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What better way to wrap up a great year in science class then eating s'mores on the high school lawn? We are fortunate to our have our high school and elementary school within walking distance of one another.  I am not sure why it took me three years to start collaborating with high school teachers - c'mon Jordon! Get it together! Luckily, I had two teachers more than willing to let my students learn a thing or two from their high schoolers. 

After chatting with a friend and high school teacher, we decided it would be a great idea to have our kids construct solar ovens in our respective classrooms and then share our designs with one another.  Once I told my students they would be collaborating with high schoolers and eating s'mores - they were hooked! 

For almost two hours (yes! It's true!) my kids were hard at work on their ovens. Using pizza boxes donated from a local Italian restaurant, Lil Rizzos , and materials borrowed from the kitchen.. my students began constructing. 

On an exceptionally sunny day that week, we set out our ovens, crossed our fingers, and hoped for the best. In case you're wondering - yes - I made myself a s'more too. 

A few hours later, we came back to find our chocolate had melted into an ooey-gooey delightful afternoon treat. We enjoyed our s'mores, chatted about why our solar ovens were successful, and checked on the progress of our high school friends' ovens as well. Great conversations paired with learning and a delicious treat sound like a great afternoon to me!

This video was a great resource for my kids in the planning stages of their solar ovens - especially for those with little to no experience (cough - me included - cough). 

"I CAN SEE THEM TYPING!" Collaboration Through Google Drive!

I wish I could bottle the excitement and pure joy that was had in my classroom this afternoon. Honestly, at one point I was standing in the middle of the room watching as my students' eyes widened with excitement and wonder as their new pen pals typed a story along with them. 

Now, let me back up! Yesterday, I shared how a friend and I had our students "meet" one another through a Mystery Missouri Skype. Read more on that experience here. 

At the conclusion of our Mystery Skype last week, we (the teachers) informed our classes we would be collaborating on a little writing project through Google Drive. The anticipation set in and we had to wait a few more days until our schedules would allow us to log on at the same time. 

Miss Kazanowski did a little leg work going into the project: chatting about partnerships, logistics of how it work, topics to write about, etc. This morning, Miss K sent me a list of her student's individual Google Drive accounts. Right after lunch, students logged onto our classroom Google account (we only have one for the whole class) and I taught the entire group how to share a document with a new user on Google Drive. Next, students were sharing blank documents and quickly adding snapshots of their cute little smiles to give their new digital pen pal a visual of who they were chatting with. 

While my class was waiting for Miss K's class to return from recess and log on, we were teaching eachother - wait... let me rephrase that sentence, my students were teaching one another tricks with Google Drive and from there the ball was rolling! Students were typing bios about themselves and sharing information for their buddies to get to know them a little better. I even learned the phrase, "my selfie game is strong on IG" - this apparently means you take good selfies. Good thing I have my 5th graders to keep me hip. ;)

Then....

the moment happened. 

The first 5th grader -in another city - in another school district - logged on and started typing. A student shouted, "THEY ARE ONLINE!" Then another student shrieks, "THEY POSTED A PICTURE!" As more students shouted updates around the room, other students were dashing to their computer screens to check out the live update. Within minutes, everyone was chatting live with their new pal. I even threw out a few live tweets myself. I was inspired by Miss K's live tweeter during our Missouri Skype. 

"THEY ARE TYPING! I CAN SEE THEM TYPING MS. FURNELL!" Shrieks of excitement as students are collaborating through Docs with kids in KC!
— Jordon (@furnelly) May 14, 2014

We collaborated with @furnelly class in order to create poetry today. Thanks @googledrive! pic.twitter.com/S9Zj144j8F

— Micaela Kazanowski (@MissKazanowski) May 14, 2014

With the help from Miss K, managing students in her classroom, and myself bopping around to computers in my own classroom, we were able to get students writing in a no time. Honestly, they were so excited to get started I didn't have to remind them twice! Overall, we had students writing wacky stories line by line, limericks, haikus, and even a story about tacos.  

I'm certain the number one question I will be asked in the morning is, "When can write with Miss K's class again?" 

Making Missouri a Mystery (Mystery Skype That is...)

A few weeks ago, a teacher-friend (Miss Kazanowski - find her blog here)  and I started chatting through Twitter about having our students collaborate on a writing project through Google Docs.  This teacher-friend and I live in different cities and teach in different school districts - so we had the perfect opportunity in the palm of our hands! 

First, we structured our first "meeting" as a Missouri Mystery Skype. By this point, both of our classes have participated in Mystery Skypes prior to, so we just informed our classes the school they were searching for was located in the state of Missouri. Introducing the task naturally brought up several learning opportunities (and refreshers for some): bodies of water in Missouri, highways, interstates, county lines, boundaries, etc. 

I made maps for my students (pictured below) to reference back to if Google Maps became a little daunting. Prior to our Skype, we spent time in Social Studies reading these maps and challenging one another to find specific cities, highways, lakes, etc. 

Throughout the Skype, students' excitement and engagement was through the roof! They were rushing around the room, whispering questions, and working together to try and find the exact location of their new digital pen pals.  It was incredible to overhear the fantastic geographical application happening. Questions thrown around such as, "Are you west of Jefferson City?" and "Do you border Kansas?" 

Oh! Another mini lesson we had prior to this Skype was about the language to use while communicating via Skype. We made a giant T-Chart of "Things To Say" and "Things Not to Say" while Skyping. As you can imagine, the "to say" list had things like west, east, north, etc. The "not to say" list included words like, close to, above, below, etc.  It was exciting to hear my students applying this language while communicating with new friends. Don't get me wrong, I had to throw out reminders - but hey, it's a start!

