Greetings! This year I was fortunate to become a member of the Coonley faculty as Coonley's first Technology Coach. As a coach my charge is to help teachers increase their capacity in the area of technology integration into the curriculum. While I work with students I don't have a set schedule where I am seeing only students. Teachers and I talk about technology projects and tools that can enhance their content. From there I plan, research, create, model and implement activities with teachers and their students and often document the process. Click here to see a short presentation that I gave introducing my role as a technology coach to the Local School Council. View my digital portfolio to learn more about me as an educator. I share my knowledge with educators around the world through Twitter and through my blog.

The teachers have been welcoming and are open to suggestions and assistance regarding technology. This newsletter gives an overview of some of the highlights of the 1st quarter of the 2014-2015 school year. It is a snapshot; not a complete list of technology activities at Coonley.

I look forward to new initiatives in the next quarter including new iPad applications, coding, connecting with a school in Madrid and more!

This year we have joined the Twitterverse! Coonley's Twitter page allows us the opportunity to do several things: we teach, inform, celebrate, connect and share to name a few. Kudos to all of our staff members that have helped share their classrooms. See a list of Coonley staff members here.

The 2014-2015 school year is off to a great start! Many teachers are trying new technology tools to compliment their curriculum. Mrs. Zumpano has met with teachers individually to set personal technology goals. Afterwards support is given in several different methods depending on teacher need. The following is a sample of some of the projects and programs we have worked on the 1st quarter. It is important to know that true technology integration doesn't always take shape in a "project package". True technology integration is messy and happens in stages but eventually becomes routine and integrated into the classroom with ease. Technology integration is a learning process; not all teachers are at the same place in their learning but ALL teachers are making strides and are eager to try new things. If we want teachers to truly integrate technology into their classrooms it takes time. We will continue to explore new ways to engage and inspire our students throughout the entire school year.

Our little learners are teaching monsters to read! In the process they are learning to read themselves and strengthen their skills. After students have designed their own monsters they are able to write to us telling us what their monster's name is and what the monsters like and dislike. In one classroom we recorded our little learner voices talking about their monsters! The website has two games that students can play at school or at home for free. It's been a big hit! http://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

Ms. Foreman's 5th grade classroom is participating in Global Read Aloud 2014. Students and educators from around the world connect while reading a common novel. Ms. Foreman's class chose to read The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm. Throughout the month room 213 read the story together and then collaborated through Google Hangouts (video conferences) to connect with a classroom from Highland Park, IL. Time differences made it difficult to connect with other countries but next year we will try again. The students did a great job talking about the novel with their new friends via technology.

QR Codes weren't developed to be used in education but that didn't stop educators from using them to their advantage! During the 1st quarter Mrs. Zumpano held a professional development for teachers on using QR Codes in the classroom. The presentation was very well received! Teachers have used QR codes to link to classroom websites, book summaries, audio clips by students, missing context clue puzzles and link to peer feedback forms just to name a few. QR Codes can be scanned by an device with a reader installed on it. If you see them please scan!