Teaching with Technology

Fourth Graders at Clearbrook Elementary are participating in a cross-state Virginia Regions project on the Regions of VA Wiki.   While Mrs. Schlosser’s Social Studies classes are participating in some of the projects on the wiki as a group, a few students decided to participate in the podcast project on their own.  During their free time, they created a song about the Regions of Virginia.  After practicing it, it’s been recorded and posted on the wiki.  I’m so impressed that these kids worked on this song on their own, and think they did a great job!  It’s a familiar tune…but after I listen to it, I walk around with their song in my head for hours.  In case you’d like to listen, here it is:

Regions of VA from Tina Coffey on Vimeo.

You can also find it on the Regions of VA Wiki under podcasts.  Nice job, ladies!

If you live in Virginia, there’s still time for your class to jump in an participate in SOME or ALL of the projects on the wiki. Please join us!!

The best way to learn about a different place is to visit it, but often field trips aren’t possible.   The second best way to learn about a place is to talk to an expert–someone who lives there.   Fourth  graders in Mrs. Barger’s Class at Glenvar Elementary had the opportunity to do just that as they read the book, Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlin.

To learn more about the setting of the book (a prairie), they talked with other students in Kansas who live near the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve  in the United States.   They used a program called Skype, a free video conferencing tool, and were able to see and talk with students at Turning Point Learning Center in Emporia, Kansas.  Students prepared questions to ask the students ahead of time, and were able to ask those questions virtually.  They were able to see the class in Kansas, and showed pictures and artifacts from our mountainous area.  Students from Kansas  shared pictures of the prairie they took for the class on a recent field trip.  Students had a blast, and learned all sorts of facts about Kansas.

If this kind of project sparks your interest, let me know.  We can skype about all sorts of topics!

Mrs. Vest’s class create a Voicethread on Batty Facts to go with their lesson on facts and opinions.  Creating voicethreads on a specific topic gives students a chance to write, practicing reading, and listen back to information, which helps them learn and remember it better. They are also a great way to practice fluency and oral speaking skills.  Students are always amazed the first time they hear themselves read, and I always give them the option to redo their reading if they don’t like it.  It’s neat to see how quickly their reading changes when they can hear themselves! Take a look at their project (and feel free to leave them some comments).

Mrs.  Hudson’s and Mrs. Graves 5th grade classes at Clearbrook Elementary are blogging!  I’m so proud of the hard work both the teachers and the students are putting into this project!  The kids are very excited, especially about comments they’ve received from some college students in Alabama.   They worked really hard on writing posts about instruments to go with the sound unit they are studied in Science, and they are working on entries about their visit to Apple Ridge Farms.  If you have a few minutes to leave them some comments, they would love it!  It’s so motivating for them to know that their writing is read by a “real” audience!

Here are their blogs:

Mrs. Hudson

Mrs. Graves

I’ll keep them linked to this blog (on the right) in case you want to check back on them later in the year!

First Grade classes around the county participated in an O.R.E.O. project, including Mrs. Chapman’s class, Mrs. Williams’ class, Mrs. Braun’s class,  and all of Oak Grove’s First Grade!   It was tons of fun, and it all centered around cookies!!

Students stacked cookies to see how tall of a tower they could make before it tumbled and tallied their results. Then, they entered results on a spreadsheet to find a class average and to view a graph.  They discussed the data using words like greather than, less than, and equal to (see example below). 

Oreo Project Example

Click here for a  blank version of the spreadsheet.

Here’s a few pictures from the event:
O.R.E.O. Project 2009 on PhotoPeach

Oh…and just in case your wondering, we did NOT eat the ones we stacked! ;)

I love Jennifer Wagner’s projects for elementary students. They are very project/themed based, and she always has a mix of “old favorite” and “new ideas” each year. When you participate in one of her projects, your students also have the chance to collaborate with other students around the world. I’ve had teachers participate in her Oreo project, Room with a View, and a Valentine Card Exchange. They loved them! Here are some exciting ones she will be offering this year:

Projects to Sign Up for Today

Guess the Wordle:

• Open Ended start and finish (Do as little or as much as you want)
• Great for grades 3-5, but could be used by any grade.
• Helps with higher level thinking
• Could be used as a welcome activity in the mornings

O.R.E.O. Project

• Runs from Sept. 21-Oct. 16
• Could be completed in 1 or 2 class periods, but includes enrichment ideas to take it further.
• Entails stacking Oreo cookies and comparing results from around the world.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

• Learn about weather, tall tales, and compare and contrast.
• Runs from August 31 to September 18
  
• Looks great for K-5

Upcoming Projects that Look Good

You’ll need to keep a watch on these projects so you can register for them.

Where the Wild Things Went

• Runs from Oct. 12-Oct. 30 (Corresponds with movie version release)
• Students will extend the story of “Where the Wild Things Went” using a wiki
• Skype may be included for classroom reading

Holiday Card Exchange

• Runs from Nov. 30-Dec. 18
• Classrooms will participate with 24 other classrooms from around the world
• Classes will mail one card to each class (so count on postage for 24 cards)
• Google Earth will be used to map places
• I’ve had third graders participate before in a similar Valentine’s Day project, and both teachers and students loved it!!