Miss Kazanowski had one of her students live-tweeting our entire Skype, and I have to say his play by play of the afternoon was spot-on and equally hilarious. What a great idea to have kids tweeting the experience! Here are a few of his tweets:

These guys have a lot of pressure on their shoulders. pic.twitter.com/i9odB6k8Sd

— Micaela Kazanowski (@MissKazanowski) May 8, 2014

The opponent has figured out where r school district is. Darn!!!!!!!!!!! We have to make a comeback on the double.

— Micaela Kazanowski (@MissKazanowski) May 8, 2014

This is our thinking in progress sign. pic.twitter.com/9zC7FwWgwu

— Micaela Kazanowski (@MissKazanowski) May 8, 2014

Once the students pinpointed the location, Miss Kazanowski and I shared the exciting news that not only were we friends from college but we would be doing a writing project together! When we shared we were Mizzou Alumni, all the kids stared at me (well, us...) in shock and disbelief! 

Check out my blog post here to read about our collaboration project through Google Drive!

Guest Post! Reviewing Science Vocabulary

Even though my blog has been pushed to the side (frequently) this year, I still firmly believe it's one of the most powerful ways to connect with educators. This post is one of the reasons why I believe in the blog! A fellow teacher in Missouri, Cori, reached out to me through my blog and since then we've been emailing back and forth sharing ideas. Below you will find her fantastic idea on using games (Pictionary, Taboo, etc.) in the classroom to spice up your review of vocabulary.

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I love playing games: card, board, video, word, mind. So any chance I have to incorporate games into my classroom, I am all over it! When we finished our final science unit before the MAP test, I wanted to incorporate vocabulary into our review, but of course I wanted to make it fun for everyone, myself included. I needed something that the students would look forward to while we did our other review activities. I knew some quick & easy educational games were the answer.

As I began thinking about the kinds of games I wanted to play, two came to mind rather quickly: Pictionary & Taboo. My kids love to draw and we have played a version of Taboo with context clues that they loved; I knew these would be good options.

When we play Pictionary, the students are divided into two teams. The first team member picks a card and begins to draw a picture that represents that card (or sort of looks like the word). The student has 30 seconds to get his/her teammates to correctly guess the word. During this time, there are many excited and loud students saying all kinds of science words: exactly what I want to hear!! They may not always be related, but they’re science words and the effort is there! Now, if team one has not correctly guessed within the 30 second time limit, team two has a chance to steal, Family Feud style. Each team member gets a chance to draw. At some points, after a difficult word or science tool, I ask the students some questions about the topic or show them an example. When we played through the first day, the student who drew the Spring Scale card had a difficult time. After some thought she drew a picture of apples on a scale, like at the grocery store, and her teammates came through with the correct answer! Once she had finished, I showed the class a spring scale we had used for some of our labs and we discussed Newtons and Force.

For Taboo, the top word on the card is the one the team needs to guess and the words on the bottom are the buzz words that cannot be said.

Students play on two teams. A student holds the stack of cards and tries to get the teammates to correctly guess the answer after giving clues. If they cannot think of the word or the team is having trouble guessing, he or she can skip the card and place it at the back of the stack. (Even with the best clues, sometimes the team is still stumped.) The student has 30 seconds to get as many correctly identified cards as they can. During the game, it was great to hear the students connect the words to experiments we did or sing parts of songs we have learned. As I noticed kids skipping words, I made note of what we needed to still review.

Overall, we have played the games the past four days in my classroom. We take about 15 minutes at the end of the hour after we have done other review activities. This has really been fun for the students and exciting for me as their confidence grows with the various science words. Hopefully, with the extra practice, the students will win next week as we begin the MAP test.

If you're interested in downloading Cori's freebies, access the vocabulary pages here.

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Thanks to Cori for demonstrating how powerful a blog can be!

10 Reasons to be a Connected Educated via Venspired

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Happy Monday, teachers!

#TeachersMatter - Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Happy Teacher Week my fellow teachers of the world! I hope this week, more than ever, you feel appreciated. I certainly appreciate you. I have gained so much from the blogging community - my classroom is better for it! So, I, a fellow blogger, thank and admire you. Enjoy the week - you deserve it!

"If I Knew Then: A Letter To Me on My First Day of Teaching" 

by Soul Pancake & Edutopia

"So keep up the great work, seek help from those around you, and just know that the work of a teacher is of the greatest importance."

Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake

For my favorite guy's birthday, I made a Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake to celebrate his day of birth. I originally found the recipe on Nest of Posies website here. We both were craving an Oreo crust, so I made a few modifications to the recipe. 

Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake

 adapted from Nest of Posies

You'll Need:

• ready made Oreo pie crust
• 2 t of softened butter
• 8 oz fat free cream cheese
• 1/2 C Stevia
• 2 T of peanut butter
• 8 oz of lite Cool Whip
• 1 T mini chocolate chips for topping

Click here to follow Nest of Posies directions for making your yummy cheesecake!

Enjoy!

What if our Characters were on Social Media?

 Let's face it - all of our students (okay most) are active  participants of social media daily. I can testify this is true about my class because I get a follow request from one every day! I decided to apply their love (and admiration) for social media to our literature circles. Small groups are finishing up their small book clubs and as they finish, I've asked students to draw conclusions about their characters and imagine what it would be life if they had a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter page. I heavily stressed the importance of making the posts, comments, and pictures represent what happened IN the story. I prompted my kids with questions like, "what would their friends post on their wall? What events from the story would be shared on their page?" It was great overhearing the conversations and analysis of the characters after reading the book. 

Below the pictures you will find the links to each template I used. 

Needless to say, the kids have LOVED this activity and have asked to complete more!

 

Fakebook Template

Twitter Template

Instagram Template 

How you do you integrate social media into your instruction? Share with me!