WEB 2.0 Book Report and Technology Course Improves Teaching...

Well, I have continued to apply what I have been learning in my wonderful Rich Kiker courses at the MCIU.  Not only are parents able to follow me and read my blogs, but the kids are more engaged as they create interactive posters and reports.  I let the kids recently explore a variety of WEB 2.0 presentation sites.  I told them to explore, learn, talk to each other, and eventually SHOW ME how to create a project and the use the program.  To my delight, kids were clicking and showing and doing.  I did not see any off task behavior.  I even had a few kids starting on their book report project because they had found a site and had finished their book report book early.  I heard a lot of, "How did you do..." and "Look at what I did!"  There was a lot of excitement for those 30 minutes in the Computer Lab.  I even had two kids ask if they could use additional programs that I had not listed.  I hope to see Movie Maker and Prezi used.  I hope to have kids use Prezi to present information from our Science unit on Light and Color too. 

I am also getting more and more quick professional development through Twitter, Google  Plus, Edmodo, and Google reader.  It is overwhelming at times, but at other times, I can skim and pick up small things as time allows.  I have installed the Google Reader on my phone which acts like an RSS feed and brings all the blogs I follow to my finger tips.  Here is where I keep up to date on current events and new educational and technological advancements.  Also, I have copied some articles from Time to share with kids on Global Warming, and my Google Reader continues to "feed" me Global Warming articles and other informative articles to keep me in the loop so I can teach the most up to date information.

The only thing I have not been successful with is getting my students and parents to follow me @MissMorrision123 on Twitter.  I think with time, I will get more and more parents who are already familiar with Twitter so that when they come to my class they will easily know how to follow me.  Our principal, Joe Mazza, has created numerous opportunities for parents to come and learn about Twitter and other new ways to keep in touch with the school and teachers.  These things take time, especially with those families that do not have Internet access.

Please do not forget to FOLLOW ME on Twitter AND RESPOND TO MY BLOGS. :/

Earth Day 2012

Earth Day 2012

Earth Day is Sunday

Earth Day is Sunday!  At Knapp, we are celebrating on Monday.  We will be reading Environmental Facts over the announcements  Monday- Friday, visiting our Courtyard, and cleaning up around the school grounds. 

As much as I love Earth Day and Arbor Day, I wish that more people would take care of Mother Earth EVERY DAY.  Just like EVERY DAY should be Mother's or Father's Day, every day should be Earth Day.  I recently showed my science classes the HBO documentary Too Hot Not Too Handle.  This documentary showed how our human race is polluting our air and affecting our Ozone Layer and therefore causing life-threatening weather conditions and events.  I know there is a debate whether there are just Solar Cycles occurring or if humans are really causing Global Warming, but the fact remains...our air quality has decreased.  When I fly into LA to visit family, I see brown smog clouds resting above the sky in the morning.  I can also think back to my Montana vacation and noticing what a difference in the air quality.  I had never breathed in such fresh, clean air.  I also visit NYC often and cannot believe that people can continually walk the streets breathing in filth.  

Therefore, even if you do not believe in Global Warming, please believe in yourself.  Please know that we are polluting our air and therefore hurting our bodies by driving, building, and littering.

PLEASE MAKE EVERY DAY EARTH DAY in order to not just save others, animals, and plants, but to save our futures! 

Ms. Rubbo came into my class 2 today to do a Guidance lesson on LISTENING.  Kids had to listen to a story while drawing a map of directions from Knapp to their home.  They also "tried" to listen to another story while 3 classmates walked, stomped, and made noises around the room.  Each time Ms. Rubbo "quizzed" them after to see how much they remembered. 

The lesson proved that it is hard to focus when there is music, talking, or any other distractions in the background.  They also talked about how some music can be good background sound, "white noise", that CAN HELP kids focus.  It is also important to note that it is hard to multitask.  The children discussed how it is even hard for them to think and talk or read and talk.  Therefore, they will try to find a quiet place to read and do homework and not have the television playing in the background as it could lead to a distraction.

