Student Created "Green" Community

Our last IB unit is entitled Give and Take and addresses the limited resources in our world. Students were challenged to build a section of a community on the edge of a river as their culminating project. This is loosely based on our own community, so they were also challenged to add a community center, an amusement park, a college, a football stadium, a wildlife preserve and a power plant. Their communities should reflect their knowledge of renewable and nonrenewable resources and how a community reduces pollution and waste. In addition to this project, students also completed an expository writing about ways that they think we could help our environment. Those writings are also posted on our class blog here. We also experimented with a "Wall Wisher" which is posted here. Double click to add a comment of your own. I like Wall Wisher because it is so simple to add ideas (no account needed) although it is easily cluttered. You can also add links and pictures very easily. I see this as a good virtual space for students to post questions at the end of a unit.

We collaborated on this project with Mrs. Heaton's fourth graders from Mossy Oaks Elementary in Beaufort, South Carolina. They mirrored this process in their class and posted on their class blog. We are going to spend some time looking at the issues that they feel are important in developing their community, and how those issues are the same and different from ours. Thanks to Mrs. Heaton's class! (take some time to explore Mrs. Heaton's blog if you want some great ideas. Hers is a great example of how to effectively use a blog to add to the learning in your classroom...)

Students did a great job, if some of their ideas are a little simplistic. If there were more than a handful of days left we would continue to discuss in class for months. This is certainly a discussion they will need to have throughout your lives, and that was a big part of the message I was trying to convey to them through this unit. Students would love to hear your comments.

Give and Take IB planner here.

Sharing Discovery Streaming Videos

Recently, a colleague of mine and myself were given the job of beginning to consolidate Discovery Streaming videos that teachers were using in their grade levels to support their IB units. There are a couple of tools in Discovery Streaming that make it very easy to keep track of your videos. (Here's their help page on this subject.)

First, once you find a video you should save it in a "My Content" folder. I have different folders within "My Content" for each of our six IB units of inquiry. This has made it very easy to find the videos that I used last year.





After the videos are in your own folder, it is very easy to then share them with others in your building or in the district. Click on the drop down menu on the right and select "share".


If you are sharing with others in your school, select which folder you would like to put it in, or select "share to new school folder". I am sharing all of my videos that I use with our unit on renewable and nonrenewable resources with my colleagues who are teaching the same unit. The next time they sign in to their account, they will see the video in the school content folder.

Want to share the video with a Global Learner in another school? Click on "Share to District" in a folder of your choosing or create a new one. There is already a video there from Idledale Mayoral Candidate, Dave "Mountain Lion" Tarwater.

This has been a great discovery (no pun intended) for us so that we can do a better job of keeping track of resources that we use to support our IB units at Alsup. There are a couple of things that are a little glitchy. For example, I will give a crisp $1 bill to anyone who can tell me how to delete a school content folder. I'm stumped...

I used two videos from Discovery Streaming recently to have students compare life of people in India living in cities to those living in the country. Cultural Comparisons planner is here.

Poetry and Buildyourwildself.com

As we were finishing out CSAP in the fourth grade, I was looking for an engaging project for writing time. So, we wrote poetry. We were reading poetry in every Storytown theme and learning about figurative language. Students were challenged to create a free verse poem about where they are from and also a diamante poem about a subject of their choosing. Students were given specific planners for both poems (there's a great interactive website about diamante poems here). They wrote from the planners and wrote a final draft which was glued to construction paper and displayed in the hall. Then they published their poetry on our class blog.




Once they were finished with their poetry, students created a self portrait using buildyourwildself.com. This website is great for so many levels of students and is very interactive. Students build the features of their wild selves, but as they progress they get to pick, not only human features, but also animal features. Students created some pretty interesting pictures! They emailed their creations to me, I cropped them using Jing, and put them with their poetry on the blog.

