Mr. K's Sandbox
Let's have fun learning!Tagul.icous Assessment
Wouldn’t it be cool it a student could demonstrate his or her daily learning by reflecting on their day using Tagul? Ok, perhaps you may not think it is cool, or practical but you have to admit it is a new way for learners to reflect. While the actual daily Tagul could not be read, the main ideas would show up in their clouds and easily seen. The bigger the word, the more often it was mentioned on their daily reflection and posted on a blog or website. Wow! This could actually become part of a weekly routine, or better yet a nightly learning reflection. Here is another idea. At the end of a unit or learning sequence, a Tagul could be created of all the main ideas. Teachers would know immediately if students got it.
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cel.ly
I went to a technology conference yesterday hosted by ideastream. During the conference one of the presenters, Mark Barnes from the Euclid School System, shared many of his methods for creating The Paperless Classroom and one of them was using a Web 2.0 application called cel.ly. This site allows you to create a closed cell of people to whom you would like to contact through texts. In my case, as a classroom teacher, I would create what is called a curated cell where I curate the texts of my students. One of the cool things about this is that a poll can be created. I can see polls being used to text students later in the day with a reflective question from class, or have them give their opinion about a topic in class. Questions can be asked in the middle of class without hands being raised. Homework or quiz reminders can be sent. All of this can be done from my cell or from my computer.
LearnitN5 cel.ly You Tube
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Mystery Questions 1
Hi 6th Grade Accelerated LA students,
This is for you to complete at home. Create a new page in your site under WWW. Title it with, “Mystery Questions 1″. Save the page. Then, answer all 10 questions in your site.
- Does a father’s birthday antedate his son’s?
- Does an anticlimax enhance a play’s conclusion?
- Can the president make a bilateral decision by himself?
- Does a drill sergeant encourage troops to circumvent rules?
- Is a distortion a faithful account of what happened?
- Is your subordinate your boss?
- Is a superfluous comment unnecessary?
- Can a book record your thoughts for posterity?
- Do you mistrust a person who equivocates?
- Are symbiotic creatures mortal enemies?
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Apple or PC?
Good debate today about which platform is better: Apple or PC. We had definite lines drawn because of prior experience, knowledge about each platform, processing speeds, how each can be used, and more. From the talks it was apparent that students did not know as much about Apple as they do PC only because they are exposed more to the PC. Good talks today!!
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Accelerated LA Extra Help
Each week on Thursdays, from 7:20 – 7:50, every student has the opportunity to come in to school to get extra help with language arts. They may need to ask questions about certain concepts we have been learning about, or they just may want extra practice. This time is open for them to get the help they need. Some may be invited by other teachers for Math, Social Studies, or Science, but the invitation is still open.
At times I may specifically invite students to meet with them in a small group to provide interventions for class concepts we have been learning about where they are struggling. Please look in their assignment notebook for the invitation.
I have given some thought to this 30 minutes of time every week and may offer some of the following during the year:
- book club
- creative writing
- OAA practice
- poetry
- class newsletter
- podcasting
- book reviews
- more to come…
I am looking forward to spending time with students to give any help I can to help them succeed!
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Middle First Quarter
Well, the middle of the first quarter is rapidly approaching. That means the first half of the first quarter is almost over. I think you would agree that went by quickly.
Mr. K Sandbox students have adjusted well to school, expectations, and the atmosphere. More often than not, they are working in groups to collaborate completing classwork. As I said at Meet the Teacher, this is a real world skill and learning how to work cooperatively and collaboratively is essential!
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