I sometimes leave my television on while I am grading.  I too find that it takes me twice as long to grade because for 10 minutes I am watching and then for another 10 minutes I'm grading.  I am not really multitasking, instead I am watching then grading, watching then grading and so on.  I also do better when the television is off so this is a great lesson for kids to take with them through school and adulthood.  I also do envy those that have selective hearing and can read a book on a large, crowded bus.  I will keep trying. :)

Did We Persuade You?

My Language Arts students worked hard over the past few weeks in order to finalize their Persuasive Letters.  They used the Writing Process to create authentic letters trying to persuade their audience of something they felt strongly about or needed.  Some students wrote to their parents requesting longer time to play outside and others wrote to the principal describing the need for extra recess.  One child wrote to a Philadelphia Philly and tried to persuade him to come visit and speak at our school.  There were also a few that tried to persuade a family member to stop smoking.  

Once we came back from break, we began making finishing touches and started mailing or handing the letters to their recipients.  We are now patiently awaiting their replies.  Our Principal will read them over and pay a visit to respond to the letters he received.  (I did this a few years ago and a student requested more swings and what do you know, POOF, next year we had more swings.  Ironic?  Of course not, my student persuaded the principal! :)

One of our master 3rd grade teachers is a phenomenal writer and lead a few professional developments last year where she showed us how kids connect with authentic writing by the use of  a Writer's Notebook.  Why would anyone want to write for no purpose?  We all did at one point to get a grade, however, wouldn't it be more engaging and fun to write a letter to Sony requesting the company lower their prices?  My student did this since his parents felt that the games were overpriced.  I do hope these people and companies reply, however, there is the other lesson that we will discuss when we get there, which is how to deal with no response.  Students will also need to understand that they may not persuade all these people, but they should have no regrets because they tried.  

I do feel that my students wrote better because they had a passion for this assignment.  I was truly impressed with 95% of their letters and was quite convinced myself!  If anything, I hope these kids enjoyed the work and the lessons in writing a persuasive letter and using a word processor to publish. 

I will be back to blog about our "authentic" responses.

Classroom Meeting "TEAM" CHALLENGE

ON FRIDAY Students in my homeroom continued towards their goal of successfully passing Gator Skin Balls around the circle without dropping 1 before all have made it successfully around.  For 1-3 Gator Skin Balls they have to pass each ball 3x around successfully.  When they get to 4 Gator Skin Balls they will need to have all 4 pass through 2x and with 5 & 6 balls...JUST ONCE!  They need to use teamwork to eventually toss 6 Gator Skin Balls around a circle without dropping a ball.  They have successfully gotten up to 2 Gator Skin Balls and are now attempting 3 at a time.  We will see what next week brings.

  HOWDY KIDS!  GOOD LUCK FROM SEDONA, ARIZONA

New Blogger

It has been a fascinating and overwhelming experience to just BEGIN to learn about WEB 2.0 and all the 21st Century "tools" that our children can use to learn.  I've decided to take one new tool out of my teacher, Rich Kiker's, toolbox, at a time and see if it would work in my classroom.  I will attempt to try each one in some way or have the students use them in varying degrees.  I do feel fortunate that our District and principal have already begun to slowly teach us about these "tools" at In-Services, Staff Meetings, and bi-monthly Professional Learning Communities, however, we would need a summer-long workshop and then some to really wrap our hands around the vast amount of technologies out there.  I thought it was hard enough to find time to balance between my Wiki, website, Edmodo, and Twitter, but now I am just realizing there is so much more!  Also, my Wiki was very limited so I am excited to update and transform it into something that will be more readily used in the classroom.

I do intend to implement a few of the publishing/presentation programs in a few weeks.  My students will pick one to present their book report.  I think this is a great way to see how a few programs work and let the kids explore at home and in school as to which program fits them best.  This will be a lot of self-directed learning, as I will be learning at the same time, but I think this will be a valuable experience since our 21st Century kids could always use more problem-solving practice.

Well, this is my first OFFICIAL BLOG ENTRY that I have posted.  Feel free to comment!