They did a pretty good job with this. Their free verse poems don't really read as poetry as much as a short autobiography. One student experimented with rhyming. They were challenged with adding figurative language to their peotry which they really struggled with. Buildyourwildself was a hit of course.

SIOP lesson plan

Reader's Theater Student Podcast

While carpooling with a fifth colleague, Deb Welner, she mentioned that her students were less than thrilled to listen to the weekly audio CD of the core story. So we decided to begin creating audio versions of the reader's theater at the end of every StoryTown theme using fourth and fifth graders. This is our first. The story is Exploring the Gulf Coast and it is from fifth grade theme 6. Students were given scripts a couple of days ahead to practice, then we put all the students together (4 from fourth and 4 from fifth) so they could practice. They read and recorded it twice using the iPod with the mic and this was the best read. The plan is to do another reader's theater from either fourth or fifth every week with a different set of kids.

I also uploaded the recording to archive.org which gives me the code for the player you see above. I embedded the recording on our class reading wiki so students could listen to it during centers. I also burned CDs for each fifth grade teacher using iTunes.
SIOP lesson plan

Probability Bar Graph Voicethread

This is a voicethread my students have been commenting on. The process was as follows:

• Together, we filled out a 6 x 6 table showing all the possible combinations that can be rolled with two dice. We then created a bar graph showing the probability of rolling a 2, 3, 4 etc. all the way to 12. They discovered that the probability of rolling a 7 was much greater than rolling a 2 or a 12.
• Students worked in pairs to roll two dice 50 times and tally the results.
• They used the laptops to visit National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and created a bar graph showing their results.
• I screencaptured their graphs using the PrtSc/SysReq button on the computers because their wasn't a screencapture program installed on all the computers.
• I uploaded the pictures to box.net which now has a feature where you can easily edit the pictures using picnik I cropped the screenshots down to show just the graphs.
• I imported the pictures to Voicethread along with instructions on how students should comment.
• Here's the SIOP lesson plan.
  

Students are choosing to comment using voice and text. I instructed them on how to choose their own "identity" icon before commenting although sometimes they are forgetting to do so. We began this process before spring break and before the blizzard so unfortunately we didn't finish then like I had planned. After the break, we worked on it again and honestly, I am disappointed with the results. I thought my instructions were explicit enough, but my students' comments seemed really surface-level and didn't reflect the deep level of understanding I was looking for. Other comments are very stilted and are read right from their worksheet without much thought to the meaning of the words they were saying.

Finally, I had major technical problems with Voicethread. First, my mics weren't working on any of my desktops. I tested them through the control panel and they worked fine. Then in Voicethread they didn't work. Then I did a test comment as a demonstration for my class and it worked on my laptop. When we went to the desktop later to listen to it on VT, it wasn't there. Other students have reported disappearing comments. It was so frustrating and brought everything to a standstill. I would like kids to go in and continue commenting, but I am bagging it at this point. Has anyone else experienced problems with VT? Voicethread is a tool with great potential and I was excited about using it, but I am really disappointed. We have another project happening next week where students will be publishing their work as a VoiceThread. I will publish it here and let you know how it turns out.

Leadership Summit

The fourth grade Leadership Summit was on Friday, December 5th and it was a success.... mostly.
We had about 65 fourth graders answer the following questions via blog, Twitter and WizIq:

1.  What qualities do good leaders have?

2.  What problems exist that require good leadership?

3.  What obstacles stand in my way that prevent me from becoming a leader?

4.  What goals do I have to set to become a leader? Our Central Idea was:  Individuals impact society through their roles as leaders. 

We had 12 participants on the 90-minute WiziQ session, many from in district at the ESS building, a few classrooms and teachers in district and one fourth grade classroom in Beaufort, SC. We ended the day with about 220 comments on our blog. We had 2, count 'em 2 replies on Twitter. 

