This month has been spent really gearing up for CSAPs. I have been using tenmarks.com for 30 minutes three days a week. I was having trouble holding students accountable for the work they were doing. In order to help me keep track of this, I created a simple recording sheet. It has spaces to record ten problems that a student works on from a particular skill set, a place to indicate whether they got the problem correct or incorrect, and a space to record their reflection if they did not answer the problem correctly. I call it a reflection because that is something they are supposed to be doing for IB. It really seems to have helped hold the students more accountable for their work. Also, I have given the students the option of taking a sheet that can track 20 problems in lieu of the daily homework. I have only had 4 or 5 students consistently choose tenmarks over homework. I have had a number of students who are now working on tenmarks at home. Overall, the students need help reflecting on the reasons they are not answering questions correctly, but more are investing time to watch the instructional videos and putting in some extra effort in order to get the problem correct so they do not have to write a reflection.

Check out our Blog!

Hey~
A few of my second graders blogged about their favorite story in Theme 4 and what they learned. Check it out! http://dupontdinosaurs.blogspot.com/
There are only a few that blogged, as I used this as a reward for students that were working hard. Another reward that I used was Toondoo.com. Students had to create a toondoo about the story The Life of George Washington Carver. I will have those posted on our blog as soon as I can figure out how to do that. If any of you have posted Toondoo's to a blog, let me know how to do it. Thanks!

Sara

Lesson Plan 2 Anne and Jesse

Glet: Read, interpret, and draw conclusion from a line graph, bar graph, circle graph, and frequency table.

Objective: Students will be able to accurately determine information about other students jumping jacks ability when given a line graph displaying this data.
Vocabulary: X-axis, Y-axis, Title, intervals, labels,
I Do: Teacher will review reading line graphs giving multiple examples and stressing vocabulary

We Do: teacher and students will practice reading line graphs. Students will be shown a line graph and asked a question about some of the data (What was the high temperature in Denver on Monday 2/23). Students will click in answers. Teacher will address confusion until 85% of students are answering correctly.
Teacher will then walk students through the process of posting their graphs from previous days lesson in a power point document and record audio. Students will have 4-5 slides and they will post their graph on each slide.

You Do: Students will create 4-5 questions that ask the reader to interpret their jumping-jaxs graph. They will write one question on each slide. Students who finish before other students will record themselves reading the question.
Students will then be given 5 min to move to another student’s computer and answer one question about their graph. Students will record their answer on a sheet of paper to be turned in at the end of class.
Assessment: students will turn in their answers to each other’s questions.

Just got a document camera

My classroom now has a document camera. I have figured out the basics of it. Right now my students are studying graphing. I have used the document camera to show the whole class a few of the student’s graphs. It made it very easy to show a graph with a correct scale, labels, and using the majority of the space available. Students feel important when I use their work as an example and the rest of the class enjoys seeing real work rather then something I got from a workbook or a worksheet online.

I really enjoy using a document camera but I know there is a lot more I can do with it. Please share any ways you have used the document camera in your own classroom!

Graphing Lesson 1 --Anne and Jesse

Part 1 of a 2 day lesson

GLET: Read, interpret and draw conclusions from a line graph, bar graph, circle graph and frequency table.

Objective: Students will gather data, create a line graph, accurately label all parts on the graph, and create questions that analyze their graph

Vocabulary: x-axis, y-axis, title, intervals, labels,

I Do:

1. Demonstrate how to collect data.

2. Demonstrate how to make a line graph on excel

We Do:

1. Collect data (Students will have made a table for this on notebook paper)

a. Students will count how many jumping jacks they can do in 15 seconds and record

b. 30 seconds and record

c. 45 seconds and record

d. 60 seconds and record

2. Make their individual graphs on excel. Save so they can use it tomorrow.

You Do : Answer:

1. Label all parts of the graph

2. Create 2-4 questions that would have to be answered by reading their graph

Assessment: The graphs created with accurate labels and questions created.

Resources: Computer for each student, timer, data collection worksheets

Toon Doo!

After reading the "The Three Little Pigs," my kindergartners practiced summarizing the story using a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer. First, students drew and labeled pictures using a paper version of the graphic organizer. After my students perfected and finished up their writing, it was time to present their work to their classmates! Throughout the week each table group shared their work during "Author's Chair."

