District Academy Awards 2012

On Monday June 11, 2012 we hosted our second annual academy awards ceremony. This was the first time that it has been a district-wide event. Previously it was limited to only the Middle School.   I developed this event with our middle school gifted and talented teacher, Dr. Nancy Harris.  The purpose is to recognize and celebrate the fabulous multimedia projects that our students have created throughout the year in grades K-12. 

Digital storytelling, podcasting, stop motion animation and digital authoring  are all integrated into all of our instructional areas. In each content area students and teachers are creating and accessing such content to  instruct and assess.

Multimedia creation develops information literacy skills such as research, evaluation and organization of digital content.  The process develops visual literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration.  Students who take part in these projects are provided an authentic task and an audience for their writing beyond the classroom teacher. In many cases students discover the power of their own voice and an overall excitement about learning.

The categories that we recognized included:  Non-Fiction, Personal Narrative, Historical, Stop Motion Animation, Podcast/Radio Show, Environment, Character Counts, Public Service Announcement, Current Events, Foreign Film, Tutorial and Digital Book.

We had 21 productions in which 53 awards were given. For this event we setup a red carpet for students to enter. Each winner received a mini oscar award. This year we had 250 parents, family and students in the audience. Our students did an fantastic job on their productions. We are proud of the work they created and the teachers who supported them.

We look forward to this event next year. To begin planning class/student projects for this event please visit the resources below:

Mr. Walker's Digital Writing Wiki: 

Digital Storytelling 

Storyjumper

SAM Animation

 

Kindergarten Class Visits Chile

The students in Mrs. Curry's Kindergarten class have been learning about similarities and differences between ourselves and others and how to celebrate differences. They are also learning  about communities and maps.  They decided to take what they know about their community and share it with others.

 

Recently they hosted a Skype video conference with  Tia Eres' Kindergarten class from Arica, Chile! Below is their video conference session ( filmed sideways by mistake, oops! )

 

 

Grade 5 Class Winners of Digital Earth Day Contest

The student's in Mrs. Halsall's grade 5 class in White Rock School were recognized as winners of the Glogster Edu Earth Day Contest. The contest required students/classes to develop digital posters that explore methods to go green in your community. The Glog they created contains text, images, video and audio.  Mrs. Halsall used a Flip Digital Video Camera to record her students. She worked with Mr. Walker to edit the videos and publish them on the Glog.The students were awarded a copy of the DVD Freedom by Sundance Film Festival Award Winners Josh & Rebecca Tickell.



Glogster EDU is a web 2.0 site that our district subscribes to. It provides our students with the opportunity to create digital posters. These digital posters allow for the addition of text, images, audio, video, drawings and file attachments. Students design and develop these posters and then present the content to their classmates. You can read more of my postings about the benefits of digital posters here.

 

Congratulations to Mrs. Halsall's class! You can view their Glog here. 

 

 

A Personal Interview With A Forensic Psychologist

On May 17, Miss Zegas's AP Psychology classes engaged in a Skype conference with Dr. Shari Berkowitz at Roosevelt University, http://sites.roosevelt.edu/sberkowitz/.  The conference was sparked by an overwhelming interest in memory and attention by the AP Psychology students.



Dr. Berkowitz is a forensic psychologist who specializes in memory, the creation of false memories, and was a former research assistant of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a world-renowned expert in eyewitness testimony.  Dr. Berkowitz shared information about her background as well as research on planting false memories and investigations of the criminal justice system with the AP Psychology students and then began a Q&A session.

At the end of the session, Dr. Berkowitz shared more about her job as a forensic psychologist outside of teaching and gave the class some tips to prepare for college.  After the conference ended, a thank you e-mail was sent to Dr. Berkowitz who replied "Your students asked great questions, and I was impressed with their ability to think creatively and critically about the research." On May 18, all AP Psychology students wrote Dr. Berkowitz personalized thank you notes for her willingness to Skype with them and teach them more about rich false memories.

