Friday, October 19, 2012

                           Blogging, Blogging, Blogging
We have started to blog!   I was nervous at first to begin this project but after three weeks it is going much better. 

Our first step was to blog on paper.  Here is a great resource and one I have used often  http://www.notesfrommcteach.com/2010/09/learning-to-blog-using-paper.html

Paper blog examples

We then discussed the best way to comment on a blog.  We also watched a video of students explaining how to blog, thank you to Mrs. Yollis for this informative video. Next we generated positive comments, then used post-its to comment on each others blogs.  The students did such a great job on this part!

I decide to use kidblog, it is a safe and positive blogging platform for students and I have read of a lot of teachers using it.   Here is the link to our blog.                                                             http://kidblog.org/LearninginMrsEgesdals4thgradeClass/
I chose to have the students start by writing about their favorite food, it was fun to read both the blogs and students comments.

Some might wonder why students should blog.  I found the following blog that does a great job of explaining why students should blog
http://www.pernilleripp.com/2011/10/why-students-should-blog-my-top-10.html

Thank you to Mrs. Ripp for posting this.

Have fun reading, I sure do!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

     This week we embarked on a new experience, a Global Read Aloud.  This unique experience was started in 2010 by Mrs. Ripp.  Her goal was simple, "Use one book to connect the world."
      Students will need these global connections in the future.  My students are learning to connect via Skype, Twitter, Edmodo, email, and kidblog.  There are over 250 classrooms worldwide participating in this project.  The book that I chose to read was The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, it is based on the true story of a silverback gorilla named Ivan.
      After viewing the book trailer, students logged on to Edmodo to make predictions about the book, they also explained if they thought they would like it or not.
Making our predictions using Edmodo


"I think Ivan is a gorilla in a zoo and the zookeeper does not keep the cage clean."