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:

This week students will be learn strategies for searching the internet. A common misunderstanding I see with students in the computer lab is the confusion over the address field and the search field. The address field is used when the specific web address is known. The search field is used when a specific web site is not know, but a search of websites containing the desired information is required.

Students will watch the Common Craft video called Web Search in Plain English as an introduction to the topic.  Students will understand learning to search the web more effectively is important for two reasons:

1) As they get older they will encounter more opportunities and assignments that required them to find information on the internet.

2) Every day, more and more content is being added to the internet so there are more results to look through.

The common craft video does an excellent job of explaining how a search engine scans each web page for the word(s) a person places in the search field.  Students will learn how the search is defined when quotes (“”) are placed around the words.  They will also learn how the use of operators like AND, OR, NOT affect the search.  Students will look at the Boolean Machine to visualize how the operands work.  They will also use the Boolify Project to demonstrate the affect on web results.

Finally, students may work independently or in pairs to find the answers to the Internet Scavenger Hunt.  Students will receive a ticket for each correct answer for the raquetball drawing for this six weeks.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Smilebox above is a slideshow of all the drawings students created using the drawing programs below. Merry Christmas to all!

OK students, put on your thinking caps. The first student of mine to leave a comment answering this Christmas riddle correctly will receive a Christmas surprise from me. Don’t forget to follow the rules for commenting!

This week students will create a Christmas drawing using one of the four online drawing programs featured on the left.  Each picture is linked to the website it was created in.  Students will screen capture (command+shift+4) their creations and save to their flashdrive.  Next week they will upload their saved drawing to a slide in Student Google Apps to create a slideshow of all the drawings for their class.  We will share their slideshows on this blog.

For inspiration, students can go here to see Christmas coloring pages.

This week students will be registering in a class I created on Tutpup.  Tutpup is a free website that allows students to compete against other students from around the world in math and spelling games.  When signing up for Tutpup, I created a class code that the students will use to register.  Students only need to use their first name and year of birth to register when using a class code provided by the teacher. Students choose an animal, color, and number from the pull down menu as their username. They create a password also. I will provide index cards for the students to record their username and password.  I originally registered for Tutpup months ago, but could not remember or find my username and password, so I had to create a brand new account. I found the games to be very engaging when I tried it out for myself.  I don’t consider myself to be very competitive, but the visual provided of you and your opponent in a “race” got my adrenaline flowing! I’m hoping it will be as engaging for my students.  I really like the fact that I can access reports of student activity. I also like the fact that the teacher is able to change a student’s password without having to know the original. I hope to use this site for those students who may finish computer lab projects before their classmates.

This week, students will create an avatar and save it to their flashdrive for use when we begin our unit on social media. They will use one of the options below:

This post has nothing to do with technology, but I need your help. We just recognized our 3rd-5th graders who met their Accelerated Reader goal during our Big Honor Day celebration. Our AR theme for the year is “Explore Knowledge, Camp Out With a Good Book!” All students who made 85% or more correct on quizzes and met their point goal for the six weeks has their name on a fish.  Students who made 95% or better on quizzes and met their point goal have their name on a BIG fish.  I just need a caption to go above the stringers. If you have an idea, please submit it in a comment by Wednesday, November 18th. I will come up with a way to vote. I know you are very creative, so help us out if you can. Thank you in advance!

Students completed the unit on Internet Safety a few weeks ago by discussing rules to follow online like:
1) Don’t give out any personal information such as: full name, address, phone number, email address, or school name.
2) Never agree to meet anyone face to face while online.
3) If you come across something bad or inappropriate, immediately leave the computer and tell an adult. Don’t return to that computer until the adult has checked it out.
4) Don’t use all capital letters while commenting or chatting online.
5) Don’t engage in bullying behavior online or respond to others who are being bullies.
6) Obey copyright by ensuring your use follows fair use doctrine, and you site the source or by obtaining permission form the copyright owner.

Now that students have received their drivers training for staying safe on the information superhighway, they will have the opportunity to receive their “license to drive” by passing a written test on moodle. Students will log in to moodle, navigate the road at pbskids.org/license, and take an eight question multiple-choice quiz. When they get all eight answers correct, they will receive their “license to drive.” Each student will need to have their license to have any game time on the computer in the lab when their assignment for the day is completed. In addition, students will receive a “ticket” for a violation of any internet safety rule like listing their full name in a comment. If a student receives more than one ticket, they may have their “license” revoked for a period of time.