 

 

Middle School Spanish Class Takes a Virtual Field Trip to Mexico

The student's in Ms. Febres's 7'th grade Spanish classes video conferenced with students from a K-12 school located in Mexico City called Nuevo Continente. Ms. Febres coordinated the video conference session with 4 of her classes.  During each video conference session the students exchanged questions. The students from Mexico spoke in English and our students spoke in Spanish.

This was a very engaging and rewarding experience for all of the students involved. It provided an authentic experience for students to apply their knowledge of their target language. It also proved to be enlightening as the students learned about their similarities and differences. Ms. Febres is planning to continue with this connection moving forward. We are discussing plans for small group exchanges using or mobile devices.

 

Celebrity Video Conference - It's just good business!

Our high school business department had a special guest visit them today.  We hosted a Skype video conference with Barbara Corcoran. Barbara is an extremely successful entrepreneur in the real estate industry. During her impressive career she took a $1000 loan to start The Corcoran Group. She parlayed the loan into a five-billion-dollar real estate business and sold it in 2001 for $66 million.

Barbara is the real estate contributor for NBC’s TODAY Show where she comments weekly on trends in the real estate market.  She’s also a Star on ABC’s reality hit Shark Tank. As a speaker, Barbara brings her front-line experience and infectious energy to every group she addresses.  Motivational, inspirational, and sometimes outrageous, Barbara Corcoran’s tell-it-like-it-is attitude is a refreshing approach to success.

Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. DeGraw we were able to provide our students with a 45 minute question and answer session with Ms. Corcoran.  It turned out to be a huge success. Ms. Corcoran provided a thorough and entertaining perspective into entrepreneurship, business development, and the important factors that contribute to a successful business. Our students questioned Ms. Corcoran regarding branding, success rates, expectations, investment decisions, and the general factors that contribute to a successful start-up. Ms. Corcoran answered each question with specific examples and entertaining stories.

This was a wonderful experience for our students. Video Conferencing allows authentic connections that isn't possible with only a textbook and a teacher. We are able to vet the resources available world wide at no cost and practically on-demand. Instead of reading about what successful entrepreneurs have done  we can ask one live! First hand questioning, conversation, and collaboration will always have the greatest impact on student learning. This makes learning fun, authentic, and engaging.

Student Book Reviews Using Google Sites

Our district is a member of Google Apps for Education. We have started to use Google Sites for a number of initiatives. We started to use Sites for teacher websites in some of our schools. We also  used Sites to build instructional resources. Our interactive Pyramid of Intervention and  Collaborative Group Work Resource are two great examples. 

Recently two of our grade 2 teachers were looking for an online solution to publish their student's book reviews. We decided to use Google Sites as the tool. Each student illustrated a picture of themselves and a picture of the book. I created pages on the site to publish their profile pictures with links to their book reviews (that the students typed in MS word).  The result is a fabulous site that publishes their book reviews. Please take a look at our student's work here. 

By providing an opportunity to publish their book reviews we established an authentic task that proved to be engaging for the students. They were writing for a global audience and were very connected to the assignment. It was positive experience for everyone!

Enjoy!

 

 

A Creative Approach to Representing Content Receives Recognition

Congratulations to Mr. Levine, a social studies teaching in our high school. Mr. Levine has been using Glogster EDU as his primary method of delivering instructional content to his students.  His recent Glog on FDR and The Great Depression has been published as a top 5 Glog on the Glogster Edu website. You can view all of Mr. Levine's Glogs here.

Mr. Levine designs Glogs that contain images, links, videos, audio and any other relevant content for his lessons. He uses a projector in his classroom to display the Glog and discuss/review its content. Because the Glogs are available online students have access to it for further review at home, as a study guide, to make-up work when absent, and to participate in small group projects and discussions.

This unique approach to organizing, disseminating, and presenting content is proving to be effective with students. The web has provided opportunities for us as educators to change the way we present.This creative approach is both engaging and effective.

