I want to start this post by congratulating four of my students: Zachary, Samantha, Phoebe and Shane, for their incredible performance in today's first DBS Spelling Bee. I was blown away at how hard the kids studied and by how much dedication they had in their own success. They all did a fantastic job and should be commended for their efforts. The rest of the class was so supportive, and they cheered and congratulated each contestant as they finished their run. I was so proud of everyone involved in today's bee.
On another note, I have a warning for you! Your child may come home today full of excitement about the need to change every password ever created on your computers, phones, laptops, netbooks, and/or tablets. I apologize in advance. We had another technology ethics lesson today. Our focus was on the creation of passwords. The students became totally involved in the do's and don'ts of passwords. They quickly understood why simple English words would be too easy for others to learn, and how important it is to have over 8 characters that include symbols, letters, and numbers. Within a few moments I had an entire class a buzz. The first thing they wanted to do was change their school email passwords. They were up in arms that I didn't allow that to happen today. By the end of class each child was busy practicing creating their own passwords which were filled with cryptic letters and numbers that meant something only to them. Hopefully this lesson will be remembered long past this week, and students will be more conscientious the next time they are asked to create a password for a new app, new website, or new program online. I encourage you to talk to your child about passwords that you use at home, and if you are able, maybe you can allow them to have some input in changing a password to make it more secure for you and your family.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
YouTube
I've been playing around a lot more with YouTube as an educational tool this month. We all know how much fun it can be to watch silly, crazy, or downright scary videos that random people all over the world post to this site. However, YouTube is so much more than that. For years I've been using the site to find great educational videos to use in my classroom. However, these past few weeks I've been able to organize them into different playlists that clearly organizes my favorites. My students can access my channel and watch different videos, and they are even beta testing a chance for us to create online quizzes directly linked to the videos on our channels. How awesome is that? I did sign up to be part of the beta test, but have had some difficulty getting it to work just yet. However, I am extremely excited to get it to work so that the students can benefit from this amazing tool.
In the mean time I have been using Blubbr, a new site that I just learned about, that allows you to use YouTube videos to create trivia or quizzes with short video clips. For example, I just created one using different clips about states of matter. It was my first trial quiz, but basically it shows a 20 second clip and then asks the student a question. It gives immediate feedback before showing another 20 second clip where you can either show the answer to the previous question or give information for the next one. I can't wait to play around more with this site. It just creates such an engaging way for twenty-first century students to learn in the medium that they are so accustomed.
If you haven't had a chance to really play around with all that YouTube has to offer, besides the silly videos that go viral, you should take a minute to check it out. It truly has become a forward thinking website.
In the mean time I have been using Blubbr, a new site that I just learned about, that allows you to use YouTube videos to create trivia or quizzes with short video clips. For example, I just created one using different clips about states of matter. It was my first trial quiz, but basically it shows a 20 second clip and then asks the student a question. It gives immediate feedback before showing another 20 second clip where you can either show the answer to the previous question or give information for the next one. I can't wait to play around more with this site. It just creates such an engaging way for twenty-first century students to learn in the medium that they are so accustomed.
If you haven't had a chance to really play around with all that YouTube has to offer, besides the silly videos that go viral, you should take a minute to check it out. It truly has become a forward thinking website.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Catching Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_bLSjmSFe8&feature=youtu.be
I know that I've been MIA from my blog for the past few weeks, and I truly apologize. The flu/cold thing that is going around got the best of me for a few weeks and I've been sort of running on low steam. However, I am now back and in full swing. We have been doing so many great things lately and I can't wait to share.
First off, be sure to take a peak at one of the stop motion animation clips that my class did to show the process of changes in states of matter. This one was a particular favorite. It is only about 7 seconds and it goes fast, so be sure to watch carefully. This was the students first time using this very cool new app on their ipads. They quickly learned that next time they wanted to do more animation to show true movement. That being said, they had a blast, and some of their films came out great.
This week we took a trip back in time on our field trip to Billings Farm. I was amazed at how much the kids got out of their experiences. It was so much fun watching them cook the dinner, bake bread, churn butter, and even sew a quilt. Perhaps the best part was observing them do chores such as laundry (yes they even scrubbed on a washboard) and mucking out stalls (mmmhmmm, manure and all) without one mention of a complaint. In fact, I even heard comments such as, "This is so much fun!" and "I wish I could do this every day." So, there you go parents. Simply tell your kids that they are now being transported back to the 19th century where kids did chores, and you won't even get a complaint, hee hee.
I know that I've been MIA from my blog for the past few weeks, and I truly apologize. The flu/cold thing that is going around got the best of me for a few weeks and I've been sort of running on low steam. However, I am now back and in full swing. We have been doing so many great things lately and I can't wait to share.
First off, be sure to take a peak at one of the stop motion animation clips that my class did to show the process of changes in states of matter. This one was a particular favorite. It is only about 7 seconds and it goes fast, so be sure to watch carefully. This was the students first time using this very cool new app on their ipads. They quickly learned that next time they wanted to do more animation to show true movement. That being said, they had a blast, and some of their films came out great.
This week we took a trip back in time on our field trip to Billings Farm. I was amazed at how much the kids got out of their experiences. It was so much fun watching them cook the dinner, bake bread, churn butter, and even sew a quilt. Perhaps the best part was observing them do chores such as laundry (yes they even scrubbed on a washboard) and mucking out stalls (mmmhmmm, manure and all) without one mention of a complaint. In fact, I even heard comments such as, "This is so much fun!" and "I wish I could do this every day." So, there you go parents. Simply tell your kids that they are now being transported back to the 19th century where kids did chores, and you won't even get a complaint, hee hee.
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| Cameron cleaning the stables |
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| Tyson cooking the vegetables for the soup |
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| Lunch |
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