3rd Grade – This week the 3rd graders are going to participate in pairs in a QR Treasure Hunt created using ClassTools.  The treasure hunt involves math problems and can be found at http://goo.gl/g8Zsl.

4th Grade – Fourth graders will be working on their blogs this week.  They will change the title and subtitle, add a subscribe to widget so their parents can subscribe to their blog, create pages, and add links.  They can access tutorials

5th Grade – Fifth graders will be using Animoto to create Science vocabulary definitions.  Most of the Science terms were derived from this Quizlet site. They will work with a partner to create an Animoto for one Science term.  All the Animotos will then be compiled together on a Glogster poster for all to learn from.

Last week was one of those strange weeks in technology where I did not have classes every day.  Monday was a holiday for students at White Oak Intermediate School.  Wednesday and Thursday were days set aside for STAAR benchmarks for 4th grade Writing and 5th grade Math and Reading.  In addition to that, I had two groups in Technology on Tuesday and Friday at each class period.  That means I had double the number of students I normally have.  Students “paired up” with the person from the other class also assigned to their computer to compete in a President’s Day Challenge for prizes.  The full lesson plan can be found at http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/dailylp/dailylp/dailylp053.shtml

I printed out the matching worksheet and made one copy for each computer in the lab.  Then I created answer documents numbered 1-10 for the teams to record their answers.  Once they were paired and at their computer, they all began at the same time to match the interesting fact with the President.  They were instructed to write their computer number on the back of the paper.  They had to follow directions to put their workstation back in order (pencil put away, computer lid closed, chair pushed in) and return their answer document to me.  The team who returned first with all the right answers and no disqualifications from not following directions chose a prize from the treasure chest.  All the other teams who answered correctly with no disqualifications were placed in a drawing where I chose other teams at random to go to the treasure chest.  With the remaining time, we watched the BrainPop video on George Washington and took the quiz.  I drew numbers at random for students to answer the question.  They had one “phone a friend” where they could choose one friend to help them with the answer.  If they answered correctly, they went to the treasure chest.

When I visited the BrainPop booth at the TCEA Convention, I was able to get a limited-time free subscription in addition to getting my picture made with Mobley!  It sure did come in handy this week!

Today was Kindness Day at White Oak Intermediate School. The students have been in groups the past two weeks working on their projects to campaign for Kindness Day. The posters were hung, the buttons were passed out, the t-shirts were worn, the videos were created, the bracelets and bookmarks were distributed. Each student and teacher arrived at school with the same goal in mind: complete a full school day saying only kind words and looking for opportunities to do kind deeds. If nothing else, I believe students realized the goal is a lot easier to speak than to live. Being kind in every situation cost something. In most circumstances, it requires us to ignore our own selfish tendencies and think of the other person first. That is not always easy to do. If students were successful, I believe they also went home feeling really good about the day, because being kind makes us and them feel good. My hope is that good feeling will enable them to continue Kindness Day tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day… If everyone continues to pursue the same goal, White Oak Intermediate School will not need an Anti-Bullying Campaign! You can watch highlights of the day in the Animoto posted below.

 

Another year at TCEA has come and gone. TCEA stands for Texas Computer Education Association and it offers the largest convention of its kind in the United States. Thousands of educators and exhibitors gather at the Austin Convention Center for a week in February to share their experiences, best products, and best practices. This was my fourth year to attend, and as always, I did not leave disappointed. I attended some great workshops where I learned valuable information I can bring back to my colleagues and students. The best part of the week, though, was the time spent with my hotel roommates: Pam Cranford, Becky Ganong, Cheryl Hawthorne, Emily Richeson, and my sister from Snook ISD, Cindy Gordon. I learned more from these ladies over the course of the six days than all the workshops I attended. I especially appreciate Cheryl Hawthorne navigating the way home so the rest of us could break out our computers and get a great lesson from Emily on iMovie09.

Google just announced their 2012 Doodle 4 Google contest. Google has made it easier than ever to participate. Now schools do not have to pre-register. To submit a drawing, students mail in a two page form postdated March 20, 2012. Page one of the form is the parental permission form. Page two of the form is the student drawing containing the Google logo that relates to the theme: “If I could travel in time, I would visit…” I will have forms available in the computer lab for students to take home. I will also receive the completed forms in order to bulk mail them before the deadline, or students can mail their completed forms individually. You can access all the contest rules and forms from the Doodle 4 Google website here. In the meantime, enjoy the Smilebox below showing White Oak Intermediate’s submissions the the first year.

