Organizing my Videos

So cool. I just figured out today how to organize iMovies I've saved on YouTube. There's a playlist feature and I put the movies into categories so now I don't have to scroll through ALL of them to find what I'm looking for. I've got my math instructional videos, the different classes movies, holiday movies, reading class movies. Since I'll have parents coming in to watch certain movies from different classes, it will be so much easier to find what I'm looking for as an audience waits and watches. So convenient! Modern technology!

Movie day

We have made so many movies this year in fourth grade that we literally could watch them for hours. A parent of a student of mine, asked if we could have movie night at school, serving popcorn and treats to watch student made and teacher made iMovies and educreations videos.
This was a great idea! Tweaking it a little, I'm having a movie day, where parents can come in during their regularly scheduled child's math time (an hour for each class) and watch the movies! We will have treats too! Doing this at the end of May. :)

iPad centers today

An idea came to me to send a math review lesson via email to our student iPads today. Students were grouped according to ability, and worked together to solve problems. They opened the link to the lesson and went at a pace similar to each other within their group. I was so impressed with the cooperation and quality of the review. I, naturally, made an iMovie of all three math classes working. Very cool to see an idea implemented, and work so well! It was a good day!

Perimeter and area

A day before testing began, I had one day left to review any math concepts from the year, and what do I decide to do? Took each math class out on the field and had them line up shoulder to shoulder, the length of the side of the rectangular shaped field (the base), and then the other side of the field (the width).
Since I only had about 26 students per class that day, the children kept moving down the line, to form new parts of the line, to cover the entire base and width of the field.
At first I made them hold hands so they'd stay in straight lines, but then they got the hang of what we were doing and just followed each other making up the new parts of the sides.
Our results were that it would take 764 students standing shoulder to shoulder, to make the perimeter of the field at our school covered.
Next we found area by multiplying the base X the height, and found it would take 32,760 students standing shoulder to shoulder to fit on the inside, in the area of the field!
I hope the students remember the difference between area and perimeter now!

Harlem PSFigLang Shake

Today we'll be finishing off my little Harlem shake video where I'll include all the students in the dance, intermittently between interviews about prefixes, suffixes, and figurative language. Why not!?
What a way to review for state testing that starts next week! :)

Review videos

Next week our students will have their state tests, and all year I teach math to all the fourth graders at our school. Students rotate from class to class, and I've addressed with them the state standards in math. This year a change has been that I've also been working with students to teach them more about technology. This has made the year super fun, with all the new innovations in that arena. As it is, teaching math alone has been fun through the years.

My goal each year is that students like or love math more than when they came into 4th grade. It is so necessary in practical daily situations, for problem solving, and for higher level thinking skills. I am thrilled when girls get excited about math, and hope that after fourth grade that spark will continue. So important for our girls to develop and maintain this strength. (Boys too of course!)
All week students have been watching my review lessons, with daily attached activity sheets to go with the review videos. The students have learned so much this school year! It is more than rewarding. :)

Planets

If you want to see what planets are in the sky at this very moment, get the "Planets" app and a compass of where to look will appear. Here's a screenshot I just took a minute ago of the app picture representing the sky above my head. Cool.
And just added a photo from this morning. As you can see Saturn moved overnight!

QR codes

Well, my inspiration today comes from a teacher I work with who made a QR code of my CUE iMovie, as an example at our staff meeting of how cool having QR codes in the classroom is. I have had some of the codes up on the walls in my classroom, but for the purposes of sharing with parents about the iMovies I've made. Every once in a while I see an adult aim their iPhone at the wall, and instantly upload the related iMovie that each code represents.
What I learned today, are some varied uses of QR codes in the classroom, from this other teacher!
She makes QR codes for parents at Back to School Night, that have school supply lists, and on folders for student homework. She puts QR codes throughout the classroom for student scavenger hunts and assignments and activities. I just added QR Code Maker to my iPad apps, and made the attached QR code of my perimeter and area video I just made on Educreations. Love this stuff!

Still giving Kidblog a try

At the beginning of the school year, I started a Kidblog page for our whole 4th grade, at the same time I started an Edmodo page. This was encouraged and discussed at our school site technology team meeting, so I jumped right in.
Both the Edmodo page and the Kidblog page have evolved into two different purposes. Edmodo really is used by me for instructional purposes, while Kidblog is a place where students each have a page and can post their iMovies made in class, can post their writing assignments, soccer match results, and any topic they want to share. Like Edmodo all posts have to be teacher approved before they are posted.
I guess for improving the application of using the Kidblog app, I'd give assignments of what to write about. The idea of posting and sharing writing assignments is great!
Since I teach math, I'd like to add that topic with a writing component to Kidblog. Just writing this, gives me some ideas of what to assign!

