My First GoAnimate

I've been meaning to check out this site for quite a while and today I did. Here is my first GoAnimate creation. I decided to make one about my upcoming trip to the DEN Summer Institute being held in San Diego this year. Check it out. I'll bet you'd have fun making one too.

GoAnimate.com: 2011DENSI by PaulaNaugle

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Identity Day - Let Your Passion Shine

I am excited to announce that we will be holding an Identity Day on Tuesday, May 17 in Classroom 222. This will be our last big project of the school year. Think about these questions: Who are you? What matters to you? What interests you the most? What are you passionate about? Watch the video below to get some more ideas.


(video from Moorseville, North Carolina)

Also I have included a couple of links to give you more information. Click here, here, and here to read more.

Now go gather your things for your display. It can be a physical display or a digital display like a PowerPoint, a video, or Glogster. Remember to let your passion shine. Please feel free to get help from your parents. You will also write a post for your blog explaining what you are sharing and why you are sharing it. Let's find the passion in each one of us.

I'd like to thank my friend, Principal George Couros, for inspiring me to try this project.

A Teachable Moment - Pay It Forward

Last weekend I saw a tweet mentioning a "teachable moment" blog post. Well I was curious and wanted to see what the teachable moment was so I checked it out. What I discovered was a post by a new online friend of mine, Nancy Carroll, who teaches 4th grade in Massachusetts. Much of the rest of my weekend was spent viewing the webcam she wrote about.

I carried my laptop into my school's office on Monday morning and shared the site with my principal and the wonderful ladies who work in our office. They all were as fascinated as I was. My principal asked me to share the link with her so she could email it to the rest of the teachers in our building. During the week there were lots of conversations around what was happening in various classrooms thanks to this wonderful site. We just recently had a 42" flat screen TV mounted in the office and when you walk in you are now greeted with what is happening in the eagle's nest. I had a guest speaker come to my class on Wednesday, and the first thing he was asked when he went to the office to sign in was, "Have you seen the eagles?"

I keep the site open much of the day on my Promethean board and let my 4th graders view it as they are doing independent work. We all were anxious about the third egg and wondered whether it would hatch or whether it was a dud. One student asked what would happen to the egg if it didn't hatch and another student answered, "Maybe a rat like Templeton (from Charlotte's Web) will come to the nest and carry it away." That really made me laugh.

We have been lucky enough to see various meals carried to the nest. We have witnessed the difference between how the mom and dad eagle feed their young. And we were totally amazed when the mom eagle tossed the more aggressive youngster to the side of the nest during one feeding session, so that she could feed the other baby. Thursday morning the buzz around school was about the fact that the third egg had hatched! Everyone at school was thrilled that all the eggs had now hatched.

Yes, the eagle cam has lead to many teachable moments at Bissonet Plaza and I am so glad that I learned about it from Nancy's "Teachable Moment" post. And I'm glad that I chose to pay it forward with everyone at school. my PLN on Twitter, and with anyone I talk to.

NH Skype Call - Everybody Has a Twin

You have all heard it said- we all have a twin somewhere in the world. Well, I think we found one of my student's twin by Skyping with Stephen Gagnon's 4th grade class in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This is the first time our two classes had connected via Skype, so we were doing an introductory activity. Each student had a turn in the "hot seat" in front of the web cam. They introduced themselves by stating their name and something that is unique about them or a favorite thing. One of Mr. Gagnon's students made a lot of instant friends when he proclaimed that his favorite football team was the New Orleans Saints. My whole class whooped and hollered! Another student from NH got a similar response when he said his favorite basketball team was the N.O. Hornets.

We also learned that one Mr. Gagnon's students has a N.O. connection. Her dad travels to New Orleans each week to work. He owns a lumber business in this area. Now that is quite a commute!

But the most shocking part of this connection happened when Mr. Gagnon tweeted out a picture from his classroom shortly after the call. When I first saw the picture I thought it was one he took of one of my students from the web cam. But when I looked at it a second time I realized that it wasn't my student, but one of his. All of the kids in my class couldn't get over how much the two boys look alike.

You just never know what is going to happen when you connect your class to another using Skype, but it is always an adventure. Thank you, Mr. Gagnon, for connecting with our class. I hope your principal enjoyed the call too. (He's sitting in the very back of this picture.)

Famous Inventors Glogster

Here is the Glogster I made for my 4th graders to use to learn about famous inventors we are studying in social studies. I love that I can embed Discovery streaming clips into the glog for my students to view on their own.

March 2, 2011 Read Across America

We participated in Read Across America on March 2. I had planned to do a group Skype video call with three other classes across the United States, but unfortunately that did not work out. I am not sure why I could not launch the group Skype call but I quickly IMed (instant messaged) everyone that I would have to call them one at a time.

First we Skyped with our buddy class, Mrs. Jan Wells, in Kansas. We always enjoy sharing with each others class. Next we had a new contact class in Unionville, Alabama. Mrs. Barton's 6th graders read to our class and then we read part of Green Eggs and Ham to her class. Watch our video here.

I kept trying to reach Tiffany Whitehead, a librarian friend of mine, in Baton Rouge but never could reach her on Skype. We are still trying to figure out why she can Skype within her district but not with anyone else.

Congratulations to Helen

In December one of our blogging buddies, Connor, put forth a Glogster challenge. Nine students in our class were able to complete their glogs in time to enter the contest. Today when I fired up TweetDeck this tweet greeted me.

The link in the tweet took me to this post by Mrs. Ripp, Connor's teacher. Thanks to Twitter and Comments4Kids our two classes have connected this year. It is great to see how these connections can help our students' work be seen beyond our classroom walls.

Congratulations, Helen. Your great work has been recognized by others too.