Technology In Our Classroom

Welcome, Parents!
Hello,
I hope you and your students have all had a wonderful first week
and are finding it easy to adjust to the new school year. In my
preparation for teaching this year, I have learned how to use many
new computer programs that I think will greatly benefit the students and increase my efficiency as a teacher. I wanted to take a
minute to explain to you a little about some of the programs I will
be using this year, and explain how we will be using them in the
classroom. Your children will be using some of these programs to
complete assignments, I will be using some of these programs in
my instruction, and there will be one program which serves as a
communication platform between you, your child(ren), and I. Please
contact me if you have any further questions about these or any
other programs we may use in class. Thank you and cheers to a new
year!

Ms. Fullerton
3rd Grade
Volume 1, Issue 1
August.2015
Inside this issue:
Promethean Planet
GCF LearnFree
Microsoft Publisher
PowerPoint
YouTube
Microsoft Word
Edmodo

Promethean Planet
Promethean Planet is an online community of educators where
users can access free, effective, and engaging teaching resources for
interactive whiteboards and Learner Response Systems. Some of these
resources include lesson plans, educational games, classroom management tools, and many other great ideas for the classroom!
Throughout the year I will get many ideas from Promethean
Planet. Although I write my own lesson plans, it is very beneficial for me
to see examples of successful lessons other teachers have completed.
Teachers from all over have uploaded many educational games which I
will be altering to fit our lesson plans. They saying it takes a village is
very valid, and by getting classroom management ideas from other
teachers I am able to combine my knowledge and experience with the
experience of veterans to provide your child with the environment in
which they will be actively involved in their education, using the best
tools possible!

GCF LearnFree
GCFLearnFree.org is a free online educational website focusing on technology,
job training, reading, and math skills. In fact, many of the skills and programs that I
learned began with lessons on GCF. GCF is free to the public, and I highly recommend it
for parents who would like to learn how to use the same programs your students will be
using! There are also helpful lessons for adults, focusing on job skills and resume building.
Not everyone enters the school year with the same set of technological
knowledge so your children will have access to lessons on the site teaching them how to
use programs such as Word, or Publisher, and many more. The site also offers small lessons on other life skills such as online etiquette and resume building.

Microsoft Publisher
Microsoft Publisher is a lot like Microsoft Word, but it gives you more opportunity to
add graphic designs and layouts to your document. This is helpful when making newsletters (the
one you are reading now was written on Publisher!) and certificates and award.
Throughout the year I will continue to use Publisher to send out my monthly newsletter,
make awards for students reaching benchmarks as well as keeping tables and charts of your
childrens grades and success! Your students will have the chance to use Publisher for a few
projects we will be doing throughout the year. Your child's success on these projects is not dependent on you knowing the program however they would greatly benefit from any help you
could give them, lessons on how to use Publisher are available on GCF.

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Technology In Our Classroom

Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a graphically enhanced presentation program. It gives you everything you need to produce a professional-looking presentation, while still being very user
friendly. PowerPoint offers word processing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and presentation
management tools and more!
PowerPoints have been around for a while, and some of you may even remember
seeing them during lectures in class! I fully understand that although and important part
of instruction, some children do not learn best from lectures. I include a PowerPoint in
ever lecture I give to help provide sensory stimulation for all learning styles. These PowerPoints will be posted online so that students have a chance to review what we discussed
in class. This also gives students who were absent a chance to catch back up! It is said
that we recall up to 90% of what we teach others, so your child will have projects
throughout the year that involve making their own short lectures and providing a PowerPoint to go along with them. This is another opportunity you might want to take to look at
the lessons provided on GCF covering PowerPoints to be as much of a help to your child as
possible, and to understand exactly what it is that we are doing in class!

YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website that allows users to view, as well as upload, videos
at no cost. The videos on YouTube range from educational and interesting to bizarre and upsetting. Any time that YouTube is accessed in my classroom, either by me or the students, settings will be in place to make sure only the educational videos are accessible.
I often show clips of videos when explaining a topic. Not only does this give me a
chance to connect to the different learning styles, but it also gives the students a chance to
see real world solutions to problems we may be working on. I will frequently provide the children with links to videos that I feel will help their comprehension of a skill or topic. Your children will also have a chance to make the upload their own videos for a project we have planned.
I think the students, and myself, benefit greatly from the added support to instruction

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processing program that allows users to create word documents as well as spreadsheets. The current edition allows students to insert many graphic design elements such as picture, video, and graphs. This program is beneficial for many reasons,
and has too many uses to count.
I use Microsoft Word to type out almost all of the papers I will be sending home
throughout the year. Word allows both me and the students to create original work in a neat
format. I like using Word to complete essays and written assignments because the online features allow me to ass corrections and recommendations to your students work without them
having to bring in assignment and wait for me to return them. Word also allows your child the
opportunity to save their assignments to a cloud, illuminating the problem of losing work.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 3

Edmodo
Edmodo is an educational website that offers communication, collaboration, and
coaching tools to teachers, parents, and classrooms. The Edmodo network enables teachers
to share content, distribute assignments/quizzes, and manage communication with students
and parents. The layout of Edmodo is similar to that of Facebook, and
students and parents often enjoy the familiarity and find it very easy to use.
As part of our class, each child will create an Edmodo account, and I
welcome you all to create a parent account that will give you full access to
course content. I often post notes and study guides on Edmodo, as well as
copies of the PowerPoints and assignment descriptions. This provides your
child with any information given in class, and provides you with information
on what exactly your child is doing. The children can see what I post, as well
as what the other students post which allows them the opportunity to
collaborate on assignments without having mom or dad drag them around
town to meet up! I will post weekly quizzes on the site as well. I prefer
posting these quizzes on the site because it gives up more class time for instruction, and
gives your child a sense of control in their education. Keeping up with the online assignments
teaches them life skills such as time management and organization. It also gives me a

Megs Fullerton
850-559-4754
FULLE1MXF@mymail.tcc.fl.edu