First we did the interactive Promethean flipboard

Then the students worked in small groups to create group aliens and write a descriptive paragraphs about them.

We posted the pictures and paragraphs on the wall.  Students then tried to match the paragraph to the picture it described.

Finally we made a voice thread with the pictures and paragraphs.

Finally they made a voice thread and read their descriptions into the thread. There was a glitch on 3 of them that we will fix on Monday.

https://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=2662022

In the discussion, a man in the crowd said he didn’t like seeing his picture included in crowd shots that other people in the room were posting to the net. That man said he hadn’t given permission. If he got his way, I said, everyone else in the room would be prevented from taking and sharing pictures of the event. Would his prohibition next extend to what people said and heard and wanted to share? That impinges on the free-speech rights of everyone else. The ability of people outside the room to follow what was happening there—and comment on it, challenging me, adding ideas and information—would also be restricted. The public record of the event would be limited. The publicness of this event was an asset, and if that man succeeded in preventing others from sharing what happened there he would have robbed us all.
Jarvis, Jeff (2011-09-27). Public Parts (p. 29). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I was thinking that a picture of the Kindle on the book stand of the treadmill would have been a great picture for the 365 project. Except of course you can’t take pictures of anything in the gym. I ended up making this at home.

Later in the week my students discovered ladybugs in the clover around the track. I got some great pictures of them admiring the ladybugs.  I’m going to have them write a blog post for their blog next week.  As I was taking pictures, I made a point of getting pictures of  the kids but also pictures of just their hands with the lady bugs. There were a couple of kids from other 2nd graders in the group. My kids have permission to blog, the other classes aren’t blogging.

That made me think of several debates on posting kids pictures I’ve watched on a couple of different communities. The issue is always Internet Parent takes pictures of  his/her kids, but some other child is in the picture. The parent of the extra child throws an ever loving fit about how now their child is in danger from the boogie man.  It has always struck me as strange. I’m always taking pictures at events for my niece and nephew.  Every one of the  parents asks me – “You are posting those to Facebook right, I would love copies.” In a couple of cases they had NO idea who I was – they asked which child was mind. I explained, after they asked me to post the pictures, that I was Aunt Kimbee. The parents of my niece and nephew’s friends, friend me to get the photographs.

We are getting to the point where posting on line is the norm, and not doing it is unusual.

I think this will keep them more engaged in the activities. Also I can walk around an see what they are doing. They enjoy writing on their desks with dry erase markers.

I am on a dedicated iPad wireless network at school and I’m the only one really using iPads this way on my campus. Tuesday everything worked fine.

I set up identities for each student. Next week they are going to make their own icons to use on the service. Each child is going to get a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. They will decorate it with their character traits using words or illustrations. They will be unique. Since theses are second graders I want to be careful with their pictures.

Next challenge – having the kids use the iPads to blog.

Image via Wikipedia

In order to differentiate more, I’m replacing centers in my classroom with menus of activities. I’m using the series Differentiating Instruction with Menus by Laurie E. Westphal to create the menus. I also found the wiki Dare to Differentiate to be very helpful.

The Good

• I’m tapping into the different strengths of my students
• I’m getting good thoughtful projects from most of my students

Can you imagine reading only professional books, only poetry, or only the books on the Oprah table? I can’t either. But what about limiting kids to only one level and/or type of text day after day? That’s hard to imagine, too. I worry when we methodically move children through book after book, level after level, all to achieve some target number that labels them-and us-proficient. I worry about their engagement and enthusiasm for reading and learning, I worry about their concluding that reading fast is reading well, and I worry about losing the Adams, the Carolines, the Devons, and the Nicoles…

From Reading With Meaning by Debbie Miller

The problem I’m having is that my students want to check out 5th grade books for the cool factor. When I talk to them about the books it is obvious they have not read them. These are 2nd graders, wanting books that have had recent movies made from the material – or at least using the same name. I’m looking for ideas to solve this problem and encourage the kids to read rather than walk around with the book as an accessory.

Tried to help our music teacher with Vbrick. We were able to figure out that the connectors from the computer to the switch weren’t plugged in. She was going to call the district person in charge, I didn’t get to ask her if they figured it out before we left.

Meet the teacher seemed to go well. We couldn’t post the homerooms like we have done in previous years. The front office people and paraprofessionals manned tables and handed out homeroom information. 10 of my 17 kids came in. They seem like a good group of kids. I’m looking forward to Monday. I hope to get all my lesson plans done tomorrow before I go to the gym, and then spend the rest of the weekend relaxing.

During the day many people were using various tech for the projects. I must have shown a 6 – 7 people how to connect their Ipads and laptops to the guest network. There was certain frustration with the “rules” about guest network. Namely the having to sign on repeatedly and the time limit. I was getting a little frustrated with the “that is a pain” and “it connects automatically at home” comments. Then  I pointed out that if every teacher and student who has a phone that connects with the wifi automatically connected every time we entered the buildings and stayed connected the whole time it would put a huge strain on systems and slow things down. That everyone understood.

We went over the usual procedural type things. Then to finish the day on a high note we had a team building activity. Each grade level team picked a super hero and created a costume for a team member to wear in that theme. This was the results.