DOODLE 4 GOOGLE 2010

 

I just completed three days of training from Tim Kubik with the Buck Institute on Project Based Learning. I decided my first attempt at PBL would include all three grade levels working on the same thing – Kindness. While working through the process over the weekend, I began to see some obstacles I will need to address. The first obstacle is the nature of my classroom. I see each Intermediate classroom (15 in all) once a week for 45 minutes. That means there will be over 300 students involved in this project. After putting students in groups, this project would require the assessment of around 100 groups. Fortunately, I am not required in my position to take official grades, so the assessments I give will be minimal. The second obstacle is I will only see each group once a week. Continuity will not be able to happen without involving the grade level teachers in some way. That is a huge obstacle in that there just does not seem to be time to collaborate in our busy schedules. The third obstacle is specific to this project because of the timing of it. I will be at school the next two weeks to kick things off, but then I will have a substitute teacher for the following two weeks due to my absence. I will need to ensure the students have all the information and supplies they need to complete the project in my absence. Although there are foreseen obstacle, nevertheless, I am looking forward to introducing this project as a jumping off point for me and PBL.

So here goes:
Project Title: Kindness Campaign (Students will be challenged to work in small groups to discover ways to promote kindness on our campus.)
Entry Event: Students will watch the videos above as they participate in a backchannel chat using TodaysMeet. Included in the discussion will be the following points:
*One of the steps to learning to express acts of kindness is to observe acts of kindness. Students will be challenged to look for and record on their blog three acts of kindness.
*Kindness changes people and can change the atmosphere of a home, school, business, etc.
*We can become kinder by: becoming aware of the importance of words, listening to ourselves speak and begin replacing unkind words with kind words, and remembering the value of every person we meet.

Driving Question:  How can we, as students, create a campaign to promote Kindness Day on February 14, 2012 at White Oak Intermediate School.

Each group will create a product to promote February 14, 2012 as Kindness Day at White Oak Intermediate. The week after February 14th, they will each create a blog post detailing their group’s contribution and their perception of the day’s events.

Click on the picture below for additional resources.

As we all return to our normal routines, students will be asked to think about the 18 weeks that have passed and the 18 weeks left of the school year. Students will learn the definition of “resolve” and what it means to make a New Year’s Resolution. Using Wallwisher, students will post their idea of a resolution either in their personal life or educationally. Students will be able to access their grade level wall by simply opening up Firefox on their computer.  The tabs will automatically load.  (I LOVE being able to set the preferences in Firefox to open to the websites I choose.  It makes it so easy to direct students to the correct website.) Using the shared wall, third graders will adopt one resolution and blog about it. Fourth graders will adopt two resolutions to blog about, and fifth graders will adopt three resolutions to blog about. In their blog post, students will include measurable goals that will enable them to accomplish their resolution(s).

 

Here is a great place to start when thinking about the resolution(s) a student might make.

 

Students can access their grade level wall by clicking on the picture below.  After they view all the suggestions, students will blog about the resolution(s) they will adopt for 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fourth graders Brinn, Carson, Cory, and Kennedy participated in Region 7 Educational Service Center’s Innovative Invention Convention on December 7, 2011. It was a great experience for them to showcase the inventions they had worked on for two months. The Animoto below highlights their experiences. All the video and pictures were taken using an iPad2.

I came across this video from Richard Byrne’s FreeTech4Teachers blog. (By the way, if you are a fan of his blog, I have it on good authority that he will be participating in the Area 7 TCEA Conference in June, 2012 right here in White Oak, Texas!) The video embedded below not only illustrates proper body position (ergonomics) for sitting at a computer, but I believe it also demonstrates a great way  to share a message. I plan to show it to my students in order to open up a discussion about what aspects of this video engage the  audience. They will be creating their own content to share, and some of the elements that make this video engaging could also be useful in their messages.

 

This is the keynote address for the K-12 Online Conference.  I came across this by following the posts of Richard Byrne and his blog, FreeTech4Teachers.