Beauty and the Beast

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to go and watch the TCI drama production of Beauty and the Beast. The students really enjoyed it, and did a great job of being a respectful and appreciative audience. Here are some of their comments on the play:

It was romantic because of all the kissing at the end. - Brady

It was really long - about two hours... but it was awesome. - Matthew

There was a lot of action in the play, and it was really awesome. - Avery

It was just like the real movie. - Faith

Some parts were scary, and some parts were cool, and some parts were singing. - Wesley

Belle's dress was beautiful because it was all pink - I expected it to be yellow, because in the movie, her dress was yellow. - Kayleigh

The wolves were funny when they chased Belle's dad behind the audience. - Braedon

All of the sound effects were very realistic. My favourite was when Belle's father's machine wouldn't work, and it exploded. - Connor

They did a really good job of acting, and they were bang-on with the sound effect - they did the action right when the sound effects happened. - Tyrell

They made it amazing when the Beast came back to life - they used a strobe light and a smoke machine. - Robert

I really liked it when Gaston and the Beast were fighting, because it was funny when Gaston tried to stab the Beast. - Eric S.

(waiting for the play to start)

1SE: 1 Second Everyday (October 2014)

Here is our 1SE video from October - again, I've struggled over the last couple of weeks to get this working with the sound properly synced - I suppose I should've just posted it as is, instead of spending so much time trying to get it 'perfect' (I guess that's my 'Type A'-ness coming through!). So, here it is - I hope you enjoy it (despite the A/V issues)!

Room 18's 1SE - October 2014 from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

More new books for our classroom library

Over the past few weeks, I've done some more book shopping. Back near the beginning of the year, the students helped to re-organize our classroom library and helped me to figure out what kinds of books we needed more of. That way, when I was ordering books online, or out at McNally Robinson, I knew what I needed to buy - namely, more books on poetry, space, holidays, nature, science, fairy tales, Math, as well as graphic novels.

After getting the books ready to put in the library over the past couple of weeks, today was the day the students could start reading them - here is what we had for new books:

I then randomly chose students, one at a time, to come up and choose a book to start reading (to avoid a stampede!). Once the 24 students each picked a book, I put the rest into our library, which is now nicely stocked! In my nine years of teaching, this is easily the best classroom library that I've ever had - it's so exciting to see something interesting available for all of the students on a given day, no matter what genre they might feel like reading!

1SE: 1 Second Everyday (September 2014)

Earlier this spring, I attended a conference on technology put on by the Manitoba Teachers' Society called 'Awakening Possibilities'. One of the speakers I was really excited to see was Steve Dembo, who I'd been eagerly following on Twitter for quite a while. During his keynote presentation, he talked about an app someone had mentioned to him called 1SE (or 1 Second Everyday), and the wonderful experience he had in trying this for himself. Right away, I thought to myself "What an incredible way to document what goes on at school on a daily basis!" - so often, the days meld together, and we forget a lot of what we've done throughout the year. With 1SE (and I've been using it to create a personal video of my life, to share with friends and family, as well), each second acts like a placeholder, reminding us of some of the things we did on that day. And even though we won't remember the whole day, it helps us to remember a whole lot more than we would have, otherwise.

So, I started using 1SE shortly thereafter to create a video every month, to summarize that month at school for our classroom (each of which being approx. 20 seconds). At the end of this year, I plan on putting the whole year into one video, which will be approximately 3 minutes in length. It was unfortunate that I didn't find out about the app sooner, as I was only able to have video from the latter part of April to the end of last school year. I'm looking forward to creating these videos to help my students (and their parents) remember what they did during the year in school, because... let's face it... how much do YOU remember from Grade 3 or 4?! I certainly don't remember very much!

P.S. I've tried posting this video for weeks, but for some reason, only the audio was coming through. However, I think I've fixed the problem now (although the audio comes 'unsynced' from the video partway through - argh!), so look for November's 1SE video next week - hopefully, I'll be able to post it bug-free!

Room 18's 1SE - September 2014 from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

Election-o-rama!

