Thursday 4/28/05 Reported & Photographed by Melissa T.

Class Log

I can’t believe that this was the last class. As long as it seemed from January to April, it went by just as fast. After Beth introduced herself and each of the 5th graders said what they liked best about the handhelds, the kids were let loose to share with us what they knew.

The student that was with me jumped from one thing to another so incredibly fast that it was hard to take good notes! Luckily, most of what he did demonstrate, Tony had already taught us. There were a few new applications that he did beam to me. One being MSS! This is a multiplication game. Another was called LID! This is a division game. Every week in our Advisement class the students have to take a math timed test. These two games would be perfect for the students to practice on. He also beamed me Tessellation. I haven’t quite figured out what the purpose of this application is for. It is quite fun to play around with, however maybe if I were a math teacher it would be more meaningful for me. After about 20 minutes my little guy jetted off to another group! A girl joined me and showed me how they put their weekly math timed tests into Sheets-To-Go. First they complete a 5 minute timed test in MathCard. Then they go into Sheets-To-Go and type in the date and how many they got correct out of how many they tried.

Together with our partner we played the game Summing. I got this game from Tony this past summer and hated it! I would try playing it every once in a while until finally it was my newest addiction! My best score so far is 20.

After Erika did some recruiting with T-shirts, the students were on their way home and we were on our way to dinner!

On the dinner menu was sloppy joes, fruit salad and brownies. My very own homemade sloppy joes, Tony, and you missed it! I bet you can’t guess what the secret ingredient is!

We then gathered back in Beth’s room for Part 2 of the “Handhelds in Omaha” video. You sure did impress those people, Tony! We were all impressed with how happy Angie Callahan seemed! Does she ever not have a smile on her face? I did leave with one wonderful idea from the video…having students mentor administrators using the handhelds.

After the video, Beth talked a little about her kids as Roving Reporters. She said that it’s neat to see how the students progress in their writing skills from the beginning of the year to the end. Their reports get longer and more interesting to read.

As class came to a close we all said our goodbyes and wishes of good luck. I’m sure we all went away from this class, as a whole, learning so much more than we thought we ever would about the potential of using handhelds in the school setting. Thanks Tony!