Jennifer Bloomingdale is an educational technology specialist who was formerly a 5th grade teacher. She implemented netbooks in her classroom which allowed students to work at their own pace and be more accountable. This led to major changes in her curriculum over two years, including implementing wiki literature circles where students read books and responded online, and math units on geometry and fractions done individually online. Students enjoyed the independent work and were more engaged.

1. Jennifer Bloomingdale
Educational Technology Specialist
Former 5th Grade Teacher

2. Resources and Links
 All links and resources can be found at:
 http://tinyurl.com/5w3q4hf

3. Netbooks
 Dell Latitude 2100 with Ubuntu OS
 How did we get them?

4. How did it change my teaching?
 More student directed
 Students worked at own pace
 Spent more time 1-on-1
 Students held accountable
 Major changes in curriculum
 Wiki Literature Circles
 Math
 These changes took place over the course of two
years, not all at once!

5. Wiki Literature Circles
 What did literature circles look like in my room?
 Students were given a list of about ten books to
chose from.
 Groups of 2 or 3 students
 I meet with students once a week
 Students have a week to read their set number of
chapters, and then fill in a response form on their
wiki page.

6. Response Form
 Short summaries of each chapter read
 3 Vocabulary words
 Definition
 Synonym
 Sentence
 3 Thinking Questions for the group
 Journal Entry

8. How did I assess my students?
 Students are graded using a rubric that includes:
 Participation
 Respect
 Comprehension
 Journal Entry
 Questions
 Vocabulary
 Response to Partners Entry
 Rubric was created at rubistar.

9. What changes did I see?
 Students were more engaged and actively
participate in discussions.
 Students were excited to talk about what they
read.
 Students were excited to read.

10. Mathematics Units
 My school used Everyday Mathematics
 Both units were based on Everyday Math with other
resources integrated.
 City Planning: Geometry Unit
 Fraction/Decimal/Percent

12. Mathematics
 How did I assess?
 Periodic quizzes
 One-on-one Meetings
 Rubric for final projects
 What changes did I see?
 Students enjoyed working at the their own pace
 I spent more time one-on-one supporting students
 A majority of students were consistently engaged

14. Other Integrated Projects
 Mixbook
 Glogster
 Spelling City
 GoogleDocs
 50 State Wiki
 Progressive Story Project
 I Am Statements
 Wordle
 Avatar Poems

15. Things to keep in mind..
 Isolation
 Guidelines
 Internet safety
 Evaluating Resources
 Typing Skills

16. What my students thought…
 We use our Netbooks to do a lot of work. We do typing, practicing the
alphabet, research on the Internet and we are able to share our work with
the whole class, even the whole school if we wanted to.
 I like looking for pictures on Google images to go with my writing, such as
poems, science experiments and geography!
 They are a big help because everything is stored so easily and you are not
in danger of losing them. I love them for this reason.

17. What my students thought..
 I think the netbooks help us by using them daily
we have more time to practice typing. The
netbooks also help when we are writing stories
or paragraphs. I like the netbooks because it is
fun to be able to learn how to type fast.

18. What my studentsthought…
 I like the net books because they can store documents and folders.
They're really fast and great to work on. It's awesome that we have
our own so we can get work done on our own faster. Instead of
waiting for one computer that is really slow.
 I think that the netbooks help me because if I am stuck, the computer
can help me figure it out. If it can’t help me than I would ask my
teacher or another adult for help. I like the netbooks because you
can do most of your work on the computer instead of paper.

19. What my students thought…
 I think that the netbooks help us in the classroom by
letting us use our computers to search for information on
the web without having to wait for your turn to use the
classroom computer. They also let us work on individual
projects without having to wait for other people to get
done with their projects. Another way that netbooks us is
that they allow us to work much faster than to write
everything out on paper. We are lucky to have these
tools.

20. Questions?