Mr. C's Class!

We decided the problem was:

The time is 10:42 when he went to lunch at Taco Bell. At Taco bell he ordered a taco. When he was finished, he went to the car and saw the time was 11:18. When he got back to work it was 12:57. How much time did he take for lunch? How long did it take him to get back to work from Taco Bell?

What step do you need to do first?  What operation will you use to solve?

What question is being asked?

What is the problem about?

The stylus for my tablet computer broke, and it turned out to be impossible to replace.  I was a little upset, because we were able to use the table to interact with Promethean flipcharts using the tablet.  After looking around at different options to replace the tablet computer I decided to go with an iPad 2.

I bought an app called Splashtop that lets me access my computer through my iPad.  Using this app and connecting the iPad to a projector we can use the Promethean flipcharts for whole class and small group lessons.  However, the firewall at school won’t allow me to connect to my computer from my iPad.  The technology department says that they are working on that, so hopefully soon I will be able to use it for the flipcharts.

In the meantime I am letting the students use it to play different games that work with different skills from Math to Social Studies.  So far the students have really enjoyed using the iPad in the classroom, and hopefully I will be able to use it as a Promethean Board soon!

Here at Crestview we have had so many different opportunities to begin our quest towards a more physically fit school!  As you have seen here on our class blog, we have been working hard in our classroom to become more active.  Other classrooms throughout the school have been doing their best to get in shape as well.

Our entire school, even the teachers, have been working hard racing around the world!  We teamed up with the great people from Virtual World Race (http://www.virtualworldrace.com/), and started a competition between the students, teachers, a team from Virtual World Race, and even professional cyclist Ben King!!  Everyone in the school has their own login and password for the VWR website, and we use this to keep track of our minutes exercising.  The website converts these minutes to a distance based on which exercise you log in.

Every week the teachers get e-mails updating us on which students, teachers, and classes are leading the group.  The third grade has been struggling to keep up, but I think this is more because we keep forgetting to log in and keep track of our minutes.  This has been a great way to not only encourage our teachers and students to exercise, it has also been a fantastic tool to keep track of exactly how much exercising everyone has been doing throughout the year.

Every update on the race has been and will be posted here (http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/vwr/)

We started our novel studies/literature circles last week.  At first we were reading, discussing the chapters, and then the students would complete an assignment based on the reading.  Everything was going great, but I thought it might be fun to use Edmodo as a tool for some of our discussion about the books we are reading.

I created a group on Edmodo for each of my reading groups, and had every student join the correct group.  This makes organization and keeping up with group work as well as individual work incredibly easy.  Since I have four groups and three different books going on at the same time I am happy to use anything to make organization and keeping up with everybody as easy as possible.  As of right now we have been mostly answering questions about the text and discussing what has been happening in the books, but throughout the year I am planning on trying new things using Edmodo with our literature circles.

There are a couple of great advantages to using Edmodo in addition to the traditional approach in literature circles.  First is that when students respond to one another about the book in Edmodo they will be able to look back at a conversation that was had in a previous part of a book.  If we are making predictions about what might happen next, we can easily check back at our conversations and see who made correct predictions when we get to the next part in the book.  Another great thing about Edmodo and literature circles is the ease in which students can discuss from home.  Most of my students have computers and internet at home, and most check and post on Edmodo as much as they possibly can.  Since they love using the technology and communicating about school after hours, they will already have the drive to contribute to literature circles from home.  If a student thinks about something from the book we are reading and wants to share, or wants to ask a question about what is happening, all they have to do is log into Edmodo and ask.  The great thing about using Edmodo like this is that if the students have questions about the texts they will not only be asking me, but they will also be asking their fellow students.  This is a great way to encourage conversation through technology!

This past week I got a Kodak Playfull hand held digital video camera to use in my classroom.  I was really excited to use it, so today I recorded a short video of everyone doing their push-ups.  We have all taken our fitness very seriously (while still having lots of fun of course) this school year.  Not only are we doing push-ups regularly, but nearly half of the students in the class have joined the running club here at Crestview.

The Crestview running club inspired our entire class to get more into running.  Every day we have been running at least a couple of laps around the basketball courts outside before playing at recess.  Everyone is really working their hardest to become even more fit than they already are!

In the classroom, using technology is becoming more the norm rather than the exception.  What is great about this is that the students are the ones typically operating this technology, while the teacher acts as a guide.  Technology is amazing, but there is one drawback…the price tag!  In order to get a Promethean Board  (http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.15) a teacher has to get on a waiting list.  A teacher could write a grant, or whenever a school finds the thousands and thousands of dollars it costs to get a board, the teacher can order one.  Needless to say, this is not usually a speedy process.

I was sitting at home thinking of different ways to incorporate technology into my classroom.  The students have been using the computers for different resources, but my mind kept returning to my lack of Promethean Board.  I realized that I have a tablet computer at my house that works perfectly fine that I might be able to use some how.  Today I brought it into the classroom and hooked it up to my iBeam projector.  It worked without a hitch, and the kids loved it!  The only difference between using my tablet computer and a Promethean Board was that the students had to write on the computer and not up on the board.  Now this is nowhere as great of an experience as an actual Promethean Board in the classroom, but I think it is a great substitute while you work with your school to get one in your room!

Here is what you need:

1)  A tablet computer with the Activinspire program installed

2)  A projector

Just plug your computer into the projector, and you are good to go!  Check out how well the kids did on their first day!

Today was the first day that we took out word study tests on the computer using SpellingCity (thanks Mr. Hart and Springfield Park Elementary for the idea!).  Everyone really enjoyed using their computer for their word study tests.  Not only is it more fun to use the computer, but all of the students can go at their own speed.  If one student needs to hear a certain word a few times, they can simply click a button and the computer will read the word to them again.  This also saves me from calling out 4 different word lists at the same time, which can be confusing for everybody!

After the students took their word study tests they posted their thoughts on our Edmodo page.  Edmodo is a type of private social network designed for use in the classroom.  We can communicate from home or school, but we have discussed that this site is for posting about topics that are relevant for the classroom.  Not only can we post about school in Edmodo, but the students can also watch videos that I post!  Today I posted a great video on subtraction and regrouping, everyone in the class should check it out!

We have been hard at work with our push-ups since the second week of school!  Even though we might miss a day or two every so often, we are still filling up our hundreds charts and working our muscles hard.  Every time we do more push-ups we add that number to our total on our recording sheet, and color in our hundreds chart to keep track of our total number.  This activity is helping us work on our single and double digit addition, and getting us in tip top shape at the same time.

When we first started our exercise routine, some of the students did not think that they could do regular push-ups.  With each week their form is getting better and better.  This just goes to show, if you work hard at something it really pays off.  Every student is working hard at improving their form and their number of repetitions has been steadily increasing!