Would You Like to See This Happen at Noel?

Karl Fisch's blog The Fischbowl is a regular stop for me since he covers things that interest me. For the past four years he has posted video on his blog of his school's faculty dancing. Here are the links:

2007

2008

2009

2010

#Comments4Kids: January 25-29

Here are this weeks sites for you to visit and leave a comment on. Now that internet access has been fixed we will be able to create our own blog posts on Friday at our Ning. Tuesday we will set aside some time for getting gmail addresses. Wednesday we will get you added to the ning. Friday you will write a post on your experiences with #comments4kids. This means you must comment on each of these posts!

Post #1:
Residential Watercolor at 3W
Pick your favorite water color and leave the artist a positive comment. Tell him or her why it is your favorite.

Post #2:
Japati Likes Samoan Food at Little Voices, Little Scholars
Japati is in a class that is similar to our kindergarten. He is reading a story he wrote himself. Notice the confidence in his reading and his clear speaking voice. Leave a comment congratulating him on being a confident reader.

Post #3
Sand Not Pebbles at Rachel's World of Awesomeness
Rachel is one of my friends from China. She has been blogging for a couple years now. I chose this post because she had to explain how she created the artwork. Leave her a positive comment.

Post #4
I Love This Video at Tiffany
Tiffany is another friend from China. She found this video on her school portal. Does the video have a message? Leave a comment about the video.

Post #5
Podcast Episode 6-Math at Ms. Deyenberg's Class Blog
This class creates podcasts. Listen to this one (you will need headphones) and leave a comment. Is this an effective way to show how to do math? Who would learn the math better, the students that created the podcast or the students that listen to it?

Website Review: Poptropica

"Poptropica is a massively multiplayer online game and virtual world, targeted at children ages 6 to 15, where players can travel, play games, compete in head-to-head competition, and communicate safely with each other. There is a role-playing component as players are encouraged to finish "island missions" and get medallions."
Wikipedia.com

Your job is to check out the site Poptropica. You will write a review of the site. You will address these three things:

1. What ages is this appropriate for?
2. How safe is this game for children?
3. How fun is the site?

Finally, you will either recommend this site or not recommend it.

I plan to introduce this site to our fourth grade in April if you find it meets our requirements.

Getting a Gmail Account

You need to get a gmail account. This will allow you to join the 7th grade Ning as well as use the many Google tools I plan to introduce you to.

Here is a link to a video that shows you how to create a Gmail account. Make sure your gmail user name is appropriate for school!

Comments 4 Kids January 18-22

Students, welcome to the activity I call Comments4Kids. Here is a link to the post that started the activity. Here is a link to Robert explaining why commenting is important for both the student that wrote the post as well as you, the commenter.

You will be expected to leave comments

Here are the rules for commenting on others blogs:

1. Keep the commenting positive.
2. Keep the comments relevant to the post.
3. Link back to the class blog.

Here are the posts you will be commenting on this week:

Mrs. Goerned teaches 6th grade students in Iowa. Her students have written poetry and would like some comments. Remember, poetry is very personal so be careful with your comments. Pick one (or more) post on each page to leave a comment.
Link 1 Mrs. Goerend's Students Page 1
Link 2 Mrs. Goerend's Students Page 2

Ms. Pohanka is teaching 6th grade geometry to students in Virginia. Note her class blog looks much different from Mrs. Goerend's blog (or our blog for that matter!) You may want to spend some time looking around the blog and see how it is different. Choose two (or more) posts to leave a comment on. (You can find more posts by clicking on the page numbers at the bottom.)

Link 3 Flattening the World

Since you have expressed how much you have missed Mr. McClung (I can't imagine why ;), I have included his class blog this week. This time your comment does not have to be relevant to the post.

Mr. McClung's World: Lessons Learned

On Friday you will be writing about your experience commenting on blog posts this week. I may even have a few of you record your experiences to post on the class blog. Make sure you can explain what you commented on and how the experience has changed you as a writer!

Lot's To Do (Where Do I Start?)

As you can see from the pictures my classroom (lab) is full of promise. I have computers that need to be networked in classrooms throughout the building. Unfortunately there are so many I don't have a clue where to begin. I know, this is a good problem to have!

Retelling To Build a Fire by Jack London

To Build a Fire is a short story by Jack London. London liked to show the conflict between man and nature. Read the story and think about what point London is trying to make.

After you have read the story, I want you to choose a new way to retell the story. Pick a digital tool we have used before and freshen up the tale. Make sure the plot remains, we don't want to write a new story.