With the civic election happening today, it was the perfect time to talk about voting and the election process. We started yesterday by looking at all the candidates who are running for mayor in Winnipeg, and their platforms. The students then wrote about who they thought would be the best choice for mayor, and why, and then who they thought wouldn't make the best choice for mayor, and why. There were some very interesting, and well-thought out, responses (some of which you can see below). FYI, the students in the class narrowly 'elected' Robert Falcon-Oulette (it'll be interesting to see how this compares to the actual election today).

Today, we continued talking about the election by actually running an election. I told the students that I would provide $30 for a class party, but that we would have to decide as a class how to spend the money. So, after asking for volunteers to be candidates in our election, I picked 3 candidates. Along with an election team that they chose, they came up with platforms on how to spend the money, which they presented to the class. Next, the other students sprang into action to compile a voter list, made ballots, operate the polling station, and count the ballots. In the end, Kayleigh won a close election, with Braedon and Raina tying for second. I will be meeting with Kayleigh and her team next week to plan our party - we'll keep you posted! In the meantime, check out the photos of our election below.

Tools that help us learn in the classroom

This is my 9th year of teaching. I have had a lot of students over the years who have used different tools to help them concentrate and get their work done (I have, on occasion, used some similar tools myself.). Some of these tools we have in the classroom include earmuffs, wedge cushions, rocking chairs, and fidget tools (see pictures below). Here are some of the ways that students in our class are using, or have used, these tools:

"I use gum so that I don't bite my nails."
"I have used headphones so I don't get distracted from people talking to me."
"I can use stress balls when I'm angry - they calm me down."
"I chew gum when I'm in an airplane to help my ears not pop."
"I used to have this computer thing (called an e-writer) that I would do my writing on. I went to Mrs. Sokoloff's room, and then she sent it to the photocopier."
"When I was in Grade 2, I sometimes used a mini-earth ball so my hands won't get distracted and touch other stuff."
"Sometimes we chew gum to be quiet."
"I used to go to a calming room when I had too much energy."
"I used to use rocking chairs because my I had a hard time keeping all my chair legs on the ground."
"I sometimes use a wedge cushion on my chair to make me feel more comfortable when I sit down."
"I like the tools because they help us to not get distracted."

These tools are available in the classroom for the students to use, if they wish, to help them to concentrate and get their work done. Sometimes they use them, and sometimes they don't - it all depends on how they are feeling that day. What tools do you use in your classroom, or at your work, to help you to concentrate?

rocking chair

wedge cushion

ear muffs

Monarch Butterflies!

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to see the Monarch Butterflies that had hatched in our Library. The students wrote about it afterwards - we took what they wrote and combined it to describe what happened. Here is their account of the afternoon:

Yesterday at 1:00pm, we were invited to join Mrs. Hoskins and her class in the Library to see the Monarch Butterflies - there was a tomato cage with Monarch caterpillars and chrysalids for the past few weeks. Some of use were lucky enough to get to hold the butterflies. A lady who was an expert at working with Monarch Butterflies showed us how to test them to see if they are healthy. The expert taught us that there was a disease spreading among the butterflies. She showed us how you can put a sticker on a butterfly's wings to see if it makes it to Mexico from where you are. There were three butterflies, and one that had not hatched out of its chrysalis yet. Two of the butterflies were males, and one of them was a female. The males have dots on their wings, and the females do not. The butterflies have six legs, but you can only see four because they use the hidden legs only to pat on plants to see if they are milkweed. The expert told us that the Monarch butterflies are going extent because farmers and other people are killing the milkweed plants, which they need to eat and to lay their eggs on. When the females lay their eggs here, they die one to two weeks later, but when they lay the eggs in California, Texas, or Mexico, they can live up to nine months. We went outside and people got sugar water on their hands to try and keep the butterflies on their hands, but the butterflies flew away when we set them free - FREEDOM! At first the butterflies looked like they were flying the wrong way, but then they started going the other way, and are now going to Mexico (cha-cha-cha!). We will all miss the butterflies. After, we went outside to write about the butterflies, and what happened.