Winding Down!

The Countdown is on! Only 10 more work days till Christmas break!! It's crazy how fast the first half of the school year has gone! Now we just have to finish up the first semester of team and we'll be set to really dive in to our collabritve projects!
I'm still not quite sure what's expected of us for the end of the semester...as I try to figure it out I'm still researching our group topic and trying some of the new technologies shown to us in class.
We've also tried some new technology in our classroom... we just got our hands on some electronic clickers, it gives the kids a chance to vote and choose answers to multiple choice questions using technology, all while giving us instantanious data and graphs! It is so much fun and so valuable! I'm loving every minute of it!

Thanksgiving week!

I've never been so happy to go to work on a Monday. Well can you blame me? It's only a two day week! To top it off I've planned a really fun activity for our class. We began last week... I printed each child a map and guide of Magic Kingdom Disney World. I gave them each an itinerary and together we measured the distance in between each attraction. Today we extended on the lesson and visited Disney through Google Earth (Until the mini presentation in class I forgot how useful it could be!) The kids then began their own itineraries for a writing activity and tomorrow they will measure the distances between their classmates chosen attractions. We've all been wearing mickey ears and clothes, and we have Disney music playing in the background.

Just in case you were wondering, dont believe the reviews...GO SEE TWILIGHT! It was fabulous... and so was my shirt that said, "I like my men cold, dead and sparkly"

Well....the day is almost here! Twilight comes out in theaters on Friday. If anyone hasn't read the Twilight books yet, you don't know what your missing! Run dont walk to Borders and buy all 4 books! (or if your a bargain hunter like me try BJ's and Target for a better deal!) Each book is better than the last...you'll find yourself dreaming about Vampires and if your a girl, you most certainly will be fantasizing about Edward Cullen! My friends and I have become such groupies of this young adult books that we have become the epitome of teenieboppers! Several of us are going to see the movie at midnight on Thursday! We're even making some cool iron on t-shirts (dont you wish you were as cool as us?!)

Please take my advise and read the book before you see the movie, because even if it's great, I doubt it can come close to amazing job Stephanie Meyer did on each of these books. Once you finish reading the 4th book you can log on tohttp://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ to read her latest book (she has posted an unedited book for die hard Twilight fans to read)

And as my t-shirt says... I (Heart) Edward Cullen!

Mini Saga

Its Christmas in November. Deck the Halls playing, decorations hanging and the smell of cookies in the oven. Its sill 38 days away, but then again its ONLY 38 more days to shop.. 38 more days to spend the season with family and 38 more days to feel the magic.

Hero Day!

We just had another great day with technology in our classroom. Our class celebrated heroes today... each student wrote letters to their hero and presented the today. Each letter was posted on the Smartborad and each student was able to decorate their page and add some personality. We then added some sappy music and invited the parents in. Each child read their letters while it showed behind them. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. The kids manipulated the board and moved on to their slide when it was time and really enjoyed sharing.

I'm hoping I can start using google docs in the class too...it seems like it would be so much easier than trying to have the kids save to the public drive and then have to find it.

So glad the weekend is finally here!!

My new profile picture was taken last month at the fantastic New Kids on the Block concert with Kristen...here is another picture of all the girls before the concert!

AUDAcity Project

Here it is...I really didnt know what to talk about, so don't judge!

What's New...

So, we're knee deep into the semester and I feel bad for whoever is reading this because it's pretty boring. I finished my audacity project this week, and I enjoyed it! My brother Nick is 16 and has been nagging me to use my new Mac to play with Garage Band. When he finally did, he mixed a whole bunch of sounds and came up with some pretty awesome music! I promised him I would use one for class so it became the background for my project.
I discussed my love for my favorite pair of shoes, the ugly but ever so comfortable uggs. I'm in touch with my mentor to figure out how to upload it on here, so as soon as I figure it out I'll post it.

I'm also in the process of deciding on my mini presentation. I think I may present on the Smartboard. I was trained in my old school district and now I'm lucky enough to be one of the few teachers in my building with one in my classroom. We have been able to do so many cool things in our room with it and it really brings teaching to a whole new level. I was thinking about showcasing some of the tools available through the program, but I'm not sure if that would be helpful to anyone. If you have one already than you would already know all about those things. If not...I would love to show the group and introduce it to everyone.

I have loved the mini presentations we've seen so far! Its amazing how much you can learn just being exposed to a new technology. I can't wait to hear more!

I don't know what happened to my videos! Why didn't they post?! I can see them on the computer I downloaded it from but from any where else its not there...I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow!

Community

I'm looking forward to working on our community group project! All though there were only two of us discussing ideas last week, we came up with many different things we can focus on. I can't wait to see where this leads!

Photo Story

I was so excited to see that we are going to be doing Photostory projects next!
Last year, I incoporated Photostory into our grade level unit of "Editoral Writing"
After each student wrote their editorial to try to convince readers of something they believed in, we turned their writing into movies.
Students were broken into groups and worked together to create several movies. Here are some of the videos we showcased at our class "film festival" Enjoy!

Marissa