 

Glogster is a tool that allows for the creation of digital posters. I really like the way it curates information. It is most effective as an assessment for students when presenting the Glog is a requirement. Because of the small amount of real estate available on the Glog students are limited with regards to the amount of text that can be displayed. What that equates to is a lot less reading and more summarizing and discussion regarding the visual content on the Glog. You can read my previous postings on Glogster here:

Glogster as a teaching tool

Digital posters develop higher order thinking skills

Create portfolios in Glogster.

 

 

Connecting Literacy, Technology, Science & Penguins?

We have been successful with implementing various author Skype sessions in all of our schools. These experience are always positive.  The authors that we have connected with have done a fantastic job inspiring our students. Most notably they have  allowed students to make an authentic connection to the writing process. They connect the strategies taught in the classroom with what real authors actually do. Sometimes it is just better when they hear it from someone other than their teacher. Each time we connect we also have a lot of fun.
This particular Skype session was different. The student's in Ms. Reichel's grade 1 class in Ellen T.  Briggs School connected with author Jean Marzollo. Mrs. Marzollo is the author of the well-known I-Spy book series. Ms. Reichel's class chose to focus on her non-fiction story Pierre the Penguin.  The students had been studying about penguins. They recently skyped with a penguin expert.

Here is a excerpt from Ms. Reichel's blog posting regarding the connection:

"We first read this book as part of our unit on penguins and instantly fell in love with the adorable Pierre who wears a tiny wet suit so he will stay warm in the water even though he does not have feathers.  Our interest in Pierre brought us to his home sitehttp://www.calacademy.org/webcams/penguins/.  There we were able to watch live footage of Pierre and his friends and read about how he is doing on the Penguin Blog.    

After that we were hooked!  We wanted to know more and were lucky enough to Skype with Mrs. Marzollo.  Not only did she read us the book but she also took the time to answer questions. "

What really differentiated this experience from other author Skype sessions is what unfolded during the exchange of questions with Mrs. Marzollo. The students shared that they discovered Pierre's birthday was the next week. He was going to be 29 years old. They had learned this and other interesting facts about Pierre while reading a blog published about him. This was new information for Mrs. Marzollo. She was so impressed with the knowledge she had uncovered from our students that she wrote a posting on her personal blog to highlight the experience. You can read it here.

The student's in Ms. Reichel's class are very excited to be mentioned on the blog of an international author. They believe that they are now famous! What is underlying here is what this has accomplished. The student's have seen a true purpose for their research. They were able to curate and communicate what they learned and share it with a global audience. This opportunity opened up a level of engagement that each of us strive for. If we could create opportunities for students to share what they have learned or created with the world, we can expect a level of  engagement and excitement about learning that is difficult to develop using traditional instructional methods.

 

 

 

A Collaborative Project to Build Bullying Awareness

The students in Mrs. Bock's reading class at White Rock Elementary school wanted to work together to apply what they have learned about bullying, character counts, and the writing process to publish a book about bullying. The students and Mrs. Bock had recently been introduced to Storyjumper  through one of my training sessions. Storyjumper is a free web-based application that allows students to create and publish page turning online storybooks. The books are viewable online and can be purchased as a hard cover children's book. 

Mrs. Bock recognized that while writing in isolation on a topic that is of interest to students may be engaging, she knew that connecting with another school to collaborate on a publication would spark student interest.   Mrs. Bock successfully connected with a class from the Califon school in NJ. Together both groups of students co-authored a book that addresses bullying. This wonderful publication identifies the characteristics of a bully, integrates the six pillars of character and offers solutions for addressing the problem.

The overall project was a success. The students enjoyed applying what they have learned about bullying and character counts. They were provided with an opportunity to collaborate with another class, apply problem solving skills, and publish for a public audience. These are key skills for the 21st century. Please follow the link below to read a copy of their book.

Click Here To Read Their Book

Congratulations to Mrs. Bock's Class! Great Job!

Vote for our Middle School Students!

I  have had the pleasure to work with Dr. Nancy Harris and the students in  her middle school gifted and talented program. We worked on submitting an application to the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Contest. The contest required participants to develop a solution for an environmental concern in their area that uses STEM. We were asked to create a two minute video that documents our solution.

Out of 15oo applicants we were selected as a top 12 finalist. While the 12 finalists will each receive $70,000 worth of technology for their school, 5 of the 12 will be selected as grand prize winners. Public voting is now open to select one of the top 5 winners. Please follow the link below and vote for Jefferson Township Middle School!

https://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/video/index.jsp#top

Authentic Connections With Skype

The student's in Mrs. Reichel's grade 1 class in Ellen Briggs School in my district connected with Penguin experts to discuss what they have learned about Penguins. The students had a number of great questions. The event was a great experience for all. See the posting below from Mrs. Reichel's blog.

 

Re-Posted from Ms. Reichel's Blog



On Friday, January 20, 2012 our class celebrated Penguin Awareness Day. For weeks we have been learning about different types of penguins and what makes them so interesting. We have learned a lot of penguin facts but we were still left with some questions.

Thanks to Rebecca and Laura at the Penguin Project we were able to get answers. Click the video below to watch our Skype session with these two penguin experts. They made it to their offices at the University of Washington in Seattle despite a major snowstorm. We are so grateful for their time and knowledge!

Before our Skype session, we took the time to check out where they study penguins and learned they are working with Magellanic Penguins located in Punta Tombo, Argentina. Unlike penguins from the South Pole, these penguins experience a change in seasons. Right now, it is summer in Argentina.

We especially loved reading about Turbo the Penguin and his amazing story of survival.

[caption id="attachment_731" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Thank you Penguin Project! You have inspired us!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_729" align="aligncenter" width="160" caption="Turbo the Penguin"][/caption]

 



Did you learn something about penguins? Leave us a comment to share your new information.

Collaborative Writing In Elementary Classrooms

The development of Web 2.0, or the Read/Write Web, has produced a number of free resources that allow students and teachers to publish and collaborate online. One of my favorite sites to use with students is Wikispaces.  Wikispaces is a web service that allows teachers to create a wiki in which students may contribute content. The service is free for teachers and students. After a teacher creates an account they can create as many wikis as they wish. There is a very simple to use management tool that allows the teacher o create student usernames and passwords.

Once a student is granted access to the wiki he or she can add content, respond to discussions regarding the content and even leave comments when reviewing materials developed by the teacher or their peers. The availability of a resource like Wikispaces offers a number of opportunities in the classroom.

A wiki is a forum in which students can collaborate, share and contribute content, and peer review each others work. For example, the students in Mrs. Daly’s (White Rock), Mrs. Young’s, (Stanlick) and Mrs. McLoughlin’s (Stanlick) grade 5 classes have been working with grade 5 classes in Buckingham County, Virginia on a shared wiki. Each student was paired with a student in Virginia who is at or near their writing level. We created a wiki for the project and a page within that wiki for each student.

The goal of this collaborative project was to provide an authentic opportunity for students to develop their writing skills. Each student was responsible for authoring a writing piece based on a common writing prompt. After the students added their written work to their page they were responsible for peer editing the work of their partner. The students followed a common template for peer review that was shared with all six teachers involved. The students provided the feedback
to their partners in Virginia through the discussion feature that is available on each of their pages.

This project has been a success. The students were provided with the opportunity to write for an audience. They enjoyed learning about their partners in Virginia. It was a great opportunity to experience writing from their peers in other states. The opportunity to send and receive feedback provided an opportunity for reflection regarding their writing. The student’s in Mrs. Young’s class and their partner class in Virginia will be continuing this project. They are in the process of organizing a wiki in which each pairing of students will co-author a single story.

