It’s hard to believe mid-quarter progress reports go out next week!  I am loving each day with my 4th graders.  They are doing some amazing things with our old Writers as we (I, because they don’t even know yet) wait patiently for the Central Office to order our netbooks…

Three of our Luna moth caterpillars have survived and today “Fatty” decided to encase himself (?) in a chrysalis!  Every 5 minutes some of us had to check him out!  And we wait patiently for our netbooks…

We couldn’t wait to get to Brainstorm Beach yesterday.  Brainstorm Beach is our group circle area which is created using  the backs of two book shelves spaced about 7 feet apart (complete with the Terrific Kid beach chair).  Several weeks ago my wonderful husband nailed white shower board to both backs so the kids could use wipe off markers to “brainstorm” and share ideas.  Anyway, we finished Hatchet while holding our breath to find out if Brian would get rescued!  That is one of my favorite parts of the day (and the kids too, I think).  We shared raspberries there the other day ’cause Brian had eaten some in the book, and many of my kids had never tried them before!  Did I mention I love teaching this age group?  And we wait patiently for the Central Office to order our netbooks…

Photo Credit: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/DANPOD/US48_BJA0005.jpg

Okay, so while we’re waiting for our netbooks, I’ve been using my cart of Writers (which I’ve had for 5 years and still absolutely LOVE!) as an intro – an appetizer if you’d like!  They have ADORED them!  As always happens when my kids use the Writers, their writing is more detailed, and includes, GULP, most capital letters, punctuation, and complete sentences!

The Writer

I let them take them home last night for the first time ever (used to guard them like a hawk, but I’ve gotten treatment in preparation for our 1:1 over the last few years!)  They were so excited they’d be able to finish their work!  4th graders!  I love it!  And, winning a bet with my husband, every one of them returned to class today with them in their protective cases.  They still don’t know what’s coming in a few weeks!  I can hardly stand it.

Catching up on blog reading tonight, I came across this video on Scott McLeod’s blog.  Couldn’t agree more!  Bring on the netbooks and new ways of teaching!

I Need My Teachers to Learn

Wow!  So we are already at the end of our second week in school, and I am just now sitting down long enough to blog!  So much for my resolution to blog every day.  Maybe it’s because we are still anxiously awaiting our netbooks.  I keep thinking, when we really get started with our wonderful 1:1 adventure, THEN, I’ll blog every day.  We’ll see!

Several things happened during our first days together that made me chuckle with anticipation.  The kids and their families don’t know yet that we will all become pioneers for our county in an exciting 1:1 pilot program.  In an effort to get to know my kids I had them fill in the traditional “interest inventory”.  One question was, “If you could wish for 3 things what would they be?”  Eight out of my 19 students listed having their own laptop!  Of all the wishes in the world, that is one of the top three!!  Also in the first days, I read the book Miss Nelson is Missing.  I then had the kids design their “ultimate classroom”!  Of course there were the suggestions of flat screen TVs on every wall, hot tub in the middle of the room, roller coaster right outside the back door, and then….. laptops for each kid!  Yippie!  They are going to be so excited when they find out their dreams are coming true this year!

Anyway, onto the topic of this post!  We read a story out of the basal reader together called, “Lewis and Clark and Me”, which the kids LOVED!  They thought it was so interesting to hear the story from the dog, Seaman’s, point of view!  Found some great Google Earth interactive tours we took together, but the thing they liked the most was traveling with Lewis and Clark at this National Geographic site – http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisclark/index.html

Would be fun to have them design one like this… maybe when we get our laptops!

Image Credit: http://mycharlottesvilleagent.com/LewisandClark-My-Charlottesville-Agent.jpg

Okay, first this post is a pleading request for our administrators and central office leaders to continue to fund and support our Instructional Technology Facilitators, or at least mine! : )  Today I was out with my son who fractured the growth plate in his left ankle.  Btw, I have his x-rays on a CD given to us by the doctor!  Very cool stuff, took a screen shot and emailed it to his curious grandparents!

