Mystery Skype!

What a great opportunity we had today–we did our first Mystery Skype!

Because of the connections I’ve made on Twitter, I’ve been exposed to many new things that seem right up our alley, and Mystery Skype was one of them.  The basic idea is that you Skype with another class–somewhere in the world–only you don’t know where they are (ok, well I knew where they were, but the kiddos did not)!  You ask each other yes or no questions that help you narrow in on the location of the other class.

We waited patiently until 10:35 when they called–Ms. Venosdale’s 6th grade class.  We answered the call, with nervous but excited feelings in our stomachs.  I had already set it up so that they would lead, since we’d never done it before, and so they asked the first question.  They asked, “Are you near a major body of water?”  Our answer, of course, was yes–the Mississippi river is just a hop, skip and a jump to our east.  Our first question was (we hoped) a good one, too–“It’s 10:35 here, is it the same time where you are?”  We had been having a conversation about time zones just before we answered the call, and so they thought this one would help narrow down (and so eliminate) much of the world  if their answer was yes.  And it was!

I wish I had grabbed the list of all the questions, because we kept one, and I wish that we had a picture to share–but we didn’t take one.  We had coordinated “jobs” before we got started: some were charge of the map, some were in charge of writing down what we learned from our new friends, some were in charge of writing down the questions we each asked (so that we could look at them for ideas for the next time), someone was in charge of asking the questions and the rest of us worked to synthesize the clues and figure out what to ask next.  It was really cool how a room full of about 20 people could all be involved in the same conversation in such different ways.

In the end, we found out that our new found friends were actually calling us from very close by in Missouri!  Hillsboro, actually.  That was surprising to them, too, because they’re used to chatting with people from much farther away!

All in all, we had a great time, met some new “friends” and figured out that we need to brush up on our Missouri geography a bit.  🙂  We already have our next Mystery Skype on the calendar for next Friday and are VERY EXCITED for it!  I’m interested to see the way their questions change and improve each time, and for what it will be like when we talk to someone from a place where we’ve never been.  It’ll be very cool to learn what life is like in that other next of the woods!

Until then–have you every been a part of Mystery Skype?  Who did you “meet?”  What suggestions do you have for us as we try again with another class?  Tell us your story–we’d love to hear from you!

Our Own Bill Nye

We love Bill Nye!  You know, the Science Guy?

 

Well, we had a visit from our very own Bill Nye, who’s real name is Mr. Browning.  He LOVES physics and LOVES to talk about it, and we LOVE to learn, so it was a match made in heaven.  He came today to teach us about Newton’s Laws of Motion.

 

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One of the things we loved about Mr. Browning was his enthusiasm.  He was really excited about this, and that made us excited, too.  Plus he had props.  Lots of props.  Props that he used to guide us through activities that modeled what we were talking about.  He also shared some really interesting videos from the ESA that showed Newton’s Laws in the gravity-free environment of the International Space Station.  What a great day!

 

 

Newton’s First Law

An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Mr. Browning in action:

ESA video:

 

 

Newton’s Second Law

The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.

Mr. Browning (with Rosalee and Rebekah) in action:

ESA video:

 

 

Newton’s Third Law

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Mr. Browning in action:

ESA video:

 

FOR SURE we will remember this day and Newton’s laws for a long time to come!  THANK YOU, Mr. Browning, for making science fun and exciting. 🙂

Now it’s your turn: what did you learn about Newton’s Laws of Motion? What else can you teach us about Newton?  What’s your favorite thing about science?  We’d love to hear from you!

Edmodo Have-a-Go

Remember how I told you about Edmodo the other day?  Today’s the day we’re going to try it out!  You will need to use the link here to get to the login page.  While you’re there, look around, and then I want you to consider these things:

1. Can you figure out what to do?  Is it easy?  What are some confusing parts that you have a question about?

2. What kinds of things do you think we could use this to do in our classroom?  Why do you think that would be a good idea?

3. Would you use Edmodo at home?  (if you know that at this point)  Why or why not?

Ok, lastly, I want you to post something.  It can be about anything right now, but I want you to think about adding a question so that people can respond.  This will feel pretty much the same as writing on your blog, only WE will be the only ones who can see it.  This will be a little assessment to let me see how much we figured out and then what I need to do next so we can get started.

GOOD LUCK and have fun learning about Edmodo today!

Paragraph?

Today, with your group, you’re going to do a little digging.  You’re going to dig into the paragraph examples here and here:

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Next your job is to figure out what makes them all paragraphs.  What do they have in common?  What are the “rules” for writing a paragraph?  After you’ve figured out the answer, post your thoughts in the comments (along with your group members’ names) and we’ll discuss together.  Happy digging!  Can’t wait to see what you uncover!

EDUC 573: Week 2–Edmodo and Twitter

Hopefully it will not come as a surprise when I say that I am a life-long learner.  I feel like it oozes out of my pores, and that if you spend more than 5 minutes with me, you get that vibe.  At least that’s what I hope.

And so I also hope that it’s not a surprise that the learning I’m most interested in these days is related to technology.  I’ve written about some of it already , in the form of how my kids are blogging, and I’m sure that somewhere farther back I explained how I got to the place that I am now with using technology in my classroom (and if I haven’t, I’m sure I’ll decide to write about it!).

This post is the second one for the class I’m taking right now: EDUC 573–Applications of Technology.  It’s a requirement for my Masters; even though my focus is not tech, it’s a topic helpful to every teacher these days.  And even in just two weeks, I’ve already learned about and tried countless things!  I’m beyond excited about “having” to do things that I’m interested in doing anyway.