While a wiki is a very simple and powerful tool for school to school collaboration, it can also be used effectively within a single class. For example, student’s in a U.S. History class may collaborate on a single wiki site focused on the 1920’s. Each student may be responsible for contributing a page of content about that era. The end result of such a project is an online textbook that may be shared and used year after year.

A Language Arts teacher may provide a single page on a wiki to each student to write an essay. The fact that the wiki is online allows the teacher to monitor and review student writing in real-time. The “add a comment” feature allows the teacher to provide comments that are highlighted and noted ion the sidebar of the page.

This method of writing replaces the process of collecting and reviewing first drafts. Instead, the teacher can guide a student and comment on their writing while it is happening. The feedback is immediate and will impact the quality and focus of student writing.

Remember what timelines used to be?

We all know the typical method of timeline creation in schools. "Draw a line, add some dates and document events in chronological order".  Students will typically use poster boards, markers and possibly cut out images. The students in Mr. Papa's grade 8 social studies class in our district are putting a new spin on the age old practice of timeline creation! They are utilizing a website called Capzles( www.capzles.com) . Capzles is a web 2.0 site built around a social networking framework. Users are provided with the ability to tell a story using pictures, video clips, audio tracks and text. Capzles refers to these items as "moments". The 'moments" are able to be placed together chronologically to develop an interactive timeline. The end result is what is referred to as a "Capzle".  

Capzles can be viewed online using a computer or on an Apple mobile device such as an Iphone or Ipad using their free app. Capzles replaces the age old practice of organizing timeline's on paper. It provides an interactive and engaging opportunity for students to organize content. Each multimedia file supplies an area for students to provide descriptions and further information. Information can be organized in a manner which delivers a truly interactive story.

Classroom Implementation

The ability to add audio provides an opportunity for students to put a voice to their presentation. This may be a useful feature in classrooms. By having students record their narration it eliminates the need to use valuable class time having students orally present their Capzles to the  entire class.

A teacher may want to provide an opportunity for peer review. Small groups of students may be supplied a rubric or questions to answer. They may be charged with reviewing a specific student made Capzle and then scoring the rubric or answering the questions. This type of peer review opportunity may spark a rich dialogue in your classrooms. It also does not require every student to have a computer to take part in this. Students may use their cell phone or ipod touch to view the capzles in the group using the free web app.

World Language classes may use Capzles to develop an intersciplinary project. Students may design a "moment" that represents a particular topic in science, social studies, current events or even mathematics. The audio narration my be recorded in the language the students are studying.

In language arts, students may design a Capzle that offers a review or insight into a novel, specific chapter or short story. The Capzle may also show the development of a character, events or story plot. Capzles may also be used to make a connection between a particular reading and events whether personal or current events in the world.

Although Capzles is free, it does require an email address to create an account. In Mr. Papa's class the students designed Capzles in groups. One member of each group used their email address to create the account.  The students were provided a rubric and a document that outlined the components that must be included in their Capzle.

Below are some links to some of our student work.

http://www.capzles.com/#/d67b149c-ed83-48f5-9ef1-9cf1ebbd5726/

http://www.capzles.com/#/21e9afe6-3280-4949-b27b-f00fe11b4f1d/

http://www.capzles.com/#/e67c3dd4-8feb-4177-9c2e-05c36fd09316/

 

 

Skype with an Author

On November 8, 2011 two of our grade 5 classes hosted a Skype session with Jeanne DuPrau.  Mrs. DuPrau is known for the series of books that she has authored called "The Books of Ember". Within that series are The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, The Prophet and Yonwood, and The Diamond of Darkhold.

The City of Ember was made into a major motion picture. You can read more about that here. This is the novel that our classes read and thoroughly enjoyed.

Mrs. DuPrau lives in California. The logistics of having her visit were not within our budget and time constraints. However, Skype was able to fill this need. We organized a Skype session with Mr. DuPrau and the students in Mr. Argondizzo's and Miss Daly's grade 5 classes.

