Cocoa Cafe Poetry Reading Reminder

Wanted: Cereal Boxes

The students are in the process of doing cereal box reports on their current reading books. Many of them are almost ready to begin assembling their novel based cereals! We are in DESPARATE need for cereal boxes. If you have any at home, could you send them in sans cereal? Thanks!

Cocoa Cafe

Over the course of the next month we will be learning about the different forms of poetry through a webquest entitled The Cocoa Café. Each student will be required to submit a poetry portfolio as a final project on March 15th. I would like each student to decide on a portfolio type that matches his or her individual style. For example, if a student enjoys scrapbooking, he or she may want to make a portfolio “scrapbook”. If a student has a love of sports or animals, I would like for him or her to have the option to write a themed portfolio and possibly make a shaped book representing the theme. Of course a simple organized folder or binder is completely acceptable as long as it is inclusive of the outlined assignment. The evaluation webpage will help as a general guideline as to how to assemble the portfolio. Students may work on the webquest at home as well as in class. I will be going over EACH poem type and writing an example WITH the class. The final individual poems are up to each student to create for his or her portfolio. As a culminating activity for this unit, we have been given private use of Flesor’s Candy Kitchen to gather for a live poetry reading on Wednesday, March 24th! The reading usually lasts 30 minutes. You will have an opportunity to purchase ice cream and/or candy before and after the show! If you have any questions, please email me at ssmith@tuscola.k12.il.us.

About Me

Wow. Aaron Iba has just sold Etherpad to Google for an estimated $10 million. We used Etherpad earlier this year for an online collaborative assignment within the computer lab. It is a "real time" online notepad that allows multiple users to collaborate. In real time. Did I mention real time? That is HUGE. Google Docs tried to do this...and they were close. They made collaborative documents with chat areas and when the page refreshed, the changes by all collaborators were visible. But it still wasn't real time. How do I know this? I know this because I have been using Google Docs with my students for the past three years. And it isn't in real time.

So why the Wow? I mean really. I know I am probably one of the only geeks in a 5 county area that cares about this transaction. But I have just had some serious validation. Kids want to use tech. Some of them, like Aaron Iba, need to use tech to learn and be engaged and NOT BORED.

Please take a moment to read his "About Me" page on his personal website. Seriously...it is worth the read! And if you know me and what I stand for...you will understand my WOW!

Discovery Education

Yesterday I decided to put together an assignment for my students that would enable them to become completely independent learners. How did I do it you ask? (Ok even if you didn't ask I am still going to tell you!) I decided to dive into our school's subscription of Discovery Education (formerly known as United Streaming). I spent about three hours clicking on various buttons and really taking in the options that are available for teachers. It was pretty easy to set up a "classroom" by giving my students usernames and passwords for individual access to the site. I also created an assignment in the assignment builder area. I am amazed at the possibilities for using this feature with the kids to create online classes for any subject area. It is a matter of choosing what media I want the kids to view, websites to access, and providing instructions for the kids to follow. Voila...instant lessons the kids can access independently to take control of their learning. I created a google doc for my students to fill out with answers to questions that went along with the two videos on plant classification. Little did I know, there is actually a quiz builder that I could have used right in the site. I will be sure to try that for the next online assignment. I asked the kids whether or not they liked this format and they all assured me that watching a video and answering questions on a virtual "worksheet" was much more fun than the traditional science book lesson. I sort of figured that is what they would say....

I hope the kids will take a look around the Discovery Education site in the next couple of days. I know I will be thinking of more and more ways to utilize this site for differentiation as well as alternative forms of assessing students!

Thank You

There is no better day to say thank you to all of the students, staff and parents of NorthWard Elementary than today. Thank you for making my job challenging, entertaining, and worthwhile. I am truly blessed. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Wolfram Alpha Video

A while back, the crew from Wolfram Alpha visited our classroom to see how we have been using this "computational knowledge engine" to assist in student learning. Here is the video they captured.