My NECC 2008 Video Diary Day 2 San Antonio Sight Seeing

We spent a lot of time sight seeing. Even though it hasn't rained much lately, everything here looks green and beautiful.

My NECC 2008 Video Diary Day 1 Heading to San Antonio

It seems like every trip we take has its high stress moments. Dianna and I are hoping that the car problems are going to be it.

Summer School Investigate 5 One Bad Reaction

What do you think? Can you think of anything that bubbles up like that?

SS Investigate 4 Goopy Stuff

We are experimenting with two solutions, polyvinyl alcohol in water and borax in water. When we mix them interesting things happen. Here is a link to our Scientific Method write-up.



After conducting your experiment, what 2 questions do you have?

Clowning Around in Mr. H's Classroom

This is what happens when you let clowns in summer school. It is time for someone to tell the fourth graders to quit clowning around!

SS Investigate 3 Revisited

After leaving the eggs in the vinegar over the weekend, how did they change? Compare and contrast the egg before and after we placed it in the vinegar. Identify whether it was a physical change, chemical change, or both.

Having Fun in Summer School?!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.


Hooray! We are half-way through summer school! What is the best class or activity you have had so far and why was it so great!

SS Investigate 3 An Eggciting Eggsperiment

Our next experiment deals with chemical changes. After observing what happened to several substances we combined, we added vinegar to an egg to see what would happen. What did you observe when the egg was combined with the vinegar?

Archaeology-The Science of Human Culture

My class is studying archaeology today in summer school. Obviously with the Indiana Jones series being so popular now, the idea of searching for lost civilizations and the treasure that it implies is something my students find interesting. Having been present at a working dig site in Jamestown, Virginia, I found that archaeology was more about patience, diligence, and analysis rather than dodging hidden traps while searching for lost treasure.

SS Experiment 2

In the second experiment you were given the task to see if the temperature of water effects the rate of dissolving. What did you learn?

SS Experiment #1 Does Heat Effect the Rate of Diffusion?

After completing the first experiment for summer school, what did you observe? Does the temperature effect the rate of diffusion? Explain your answer.

Welcome Summer School Students

Welcome to summer school. We are going to learn how to use the scientific method and write up a lab report. We will also get to mess with crazy chemicals! Tell me what you think of summer school by commenting on this post.

Introducing The Biome Project

It is time to unveil our newest project The Biome Project. This project asks the students to use art to create visual representations of biomes and then give information orally about the biomes.

Students were given two options with their projects. The first choice was to create dioramas of three biomes. They then had to give a presentation about the biomes that was recorded by our webcam on Ustream. Here is an excellent example of Macy's project.


The second choice was to represent the biomes using cut construction paper. The projects were photographed and uploaded to Voicethread, where the students then narrated the pictures. Here is Keith's example from the project.

I am very proud of the students' effort with this project. We started this with two weeks of school left, and they worked very hard to get them completed.

We would all be very pleased if you left a comment for the students.

The Hindenburg

Here is the video of the Hindenburg explosion.


This is a silent reel shown at movie theaters.

John Brown: Famous or Infamous?

John Brown was an abolitionist. He is best known in American history as the man that led the failed attempt to steal munitions from Harper's Ferry in 1859. In Kansas he may be best known for the Pottawatomie Massacre.

Here is a link to an interactive time line hosted by PBS for their American Experience series. It shows from birth to burial John Brown's life.

After the raid, and Brown's execution, many northern abolitionists considered him a martyr to the abolition movement. The famous song "John Brown's Body" was used as a march during the Civil War by the Union troops.

John Brown's life is perfectly suited for the debate: Does the end justify the means?

Was John Brown justified for rebelling against his country, was he justified for avenging the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, or was John Brown just a loony murderer?

Ghosts of the Past; Ghosts in the Present- McDonald County Ghost Towns Part 3

This is a hand drawn map of Coy. It was made by the great-grandmother of Kirsten, one of Mrs. Keaton's students.


This is a picture of some of Kirsten's great-great-great-great-grandparents that settled in Coy.


Mrs. Retha Mitchell from the McDonald County Library came to our class to tell us about ghost towns of McDonald County. She told us stories about several ghost towns including Splitlog, Indian Springs, and Coy. The stories were really interesting.


The first post can be found here, the second post can be found here.

This is the audio from the presentation. The first is on Indian Springs and Splitlog, the second is on the present towns of McDonald County. I hope you enjoy.

Eric Langhorst- Missouri Teacher of the Year

Our class was honored by a visit from a distinguished educator, Eric Langhorst. Mr. Langhorst visited our classroom because he enjoys following our class blog.

While here, he recorded a question and answer session that he hopes to turn into a podcast. The students asked him many different types of questions, some about school and some more personal.

I had a very interesting discussion with him about the use of technology in the classroom. I can say after meeting him that Missouri is well represented by Eric.

Here are links to two of his blogs: Speaking of American History 2007/2008 Missouri Teacher of the Year

Here is a link to the podcast Eric recorded while in the classroom.

This is one reason why we blog. It allows us to meet great people!

Biomes and Google Docs

Did you know that you could save your Google docs as a web page? I didn't either until I started preparing this lesson. It is very cool to be able to create my document, then save it as a web page that Google hosts. This makes my life much easier, and I am down with that.

Here is the link to the biomes assignment we talked about in class. Do your best work, your work will be documented on the internet for all to see.

Free Missouri Conservationist Magazine

If you are a Missouri resident and do not already recieve your free subscription to the Missouri Conservationist, then you can subscribe here.

Here is a link to the Missouri Department of Conservation web site.

Here is a link to the MDC's blog.

King Midas and the Golden Touch

This weeks story is in the Myth genre. In this particular story a man gets what he wishes for, but not what he really wants.

Vocabulary: adorn, cleanse,lifeless, precious, realm, spoonful