The First Week of School

Wow, what a great first week we had. Besides doing our math and social studies lessons, I did a lot of tech with my students. They learned how to blog on paper first. Then we watched a video made by Linda Yollis' 3rd graders in California on how to leave quality comments. They then added Post-It note comments to each others' paper blogs. Finally they were introduced to their very own blog on kidblog.org. Four of my 2/3rd period students even got to thepublish step. They have already been getting comments from my connections on Twitter because I tweeted about them using the hashtag #comments4kids.

We also learned how to use the learning management system, Edmodo, in two of my classes (the other class will start on Monday). Edmodo is a Facebook like site where the students are under a teacher protected dashboard. On Edmodo I can post assignments. embed videos, put up polls. and just pose questions for the students to respond to. They learn digital citizenship and how to behave and respond to each other properly in an online space (and I see everything). They love using Edmodo.

Finally they learned how to access BrainPop videos, take the graded quiz after watching the video and email me the results. Phew, it was definitely a busy week.

Bring on the 2011-2012 School Year

Tomorrow I start my 36th year of teaching and I'm so excited I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep. I want to be in bed by 9 o'clock so that I am ready for a fantastic first day.

I went to school on Saturday for about four hours to put the finishing touches on my classroom. It's funny that it took so long to prepare this year, but I reorganized a lot of my resources so that I am better prepared this year. Last year I started in one classroom and then had to move to the classroom next door after my new Promethean board finally got installed. I never felt totally settled in last year because some of my stuff never got moved out of my old classroom until this summer. Mainly it was my two file cabinets and my classroom library that didn't get moved until a few weeks ago.

Since I have been a math and social studies teacher for the last few years instead of a language arts teacher, I wasn't sure what to do with my huge collection of library books. Well, this year I am letting our newest 4th grade teacher, Amy Vega, take over many of my library books for her room. Since she needed a file cabinet, I only moved one into my classroom. I threw out or gave away lots of resources that I am not using anymore. It felt good to clean out those old files and get reorganized.

I am looking forward to meeting the 27 new students who will be in my homeroom this year tomorrow morning. We will not be changing classes on the first day, so I will be introducing them to our set of netbooks and getting them started on a blogging project. Hopefully by the end of the week they will have completed their first blog posts ever. Here is my lesson plan I hope they have fun with it.

It's Coming Soon

Yes, back to school, is approaching quickly. I am excited to begin the new year because I have lots of fun projects scheduled for all of you. Are you ready?

My buddy, Jan Wells, tweeted about Chogger while she was attending Podstock in Witchita, Kansas. I decided to spend a couple of minutes playing with this comic creator. You select what kind of comic panel you want to use. Images can be imported directly from Google images, drawn, taken with your webcam, or uploaded from your files. I created the above comic in less than 4 minutes.

How would you use this site in your classroom?

Quiz Box - Create an Online Quiz

I am learning about different things that my students can add to their blogs for the coming school year. Here is one I think they will enjoy using. It is called Quiz Box and is very easy to use to build a multiple choice quiz that is graded.
Here is my example:

My Quiz on Geometry

How well do you know your basic geometric shapes? Take this quiz to find out.

1. What is a six-sided shape called?


rectangle

hexagon

pentagon




2. What is an eight-sided shape called?


pentagon

hexagon

octagon




3. What is a three-sided figure called?


triangle

rectangle

pentagon

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.