3D glasses: Haiku Deck

The students finished making their 3D glasses yesterday, and are really excited to share them with all of our followers on the blog. To do so, they took pictures of their glasses using my iPad, and are currently working on a Haiku Deck (great iPad app!) presentation to share them with you. They're not done, but here are some photos of them hard at work on the slide show:



Fractions videos: making visuals

This morning we finished off our script for the fractions video, and then we made titles for the fractions slides. - Kurt

In the first two periods, we were starting to make our signs for our fractions videos, and Mr. Hoeppner got us the fraction pies to make it easier to to see the pies on our slides. - Jenna

In our class, for fractions in our group, I was doing my own paper that showed converting fractions to decimals. Mikayla was doing the fractions review, and Jenna was doing the title for Introduction to Fractions. - Alexandra

As of this morning, every group had finished their scripts for their fractions and decimals videos. The next job is creating the visuals for their paper slide videos. I photocopied some blank pie charts (divided into quarters, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, and twelfths), so that the students could show those correctly proportioned (Have you ever tried to draw a perfect circle, and then perfectly divide it into twelfths? It's hard to do!). Other than that, they are in charge of their visuals. The groups should be finished creating their visuals in a day or two, and then it will be time to reherse and film!

Making our 3D glasses

The class was very excited today as we started making our 3D glasses. I picked up red and blue acetate yesterday, but other than that, the students were responsible for their own supplies. I'm really excited to see what's been done so far (and I love to hear students exclaim things like "YES!! My design works!") - stay tuned for all of the finished products next week!

Room 18 Photo Stars!

As we blogged about way back in December, we were fortunate to have been invited to take part in an Art and Poetry field trip (called 'Art In The Park') by the Assiniboine Park programs department. It was a fabulous day, where the students were inspired by the animal and plant life in the park to take some beautiful photographs and create some wonderful poetry during our time there. I received an email the other day from the programs department letting me know that they had chosen photographs from Lexi and Marie, a couple of Room 18 students, to include in a youth photography exhibit called 'SNAP!'. I'm really proud of all of the great photographs the students of Room 18 took that day, and would like to congratulate Lexi and Marie for having their work included in this exhibit - way to to, girls! If you get a chance, check out the exhibit at the park - for more info, see the photo below, or click on this link.

Fractions videos: the scripting has begun

As I talked about in a post from last week, the students have embarked on creating paper slide videos describing their learning around adding and subtracting fractions, and converting fractions to decimals (along with a brief review of what they learned about fractions in Grade 3). So far, the class has worked at scriping their review slides and their adding fractions sides, and I'm really impressed by the work I'm seeing - here are a few shots from the last couple of days:

(This group inadvertently learned how to add fractions that total more than 1 whole - I love the learning that happens when students collaborate!)

Science design process - 3D glasses!

As I mentioned last week, we are nearing the end of our Science unit on Light. Today, we talked about 3-dimensional (or, 3D) images, and how they work (specifically, red-blue 3D images). After, I told the students that for their next design process, they would be designing a pair of 3D glasses, and when they are all finished, we'll be looking at some cool 3D images with them. The criteria for designing and building their glasses are in the second photo below - the students task tonight is to source their supplies at home, and bring them in so they can start making their glasses ASAP. There are some really original designs beginning to take shape - I can hardly wait to share them on our blog soon!

Cameras and light

It was so cool watching the flashlight go around in the dark, and seeing people's shadows while Mr. H. was taking pictures. We also got to hear the click of the shutter on the camera. - Jenna

In the tech lab, we were swinging a flashlight around, and it got really funny because the shadows of the people looked really funny. - Logan

In Science we were learning about light, and we went into the tech lab with the flashlight. We turned off all the lights, and Mr. H. took pictures of us doing crazy movements waving the flashlight. - Kyra

As we get close to wrapping up our Science unit on light, we looked at cameras and how they worked today. First, our friends Tim and Moby from BrainPOP explained how film and digital cameras worked, in one of their awesome 3-4 minute videos (you can watch this video here). After talking about how shutters on a camera work (the students listed to the difference between a shutter opening and closing in low and bright light - ask them about it!), and looking at some images of streaking headlights and taillights, we went into the computer lab (which has no external windows) to make our own light -streaking photos. I should have them all ready to share on our blog next week. Until then, scroll down for a preview!

