Starting the School Year Off Right: Using Technology to Motivate Students and Establish Classroom Routines Written By: Jenni Donohoo

It is important at the beginning of the school year to establish classroom routines. Establishing technology use as part of your daily routine will add an element of excitement and interest that paper and pencil might not have. It will also assist in sending the message to students that throughout the year, you are going to provide them with technology rich activities because you believe that computers are tools that can be used to assist in the learning process.

Below are some suggestions on how you could use technology in the beginning of the year with your students.

Introduce Yourself and Your Program to Students While Modeling Technology Use

1. Create a multimedia presentation about yourself. Create a card stack using Hyperstudio or a slide show using Appleworks. Use a data projector hooked up to the computer to introduce yourself to the class. Then have students access a pre-made template to create an introduction about themselves.

2. Use a data projector and Smart Ideas concept mapping software to create a graphic organizer of students’ ‘big questions’ about the year. Allow students to ask questions and provide answers to help alleviate fears while recording it on the computer. If questions cannot be answered immediately, the graphic organizer could be printed and displayed for further discussion.

3. Create a multimedia presentation to introduce students (and their parents) to content that will be covered in the first term. This can be shared with the whole class using a data projector or placed in a shared area on your school's network where each student can access it individually. Include appropriate sounds and transitions to make it interesting and fun for the students. Students can save a copy of the presentation and use it throughout the term to record reflections from various classes.

Get to Know your Students Using Activities that Integrate Technology

1. Use the 'All About Me' backgrounds in KidPix Deluxe 3 to get to know your students. Backgrounds include: All About Me, My Favourite (shown), How I Look, My Friends, and Where I Live. Backgrounds can be 'dragged and dropped' onto the work space where students can fill in personal information. Each drawing can be saved and placed into a slide show which includes sounds and transitions.

2. Have students create a rebus story to introduce themselves. Pre-writing is an important stage in this process and may be a good homework assignment for the first day. When students have completed their introductions, have them decide which words could be replaced with images. Have students type their stories using Microsoft Publisher 2002 or Appleworks. Students then use the clip art library to find images to replace some of the words. Have students exchange stories to decode or give everyone in the class a chance to decode introductions by having students present stories using a data projector.
* You may have students interview a classmate and have them write an introductory rebus about their partner.

3. Personality Profiles - Have students compose a ten line poem to introduce themselves to the class.
The first and last line should state their name. (I am.....)
Four lines should be truthful statements.
Four lines should be false statements.
Students mix the statements up so that the audience will be unsure of which statements are truths and which are not! Include a visual profile of the student by taking pictures of students’ profiles using a digital camera. Have the students type their poem using StarOffice (click here for a three step instructional sheet that can be shared with your students) or Microsoft Publisher 2002 and import their digital profile as a watermark.
* If you do not have access to a digital camera, you could ask students to bring in a photograph and scan images.

4. Have students start a personal database to store and classify their written reflections. Using FileMaker Pro 5.5, demonstrate how fields and layouts are created. Have the class discuss the various layouts and fields that will be needed (e.g. subject, date, writing form, type of response). Have students work in groups to develop a database template which each group member will copy and use. As the year progresses, give students access to the database at appropriate times in the schedule. Using the appropriate forms of writing (e.g. recount, explanatory, procedural, expository), students record their reflections, discoveries, reactions, proofs, critiques, or goals from the day or week.

5. Have students start an electronic portfolio highlighting their accomplishments and hard work. Using Dreamweaver MX or Claris HomePage students can create portfolios that can be shared with each other and their parents on the World Wide Web.

6. Have students make a name plate for their desks using a draw program such as KidPix Deluxe 3 or Appleworks.

7. Prepare for “Meet the Teacher Night” by having students create a Hyperstudio “Class Stack”. Each student could write a personal letter to their parents letting them know about their first few weeks in a new grade.

8. Record student names and birthdays on chart paper. Group the birthdays by month and have students create a bar graph (using Appleworks) displaying the number of student birthdays in each month. The chart of the birthdays could be displayed in the class for future celebrations. Other ideas for graphing - shoe size, height, favourite ice cream flavour, eye colour.

One final idea: Create a “Welcome to Our Classroom Slide Show” using Appleworks. Take photos of the students during the month of September and have the slide show running when parents come into your classroom for "Meet the Teacher Night".

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