There were some technical issues on WizIq.  Nobody could use the whiteboard feature, participants who tried to connect with a mic and/or webcam ran into

problems.  I wrote to the WizIq help desk to ask about connection problems and the annotation feature and their reply was: 

"Regarding the connection, we generally recommend a connection with minimum bandwidth 512kbps for a good experience in a 2-way video session and around 256kbps for a 2-way audio session.. Each individual sees screens/ videos based on their bandwidth and only if they are active [speaking/ broadcasting/ writing] are others affected. 

The Annotation feature works if you transfer audio control [even in free version] to the participants."

I didn't have the audio control transfered, but it seemed to work fine on a couple of practice sessions we had before Friday.

I was passing the mic around to students, but it turned out that the audio was being picked up by the webcam, not the other external mic.  This is why people who joined us could hear me fine but not the students, I was standing right by the webcam, moving it from student to student.  

Twitter was a bust!  I'm a big fan of twitter but we updated around 98 times in 90 minutes and only got 2 replies!  I don't expect people to drop everything to reply and I know that mid morning isn't exactly high traffic time but 2??  I think I am trying to fit twitter in to a format where it doesn't fit.  I am wondering if I could set up a "chat room" type of space where kids sign on and discuss leadership in more of a live session.  As I looked at the tweets and even some of the blog comments, that is what kids were trying to do.  Any ideas of how I could do this?  Chatterous?  G Talk?  Skype?

I was pleased that all four fourth grade classes participated, but logistically it was tough to have that many people in one room.  They were in groups of about 10 and it was a little tough to have all students feel like they could just "act natural" and just interact in the WizIq session.  Last year I did this in groups of 7 and it was much easier.  I talked too much during the session, I would much rather have them lead the conversation.  Is this too much to expect from fourth graders?  We are going to try another "Summit" - type of activity in the spring around a different IB unit.  That will be a good opportunity to tweak some things. Students were unaware that there were any technical problems and were generally excited to share their knowledge with the world.

The conversation continues... My students are doing leadership actions such as helping students in other classes, reshelving books in the media center, a couple of students are planning on planting plants in our courtyard in the spring.  They are earning red "I am a Leader" bracelets for their efforts.  If you or your students would still like to comment on our blog, please do so.  I am also uploading pictures of the session on the sidebar of that blog.

(Thanks so much to those who attended: Joe, Kelly, Liz, Kate.  Thanks Dave for all your help in the days leading up to and during the Summit.)

SmartBoard Vocab Lesson

I want to show you a great activity that I found that uses the SmartBoard and Wordle to teach and reinforce word meanings. I found it on "Teachers Love SmartBoards", a blog that highlights resources and games that you can use in your classroom. I think this game addresses several of the "Cornerstones of Good Vocabulary Instruction" from this post. The video shows how to create it for yourself. Links to the SIOP lesson, the Notebook file and a worksheet to go with the game are on the Global Learners Wiki. We played it at literacy night and it was a big hit.

Room24 Leadership Summit

Global Learners, we have been learning all about leadership in Room24 at Alsup in the fourth grade! Now it is time for our second annual Leadership Summit on December 5th from 10:00 to 11:30.

The Leadership Summit is a chance for fourth graders to reflect on what it means to be a leader. They will be reflecting on these four questions:

1. What qualities to leaders have?
2. What problems exist in my school or community that could be solved if I were a leader?
3. What obstacles stand in my way that prevent me from being a leader?
4. What goals can I set for myself to get past these obstacles?

We need your involvement! Here's how:
We will present the answers to these questions on December 5th in three ways. First, we will publish them on the room24 blog. The questions will be posted and students will be commenting. You can comment too. Second, we will Tweet them (follow room24). What is Twitter? It is a way for students to respond online through 140 character "micro-blogs". We will also invite anyone to join us in a live conversation via WiziQ where participants can address these questions themselves, thinking about themselves when they were young, giving advice to Room24 or sharing a story of a great student leader. Sign up for this free session here.

