My Second Week in Grade 3: Mystery Skype and Video Chat with NASA!
This past week was very exciting and busy for us at BCS! A few years ago, my mentor teacher started an educational video-chatting program called Chatting Across the USA in which her class digitally visits other classrooms around America and learns all about the different states of the US. Occasionally they will do a double blind "Mystery Skype" in which only the two teachers of each class know where the other class is located. The students in each class work together as a team, asking questions, using maps, and receiving clues from one another about their states to figure out where they are in the US. This program creates a multitude of authentic learning experiences for all students involved and the kids in my class have Skyped with 18 different classrooms (in 18 different states) and have had guest speakers from all over the country. A few of their favorite guest skype speakers, to name a few, include Barbara Bush, Senator Collins, Bill Cohen, Anna Belknap (an actress on CSI, New York), Matt Light (a Patriots football player), many different authors, and even Michelle Obama! I would have DIED to see that Skype chat!!
This week the kids had three video chat experiences! The first one was with a school in New Jersey, the second was an educational video conference with NASA, and the third was a Mystery Skype session with a school in Illinois. The kids are assigned different jobs for Mystery Skype sessions: there's the questioner, the notetaker, the lead thinker, the data collector, the google mappers, the map messenger, the think tank (a group of students who put their heads together based on the clues given), and the blog reporters. The session with Illinois went really well, it was a truly meaningful learning experience to be a part of and I am excited to see more!
Here are some photos of our conference with NASA! The speaker taught us all about the different planets in our solar system and answered any of the burning questions students had about space.
Fun with Fraction Stations:
To spice things up in math a bit, this past week I decided to try something new. Instead of teaching the standard lessons that are laid out for me in the book, I decided to set up stations to get the students more enthusiastic about fractions. Usually, I just read through the lesson and the students would do work from their book at their seats. I got bored of this and felt like the students were dreading it too. I was also frustrated that the math program that is required doesn't allow much time for mastery before moving on to new concepts. In order to give students more practice with the concepts, I found an equivalent fractions memory game online (I had to print all of the cards out, color the fractions in, cut them, glue them to construction paper, then laminate them—oh, the delights of teaching) which the students seemed to really enjoy. All of the tedious work was worth it, and luckily I had a few extra hands to help me with all of that. Anyway, the memory game was one of three stations. At the second station, students played online fraction games that I had posted to the Portaportal ahead of time, and at the third station I worked on the concepts of that day's lesson with small groups at the kidney shaped table. This “Math Workshop” rotation worked really well and the kids were much more on task and enthusiastic about the lesson.
This past week was very exciting and busy for us at BCS! A few years ago, my mentor teacher started an educational video-chatting program called Chatting Across the USA in which her class digitally visits other classrooms around America and learns all about the different states of the US. Occasionally they will do a double blind "Mystery Skype" in which only the two teachers of each class know where the other class is located. The students in each class work together as a team, asking questions, using maps, and receiving clues from one another about their states to figure out where they are in the US. This program creates a multitude of authentic learning experiences for all students involved and the kids in my class have Skyped with 18 different classrooms (in 18 different states) and have had guest speakers from all over the country. A few of their favorite guest skype speakers, to name a few, include Barbara Bush, Senator Collins, Bill Cohen, Anna Belknap (an actress on CSI, New York), Matt Light (a Patriots football player), many different authors, and even Michelle Obama! I would have DIED to see that Skype chat!!
This week the kids had three video chat experiences! The first one was with a school in New Jersey, the second was an educational video conference with NASA, and the third was a Mystery Skype session with a school in Illinois. The kids are assigned different jobs for Mystery Skype sessions: there's the questioner, the notetaker, the lead thinker, the data collector, the google mappers, the map messenger, the think tank (a group of students who put their heads together based on the clues given), and the blog reporters. The session with Illinois went really well, it was a truly meaningful learning experience to be a part of and I am excited to see more!
Here are some photos of our conference with NASA! The speaker taught us all about the different planets in our solar system and answered any of the burning questions students had about space.
Fun with Fraction Stations:
To spice things up in math a bit, this past week I decided to try something new. Instead of teaching the standard lessons that are laid out for me in the book, I decided to set up stations to get the students more enthusiastic about fractions. Usually, I just read through the lesson and the students would do work from their book at their seats. I got bored of this and felt like the students were dreading it too. I was also frustrated that the math program that is required doesn't allow much time for mastery before moving on to new concepts. In order to give students more practice with the concepts, I found an equivalent fractions memory game online (I had to print all of the cards out, color the fractions in, cut them, glue them to construction paper, then laminate them—oh, the delights of teaching) which the students seemed to really enjoy. All of the tedious work was worth it, and luckily I had a few extra hands to help me with all of that. Anyway, the memory game was one of three stations. At the second station, students played online fraction games that I had posted to the Portaportal ahead of time, and at the third station I worked on the concepts of that day's lesson with small groups at the kidney shaped table. This “Math Workshop” rotation worked really well and the kids were much more on task and enthusiastic about the lesson.
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