 

Happy V-Day, everyone!

Today we had a party for Valentine's Day, and we watched Charlie Brown Valentine's special. We had fun. - Emma

This afternoon, we had a party in Room 18, and we got to hand out cards to everyone in the class. We got lots of candy from people. - Joey

In the last two periods, we had a Valentine's party, and first thing this morning, when Mr. Hoeppner was putting up the day on the board, he drew a heart with an arrow through it. - Jenna

For our Valentine's party today, everyone got Valentine's cards and candy. - Hailey K.

At the end of the day, we had lots of fun. Ava, Jacell, and Mikayla handed out cookies, rice krispie bars, and heart cookies to everyone, and it was delicious. - Alexandra

After recess, we had a party, and we got lots of candy, and we got lots of cards. Hailey K. was handing out these heart-shaped suckers, and Jade and I got a lot of suckers, and Jade's tongue is red now. - Logan


Thank you to all of the students who brought treats for our class - how wonderfully thoughtful of you! Have a great Valentine's Day!

Paper Slide Videos: Fractions (the sequel) - the process begins!

As you may remember from last year, the students of Room 18 created their own paper slide videos on fractions, which were quite excellent, I must say! This year, we have been building on what the students learned last year about fractions; where the students learned about what fractions were, and their different parts last year, this year, they have been working on adding and subtracting fractions, and converting fractions to decimals. Seeing as how the students did such a great job on their fractions videos last year, I thought it would be a great way to show their fractions learning this year... and they agreed! So, we talked about what we had in last year's videos, and what they'd have to put into this year's videos, to show how far their learning has come. They students also watched last year's videos, and made note of what things they thought could be improved on for this year's videos. Below are some photos I took of our brainstorming session from this morning:

 

Room 18 is working hard!

I just wanted to publish a brief post on how impressed I have been with the students of Room 18, as of late. We have been doing a lot of work on fractions (which we'll be telling you more about in the days to come) and letter-writing, and they have dived head-first into their PIPs - I have been blown away by how hard the class has been working on all of these! They've been following instructions more carefully than usual, asking very meaningful questions that help to extend our learning, and have been doing some of the best writing I've seen from them all year. I just want the whole world to know how impressed I am with my students, and how excited I am to keep moving forward with them. Keep up the great work, gang - I salute you with a thumbs-up!

The PIP supplies are here!

As you may have read earlier this week, I talked with the students about how they would be given the chance to work on their own Personal Inquiry Projects (or PIPs) as part of Daily 5. One of the things we talked about was what kind of supplies they thought they'd need to do their research - items mentioned included binders, highlighters, and sticky notes. So, I did some shopping yesterday after school, and picked up the supplies. When I brought them out during Daily 5 today, the students were thrilled! Those who had brought in information for their PIPs immediately dove right into working on them. The end of the day came very quickly, much to the dismay of many of the researchers. One student asked if they would be able to work on these at home on the weekend. When I answered yes, many of them cheered... to my (pleasant) surprise! I can hardly wait to see what they bring in on Monday!

Letter writing

Today we had to finish our letters to our Grade 1 Reading Buddies, and deliver them to the Radisson post box. - Jenna

First thing in the morning, we had to finish our Grade 1 Reading Buddies' letters. At recess, we had crazy carpets and I almost went over the bump to stop us from crashing. - Alexandra

Today we got to finish our letters, and we got to read to our Grade 1 Reading Buddies. It was really fun reading to them. Yesterday we got to make notes for the Grade 1s, and today we got to put them in an envelope and bring them to the Grade 1s. - Dylan

This morning, we wrote letters and finished them. Jenna and I brought them to the Radisson post box. Today we went on the hill, and it was fun! - Kurt

After recess, we had Gym and it was fun. We did some hockey skills. - Emma

When it was crazy carpets, I only went on it three times because it was hard climbing up the hill because two people went up at the same time. I would always get the bumpy side, and I would always fall down. - Logan

As part of 'I Love To Read' month (which happens every February), the students of Radisson School have started writing letters back and forth to their Reading Buddies (our Reading Buddies are the students of Ms. Derkson's Grade 1 class). We talked about how to construct a letter (greeting, body, ending, P.S.), and what makes for an interesting letter to both read and write - the more interesting the letters we write to our Reading Buddies are, the more interesting the letters we get back in response from our Reading Buddies will be! Today, all of the students finished writing their letters and addressing their envelopes. The mail was picked up this afternoon, and should be delivered by tomorrow morning. The students worked hard on their letters, and are excited to get their own letters from Ms. Derkson's class!