Math Carnival

I started to talk about our end of the school year "Math Carnival" where students will work in groups to create carnival games, making rules for their game, and strategizing about profitability.  One boy said his older sister told him about this happening in fourth grade and how she loved it!
The Math Carnival idea is just an extension of a probability lesson in the Everyday Mathematics teacher's manual, called "A Cube Drop Experiment".  Here students make a mat that has 100 squares on it, coloring one square yellow.  What are the chances of dropping a cube on yellow? 1 in 100, so 1/100 or 1%.  35 squares are blue, so that's a 35/100 or 35% chance.
Loads of fun! 
For the in-class carnival, real carnival tickets are used as prizes, with a raffle culminating for prizes from a prize box. 
With three groups of students playing each others' carnival games at the same time (approximately 90 students) the activity level really feels like being at a carnival! 

Now I get it!

Got a cool message from a student on Edmodo saying, "Thanks for the video on adding and subtracting fractions, Mrs. Monge! Now I get it!!!"
We had prepared for a test (the test was today) on fractions, and the study guides were thorough enough, but I still had a feeling and impression that the students needed a little more umph regarding adding and subtracting with fractions. So, right after school yesterday, I made a short instructional video on adding and subtracting with fractions on educreations and posted it on Edmodo. So cool to see the students who looked on to watch it too, to help with review for the test.
The girl who made the comment above? She got 101% on the test today! Yay!

No Pressure, but...

In two weeks our students will take the state tests in math and language arts. The time crunch is on. I can feel the pressure.  I have two weeks to review what we've learned so far, and jam in a few more concepts before the end is near.

Every year, for the last nine years of teaching regular fourth grade (before that was 17 years of teaching special Ed) my favorite time of year to teach has been right after testing.  This is when I pull out all the stops to have some exciting, memorable projects.  I have thought, too bad I can't start these projects in September.  Consequently, I have started them earlier and earlier each year. 

What I want for students, besides a successful mastery of state standards in academics, is a memorable experience in fourth grade. Some of what I want for them, cannot be measured on a test.  I want them to feel good.  I want them to gain confidence.  I want them to grow socially.  None of this can really be measure on a test.  

With the upcoming change in the way we assess students through the Common Core State Standards, I'm not as nervous as I should be with the change.  I'm seeing, by examples given in teacher training sessions, that all of the projects I've been utilizing, match very well with that kind of assessment.  

In the upcoming blog posts, I'm going to write about the projects I refer to above.  With the addition of technology into the classroom, students really are experiencing rich, memorable, life-long lessons. How lucky for me to be right smack in the middle of that!

Someday Khan academy

Khan academy was a new discovery for me a year ago at the CUE conference. The teachers I work with and I came home so excited about utilizing the program with our students! Immediately I used the instructional videos in class for whole group instruction. However, beyond that, a year later I haven't been able to maneuver getting accounts for my under-aged (under age13)students.

When I went this year to CUE, a presentation was given by a fifth grade teacher who started using individual student accounts a year ago. The speaker, Paul Erickson, said the instructional videos are just the tip of the iceberg, and once accounts are used, students log on and perform tasks, move up levels, earn progress awards, and can work at their own pace to improve skills in mathematics.

With the implementation of the flipped classroom two weeks ago in my classroom, I can see how khanacademy could fit in very nicely to that concept idea. I've made my own instructional videos, and post them for students to watch at home, but with khanacademy having instructional videos included why couldn't that be part of the flipped classroom?

I'm working on a way of getting accounts, and/or continuing to do whole group lessons in class.

Besides the instructional videos being awesome on khanacademy, a really cool feature without having an account is the Vi Hart videos that combine math concepts with art.

Pages app

"Pages" app on iPad I utilized all last summer, as I was taking graduate courses. The applications of Pages are various. There are 16 templates for writing resumes, invitations, term papers, project proposals, recipes, various letter formats, blank, and flyers. I feel that the charge of $9.99 for the app was well worth it. Papers written can be emailed with a PDF or Word attachment. Files can include photos.
The photo attached to this blog post is part of a paper I wrote of a lesson plan for students making iMovies about geometric shapes. I'm feeling like my days of paper and pencil are ending!

