For the first time, each grade level is doing a something completely different in the computer lab.  Here is what they are up to:

3rd Grade: These students have chosen a famous person to research on the internet.  They are completing a form given to them by the third grade teachers to gather important information about their famous person.  When they come across an image they feel would enhance their report, they are capturing the image and saving it the their flashdrive. A group of students will take their information and create a “Wax Museum”. They will record a speech which will be placed on ipods for visitors to the museum to access as they come to each character.  They will dress up like their famous person and stand still while visitors come through the museum listening to the information they have recorded about the person. The other students will create an interactive poster  in Glogster, a slide show in Keynote, or a report in Pages to share with the class.

4th Grade: Fourth graders are learning how to summarize a story.  Each class is divided into six groups.  Each group is assigned one of the following summarization strategies from “Into the Book, Strategies for Learning”.

Summary Ball

Fortune Teller

Artistic Summary

Paper Bag Reports

Story Wheel

Somebody/Wanted/But/So

The groups find a story to apply their chosen strategy to at Storybird. Each groups fills out a form that has their group number, the member names, their chosen strategy, and the Storybird story they picked.  I created a user account on Storybird so I could put each group’s story in my Reading List for easy access.  This week, the groups will present their strategy to the class.  A member of the team will flip video the presentation.  After all five classes have completed their presentations, the best presentation for each strategy will be posted on this blog.

5th Grade: The fifth graders are learning about social media by using the social networking site created for educators called Edmodo. I am really enjoying connecting with the students in this way.  Right now, it is a novelty to them.  They are obviously enjoying making posts, uploading their profile pictures, and replying to their classmate’s post.  I am really enjoying reading the conversation and connecting with my students outside the classroom.  I am new to the site also, so I have not discovered everything I may be able to use it for.  One feature I do like is the ease at which I can create polls and get the students to vote.  The students came up with their own poll questions last week, and I have posted them to Edmodo.  Students will vote this week.  When all the students have voted, they will take the results of the polls and create a Wordle using the advanced feature.  The resulting Wordle will be called “Profile of a WO Intermediate 5th Grader.” I will post the resuling Wordle when it is completed.

Here is what one of the polls looks like: