A Titanic Assessement: Using Skills to Create Content

My reading class is trying to do something a little different this week. We are still using our Scott Foresman reading series and still doing the usual assignments. The difference is I have added an extra assessment and extra work to make that assessment successful.

The story we are reading this week is about Robert Ballard and his discovery of the Titanic. The extra assessment is for my students to write a radio report that they will present on Friday. They are going to pretend to be a reporter and give a live radio broadcast as if they are on the Titanic when it sinks, or with Robert Ballard when he discovers the Titanic. For research they have watched a video, read some articles, and, of course, read the story in the reading book.

Click here to see the checklist I created for my students to follow. As you can see, the students had to use several skills to complete this assignment. Today they are reflecting on which skill will help them most with their reading assessment tomorrow. Tomorrow they will analyze their reflection.

Here is Tristin's take on this week's assignments:

Here is Zac's take on this week's assignments:

Here is Parker's view on this week's assignments:

A Visit to George Washington Carver National Monument

These are pictures from George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Missouri. My family visited Friday since we were out of school. This is the first time in about five years that I have visited and since the last visit there has been a huge remodel and upgrade of the facility. They have added many interactive places for kids and adults to explore using scientific equipment. The focus of the interactive exhibits is on nature and farming, both of which Carver loved to learn about.

Overall, I felt there were two main points of emphasis that is evidenced at the park. The first is that Carver was a deeply religious man who relied heavily on God to inspire his work. There are numerous quotes by Carver giving God credit for his guidance and it also includes Carver explaining his conversion experience.

The second point of emphasis at the park was with Carver explaining that the most important focus for mankind is to do service for others. He explained that he never patented any of his creations because he did not want the benefits to be felt by only a few people.
Two of the most impressive features of the building are the classroom and the laboratory. The clasroom is set up like a classroom form a one room school house. It includes tables with benches and slates for the students to use. The laboratory contained lab tables and equipment that are obviously used by school children in programs provided at the monument. As a teacher these two rooms are both intriguing and inviting.
Outside the main building is a walking path that takes you through the park. There are four separate areas on the walk that are very interesting. The first is boardwalk over a wetlands area. The boardwalk allows you to cross the stream running through the park and lets you look at the plants and animals present.
The second area is a small pond that has a trail around it. It is a quiet spot that is intended for reflection and perhaps quiet prayer.
The third area is a recreation of the Moses Carver house. There are often reenactors here showing how life was like in the 1850's. I have seen soap making, doll making, and farming demonstrations here during various visits.
The last area is my favorite. It is the Carver family cemetery. When you look at the tombstones and read the dates you will quickly realize that the cemetery is filled with the graves of young children. This is a powerful lesson in how hard life was for children 150 years ago. It is a place to give thanks for the amazing advances in medicine that have taken place since then.

Overall, this park is one of the best, most updated parks my family and I have been to in the last five years. I highly recommend you look up the park if you are in the area.

Reenactors Come a Viking!

Our school had a fantastic assembly Thursday! We had three reenactors, Ted and Sandy Spring and Rusty Hicks, come to do a giant Viking show-and-tell. They brought an immense number of artifacts as well as an incredible amount of knowledge of their subject. Here are some pictures we took and a video of the presentation.

I asked for a list of different presentations they do in schools.Here is what Ted sent me.

Rusty does an escaped Scots White settler of 1759 on NY frontier during the French and Indian War era and a Highlander during the Scots war of 1740's.He also does a white born-NE woodland raised native American of 1743.

Together we do two men in ROGERS RANGERS in NY in Nov.of 1759 after the St.Francis raid.

I do a German soldier and paratroop jumper of 1944 France and an SS sniper 1945 Berlin defence Volks Heer. I do a 101st Airborne Sgt. in France during the Hedge Row fighting in early summer of 1944 just after the Normandy jump.

All these stints, so to say, have many proper historical props involved and on display. The cost of the presentations depends on the distance traveled and and number of presentations they do.

If you would like to contact the reenactors you can email Ted Spring at tedspring@yahoo.com.

To Mr. Webb With Love: Answers to Room 8 Melville, New Zealand's Questions

Here are the long awaited responses to Mr. Webb's students' questions. Please keep in mind my students did not receive help answering the questions, these are their real answers.

Nathan is going to answer the questions from Prshant.



Seth is going to answer the questions from Scott.



Saul is going to answer the questions from Kaiya.



Sergio is going to answer the questions from Bradyn.




Kayla is going to answer the questions from Baily.



Gavin is going to answer the questions from Arahia.

The Three Century Woman: A Classroom Discussion

Here is the class discussion we had about the story The Three Century Woman. This does not include specific skill and comprehension questions. Instead the goal was to help the students make connections between the story and what they already know.

Thinking Things from Snaith Primary is an excellent source for all types of interesting things. Our students will be visiting this site today to look at the Vikings information. We have special visitors coming tomorrow! I plan on recording their presentation, but I am not sure that I will be able to stream video of it. I will send out a twitter if I am able to show the presentation live.

Here are links to the worksheets the students will be using. Worksheet 1, Worksheet 2, Worksheet 3, Worksheet 4

Blog Check- Rachel's Creative World Blog

Rachel is a student at the Shanghai American School in China. She has been gracious enough to comment many times on my blog as well as occasionally chatting with me online. Rachel left a comment last week asking for me to come check out the video her brother made which she posted on her blog. Here is a link to the excellent video. If you are interested in creating movies or would like an example of a student's work, then you need to watch it!

Thank you, Rachel for your support of our class blog.