So that brings me to my goal from last week.  I was most excited about beginning to use my blog “in-the-moment” and pledged that I’d try something on it the next day.  Which I did, indeed.  This week my class reflected on themselves as learners and wrote their own goals, and we used the blog for our ActivActivity in math rotations two different times this week.  And so far I’d say I LOVE IT!  Kiddos loved seeing their work all right there in one place (rather than all spread out on their individual blogs), and I loved it for the same reason.  We could quickly review what we had shared, and compare our thinking.  There have already been several other suggestions for how we might continue to use this together.  Love that my kiddos are such great thinkers, but I love even more that they know I’ll listen to and incorporate their ideas into what we do.  It is, after all, OUR classroom, not just mine. :)

The topic this week was related to becoming familiar with and beginning to use learning management systems in the classroom.  We investigated both Moodle and Edmodo, and considered how they could be used in the classroom to enhance the learning that’s already happening.  And that’s the key, I think, to any tech that you’re using–it should complement the learning goals you already have.  It should be the learning goal, nor should it come first.  I also think that it’s key that whatever you add be easy to use.  And for that reason, I am excited to start playing around with Edmodo in our classroom.

Edmodo is a learning management system that is comparable to “Facebook in the classroom.”  It’s a safe, private, focused way for a class to communicate on a topic, and has countless features useful to teachers, students and even parents.  I think that the first thing I’ll do (after a suggestion from a colleague) is give them some time to see what it can do.  I am sure they’ll figure out alot of the ins and outs very quickly.  Next my plan is to start literature circle conversations on Edmodo.  We’re just about to start them anyway, and it would make sense as a starting place.  I’m excited to see the difference in depth that may happen when kids have a chance to put their thoughts in writing this way.  And as always happens, I’m sure someone will come up with a great idea for what to do with it next.

Aside from the LMS, we also read the article “Taking the Digital Plunge” by Bill Ferriter (2009).  And while I originally focused in on a quote about how quickly finding like-minded learners helped me want to jump in and get my feet wet with tech, this one might even be more meaningful:

Connecting with colleagues online has helped me explore skills and dispositions necessary for
networked cooperation—skills like finding partners beyond borders, making my own thinking transparent,
revising positions on the basis of feedback, accessing valuable information from colearners, and
creating shared content. It has profoundly changed the way I learn.

This week alone, I’ve signed up and am starting to use Edmodo, created the template for my eportfolio, added over 50 links to my delicious account, and planned a Mystery Skype for next week with a teacher in my PLN on Twitter.   I believe these are all powerful tools that used by both me and my students to make connections.

I’m excited to see what continues to come out of this learning I am “having” to do here.  It’s so much fun it doesn’t seem at all like work!

What have you learned this week about technology?  Have you read “Taking the Digital Plunge?”  What did you learn?  Have you tried Edmodo, Twitter, delicious or Mystery Skype?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Feast Week Part 6: Now We Cook!

So before we could FEAST in Feast Week, we had to have a feast, and that meant we had to make it!  So Friday afternoon, before our big party, we got busy making things.  Remember, our appetizers were party pickles, sausage snack wraps, fruit, and guacamole.  We got into our tribes to work.

Check out our culinary creations:

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If you missed any of the previous parts of this tale, check out the Feast Week tag for parts 1-5.  Next up: THE FEAST!!

Math Warm-Ups January 14-18, 2013

This week’s warm-ups are geometry related, as we are at the beginning of a 2D geometry unit now.  My hope was that they were review, since they’ve had similar units for many years.  And for the most part, they were.  Oh, and you’ll notice there are only 3 this week; the morning schedules were a little rushed on Tuesday and Friday, so we skipped them those days.

Monday

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And speaking of having done it before, my kindergartener is actually talking about these very things right now, too!  When I shared this question with him, he was able to tell me which were polygons and which were not!  The definition was simpler in kindergarten, but the idea was the same.  Cool!

Wednesday

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This one was pretty easy, but was a conversation starter for that day.  It helped us take the next step to putting quadrilaterals into categories.

Thursday

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When we first talked about this one, we were unclear about the definition for a parallelogram.  We spent our group time on Thursday clarifying this.

What do you know about geometry?  What questions would you ask for a geometry math warm-up?  Share some with us in the comments!

 

ActivActivity–January 16-17, 2013

Remember when we were in the middle of our fraction unit and we were dividing?  Think about the problem about bows: Avery had 6 yards of ribbon.  He’s making bows for packages, and each bow uses 1/3 of a yard of ribbon.  How many bows can he make?  Then think about how we all said 1/18 for the answer?  I’ll remind you of how we solved it:

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Today your job is to create a fraction problem with division.  I’m not going to tell you what the answer has to be–I want you to figure out that part, too!  You can divide a whole number by a fraction (like this one), or you can divide a fraction by a whole number if you remember how to do that.  Remember to make sure your story makes sense, that you have an answer that is LOGICAL, and that you sign your names so we know who’s amazing thinking it is! Good luck, friends!

ActivActivity–January 14-15, 2013

Today’s ActivActivity is related to the Math Warm-up we had the other day:

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Your job today is to come up with a story that uses FRACTIONS and has an answer of 3/4.  Work together with  your group to write one, and if you have time after that one, write another!  Leave your story in the comments for this post, and be sure to leave your names!