Next week is Read with Spirit week at school. Here is the list of activities if you didn't see it in the Friday folders:
Monday: Hat day
Tuesday: All mixed up/backwards day
Wednesday: Crazy Hair
Thursday: Silly Socks
Friday: Pajama Day
Please remember that Wednesday will be our Skype call with the fifth graders in Thailand. Drop students off outside my door rather than at the auditorium. No one will be admitted after 7am.

Today, we had our 4H Clover Bowl. Our class didn't win, but they did well. I'm proud of them. This event coupled with DARE caused our day to run a little bit behind. We didn't get our Social Studies lesson in today and we only did our centers in Reading. We've continued with our novel.
I hope those students who have been out sick all week are feeling better and are able to return to school soon. There's so much sickness going around! I have been finalizing the plans for our Skype meeting with the school in Thailand next Wednesday. The plan is to have the students arrive at school at 7am so that we can have an 8-10 minute videoconference with fifth graders on the other side of the world. Parents, encourage your children to research Thailand a little between now and then so that they are better able to relate to these students. We'll be looking at a few things in class as well. You'll receive a letter with more information in their Friday folders this week.

Well, back to it. We hope to attempt to complete an entire week of school this week! We are beginning our study of the Great Depression while using the novel study Out of the Dust. The students are also working hard on memorizing their states. Remember, the test is on Friday!! Parents, look for report cards to come home next Monday. On our webpage, I have put a link on the Welcome page to a classroom/school calendar. Hope this keeps you up-to-date a little better.

Well, while Valentine's Day is not my favorite holiday the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Our day was sprinkled with balloon deliveries and by the end of the day we had enough chocolate and balloons to supply a small village! We didn't have a V-Day "party", but it seemed like one anyway!

Today we began practicing the geography of the fifty states and the students are going to be tested on them in two weeks. This is a difficult thing, I know and requires a lot of memorization. I've used this website for the past couple of years and the kids seem to really get a kick out of it. It times them and then if you don't get them all in place, you get a big message that says "You Failed Third Grade!" Of course, they are fifth graders and it fires them up. I just hope they learn them!

I have to say I'm a little frustrated with my first wiki experience. I had the idea that the kids would edit the wiki daily adding the characters, summaries, and vocabulary that we had read about that day. The problem is that we can't keep up. We are starting chapter seven tomorrow in the reading, but the wiki is barely through chapter three. I really don't want to give up on it, but we just can't seem to find time to catch it up. One problem I know now is that the groups are too large. Putting six kids together to accomplish a task is just too much to ask. The next time I do this, I will most definitely make them smaller. That may be something that I have to do anyway to finish this one. We'll see.

Today we spent the entire day meeting as a grade level. It is very nice to have a work day with my colleagues to chat, plan, and grade papers. We took an hour lunch and I got all of last weeks papers graded and lesson plans for next week. Whew. Now on to the weekend, burden free. Maybe some scrapbooking...?

Well today we continued working on our class wiki. This is my first wiki too. I've tried to get a good grasp on how and why to use one for the past two years. Now thanks to the brilliant minds that I have contact with through Classroom 2.0, I've got one up and running. Then, when I got home today, one of my students had sent me a message on it. So proud...I didn't teach them that. Can't say it hasn't been a challenge, but I did expect that. We'll see how it goes.

The idea was for the students to create an iMovie from pre-selected photos based on settlement of the west in the late 1800s. They then had to narrate the movie themselves and edit it to 'fit'. We used iMovie, iPhoto, and GarageBand. They actually turned out a lot better than I thought they would. I'm excited! The kids enjoyed them and I really think they'll remember the information they put into the podcasts. Check them out here.

Every teacher wants to come straight out of college and change the world. Save every kid! I know I did. I was mortified at some of the teaching strategies I saw during my observations. I was going to be a fantastic teacher. None of this hum-drum for me. Enter real world scenario....my first year teaching was probably better than most. I unexpectedly took a job in a school system about 45 minutes from home. The school was prepared for new teachers and had developed a very effective mentor support system. I absolutely loved my first year but involved little to no technology. I just wasn't into it yet. My second year was pretty good too. Good routines, well behaved kids...no spark. By my third year, I moved to my current job in my hometown school system. Different grade level, different philosophies, still no spark. I felt like I was a good teacher. My kids were engaged and behaved. Wasn't that what it was all about? After being in my current school for two years, the school technology coordinator took a job at the central office. She asked if I'd be interested in taking over her responsibilities at the school. Interested, yes. Terrified, definitely. She seemed to know everything about computers..and these were Macs! I was a PC person. I spent all of about 4 hours "training" with her that summer. To make a long story short, it is now three years later and I have developed a sometimes unhealthy obsession with computers (Macs especially) and what Web 2.0 can do for my student. Finally, the spark. This year, I have arrived at a different point in my life. I have developed a PLN, small but effective as of today. I love the idea of gaining from other educators, but feel extremely guilty that I'm taking and not giving back. This blog, however insignificant, is my attempt to give something back. Some of what we are doing, some of what I have found and hope that I learn a little more in the process, too.