account to become "friends" with others, because I do not want to have to unfriend past parents and family members.  With a private group, your posts are private, only the members in the group can see the content, if families want to share the content, they must screenshot the information to share it. 

Each week I try to send a classroom newsletter home. I keep it simple, giving a brief overview of what is going on in our classroom. Below is the latest newsletter from our room. I bought this newletter and calendar bundle from TpT, and it is completely editable and have PowerPoint and Google Slides options.  

Now, I know what you are thinking, I need to do all of that?! The answer is no, absolutely not. Start with one, and use what works for you. If you find you want to add another mode of communication, do it. My families love knowing what we are doing and what is coming up. I can also add we have had an increase of second grade families at our sporting events because the families know what is going on in the district!🤍 

-SW