We used our classroom smartboard, a logitech webcam and a free download of Skype for the event. Each of our students in the session had a job/role. We followed the framework that I have made available on my wiki of resources.  Some sample jobs included:  recorder, time keeper, videographer, photographer, greeter, closing and of course question asking.

The event was a success. Mrs. Duprau shared her writing process as well as details about her novels. The students made an authentic connection to their classroom learning.  Mrs. DuPrau mentioned that our students provided some of the best questions she has had asked of her!

The students are working on a reflection assignment. The assignment consists of a two paragraph essay in which they will reflect upon what they have learned. Our teachers provided a guiding questions for this assignment.  We are looking forward to planning our next Skype session.  If  you are reading this posting and would like to connect with us, please respond int he comment section. We have many classes in grades k-12 that are interested.

Oral Assessments With Phones

A majority of technology infused lessons involve students consuming or creating content. Typically content creation with technology is text or image based. In world language courses we need students to speak. Writing is less of an instructional concern.  Exploring technologies that allow for speaking and listening are a priority for teachers of world language.

Our world language department has been experimenting with alternative tools to assess student oral proficiency. One tool that has stood out is Google Voice. Google Voice is a free phone service. Google allows for two options.

Option one allows you to keep your existing cell phone number. All calls to this number are forwarded to  your Google Voice mailbox. Google voice provides an online voice mailbox. Your voice mails are available online in the form of emails. Google uses its voice recognition technology to transcribe the message into text. From the online screen you can view the transcript of the message or listen to the message by clicking play. Google Voice also provides a mobile phone application that can access your account.

Option number two will provide you with your own personal Google phone number. This phone number can be set to forward to any other phone number that you have. A phone call to your Google number can be forwarded to your home, work or cell phone. Calls that go to voice mail are available in the same way as option one.

Our world language teachers are using option number 2. The teachers have established their own Google phone number. The teachers turn off the call forwarding features so that the calls do not ring on their cell phones. Students dial the number and provide their oral assignments/assessments on the Google Voice voice mail of the teacher. The teacher can then open up the Google Voice website and listen to each child's recording.

The use of Google Voice has simplified the process of oral assessment. It is no longer necessary to spend class time assessing individual students. Students do not require access to computers to take part in this activity. All of our students have access to telephones at home or personal cell phones.  The use of Google Voice has had a positive impact in our world language courses.

Grade 5 Author Visit

We are fortunate to have access to interactive white boards, projectors and video cameras in most of our elementary classrooms. This is a resource that we take full advantage of. One of our favorite events is to use Skype to connect with authors, subject area experts and classrooms around the world. These videoconferencing sessions are not only engaging for our students, but they provide authentic learning experiences.

 

All of our video conference sessions are very well structured. There are pre and post activities that provide each student with an opportunity to interact with the event. More information regarding our structure for these events can be found on this wiki page.

 

On October 11, 2011 we held a Skype video conferencing session with children's author Mrs. Pat Brisson. It was an amazing experience for our students. Mrs. Brisson was successful in connecting her own writing process to that which is covered in our curriculum. Our students got a first-hand account of the professional life of an accomplished author.

 

About Mrs. Brisson

Pat Brisson has been writing children's picture books and easy-to-read chapter books for twenty years.  Prior to writing, she was an elementary school teacher, school librarian, and reference librarian in a public library.  Pat lives in Phillipsburg, NJ with her husband.  She has four grown sons.

Books and Publications

The following list of books are written by Pat Brisson.  The titles with a star (*) after them are our class's favorites.

Sometimes We Were Brave

I Remember Miss Perry

Melissa Parkington's Beautiful, Beautiful Hair *

Tap-Dance Fever

Mama Loves Me From Away

Beach is to Fun *

Star Blanket

Hobbledy-Clop *

Bertie's Picture Day

Sky Memories

Little Sister, Big Sister

Hot Fudge Hero

The Summer My Father Was Ten *

Wanda's Roses *

Benny's Pennies

Magic Carpet

Your Best Friend, Kate

Kate Heads West

Kate on the Coast

Pat Brisson has also written one young adult (YA) book entitled The Best and Hardest Thing.  Currently, she is writing a collection of poems.