FETC 2013

As any of you who are regular readers of this blog know, I had the privilege to attend FETC (Florida Education Technology Conference) 2013 last week in Orlando, FL. This was a conference I had been looking at for a few years now, as using technology in the classroom is an area that I'm extremely interested in, and this conference is seen as one of the best in the world in this field (there were thousands of attendees - it was huge!). Part of the reason I haven't posted sooner is that there was so much amazing information that I heard at the conference, and so many great interactions I made with teachers from across North America, my brain is still processing everything I took in at the conference (I've been looking at some of my notes over the past few days, and will continue to do so on the weekend). I had the pleasure of travelling with two close friends of mine who are also techie/nerdy teachers like myself, Ms. Malkoske and Ms. Welbergen. There were some great keynote sessions on great new apps to use in the classroom with your students, or to help keep yourself organized (always a challenge as a teacher!), but my favourite of the keynote sessions was given by Matt Kaplan, who talked about ways to bring in the passions of teachers and students into the classroom (even if they don't explicitly fit into the curriculum), in order to super-charge and maintain everyone's interest in what's going on in the classroom. There were also interesting sessions on video games, and learning and sharing comprehension with student movie-making. One featured session in particular (called 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future'), given by Adam Bellow, was so captivating and fantastic, that I didn't even take any notes - I was so scared that I'd miss something good! Fortunately, because it is an educational technology conference, all of the presenters have made the slides in their presentations available to the attendees, via Edmodo codes, so I'll be able to go back and review it.

I feel very fortunate to have attended such a fantastic conference, and I really must thank a few people for making this happen. Thank you to RETTA (River East Transcona Teachers' Association) for providing the PPDF funding needed to attend the conference. Thank you to my administrator, Ms. Cross, for allowing me to be out of the building for a full week. Thank you also to Mrs. Kosack, who came in and did a fabulous job working with my students during that week. Finally, thank you to my students for working so hard in my absence - when you read "Really enjoyed my week! They were really great! We had fun!" in the notes that the substitute teacher left, after being away for a week, it makes you really proud of your students! Way to go, Room 18!

They had these stickers on the floor, as so many of us techie/nerdy teachers were checking our devices as we were walking - they knew their clientele!

There were lots of ways to follow the conference online, such as through Edmodo, Facebook, and Twitter (my favourite).

The chair of the FETC 2013, welcoming everyone to the conference's opening session.

I took this shot from about 2/3 of the way back at one of the keynote sessions - thousands of teachers there, excited to learn!

So many great things to see in the exhibit hall...

 



...that it took us more than 3 hours to go through!

I met Moby from BrainPop at the exhibit hall - so exciting!

This was from a really good session on iOS productivity apps for teachers that I attended.

The sunset over Tampa Bay on Friday night, our last night in Florida.

I miss the palm trees!

Personal Inquiry Projects

Today, I talked with the class (minus the nine students who were away!) about the Personal Inquiry Projects (or PIPs) they are going to be starting later this week during Daily 5 time. They were really excited to hear that they are going to be able to pick a topic to learn about on their own. When I told the students that Mrs. Malkoske's Grade 2 students have been doing PIPs for a while, they said that our class should be, too! We talked about where they might get their information from ('Info sources', on the picture below), what supplies they might need ('supplies'), and who they might be able to share their learning with ('audience') when they are ready. One student asked if they could work on these at home, as well. When I answered that yes, they could, there was even more excietment (not just from the students, but from their teacher!). Later this week, I will go shopping for the supplies to help the students keep track of their research and their resources. The students have shown that they can be good readers and writers during Daily 5 time, and I am looking forward to seeing them use those reading skills to do their research, and their writing skills to share their findings! Their homework for tonight: think of a topic that they want to learn more about!