April 3

E-Learning Friday April 3rd

Good morning!

Happy Heathcote Spirit Day! Go Huskies! Ms. Stile e-mailed something special to your parents this morning. Be sure to ask them about it!  I think you will love this surprise! 

This morning we have a special Zoom session with Ms. Sorensen @10:30am. The link is in your social studies folder. 

As you begin to plan your day, be sure to make time for snack & recess. Taking a mental break and a screen break is really important! Be sure to plan at least one special today by visiting the Heathcote Gateway and seeing what your teachers have waiting for you.

Let’s get started…

Checklist 

Today I am giving you a checklist to help you keep track of your progress and to help you plan. Use this list to reflect on the last two weeks and make a plan for yourself to complete your assignments. Please record any questions you might have and share the document with me on Drive. 

Poetry 

Line Breaks Video

Line Breaks Slides – they are in your social studies folder for you to review

 

Social Studies

Document Analysis Video

Document Analysis Slides – This is in your social studies folder

Math

Watch the video below and then complete these Composite Figure Practice Slides 

Have a wonderful weekend! Stay tuned for the Wellness Week catalog of activities coming your way soon! 

Ms. Boyer xo

 

Category: connections, distance learning, documenting learning, poetry, reading, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 31

E-Learning Tuesday March 31

Good morning! 

It was great to have 100% attendance in our Zoom session this morning! Thank you all for showing up. I’ve loved looking at your work today – so many thoughtful responses to the See,Think,Wonder, several beautiful heart maps and detailed responses to the Cultural Universals work. Keep it up third graders! You are all amazing 🙂 

As you begin to plan your day, make time for snack & recess. Taking a mental break and a screen break is really important! Be sure to plan at least one special today by visiting the Heathcote Gateway and seeing what your teachers have waiting for you. 

Our question Padlet is still active, so please add your questions here: E-Learning Questions

We have a special Zoom session planned for this morning with Ms. Stile joining to read the book of the month to us. The link is in your social studies folder. I’ll see you at 10:30. 

Math

Khan Academy Links for Composite Figures: Decomposing Figures to find Area

There are a few videos and activities on the left-hand side of the screen. Click through each of them and try to figure them out.

Poetry

Complete your heart map and upload it to SeeSaw. Use the mic icon to record yourself telling us all about your map. Once on Seesaw, click the “add” button and then you will be brought to the media screen –

You can take a picture using Seesaw (on iPad or phone) or upload a photo using  a computer.

Explore: Today I would like you to explore some different poems using these various websites provided below.

Poetry Websites:

If you are feeling up to it, after you have explored, take the time to think about your own poetry and come up with a creative poem that you can upload to Seesaw. You may decide to write it on paper and take a picture, draw it out with the texting tool, record yourself reading your poem, upload an image of the poem or type it in the note option. Then use the mic to record yourself. We can’t wait to hear all the beautiful poems you will be writing!

Social Studies

  • Complete the Photography Analysis task from yesterday. 
  • Cultural Universals Beliefs: The slides are in your social studies folder. Due Thursday

Special Learning Opportunity

Author Grace Lin

Has a YouTube Channel where she is posting read aloud videos, draw-alongs and a podcast for a very cool screen break. 

Have a great day!

Ms. Boyer xo

 

Category: connections, distance learning, documenting learning, poetry, reading, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 12

Blogging & Social Media in the Elementary Classroom

My teaching philosophy has always involved a making component long before Makerspaces were mainstream. I believe in hands-on learning. Embodied cognition means to learn by doing; and similar to playing with fraction pieces to gain an understanding of fractions, children need to play with language in order to gain an understanding of what it means to be a better writer. Blogging allows for that type of tinkering with text while helping students to grow their writing muscles because blogs allow for editing, revising and multiple iterations over time.

Blogging & Social Media in The Elementary Classroom from ChristineBoyer10
Category: connections, design thinking, documenting learning, growth mindset, reading, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 16

Blogging 2.0

Next week I will be attending a workshop on using student blogs in the elementary classroom. I am exceptionally proud of the work my students have been doing and look forward to sharing it with my fellow elementary teachers.  Inspired by conversations with my colleague and building tech guru, Chris Casal, I encourage my students to write often. We talk in class about studying other students’ blogs, we actively search for blogs that are interesting and serve as solid mentors. We talk about the importance of them reading each other’s blogs and learning from one another. The conversations are rich and meaningful. My students’ blogs are populated with stories of their own choosing (Chris is writing a mini-series and has multiple installments; Nate posts weekly math challenges) as well as posts that were assigned. They have learned to add images and embed videos in their blogs to make them more interesting to the readers (we’ve also discussed the importance of knowing your audience).

Chris has taught these promising young writers about the importance of blogs and identity.   Blogs exist in many forms, cooking blogs, travel blogs, etc.  and they have one focus. You, as a 5th grader, have many topics to write about, however the focus can be around learning. Take that angle every time and even your story about visiting grandma can be about what you’ve learned during that visit.

My students took their blogs seriously and really worked together to create unique, cool names (Live, Love, Lola; Nate Knows; Just Drew It), they added attractive color schemes and images,  and this in turn helped them to polish their voice in writing over time (and for some they found their voice for the first time).

In reflecting on how much they have grown, and how much we have taught them, it came to my attention that one thing was missing…my writing. I had started a blog, I have talked about my blog, but sadly I’ve abandoned my blog. True story. We taught the kids that the blog is a place to tinker with writing, revising a published piece was encouraged and every post needn’t be epic in length. It is only now that it’s loud and clear that I haven’t been following my own advice as I thought that was fine for them, but my posts should be Edutopia worthy every time. I held myself to a higher standard that led to many ideas (I have a long list) and zero writing. I’ll admit I was wrong and have vowed to try and write more often – short posts that serve as updates, documentation for my own learning if you will. Now I will be able to join the class conversations with a new lens, as a writer who shares in the creation process, learning with and from my students.

Category: growth mindset, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 20

New App = New Learning

I introduced Padlet to my 5th graders this week. I really didn’t know much about Padlet but thought it had the “cool factor” and would prove to be a very interesting way for my students to share their new investigations of non-fiction. I set up our collaborative group in Padlet, made a WELCOME page with a few notes for students to read with links to follow, and sent each student a note (in their google drive) introducing our new adventure.  I knew I didn’t know everything there was to know about this new app, but I do know 5th graders and I draw comfort from the fact that whatever I don’t know, they will figure out in a fraction of the time it would take me to resolve any issue.  Ten year olds are not intimidated, they are intuitive.

It’s been two days since Padlet became a new buzz word in our classroom and I’ve experienced a few F.A.I.L.s (First Attempts In Learning) but each hiccup was quickly resolved because my students possess two qualities that big businesses look for in their prospective employees; they are skilled problem solvers and they are digitally literate. Digital literacy is a fairly new term that marries the two words, digital and literacy.  Yet it is so much more than just the words; it’s a way of life, a way of interacting with the world, a way of solving problems and communicating.  In my 5th grade classroom, it’s me being comfortable with the fact that I will never know as much as my students; I teach them, they teach me. We raise the bar everyday.  

Padlet has proven to be an effective collaborative learning tool thus far. My students have now created shared Padlets as reading partners and are busy linking additional media to inform their learning. In a brief check-in ‘round the room the consensus was that we should continue to use Padlet, that it was easy to take notes on and it was a good way to organize thinking to share with a group. And so we shall…







Category: connections, growth mindset, reading, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT