YAT 5K

This was a big weekend! Mr. Howard and I were able to run along two of our kiddos in the Young Actor's Theater  Break-a-Leg 5K. Mr. Howard and Alex kept a look out in the front while Keirsten and I brought up the rear. We all reached the finish line in one piece!

The "Goggles of Criticism"

It's always hard to get the students to reread their stories and revise them. One day we came up the metaphor of putting on the "Goggles of Criticism." When we wear these imaginary goggles of criticism, we are able to edit our work as if we have never seen it. Well, thanks to the handy-dandy dollar store, these goggles have come to life! I think the kids seem to like using them too!

WBLS Morning News

Well, our first cast and crew of WBLS has come to an end. Here is a news team photo of the crew. Excellent job kiddos!

The Epic Flop

After many hours of planning, no one could have guessed the great down fall to our QR Codes... it wasn't that the wrong addresses were linked, or that the QR Codes were laminated... it was that ever-protective school firewall! As the students anxiously scanned their first code, we realized we had a problem. While the WiFi would not allow for the students to access the test questions, the students who had access to a 4G network were able to get to work. We were very fortunate that in each class two students had devices with 4G. We quickly broke into two groups and got cracking! Lesson learned... test out the firewall before trying to reinvent the wheel!

BYOD Week

This week we had a great time incorporating back-channeling with our reading. During reading class, the kids questioned/inferenced/summarized/etc our story through back-channeling. Essentially, the kids typed their thoughts as they populated on the board behind us. Here are the transcripts from the week. This was a wonderful activity because it allowed the students to take charge of their learning. They each became the teacher and worked together to share with one another. Here are the transcripts from both classes. The further you scroll down, the more everything seemed to "click."
 
Howard's Class:    http://todaysmeet.com/wagon/transcript  
Adams' Class:      http://todaysmeet.com/wagon2/transcript