At the end of the week I decided to practice summarizing during whole group instruction. As a class we used the website Toondoo.com to create a comic strip-graphic organizer of the story, "Three Little Pigs!" The students loved retelling the story, picking out graphics, and brainstorming ideas for the text! Above is what we came up with!!

slide rocket

According to the website, "SlideRocket was founded in 2006 with the vision of building a better presentation experience, one that provides for every part of the presentation lifecycle and helps you make great presentations. SlideRocket is committed to providing the best presentation experience to individuals and businesses around the world through innovative and compelling software-as-a-service."

As written about in PCworld, "SlideRocket packs a powerful punch with a beautiful interface and top-notch features.SlideRocket is a secure and fully integrated suite of online tools offered on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis from any Internet-enabled laptop, PC, or handheld device.

You can create slides with either your own content or material gathered from a comprehensive online marketplace that offers themes, cartoons, photographs, data feeds, video and audio clips, illustrations, and other elements. You can import existing PowerPoint slides and include them in SlideRocket, and insert plug-ins as well.

You can also include dynamic data from Google Spreadsheets, Twitter, and other Web sources to keep presentations current and up-to-date. Collaboration tools let colleagues work in sync. In addition, SlideRocket provides a raft of extra services such as graphic design, copywriting and editing, coaching, printing, and binding.

When you finish a presentation, you can share slides securely by hosting a Web meeting, publishing them to a URL, embedding them in a Web page or blog, giving users permission to forward them to other people, or printing them for distribution. You can export presentations both to PowerPoint and PDF, though SlideRocket warns that some features may not be preserved. You'll also find an offline presentation player.

Particularly notable is the fact that SlideRocket offers metrics for you to measure the effectiveness of presentations. On top of adding polls to presentations, you can track who viewed them and where, how much time a person spent on each slide, and what follow-up actions they took, such as click-throughs, form submissions, or forwarding to other users. Viewers can leave virtual comments, too.

In the mobile realm, SlideRocket allows iPhone and Android users to attend remote meetings, play presentations, and view embedded presentations. Videos, audio, transitions, and builds work with HTML5-compliant Web browsers.

Hands-on: SlideRocket has a beautiful interface for getting a new user up and running quickly. Importing presentations from PowerPoint was no trouble, though existing slide transitions were not preserved.

SlideRocket is an extremely powerful service, and everything felt intuitive while we worked on a presentation. We encountered a few very small lags--as seems to be typical with online software--but the option to incorporate dynamic content from sites such as Twitter is great, as is the built-in ability to look for images and videos quickly and easily on Flickr and YouTube. Both features feel like a natural reflection of the way Web-enabled users work today.The new library of free, premade presentations is impressive and can be a nice source of inspiration, while the metrics capabilities could be a real asset for anyone using the software for business purposes.

All in all, SlideRocket stood out as the most comprehensive, full-featured package we looked at. Note, though, that the free version lacks a significant portion of the functionality of the two paid versions, including many of the collaboration, analytics, offline presentation, and export capabilities. Most business users will probably want to go with a paid version.

Price: Free for a Lite version with up to five multiseat accounts; $24 per user per month for a Pro version with up to 25 accounts; enterprise pricing for unlimited users is set separately

Import/export: Import from PowerPoint and Google Presentations, export to PDF and PowerPoint

Unique features:

• Beautiful interface
• Metrics to let users track the impact of presentations
• Excellent collaboration and security features
• Content gallery includes customizable, ready-to-use presentations
• Plug-ins for Flickr and YouTube
• Capability to include dynamic content, such as from Twitter
• Offline presentation player
• Some mobile viewing capabilities
• SlideRocket app is available in the Chrome Web Store

Best use for SlideRocket: A flexible offering packed with features for even the most demanding users, SlideRocket is our favorite of all the contenders we tried. We can't imagine any user being dissatisfied. If anything, it might be overkill for some users."

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It is kind of cool! Worth checking it out. Doug

Here is a link to a chem teacher who is having his students create google sites, wikis and slide rocket apps.