Homestead Elementary's Dynamic Duo
January 2004
 This
month's shining stars are Ross Johnson and Shelley
Szipszky. These two dynamic teachers have worked together
to create innovative uses of Palms in their instructional strategies.
With limited dollars and unlimited imagination both Ross and Shelley
have introduced their students to a wide range of learning activities.
Shelley was last year's ASTE Teacher of the Year. She teaches a
6th grade class. She started the year off with 8 Palms purchased
from a grant from the Elmendorf's Officer's Wives Club. Over the
summer she acquired three more plus three keyboards with her own
funds through eBay. Her students are using them in reading groups
where the students work in pairs to read the electronic books chapter
by chapter. They answer questions and draw pictures to illustrate
the chapters. Shelley plans on introducing her students to the bookmark
and annotation capabilities as she moves toward a literature circle
model. In addition, the students are using them to type research
reports. They sync to Shelley's computer and print out their work.
They are also doing spelling assignments on the Palms.
Ross teaches a third grade classroom where he incorporates Palms
with language arts, math and social studies. Recently, they finished
up an ebook, Brian's Winter. Ross put the children into
groups of 3 because they didn't have enough Palms for each child.
He made comprehension questions for the book so the students could
respond using the notepad feature. After they completed the questions
they beamed their answers to Ross so he could grade them. He also
used the SmartBoard and a digital camera so the students could see
his Palm while they read. Ross has also used the SmartBoard for
their geometry unit, Native American Unit, and daily morning work.
He states, "The students love to be able to go and work the smart
board. With the Native American unit I could go to web sites that
had very good information and pictures." - Ross shared that there
are a lot of parents buying their students Palm handheld computers.
He encourages these students to use them for writing assignments,
spelling homework, and assignment sheets.
Shelley and Ross use the single Smartboard in the building in a
variety of ways. Both use it to share web sites, illustrate software,
practice editing of writing, and math games off the internet that
require whole group interactive responses. Their goal is to acquire
another SmartBoard which would be shared among the staff.
Since Shelley and Ross started using the Palms, several parents
have taken the plunge and purchased them for their children. This
past parent/teacher conference they offered to do the shopping for
parents if they were interested in getting their children a Palm
that they could keep. "Parents sent in a form (after conferences)
indicating their interest in purchasing one from us that we have
purchased on ebay at the same cost we bought them for.The benefit
that parents have in buying one is that their child is they don't
have to give it back and or have to share with another student.",
said Shelly. Surprisingly, the majority of the parents were willing.
Their ultimate goal would be to have two permanent classroom sets
for school.
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