Flipping the classroom

After two weeks of flipping the classroom with my fourth graders, I can see the benefits of such a concept. I was motivated to give it a try after attending the CUE conference in the middle of March. 

The idea is that the students watch instruction on a new concept at home, and then spend class time doing activities related to that concept. The teacher helps with what would have been homework pages, in class. In theory there's more time for work completion and hands on activities in class, if the teacher no longer is spending time lecturing.

I found and felt that I DID have more time to work directly with students in small groups and individually. Students could use pattern block manipulatives, as needed, when discoving fractional parts of those blocks.

The concern I have, so far, is that some students watch the instructional videos better than others at home. The active learners, did very well with the flip of the classroom. The students who had my videos on at home as background sound, with little effort to watch and understand, struggled in some ways.  One boy even admitted he watches less than a minute of the video and then turns it off, since I'm monitoring who logs on (on Edmodo) but can't see the duration of login time.

As I've said to my students, I can do a song and dance to teach them, but if they don't meet me half way by actively trying to learn,  there's not a whole lot I can do more than my 100%.  

So we had some talks about motivation to learn. Overall, the consensus was very positive by the students (and parents) about the flipped classroom. There was improvement during the two weeks in attention to watching the videos. I learned to require a short written example of what was taught each night, to show understanding.  Then we DID have more time in class to do the lesson activities.  I like the flip!

Dragon Dictation

One reason I'm starting a blog, is that at some point I'm going to have to write a book about teaching, parenting, interacting with and raising children.  I feel so lucky to truly love children. I always have!
When I was ten years old I started babysitting and I remember enjoying that so much. One of the first families I worked for, lived on our block and had four children.  There was a new baby all the way up to about age six. I got 50 cents an hour. I just loved the work!  
I can't say I always knew I'd be a teacher, but certainly it hasn't hurt, just enjoying what children say and do. 
I have some personal as well as professional stories about children and the blog is helping me get a feel for what public means, and how much to share. 
Last summer I took several graduate courses and in one of them on Inclusion, the professor told me I should write a book.  I had worked as a special Ed teacher through all of the stages of public laws in education since 1984, and had anecdotes to match the changes in law as the years went by.
I had personal stories as well, and experiences regarding inclusion even up until now, as a regular 4th grade teacher. Hard to believe now, that when I first started teaching my class was isolated in a portable and included for no regular Ed subjects!  Then there was a time in the early 90s when full inclusion for all, was the model.
Dragon Dictation is an app that I'm starting to utilize on my iPad, to start writing a book.  I tap on the screen, and my voice is recorded and the app types out what I've said.  I can read what I've said and make corrections as needed. I'm really appreciating this app!  Whether I use this method of recording to write a whole book or not, remains to be seen.  Right now though, this is the way!

iPhone iMovie

Yes, on my iPhone I have the iMovie app, and here's a little movie of my class's field trip today.
I used to take my iPad to places like this, but what a nice discovery that I can use the same app on my smaller, more convenient to carry iPhone.
The background music is tricky, because some songs aren't approved on YouTube to publish. This was the third song I attempted to publish and it worked. This is the second Creed song that I could use to attach to an iMovie.
The field trip to Abalone Cove and Point Vicente Interpretive center proved to be a wonderful hands on experience for the students. A peaceful, cool, fun day.
http://youtu.be/HUTm6q2wk90http://youtu.be/HUTm6q2wk90

Smule Auto Rap

Just for something different to do with students, have them make a rap about content you want them to learn.  Give a two sentence definition of what perimeter means, for example, and use the app called "Smule Auto Rap".
I had my students each make one about a geometric shape, the attributes of the shape chosen.
Here's a quick iMovie showing how I made a very simple rap about perimeter. Fun and quick to do! Entertaining for the students to do occasionally. :)http://youtu.be/WkDINxaZNfk

Edmodo

Edmodo is an app I use to post homework videos (see Educreations post I wrote previously). Students each log on, and because I've started to flip the classroom, they spend time at home watching the instructional videos. Then at school they do their class work and homework with me!

On Edmodo, students ask questions, and follow guidelines of making relevant comments, related to school work and school.

Super easy to set up an Edmodo page, user friendly, and a great place to store my instructional videos (in an online library in folders).

Modern technology; how did I survive before without it! :)