There are more projects too….to see a list of all projects, visit the Projects By Jen website!  Click here to see a description of all the projects she will offer this year.

And, if you decide to try one of these projects, please let me know!  I’d love to lend a helping hand!!

Last weekend, the Big Lick Geobug was sent on it’s way to Ms. Deyenberg’s Class in Alberta, Canada! If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, then read this article on geocaching.

Sending the Big Lick Geobug on its way…. on PhotoPeach (Pictures by Meg Swecker)

Basically, the idea is that our Big Lick Geobug will travel from cache to cache with geocachers…all the way to Canada. It will be a slow process, possibly, since some caches aren’t found for weeks at a time….but hopefully some geocachers can take it long distances. Meanwhile, classes in Salem and Roanoke County (with Meg Swecker) will track it’s movements!

Ms. Deyenberg is doing the same thing too. Her 5th Grade class is sending Flop the Other Dorothy Dalgliesh Dolphin to us! You can read about the geobugs below (and follow them too)!

Big Lick Geobug
Flop the Other Dorothy Dalgliesh Dolphin

It’s a long way to Alberta, Canada, so they might not make it, but we are keeping our fingers crossed!! Following the geobugs as they travel will help our students practice map skills….and Math (as they calculate how far each bug has traveled). Here’s a map with their starting and ending points:

View Geobugs! Map in a larger map

These bugs have the summer to travel, and hopefully will have moved some by the time we come back in the Fall. If you would like to follow along next year, let me know. I can come show your class how to geocache (even tie it with a topic you are teaching), and make sure you receive updates anytime one of the geobugs moves! I think we have some 2nd grade teachers already who will be following along!

I’ve been thinking about this post for a week now. I want to share this incredible lesson that was done with some of our Third Graders as part of the Trek2India Project. However, as many of you know, the actual trip to India by our superintendent was canceled due to the unrest in Mumbia, his first stop. I want to share my reaction to those events as well.

Robyn Zamorski, our speech teacher at G.W. Carver, lived in India for a short period of time. She also currently teaches Yoga at a local fitness club. So it was very fitting to have her teach some of our students some Yoga poses to go along with the India project. But what started out as purely a chance to collaborate with our Physical Education Teacher, Pam Palmer, and Robyn, ended up being one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen since I’ve been in education. While I was there only to take pictures and create a Voicethread about the project, I walked away amazed. It started with a class of third graders running into the gym with high energy. I thought to myself, “Well, this will last about 10 minutes..maybe 15 if we are lucky.” I was so wrong. As Robyn lead them through the poses, and the Sanskrit names for them, their energy dropped, and they loved it! I had started running around taking pictures, but quickly changed to moving slowly and deliberately around the room so not to disturb this incredible energy in the room. After watching that lesson, which lasted the whole 30 minutes (and the kids wanted to do it again), I was floored. In the age of stimulation, I’ve always thought we need to keep our students “busy.” I still believe that. But now I understand that kids need a chance to relax and get focused too. I share the VoiceThread below with you….put please understand…it only captures a small fraction of what went on in the gym that day.

With this Trek2India project, Pam Elgin and I had spent lots of time learning about the culture as we prepared the Trek2India Wiki that would be used as the hub of communication between our Superintendent, as he traveled, and our students and teachers here. Pam and I learned about the people, the culture, and some of the history behind India’s democracy. When I first received the news about the events in Mumbia, I was sitting in my car getting ready to pick up some of the food for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. I was floored. Heartbroken. Relieved. I was thankful our Superintendent had not left yet (he was scheduled to leave the day after Thanksgiving). His first schedule hotel stop was the Taj, was one of the hotels affected. But I was also deeply, deeply saddened for the Indian people. News about other countries does not usually affect me that much. I might feel a short sadness when reading an article.  I might thinkabout war and peace in a broad sense.  But hearing this story filled me with a deep, deep sadness. The more I thought about my reaction, the more I realized it was because I felt a tie, so to say, with the people. After spending so much time learning about them, and after almost having the chance to make connections with some of the schools in India, I felt extremely sad to watch their city in flames. I share this because I came to realize the power of making connections with other cultures on a personal level. I’ve known the power on an intellectual level, but never felt the power so strongly on the personal side. The idea I came to understand was that the more our students have the opportunity to learn about other cultures, connect with them, and empathize with their struggles, the more peace we will have in our world.

Meg Swecker is at it again! She’s currently diving in Mexico and at the same time, communicating with students in schools back in the United States using VoiceThead. On this trip, Mrs. Zamorski’s students participated! Here’s the VoiceThread they made:

In Roanoke County, students in Kindergarten are learning Spanish from students in Mexico thanks to Meg. They also used Voicethread, and Meg’s awesome new Ocean Studies Wiki for this project. I love that she was able to get students in Mexico to help record Spanish Words. Check it out here.