Anyway, so I’m at home (the last day before Memorial Day weekend and the end of End of Grade Test week – a substitute’s nightmare!) and I luckily have a wonderful partner who had reserved the laptop cart, but allowed me to use it for my kids today.  So I assign a Jog-the-Web assignment for my kids with some built in pieces they need to either email me using Gaggle or submit using their Edmodo accounts.  Well, my second block (I lovingly refer to them as my “helpless hand-raisers” because they still fear to tread and solve problems on their own – previous conditioning that incorrect answers will be punished??) has many questions.  My WONDERFUL Instructional Tech Facilitator and great friend, Danita,  checks in on them, realizes the problem, and sets up a Skype, using her laptop, between me and the kids!

Wow, it was fantastic!!  I could answer their questions, guide them with the directions, let them know how much I wished I was there, and they even talked to my son about his ankle and wished him well.  So a BIG shout-out to Danita, my wonderful substitute who kept things under control even when I left plans involving laptops, my school system for allowing us to use Skype, and to my kids for working hard while I was out.

It sure is nice to blog about something positive!  Tearing down the classroom walls one brick at a time!

Photo Credit: xjpxpyro’s photostream

I’ve divided my kids into groups (based on their suggestions on index cards of whom they could work well with) and they are now responsible for adding content to the class science wikis (Core 1and Core 2).  Unlike in the Fall however when they added whatever, whenever they wanted.  I have decided to be much more structured at this step in Project WISE.

The kids chose questions related to our Earthquake unit which they must answer as “experts”.  In an effort to ensure they were exploring meaningful sites, I put together a Jog the Web (one of my favorite tools!) where they could do most of their online research.  I also checked out every book in our library on Earthquakes!  The kids have been researching and collecting their information in a Word document.  Today we began copying and pasting their research into their wikis.  They LOVE it!  The room was completely silent with the exception of whispers of assistance from one to another and the click of laptop keys!  Although we do have a few entries which will need to be edited due to the questionable high level vocabulary that showed up “using their own words”, our first attempt at a more organized wiki is going well.

Next week they’ll add many of the lab photos and videos they’ve taken.  Should be interesting!!

Photo Credit: Silence is Deafening

This week we were supposed to welcome visitors from the UK who were coming to see how we are using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.  Unfortunately, we found out today while awaiting the arrival of our guests, that due to planning problems at our Department of Public Instruction, the teachers from England would not be coming to our school after all.  Needless to say, we (the kids and I) were very disappointed.

However, in anticipation of their visit, I stepped my Web 2.0 teaching up a notch.  Something I should’ve done months ago, but had gotten into a rut!  What the kids have done the last few days has been wonderful!  Needless to say, having access to the laptop cart made it all COMFORTABLY possible.  I know it all could have been done sharing the 5 desktop computers, but there is a real and measurable advantage to every child having their own laptop on which to complete their activities!

The kids have been using Smart Notebook and the Smart recorder which is on all of the laptops, to create soundless screen capture videos of how to complete various math problems.  They then upload their one to two minute videos onto their Gaggle Blogs and write a post which explains in words how to solve the problem.  As I look over the blog posts, I am amazed at what a great formative assessment tool this has become for me!  Not only are the kids motivated, but I can see first hand what the patterns of errors are, and the kids are challenged to explain their thinking.  It has been great!

In addition, we had a great Skype session today with a wonderful seismologist from the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory!  The kids got to ask the many questions they have developed as we have been conducting our unit on plate tectonics and the lithosphere.  Dr. Peggy Hellweg did a wonderful job keeping her answers interesting and at a level which my students could understand.  Thank you Dr. Hellweg for “visiting” our classroom!  Can’t wait until tomorrow – and I haven’t felt that way in quite awhile!

What happens when you mix the following ingredients:

• 30 eager 6th graders who have rarely (if ever) used a digital camera and know little to nothing about PowerPoint
• 12 VERY BASIC digital cameras (thanks to a grant from NCaect)
• A wireless laptop cart with brand new HP laptops (thanks to our school system) installed with PowerPoint (among many other great programs)
• An assignment that begins, “A very popular Science magazine has hired you to do a “photo shoot” for one of the following themes. Circle which theme your group would like to work on:

  “Mysteries on the Outside”

  “Our World, Close Up”

  “I’ll Believe It When I See It”

• Two 80 minute blocks of class time
  

Curious? Click here to find out!

Photo Credit: Kid With a Camera