We look forward to sharing all that we have learned. --Jeff

Xtranormal Storytelling

Just found Xtranormal on Twitter (from @NikPeachey) and made this movie in about 30 minutes with their "text to movie" feature. The movies are very simple to make which is good for younger students, but don't have a ton of options like Photostory. Xtranormal reminds me of a more complex voki and it is free, for now. It could be an interesting way to put instructions for students on a website or wiki. I tried it on my class wiki here.


By the way, Twitter is so great for finding these kinds of tools. I am following about 90 people on my personal account, mostly educators, so there are lots opportunities to hear what people are doing in their classrooms. And, since twitter is only 140 characters, people are much more likely to share ideas they might not otherwise blog about. I think I get more ideas from Twitter than just about any other resource.

Digital Storytelling in Fourth Grade

Our "Planet Film Fest" was on Friday. Dave and Emily were there in addition to 8 of my students' family members, my principal and learning coordinator. I posted plans and resources that I used to help my students through the process of creating Powerpoints and Photostories on the Global Learner wiki.

This is the second year that I have taught this unit and used digital storytelling as the culminating project. Some thoughts:

• Last year I had movies, using Moviemaker, as a choice and I found it to be too hard for me to manage so I just didn't make it an option this year. Any suggestions for integrating Moviemaker? It is so difficult to manage multiple groups using two (or more) different pieces of software.
  
• I found last year's movies to be a little "thin" on information so I really tried to organize myself better to make expectations clearer. This group's is better, but there are some groups that clearly worked harder than others.
  
• I would still like to make the process more streamlined so that projects could be completed quicker. They took about 3 weeks to finish, which seems too long to me. Is it possible for them to do this faster, and still produce quality products? Do I move on to my next unit earlier and do the filmmaking process at a different time in my day, like writing?
  
• This is the first time I did a Film Fest and invited teachers and parents. I really enjoyed it and I think that it really put students on the spot (in a good way). They focused better and seemed very proud of the work they had done. Next time, I would like students to run the entire Film Fest on their own, but this time around I didn't feel like I had enough time to prepare them, and this group of students requires more "coaching" (shall we say...) to stay on task.

You can see the final projects here on our class blog. Students would be thrilled to hear your feedback.

Planet Film Fest

As a culminating project for an IB unit on the Solar System, my students created a Photostory (and one PowerPoint) about a planet. We are just finishing publishing to our class blog and are holding a "Planet Film Fest" on Friday. I realize you all are working (duh), but I invite you and your students to take a look at the videos and comment. I feel the need to do a better job of connecting family members into this process, since most of my students don't have computers at home, so I am sending home invitations today (screenshot is on the right). I am hoping I get a good showing of parents, grandparents etc. on Friday. I am also planning on creating DVDs for students to take home (any suggestions on the best way to do that?) In a future post, I will reflect a little and post some resources I used to facilitate the process.

Netiquette

(Picture Credit: Wesley Bedrosian)

I find myself starting off a little slower this year than last. I am trying to be careful how I set up expectations with my fourth graders on blogging, using Twitter and general internet safety. In addition to that, a Global Learner recently expressed frustration in students' blog comments. "There are so many mistakes that they are not postable." It is making me think about the importance of high quality work and helping my students be successful with the integration of web2.0 tools in our classrooms.

I read an article in the latest Edutopia magazine. It addresses the importance of teaching "Netiquette" to our students. But in a larger sense, it talks about how students can be safe on the web, and how to help our students make their writing appropriate for online viewing. Will Richardson is quoted in the article:

"A lot of schools are beginning to put in Internet-safety and Internet-etiquette units, but they're not systemic in any way, and they really need to be."

It is also acknowledged that we need to incorporate netiquette into everyday education. Rather than, "Let's go down to the lab to learn about Internet matters."

