Learning Can Take Place After School Too!

Here is Jacob playing around with BeFunky.com's filters. While he is obviously having fun changing his picture around, he is also making qualitative observations about what those filters do to his picture. The fact that he is sharing what he is doing with others in the class is a bonus.

Robert Talks About Comments4Kids

Here is Robert talking about Wednesday's Comments4Kids assignment. I think this sums up why I think commenting is so important.

How to Sign Up For a Grou.ps Account/Explanation of Grou.ps

Here is a screencast that shows you how to sign up for a Grou.ps account. Here is a link to a bigger size for this video.



Here is an explanation of how the Grou.ps site works. Here is a link to a bigger size for this video.



Here is the link for the 8th Grade group.

Comments4Kids Wednesday

It's that time again, Comments4Kids Wednesday! Below are links I would like you to go to. Read the post and leave a positive, meaningful comment. Here is a link to the blog post that started it all. You may wish to read it before you begin.

A New Bridge Built (with A LOT of heart) BY Maggie Gaughran

"How I See the World Around Me" Room Ten Photo Competition Winners

Dribble

Melville Intermediate School Singing Group

Calvin's Recount of the "Little Red Riding Hood"

Kapa Haka Week 2

Reflections on Typing

Below is the audio to my fifth hour keyboarding classes first attempt at reflection. As you can tell from the audio, they obviously are not used to reflecting (at least in a classroom setting.)

Because I know reflection is an incredibley powerful part of the learning experience, I know that I need to continue to help them develop this skill. Even in keyboarding I can help my students become better, more reflective learners.

Editing Pictures Using BeFunky

BeFunky.com is a picture editor that allows you to put "filters" on your picture. It is a pretty basic editing site for your pictures. Go to the site, upload your picture and try out the different filters. When you have decided on a picture or two, click save and choose download to the desktop.

Dale Gets It!

Here is a video starring Dale. Yes, he has been featured on the blog before, but he is here now because he gets "it". Assessment should be evaluative in nature and it should be used to help guide learning.

When you get your data back from your assessments, look at the results. What can you do to improve? What strengths did you find to build on? Will you use this information to help you become a better student?

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up.

Here are two videos of students that explain what they want to do when they grow up. Notice they really had no idea how to get there from where they are now. Hopefully my questions will prompt them to think about what they need to do.

Beginning the Year With Recall

Here is Alan-Michael explaining a quick social studies project to help them recall where the states are in the continental United States.

Typing Pal Online

This year we are moving to keyboarding using Typing Pal Online. I have set my students' goal at 45 words per minute with a 95% accuracy. When they accomplish this goal, they will be using the rest of their semester creating content using tech and web tools.

I am looking forward to the enthusiasm that my students will bring to class when they realize that keyboarding class isn't a semester long sentence with no chance for parole!

Serendipity

Look what I found from last year!

Welcome Back!

Here is a video I made showing some snapshots of my first day back to school. I suspect these scenes repeat themselves throughout all districts on their first day back.

BTW the yellow stuff really is what you think! First day jitters I suppose...

Always Evolving, Always Changing

One of the best reasons to become more technologically literate is because technology is always changing.That of course requires us to continue to learn, adapt, and evolve. An active mind is a sharp mind. With that in mind, welcome to the next generation of content collection for Noel Elementary, Grou.ps.

The picture above shows a screen shot of the beginning of our eight grade group. The purpose of the group is two-fold. First, it is a place for students to display content they create using tech (and non-tech) tools. Second, it is a learning community where students can communicate with each other (and selected adults) so they can further their education. With this site, there are no barriers for learning other than computer/internet access.

So, if you will be an eighth grade student at Noel this year, sign up and get started. If you will be in grades 3-7, be patient. Your group is in the works. If you are a teacher and would like to join our community, email me.

Do What?!?!?!?

In case you can't tell, this sign was taped to the wall next to a bulletin board. This reminds me of some of my students...;>

What's Your Killer Application?

Alex here is curious, he wants to know what are the most important applications to use in school. Is it blogs, wiki's, or Nings? Maybe you prefer Glogster, Kerpoof, or Edmodo? Tell me what program you can't live without.

Our Last Chance to Comment This Year

Here are two posts that were inspired by you! This is what happens when you reach out to others, you change things and make them better. Show them some comment love!

Mrs. Pohanka's post.
Daraj aAcademy post.

Here are some more blog posts to comment on. Make sure you give positive and relevant comments.

Little Voices, Little Scholars
Creative Voice- Dante
Creative Voice- Caitlin
Room 15 Point England School

Pick Your Book of the Year: Mrs. W's Blog

We are going to post our favorite book we read this year on Mrs. W's Blog. Here is the link to the post. Make sure your comment is a paragraph that identifies your book and give three reasons why it is your favorite. Also make sure grammar, punctuation, and spelling are right.

Students Making Decisions for The Biome Project

My students are working on their biome projects now. Throughout this project they had to make choices based on what works best for them. Here are some vids of my students talking about what choices they made.

Here is Seth explaining what strategy he used to gather his information for the project.

Here Rosa talks about what strategy she used to gather her information for the project.

Here is Megan explaining what biomes she chose and which project she will do.

Here is Nathan explaining what biomes he chose and which project he will do.

Here is Parker explaining why he likes to be given choices with his work.

The Mystery of Saint Matthews Island

I've alluded to this story this year during our watching of the Digging for the Truth episode on Easter Island. This story is also about sustainability and how we need to learn from others examples.

We are going to use this story to launch The Biome Project 2009. This will be our extension for reading this week, but I expect it will take longer to complete than the usual extensions. Therefor, I am going to shorten this weeks assignment list so we have more time to finish. I expect we should be finished by next Tuesday including recording. We won't start doing anything on it until Thursday so we can focus on our story.

Here is the link to our Google doc instructions for this weeks reading.

Here is the link to the instructions for The Biome Project 2009.

Call for Participation: The Biome Project 2009

I would like to invite you to participate in this years' 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 are given two options with their projects. The first choice is to create dioramas of three biomes. They then have to give a presentation about the biomes that is visually recorded. Here is an excellent example from last year of Macy's project.

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

Here is the link to the Biome Project 2009 instructions. If you would like your class to participate, leave a comment with contact information, tweet me, or email me at wmchamberlain@gmail.com. Our last day of school is May 22, so if you would like to be involved please contact me soon.