Techno-Fun, or should that be, "Tech-YES-Fun?"

The A day kids did a great job today.  They worked hard, followed directions well, and were patient!  I (and therefore we) faced one technology glitch after another, from the start of our day to the very last moments of class.  Karma was definitely not on my side today; your children, however, were and I'd take them over karma any day of the week!  I was surprised and impressed with their flexibility and willingness to adjust.  Bravo to them!

Despite our tech trials and tribulations, we managed to accomplish quite a bit and I think everyone had a good time along the way.  We started our day with an introduction to a Web 2.0 application, www.voki.com where I hope your children will have an opportunity to create a talking avatar for their personal blog.  Unfortunately, this was our first glitch.  Voki's are fun and very easy to make.  This application does require that you create an account and sign in so if your child is going to explore this from home, I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with the site and monitor your child's activities.  


As a part of our affective investigation to learn more about ourselves and our classmates, we spent some time this morning reflecting on our interests, influences and personality traits.  We used our computer lab time to create an electronic word cloud that tells others about us.  These will also be on display at our Open House next Thursday, October 6th.  Although the students are anxious to share their work with you, you will have to wait until Open House.  To give you an idea of what a word cloud is, and to give you some more information about me, my personal word cloud is below.  I'm sure you will enjoy what your child created! 

After recess and lunch, the students continued their individual work in the Math Rules program.  They were also introduced to/reviewed our procedures for using the TOPS Math Problems Solving Program.  We are focusing on finding the important information in the word problem and in the illustration.  We also discussed the key words that tell us if we need to add or subtract and ways we can show our thinking.


Next, the students began working in their Exploratory area.  A few were able to complete the Knowledge and at least some of the Comprehension level task.  They are now able to select any of the remaining tasks to complete.  Ask your child to tell you about their center work and a fact or two they learned about their topic.


At the end of our day, we discussed how to leave a comment on our blog and what constitutes a quality comment.  As we prepared to watch a brief video on commenting, we hit our last glitch of the day.  The video loaded slowly and then we were kicked off the network.  By then it was time to pack up.  Ugh!  I promised the students I would leave them a link to the video we were trying to watch.  Below you will find the link.  The video, How to Compose a Quality Comment, was made by Mrs. Yollis' third grade students in Los Angeles, California.  Her blog, http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/ has a lot of great information on blogging as well as some wonderful examples of student blogs.  I hope the boys and girls enjoy the video.  We will continue this conversation in the weeks ahead as we learn more about being a responsible, creative blogger.


http://vimeo.com/15695021

(I'm sorry my post is late. I wanted to get permission from Mrs. Yollis to use her video on our blog.)  Have a wonderful week!

We Started Our Exploratory Centers Today!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Up for the Challenge

The A day students worked hard today!  They should be really proud of their efforts!  At the start of our day, we reviewed where we were on their future goals paragraph.  Everyone was able to complete their rough draft before our morning lab time.  Once on the computers, they really listened well and jumped right into their typing.  Using Microsoft Word as our tool, they were all able to complete typing their paragraph.  Along the way, we learned to space appropriately between words and after punctuation, right click to correct spelling errors and to save and print our documents.  Bravo boys and girls!

After recess and lunch, the students worked to finish their construction paper head.  They are excited to share them with you at our Open House on October 6th.

The students were excited to begin their new Exploratory area today.  First, however, we needed to review/learn to fill out our Exploratory contract.  They will use it as an organizational tool to document their choices and weekly progress.  With over ninety centers and hundreds of tasks from which to choose, it would be impossible to individualize the students without it.

Once their contract was completed, they began the knowledge level thinking task.  In the weeks ahead, each student will complete the knowledge and comprehension level tasks plus at least one other higher level thinking task before moving on to another center.  Most centers will take between six and eight weeks to complete three to four tasks.  Ask your child to share what they are hoping to complete at their center.

Tell them to keep up the good work!  Have a great weekend!

Same Song, 2nd Verse...

Rotation A students had a great second day/week of SAGE. They came in excited and that seemed to have carried through to their work! They are settling in and getting to know each other.

This week we discussed our SAGE class rules and expectations. I shared with the students that SAGE is somewhat like brain aerobics class (minus the sweat- LOL.) The work they do here should challenge them and hopefully, frustrate them from time to time. It is not supposed to be painful, but it is intended to stretch their abilities, take them out of their comfort zone and test the way they handle frustration. The safety net is close, although sometimes camouflaged. I need to know what they can handle and so do they.

