Practice Test Taking

When we went to computer lab today, my class practiced test taking with a new website.  I really thought it was good.  I added it to the wiki so that my students can practice at home or during reading center time.  The website is Surweb.  You should check it out.

Fun Place

 Fun Place is where I put all the approved websites.  This a list of websites that I have used or I have learned about from other teachers.  It allows the students to try different activities with out searching the web.  I do not have to worry about a student stubbing into an unapproved website.

Webquest

 I wanted my students to do a animal webquest.  I was not willing to take on making one just yet.  I searched for webquests online and found one that followed the curriculum.  A webquest allows students to research information from websites that you have checked and linked together.  I had my students research animals which supplemented what I was teaching in the classroom.

Not much done

I have to say I haven't been using my wiki at all this week.  The kids have all of their passwords all written down in their planners but, for some reason even though they have it written down they are having trouble typing it in.  Maybe they just need more practice with typing.  When I type in their passwords and user names it works.

Literature Time

 I added more books to the reading section to my wiki.  I found the pictures of the books online and then I inserted the images.  I found it very difficult to arrange the pictures of the books on the wiki page.  We a lot of trial and error I finally got them to stay in a straight line.  

Wiki needs more entries

Today was the first deadline for our next newspaper and many articles were due. Unfortunately, there were quite a few missing articles. As usual, a few kids are gung-ho and posted their articles well and early. Sometimes it's surprising that the gung-ho kids are the ones I'd predict to be. I was hoping that the students would really like using the wiki and would get on the band wagon. I must remember that these kids are children who aren't necessarily self-starters, and who didn't really know what was expected when they volunteered for the News Team. I must be more creative with my incentives, and possibly make them more competitive with each other. I still think the wiki is a big improvement over all other former article submission methods.

Technology marches on

This morning was MOD-MSA online training at Dr. Henry Wise High School, and then I went on to John Jennings's zone tech liaison's meeting at Tulip Grove. Everything was hands-on, which is always a good thing if managed well. It's easy for the presenter to lose his/her audience if they start pursuing their own interests, checking email, etc. However, it's so much better to try out what is being presented while the leader is available to help with any confusion or other difficulties. It takes very careful planning of the PD session to carry this off. The morning session was led by Teresa O'Connor and Joan Rothgeb. Both were excellent - highly knowledgeable, approachable, and efficient, so it was a very useful session. John is always very well prepared for his sessions and sprinkles in a good dose of humor and humility, so the meetings are very worthwhile. He seems to have a good handle on what's going on in the county and how to effectively balance our directives with our workload

Discussions

I started my discussion board.  I had the students watch a video about tornadoes.  The first assignment asked them to write about something they learned.  That topic generated over 40 posts. I did make scenic avatars for each of the students because I did not like looking at the same dull face picture.  I think it adds a little something with the avatars.

President's Day

Another holiday off!!  I really like short weeks at school.  Well, the students posted on my wikispace last week.  It was okay but I had to sit with the majority of the students to help them.  I think by the end of the year this will get better but it kind of a pain teaching them how to use it.  It is just too time consuming.  

Another STEP meeting

We had our 2nd meeting last night.  Still working on my wiki.  I'm going ask the students what they thought of the dinosaur video.  I just want to see if they are going to be able to use it on their own.  The kids enjoy being on the computer of course.  I'm just not sure whether they can access the wiki easily by themselves.  

New departments for News Team

The News Team has put out 2 issues with the original department assignments, so we chose new departments today for the next 2 issues. It worked out unusually well, with few students disappointed with the end result. Thank goodness for the random number generator. We were able to refer to the old department assignments in the wiki for reference, so that was helpful once again.

Adding Class

I decided the my class needed email accounts to participate in discussion on the wiki.  I used the user creator and made usernames and passwords for all the students I teach.  The passwords are all the same so that I can check to make sure they are not abusing the privilege of having an account.  I have had a few students email everyone that is a member instead of the one person they wanted to reach.  I told them I will change their email password if I see anything that is not appropriate for school.  I also gave the student's username and password to parents when they asked for their child's information so that they could monitor as well.

Sneakin' a Video

My class just loves Bill Nye the Science Guy so I decided to add videos to the wiki.

 I started by searching YouTube.  I found the video segment I wanted to embed and I used the instructions to the left. Unfortunately, there is a "search for other video" request after the clip is over.  I had to take off the clip in a hurry when I saw my students searching other videos on YouTube.

I found a safer site at TeacherTube.  You can pick an option that does not allow you to search other videos.  I think YouTube has a better selection of clips but I have to keep my students safe.

PreK-8 transition meeting last night

Last night was the meeting at BES to present the current plans to change our school into PreK-7 next year; preK-8 the following. The meeting was mainly a question-and-answer session with Steve (and Leslie) answering questions raised by parents in the cafeteria. The meeting was fairly well attended by both English and Spanish-speaking parents, although the attendance was small compared to the total number of parents for our school. I guess the parents of preimary students either think things will change by the time their student gets to that grade (maybe) or they'll have moved to a different town by then. Who knows? The meeting was very civil -- no one was confrontational or asked awkward questions. One key question that wasn't raised was whether Steve will still be at BES next year. That's crucial and nobody asked it. At any rate, PowerPoint could have been used to show areas of the building being discussed (locker rooms, science rooms) but under the circumstances it probably wouldn't have been worth the trouble to create it. It's kind of a relief not to be looking at a screen at every meeting.

Wedding cake and Wiki

Had my wedding cake tasting yesterday.  Yummy!!!  It was so hard to pick a flavor because I liked them all!  We both decided on yellow cake with vanilla bean icing.  I sure hope we get a piece at the wedding.  Now to decide whether buttercream or fondant icing????  Hmmm.....I'll have to think about that one.  I did put my video on my wikispace.  I then showed the students how to access it with my laptop and projector.  About half the students were able to get on to watch the video and half needed my help.  Next week I will try to have them post responses to a question.