Not a Replacement, but Close Enough!

Since I will be out of school until Wednesday, I want to leave a little something on the blog for you to remember me by. Although this won't replace my being in the classroom, it may help ease the pain and sorrow you are feeling. All you have to do is click the button. (The more clicks the better!)



I found this at cornify.com

Why We Should Never Drink and Drive

This is a public service announcement that ran on Australian television. The responsibility that we accept when we drive a car is immense. Don't drink and drive.

What Not to Do: Death by PowerPoint

Here is a slideshare presentation we will use in class to help my students understand how and why they should make good design choices when using any presentation software.

Death by PowerPoint

View more presentations from Alexei Kapterev. (tags: tips powerpoint)

Planets Backchannel 2

The Art of Holes: Creating Sculptures Based on the Novel by Louis Sachar

Here are sculptures my students made as an assessment in Art class. We were in the process of recording the stories they had written about the first Stanley Yelnat's encounter with Kissin' Kate Barlow. When we went into the art room the art teacher informed the class they would be assessed on a sculpture they were to create. I suggested they use something from the story Holes. Here is what they came up with.

DARE Graduation

Shared Experiences: Some of Our Closest Friends Live on the Other Side of the World

New Zealand Pt. England Primary was featured on television last week. Not on our local television, not even on our national channels. Pt. England was featured on television in New Zealand. The reason why I am blogging about it is we follow Mrs. She's class blog Little Voices, Little Scholars. The news story talks about how they use technology in their school. This school should be a model for our schools in the United States. Here is a link to the video of the story.

During our live streaming of career day, I was back channeling through Twitter. One of the people that came to watch the video on the blog was Piers, age eight, who lives in New Zealand. Piers has a blog, My Web World, which I discovered through Mr. Webb's new blog Room 8 @ Melville Intermediate School. If you remember, Mr. Webb was the teacher we created the Samoan Slap Dance for last October.

We are very fortunate to have these friends to share our experiences with. The fact that they are 8,000 miles away no longer makes a difference!

Using Vocaroo to Give Students a Voice

We are reading the novel Holes in class. In the story the main character Stanley's great-grandfather was robbed by the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow. Although Stanley tells us his great-grandfather was robbed, we don't know how it happened. Since this was a "hole" in the story, we decided to fill it.

We used the incredibly useful website Vocaroo.com to record the stories we wrote to fill in what really happened when Kissin' Kate robbed the first Stanley Yelnats. Vocaroo allows us to easily record and post audio, something that I have real trouble doing with Blogger. We used a Blue Snowball microphone to record the audio. Here is the link to the stories my students wrote and recorded.

Career Day Live Streaming

Our Solar System

Time to explore the internet to learn more about our Solar System. Follow the directions to gather the necessary information. Make sure you have at least three different sources that confirm your information. Also, make sure you write down the web address of the sites you use to add to your report.

1. Go to Google.com
2. Type in "planets" into the search bar.
3. Use the sites that are identified to find the following information about your planet.
A. Diameter
B. Mass
C. Length of year in Earth days
D. Number of moons (if applicable)
E. Distance in miles and kilometers from the sun.
4. Write down the web addresses for each site you use. There should be at least three.

Wednesday, be prepared to create a PowerPoint presentation. You may use the chat below to share information and links among the class. Remember to keep the information on topic because I plan on saving and posting the chat.

I Know That!

We are working on identifying parts of speech. We have been identifying them in the context of sentences, but some testing requires students to identify parts of speech from a list such as multiple choice questions. Here is a website that we can use to drill on parts of speech in that context. Here is the link.

The site also has all sorts of math and science games as well. Here is a link to the home page.

While sites like this should not replace other ways of teaching these concepts, they still have a place for students to have a little fun while reviewing or being introduced to the concepts.

The Practicality of a Teachable Moment Part 2: What Do They Sound Like?

This picture shows how we played and recorded from the 45's. I used the Ion TTUSBOSxL to play the 45's and record them as mp3's. I then uploaded the snippets to GCast and created a podcast which I embedded below.

Here is the conclusion to our experiment. Listen to each of the snippets recorded from the 45's and you decide which ones sound best.

For the Love of History: Pea Ridge National Military Park

I had intended to write a blog post explaining the history of the Battle of Pea Ridge. I have several pictures I was going to post with explanations about the events that took place where the picture was taken. I was going to give some interesting facts about the battle such as the large group of Cherokee Indians that fought on the side of the Confederate States. I changed my mind.

Instead I want to focus on the love of history. When you watch the video below you will notice that the history interpreter, David Lewis, gives much more information about the Elk Horn Tavern site. He talks about cowboys and cattle drives, families, and stills. It was obvious to me that this gentleman loves history.

Not every student that passes through my fifth grade class appreciates history. Some find it downright boring. I can accept that, there are many things I don't care to learn about or experience that other people think is worthy of their time. It is important to realize that everyone has the right to choose their interests. That being said, I do think that more of my students would truly love to learn about history if they were more exposed to their national parks.

The Noel History Club in the last three years has traveled to Pea Ridge NMP, Wilson's Creek NMP, Fort Scott NHS, Tsa-La-Gi Cherokee Heritage Center, Central High School NHS, the Clinton Presidential Library, and other sites of local importance. I have loved every minute of it.

That is why I encourage you to take your children, the local scout troop, or even your homeroom class to a history site near you. That trip may start a life long love of learning about history for you or one of the children you take.

If you are interested in the battle of Pea Ridge, here is a link to information you are looking for.