Literacy Project

Jay and I completed our literacy project as a collaborative effort.  Our project focused on the topic of the five senses.  The kindergarteners have been exploring the five senses as part of their science unit.  The second graders have been exploring this topic as a way to expand their writing using details gained from the five senses.  After completing a nature walk and note-taking sheet, students came together to write a poem (written by second graders) and draw a corresponding picture (kindergarteners).  As a way to publish their work, we made a movie of the students "performing" their poem.

We plan to work together in this way throughout the year.  Students have developed relations across these grade levels that will support a lot of what we need to do this year.  The second graders felt a real sense of pride as they worked as mentors for the kindergarteners.  We will continue to work to foster these positive collaborative relationships.

Class Reflection

This course has opened my eyes to so many wonderful digital tools as well as the importance of using technology to foster collaboration.  By completing the course reading, participating in class discussions and projects, and by experiencing all of the vast information on the various blogs, I now am aware how important these tools are as a teacher.  Students can be so easily involved in the technology process through tools such as voki, animoto, and iMovie.  I look forward to continuing to expand my own repertoire with using technology with my students.

Below is the voki that I created to sum up my thoughts on the course.  Uncle Sam tries to capture his audience and persuade them to join his fight for the cause of technology integration.  I hope that he enlists the help of many of you.

Digital Story Inspiration

After creating my own digital story for use with my class, I have been brainstorming other ways to incorporate digital stories into my students' learning.  Of course I had to go no further than Kathy Cassidy's blog to find another inspiring, yet simple, idea.

In this post, Kathy embedded an end-of-the-year digital story of her kids telling about what they learned in first grade.  I love how each child got a chance to reflect on his/her learning.  Each year I usually have students write about their learning from the year, however I have never thought about making a digital story to showcase this same learning.  Below you will find a link to view this inspiring post.

Kathy Cassidy's Class Video

I am also thinking that I could do something similar to what Kathy did in this video, but instead I could do it on a more frequent basis (maybe monthly?).  I could then post it on our class weebly website in a blog post.  This would be a great way to showcase to parents the learning that we have done throughout the month.  Thanks for the inspiration Kathy!

Does anyone else use this sort of digital story with their kids in order to track their learning?

Digital Storytelling Project

For my digital storytelling project, I decided to make a video to coincide with my science unit on nutrition.  This video will be a great way to introduce the unit and will provide students with an overview of all of the information that we will learn throughout the unit.  Additionally, the video will also be great to show at the end of the unit, to wrap up and showcase a summary of what we learned.  I love the idea of using a quick, informative video to really get students excited about all of the wonderful learning that is ahead for them.

Sample Digital Story

I make a type of digital story every year with my kiddos.  During Thanksgiving, each grade level at my school sings a song or does some sort of special performance at an assembly.  The song that second grade sings is called "We Are Thankful."  The singing of this song usually coincides with the reading strategy of visualizing.  Each year I have my kids visualize as they listen to, and sing, the words of the song.  They draw the "movie" that they are making in their mind.  I then record the students singing the song and incorporate their pictures in the movie.  I am including a sample of one of these digital stories.

Fast Facts

One of the big pushes of the new Common Core State Standards is for students to obtain fluency in their facts.  These facts expectations are, of course, different depending on the grade level that you teach.  My colleagues and I are always looking for ways to make fact practice fun, easy, and meaningful to the kids.  One great online tool that we have found to suite this need comes in the form of a website called http://xtramath.org/.  This website provides easy to manage skill practice for a multitude of grade levels.  Watch the introduction video to learn more!




One of the really neat features of the website comes in the form of classroom management. If you set up a class on the website, the site will manage kids taking turns if you only have a limited number of computers. When a student finishes his/her math problems for the day, the program will access the roster and let that student know who to grab to go on the computer next. Genius!

Has anyone used this website before for fact practice? What has your experience been with it?

Blog Inspirations

 

After exploring on Nicole's blog, I was inspired by her post about pinterest.  She talked about how she "gathered" different first grade blogs and pinned them to a board on pinterest.  In the same spirit, I am attempting to compile my own personal list of blog inspirations.  I am starting with a blog by Mrs. Lemons.  After perusing this blog for quite a bit, I was inundated with ideas, inspiration, and an excitement for some of the many wonderful lessons that she posted.   I am going to continue my quest for other blogs that I can add to my own personal "blog inspiration" page.  Happy Hunting!!

My FAVORITE Charting Website

For the past few years, my school has chartered a bus to take teachers to the Columbia (Teachers Reading and Writing College Project) "Reunion." These days consist of countless workshops taught by various staff members at Columbia. One of the best workshops that I have attended at this reunion was run by two women who are experts in classroom charts. They taught us everything from how to draw quick images to include on charts, to the types of information to include on charts. They have an AMAZING website called "Chart Chums" that I always get a ton of ideas from for my own charts. Check them out- you won't be sorry! 

Click Here to access their site!

Animoto for Open House

Animoto took its maiden voyage on Mrs. T's computer today!  The site was simple to use and produced a fast, quality piece for me to share with parents at open house.  I like the simplicity of the site and the lack of options for control.  This meant that I simply uploaded my pictures and music and was on my way--  No debating over tiny details and minor changes that could be made.  I can definitely see myself using this tool in the future.  I even could see my students being able to navigate through the site, upload pictures, and select music.  Very impressed!!

This animoto project came at the perfect time of the year for me- Open House.  Every year I always try to put together some sort of slideshow for parents in order to "show off" our first few days of school.  By using animoto, I was able to create a simple, yet very impressive video to show to parents.  

Does anyone have any idea for how they are going to incorporate this into lessons??

Use the following link to view my first animoto :)  First Animoto

We Love to Read!

The first few days of school were devoted to creating excitement for the work that we will do in reading workshop this year.  As a way for students to take ownership of their reading life, I had them bring in their favorite book to share with the class.  Below are some pictures of the students as they present their books.  These pictures will be combined with writing that students did about their favorite place to read and the reasons that they love the books, to create a bulletin board.  My hope is that this board will showcase the love of reading that I hope to grow throughout the year.

Sensational Start to the New Year

When reflecting on the first few days of the new year, I am astounded at how "ready to roll" all of my new second graders were.  We did a lot of the typical review of rules and routines; however students were already demonstrating an incredible handle on these second grade staples so easily.  In an attempt to sort of let go some of the control, I began my first day of math centers on Friday without ANY discussion of expectations, rules, or procedures.  Instead, I let the students simply show me how they thought they should act during this time.  I was so astonished to see that students were self-directed, hard working, and cooperative throughout the entire math time.  Perhaps with this group of students, I will be more easily able to employ this "backward design" more often and send them off on a task first and discuss positives and rules after.

Writing Workshop Idea

I love the idea of using a pie chart as a visual for the writer's workshop structure.  I am going to try this out this year.  I found this right in time too, as I plan to introduce the routine of writer's workshop in this upcoming week.


This teacher also has some other great writer's workshop ideas that can be found by following her link below:
 http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-basics-of-writers-workshop.html

In need of SMARTboard activities?

A great go-to site that I find myself checking daily is the smartexchange website.  This site has a large variety of lessons built to use with the notebook software on the smartboard.  You are able to search the content based on grade level, subject, standards, and so much more!  The best part about it- it's free!!

You can find anything from exciting math games to "words their way" word sorts.  Never make another smartboard file again without checking smartexchange first!  Happy hunting!