Each week, the work they do in our room should be hard enough that they are missing at least one or two problems/questions. If they are getting everything correct, I will bump up the level of difficulty until they are missing some. I want to get them to their individual, instructional levels. All of our work (particularly in math and critical thinking) is done over until it is correct. I give small hints if they ask. If I feel like they are becoming too frustrated, I will set down with them and work through the problem.   I've told them our classroom is a safe place to try something new and a safe place to fail. I try very hard to watch that a student is not getting too stressed, but I sometimes miss the signs. If your child expresses that SAGE is too hard, please contact me so we can talk about it with him or her.

This week the students went to the computer lab. we reviewed the parts of the computer and the related vocabulary words.  We also practiced how to find our way around the network.  The students were able to locate their personal folders on the shared drive with little or no help!  Great job!  They learned to add and name a new folder inside for future photos. Then they opened and named a blank Microsoft Word document. They typed their full name and grade and then learned to format the font for size, style (bold, underline & Italics) and color. Our thirty minute lab times fly by quickly! I am looking forward to expanding their technology skills this year, continuing our discussions on being safe and responsible on the Internet and starting down the path to becoming twenty-first century learners.

After lunch and recess, we continued our work on our affective project.  This week, the students began the rough draft paragraph about their aspirations for the future.  We discussed indenting, the position and purpose of a topic sentence, supporting details and a conclusion sentence.  Several students finished this draft.  They also finished drawing a picture of what they would like to be when they grow up.  Their projects are going to be really cute!  Next week, they will begin typing the written explanation of their goals.  We hope to have this completed by our October 6th Open House.

Next, we discussed Bloom's Levels of Thinking and what each level might look like.  I introduced our Exploratory centers and the students had an opportunity to look through the choices and list their top three picks.  Each student met with me to be sure their first choice center is a good fit for them.  Ask your child which center he/she will be beginning on our next SAGE day?

Our time flies by, but I feel like they accomplished a lot.

Just a reminder: 

Our SAGE Parent Informational Meeting 

is on Tuesday, September 20th 

in the Briarcliff Media Center 

from 6:30-7:30 pm.  

This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the characteristics of gifted children, our SAGE Program and our curriculum this year.  This meeting is intended for parents new to the program and those with questions about our curriculum this year.  I hope you can attend!


Have a great week!

Our First Day of SAGE

The Rest of Our First Day...

So I need to start with the blanket apology... Please be patient with me as I enter the world of blogging with your children.  I started today's post before the students left so I could model posting with them.  Our future SAGE day summaries will hopefully occur in one post. 

After the students settled in and we collected paperwork, they got to know one another a little better with a Skittles activity.  They discovered they have many simular interests.  Ask your child to tell you about our activity and share some of the things they learned about their classmates. 

Next, we learned our way around Briarcliff, seeing the office, nurse's office and the cafeteria.  The students were then introduced to a new portion of our critical thinking lessons, Logic Links where they had to analyze clues to find the correct patterns.  They also started in the Math Rules problem solving program.  After lunch in the Bear Cafe, the students enjoyed the beautiful weather at recess.   In the afternoon, we discussed blogs, posting, commenting and the purpose of our blog.  We also started an affective lesson where the students will be making a project and writing about their future goals and aspirations.  We hope to have them completed by our October 6th Open House. 

Our day seemed to be over before we even knew it!  They are an enthusiastic, outgoing and friendly group of students.  I know we are going to enjoy our time together this year.  We hope you will stay connected with our blog.  Feel free to share your thoughts by posting comments here.  You are also welcome to share questions or concerns by calling or emailing me. 

Be sure and sign your child's Take Home Folder and have them return it next week.  Have a wonderful week!

Our First Day of SAGE!

I was so excited to see the students as they got off our bus this morning!  We spent a little bit of time looking at Briarcliff and learning how to find our way to our classroom.  The students had a chance to play detective to see what they could learn about me.  I passed around my purse (....yes I know that sounds silly- but what a great bag of clues!) Each student took an item and looked at it to see what they could learn about me.

They discovered I had $4.00 and a few coins so they have accurately concluded that I am not rich!   They found a picture of Courtney and Logan and I told them about my children.  They discovered my new, teeny, tiny video camera and learned I like lots of kinds of technology and I plan for them to use it too.  From a Lowe's receipt, they found out I like gardening and have some marigolds planted in my yard.  One student found a recipe for chicken salad and they inferred I like chicken salad and that I like to cook.  I collected all of my items (and Jack gave me back my $4.00.)  We laughed and had fun as they learned a little about me.  I wonder what your wallet or purse would say about you????