So, what is netiquette and how do we incorporate into everyday education? And, how do I set expectations for computer/internet use at the beginning of the year, just like I set expectations for all behaviors in my classroom and make it systemic? I see there being three different categories:

1. Behavior
Netiquette rules are going to vary depending on grade level of course. My fourth graders don't know much about instant messaging yet, so we don't need to have the conversation about IM-speak not being appropriate in other online (or offline) settings. Our rules center more around the golden rule. Treat others as you would like to be treated:

• Blog comments on others' work should be constructive and also say something positive about the work.
• Blog posts and comments cannot be anonymous.

There are many other suggesions in the article in a sidebar entitled, "Don't Even Think About It".

2. Quality of Work
Again, this conversation is different in elementary than it is in secondary, but I am always having a conversation with my students about the quality of their work. Their work on our blog or twitter should be no different. This takes patience. Students don't necessarily know how to do this upon entering the classroom. They are also anxious to push the boundaries with their new teacher to find out where the boundaries are.

• Set High Expectations: I set high expectations for all the work in my classroom (I try anyway), but am having the conversation with my students about the importance of publishing high quality work on our blog, considering the number of people that could be reading it. All the work on the blog needs to be revised and edited before it is published. By fourth grade, there should be no errors in caps, punctuation or spelling. If there is a mistake after publishing, you need to go back and fix it. If, after fixing it, there are still minor errors with grammar or layout, or trouble with spelling a complex word, I will let it go. Students could be turned off to the whole process if I insist on perfection and have a student go over the same post over and over. On Twitter, my expectation is perfection, considering it is only 140 characters. Updates should have some substance. What did you learn during math, not what you "did". Ask a question to encourage a response.
• Represent Yourself Positively: This is a standard conversation I have had with students on our way out the door to any field trip. You are not only representing yourself, but you are representing Alsup, Adams 14 and Commerce City. Act accordingly. The same could be said about how you represent yourself on our blog. Take pride in yourself, our classroom, school, community when you are writing about it.
• Work Together: Students work in pairs when updating on Twitter and will often work in pairs when they first publish to our blog. I am already finding "experts" in my room that are eager to get started and want to help their classmates.
  

3. Safety
Students are well aware of the online boogieman, ready to pounce and steal your identity. One way to keep students safe is to stick to a more student-friendly blog site like edublogs or blogmeister. Epals, gaggle and think.com have their own as well that are part of a suite that includes their email service. But I really have been pleased with Blogger and the way that it allows my students to reach a larger audience and we had no problems with safety during our first year of blogging. I do feel obligated to go over safety with my students, especially after last years' group was so eager to reach out to people outside of our school. I found this internet safety document online that I have revised and will go over with my students this week. I will add a signature at the bottom and send it home. I did this last year as well, but only after we had been blogging for several months. I realize these are not legal documents, but I am making an effort to better document my expectations and make my students accountable before there is an issue.

Two other resources from the article. A sample acceptable use policy from Bud Hunt. The other is an email safety pdf for students that was created by the Modesto city schools, which might be useful to students at the high school.

These are just my thoughts. How are you addressing these issues in your classroom? What kinds of behaviors do you encounter in your classroom that keep your students from accessing these tools efficiently?

iPod as learning tool

I have used the iPod quite a bit this year. I have been experimenting a lot but not publishing much. However, I took the iPod with the microphone to our field trip the other day and published the resulting podcast on our blog. I used the field trip to reinforce a lesson on Lindamood-Bell's Visualizing and Verbalizing program. It uses structure words to prompt students to better visualize what they are reading. We have another field trip coming up. This time I think I will borrow a few more and hand them to kids to record as they go through the Colorado History Museum.

My reading group has been experimenting with recording the upcoming story and then burning it for our listening center. We have had problems staying focused long enough to have a good recording, but will keep trying.

Another thought is to use my class blog to have students reflect on what we learned this week in each subject. The iPod would be a great way for my lower students to post their reflections verbally.

Any suggestions for other uses?