Video Clip From the Conference



 

First Annual Academy Awards

Our middle school hosted our first every digital story academy awards ceremony this month. This event was developed as a way to showcase and promote the wonderful digital stories and multimedia projects our students are creating in their classes.

I first introduced digital storytelling in the district two years ago. Teachers attended professional development courses that focused not only on the technology, but the pedagogy and planning that are necessary to implement this form of assessment in classrooms. Since then we have students in grades k-12 developing digital stories individually, in groups and as whole class projects.

For our academy awards ceremony we focused on the work of our middle school students. We had wonderful examples of stories developed in many of our core subject areas. We assembled a team of teachers who reviewed the work that had been developed. From that we created categories. (next year we plan on providing the teachers and students with the categories at the beginning of the year so they can develop projects that fit the categories and their curriculum). The categories we came up with are:

1. Best Personal Narrative

2. Best Adapted Screenplay

3. Best Historical Children's Story

4. Best Educational Video

5. Best Foreign Film

6. Best Public Service Announcement

7. Best Cinematography

8. Best Stop Motion Animation

For the event we ordered small academy awards for the winners, key chains for the nominees, a red carpet and a large blog up Oscar. We had a popcorn maker and juice for the students. The event was a huge success. It was very powerful to see the reaction of the students as we recognized their work. Next year we plan on offering this at a district level. Stay tuned for more information!

Celebrity Chef in the Classroom

I recently helped organize a video conference session for one of our grade 4 classes. The students were learning about the restaurant business.

The students in Mr. Rowe and Ms. Hollack's class in White Rock Elementary School had a special visit with Chef Jeffrey Steelman. Chef Steelman is the corporate chef for Todd English. Todd English is a celebrity chef who currently owns 26 restaurantsaround the world. Chef Steelman is in charge of the oversight and opening of all of these restaurants.

This was an interdisciplinary project in which the students learned about the restaurant business. They researched what is involved in the process of starting and opening a restaurant. Students were given the task of developing their own restaurant. They developed a theme, a menu and a slogan.  The next step was to write a descriptive essay about their restaurant. This included details about the foods they serve. The students used Microsoft Publisher to create menus for their restaurants during their time in the computer lab. They were also charged with the task of creating 'pizzas' as advertisements.  The students had to develop equivalent fractions for each slice. They then decorated their pizzas with toppings according to those fractions.

The final activities of the project included a video conference with Chef Steelman. The students prepared and asked the chef a number of questions about the restaurant business, cooking and the life of a chef. Following the video conference the students hosted a tasting in their classroom in which they all provided samples of foods from their restaurants.

A short video clip of the video conference can be found below.

 

 

Inspiring Young Writers With A Skype Author Visit

The students in Mrs. Carline's grade 1 class at Cozy Lake School recently completed an author study of Doreen Cronin. Ms. Cronin wrote the Farmer Brown books Click Clack Moo, Giggle Giggle Quack and Dooby Dooby Moo. She also wrote The Diary of a Spider, The Diary of a Worm and The Diary of a Fly.



During the author study the lass discussed character point of view and personification. After reading many of Ms. Cronins books, they wrote letters to Farmer Brown as well as diaries of their favorite animals. The culminating activity was a SKYPE video conference with Ms. Cronin.  She read the class Click Clack Moo. After reading the story Ms. Cronin answered questions that the students had developed.

The students asked her about how she works with the illustrator,  where she gets her ideas for writing, where she writes her books, what is the process she follows when writing a book, and other questions about her character choices. It was an amazing and educational experience for the students. I have shared to videos of the event in this posting below.

By providing access to authors using video conferencing we can engage students in the writing process. An authentic learning experience like this allows students to make connections between the process an author follows and the writing process they are learning in the classroom.

Below are Part 1 and Part 2 of our Video Conference. Enjoy!