Lines, Zig-Zags and Robots!

When reviewing the upcoming TEKs for 1st Grade Science I noticed that they had "Demonstrate and record the ways that objects can move such as in a straight line, zig zag, up and down, back and forth, round and round, and fast and slow" in their Scope and Sequence. Immediately I barged into both of my 1st Grade teacher's classroom and told them that this would be an incredible way to integrate robotics into our curriculum! They werent too sure what that meant just yet, but they said they were on board! I then went to the Admin Office to pick up a robot called "Ozobot." When using Ozobot, students draw lines / shapes and the robot will "drive" around the trace of the line. When I went into planning with my teacher, we talked about whether we should use whiteboards, manila paper or regular paper to draw the lines on. However, my teacher had this awesome idea in which she suggested using Explain Everything to draw the lines/zigzags. We tested it and sure enough it worked!

So today, we rolled Ozobot with our First Graders! We explained to them the concept of zig zag lines, straight lines, etc. The teacher then told them to create a total of 4 slides- each slide was supposed to represent a different type of line / design. When students were ready, they raised their hand and we would come and test the Ozobot with their design. If the robot "liked" their design, it would go in a continuous loop. If it didnt like the shape then the robot would go in random directions. When their design didnt work, it was fun to see them "debug" it by them re-designing the shape. All in all it was so much fun and the students absolutely enjoyed it!

4th Grade Peer Review in ELA

So today was a day that I have been anticipating for the longest time and for many reasons! As mentioned in previous blogs, we have a really "high" group of 4th Graders in our ELA class! The teacher is constantly looking for ways to challenge her students. Since this teacher has started working here, she has constantly pushed "peer feedback" with her students. This year, we also rolled out Google Docs to our 3rd 4th and 5th Graders in which it allows for students to comment on each others' work.  This morning we showed the students the following:

-How to share a document with their should partner via their google email address.
-How to change the settings to "comment only" so that their work wouldnt be messed up.
-How to highlight a section of text.
-How to "leave a comment" on that selection of text.
-How to go back to original document and view the comment that their partner had left them.
-How to "respond" and "resolve" a comment.

So proud of this teacher and her kiddos!

Identifying Components of Poems in 3rd ELA

I am so proud of my 3rd Grade ELA Teacher! She wears many many many hats but also values the integration of technology in her classroom. For this activity, students were pretending to be "spies" looking for specific attributes/components in a poem. Students used Explain Everything to take a picture of their poem and crop it. Once they locked it down, they had to go look for and identify the various components that they had discussed in class. Once students were done, they would See Saw their work back to the teacher. Students really enjoyed this activity and found it very engaging!

Solving Word Problems in 1st Grade

A few blog posts ago I posted about a First Grade class solving addition and subtraction math problems using digital manipulatives. Well, just an update-- another 1st Grade teacher and her students used the same template and the results were just as great! Our concern was that students might have trouble using the "duplicate" tool to make the correct number of manipulatives, however students picked this up much quicker than we had thought! Students were able to log into See Saw, download a template, solve about 6 math problems (duplicating items when needed), recording themselves reading the number sentence and then exporting into See Saw all within a 35 minute time block! So proud of this teacher and her students! Here are a few work samples:

Number Sentences Using Number line App

This past week two second grade teachers that I work with told me that they want to use more technology in stations. We have been trying a few things but they really didnt "stick." In planning, these teachers told me that they were using an "open number line" to solve addition, subtraction, and now multi-step problems. Immediately I suggested that they use the "Number Line" app. To be honest, this app always intimated me for some reason! There are a lot of components to the app, however it was always a turn of to me. However, this year it was going to be a different story! The teachers wanted to use it with their students so I was determined to learn it!

Before we rolled out any math problems with the students, we gave them 5 minutes to explore the app all on their own. Trust me, if you saw the interface of the app, there are a lot of buttons that you can press to do different things! We wanted students to see what everything did! I think this really paid off because once the teacher rolled out the problems, the thirst for curiosity was minimal. Here are a few pictures of the activity that we did. (Number Sentences using Addition.)

5th Grade Poetry Celebrations!

Wow! 5^th grade has really been on a roll this week! 5^th Grade ELA is wrapping up their poetry unit this week was concluding the week by having a “Poetry Celebration.” However, instead of a typical celebration in which a student just reads their poem to the class, this teacher wanted to incorporate technology into her lesson! For this activity, students wrote their “favorite poem” into Google Docs. Immediately they shared it with the teacher so she could have editing rights. Once they were done, students took a screen shot of their poem and uploaded it into SeeSaw. Once it was in SeeSaw, students were to leave feedback on their peers’ work! Granted, this was their first time to leave peer feedback on a person’s work so it was a little bit awkward. However, once the teacher approved the comments students immediately started leaving more feedback on many different students’ work! I am so proud of this teacher and her students!!

Hold Your Horses! 1st Grade Addition and Subtraction Word Problems!

Wow! I cannot stop bragging on one of my 1st Grade Teachers! I wish this teacher was on Twitter so that I could brag on her! On Monday, I got to meet with my Math Instructional Coach to see "what's coming up." She had told me that this week and next week 1st graders would be solving addition and subtraction word problems. Sure enough, later that day I went into the 1st Grade Teacher's Classroom to see her and her students using the markers to draw on their table. To help get the teacher more comfortable using technology we co-taught this lesson together. I made her a template in explain everything and she taught the content. Fair trade!! Students were so engaged! While the template looks pretty easy, it was anything but! For the addition problems, students were only given 1 item and had to used the "duplicate" feature in Explain Everything to make the proper copies they needed. For subtraction, items were given to them and they had to cross them out. It was fun to hear the responses of the kids when they "turned the page" to the next problem! What item would they see? A puppy? Oreo Cookies? Goldfish???

We had a few "fast finishers" which asked to record their work once finished! Eventually, everyone finished and were able to record!

Check out the example below: