Educational Wonders

Veteran's Day Interviews

2011-10-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the days when we just read and talked about how to conduct an interview? My, how the classroom has changed!

Thanks to Colonel Connie Harden for allowing my language arts class to interview her yesterday. We conducted a video SKYPE session from our classroom in Indiana to Harrodsburg, Kentucky! Carlie did an outstanding job asking questions of Colonel Harden, and the entire class took notes on their iPads.

We will be writing reports and presenting a program for our interviewed Veterans on November 10th.

Todays Meet

2011-10-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

I was encouraged by Connie Jesch, an innovative iPad pilot teacher in our district, to give Todays Meet (web 2.0 tool for whole class responses) another try. We had tried to use this tool last year and it was a fiasaco! Connie told me about using this "back channel" to display good reader's thoughts. As we read a story together, students posted questions to unfamiliar words, made inferences, personal connections, validated predictions, and responded to the story. It also offered the opportunity for the teacher to model "self-talk." Well, Connie, it was a success! Thanks for reintroducing me to this cool tool!

ICE Conference - No Teacher Left Behind!

2011-10-18T03:43:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday and Friday, our district's iPad pilot teachers were given the opportunity to attend the Indiana Computer Educators conference in Indianapolis. We had a wonderful time listening and observing masters in using technology to reach our digital native students.
Two of the many presenters that I was able to attend were Michael Gorman and Leslie Fisher. Check out their contributions to the online learning world!

Foldables

2011-10-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Using foldables as graphic organizers are a great way to get all involved. This week we worked with a Venn diagram foldable. Look for terrific foldable ideas at this website!

Habitat House

2011-10-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Another house is going up and we were there to lend a hand! What a beautiful day to help out with Habitat! Many of our teachers gathered together with others to help out our community. It is so nice to be able to work with others who are much more talented in building. I appreciate those who had the patience with me and allowed me to hammer some nails.
Also, the food that was provided for lunch was FANTASTIC! Thanks to those terrific cooks!

2011-09-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

This year marks the bicentennial of the historic New Orleans and its successful voyage from Pittsburg, PA to New Orleans, LA. We have been studying this famous voyage and the many unique events that occured that year. Storyteller Susan Fowler came to school to give us an interactive performance of the voyage. As a culminating activity, our honors reading and language arts class created a steamboat. We were very proud of our class float for Mt. Vernon River Days.
The 1811 New Orleans.
We won first place!
Whoo Hoo!
Way to go Honors!

Read Across America 2011

2011-01-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

View Read Across America 2011 in a larger map

Fun at Solitude

2010-11-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what you'll do with your time when you retire? This retired history teacher has created a pioneer village where he shares the history of our Posey County. We had some delicious burgoo in Solitude last Thursday. Thanks Jerry!

Another retiree, Mary Dixon, has written a poetry book and will soon have a book signing at Barnes & Noble. She asked me to create a place for her on the web. Check out her accomplishments at http://www.faithfirstpoetry.blogspot.com/

The Read/Write Web - Real Educational Wonders!

2010-10-06T03:42:00.000-07:00

We've been working on newspaper skills in our reading class this week, and in our language arts class, we been working on writing the perfect sentence, the perfect paragraph, and the perfect story using the Simple 6 Method. We are also beginning our Veterans' Day project where students will interview a veteran and create a book about/for them.

The Read/Write Web offers excellent opportunities for the students to practice all the skills they are learning in reading and language arts. Creating blogs will give the students the power of a reporter plus the feedback for self-evaluation. Wow, what wonderful tools for our learning environments!

2010-10-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

i Pad = educational bliss!

iPads are Coming!

2010-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Our class will have a wonderful opportunity to pilot iPads during semester II. The cart is being prepared to contain 30 new iPads and we will be looking for ways to incorporate this new tool into our Reading and Language Arts classes each day. During semester I, we had 1 iPad for the entire class. This iPad has been used to teach, to time progress monitoring, to practice spelling, to record notes, to enter student submissions to our class wiki, to take notes, to view class Prezis, to improve reading fluency and reading rate, to connect with poets and writers, to check the weather, to build sentences, to practice following directions, to read classics, and to create music.

Our list will surely grow with 30 more iPads! We welcome any suggestions you have for educational apps!

River Days 2010

2010-09-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

River Days 2009

2009-10-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Re-creating the Human Flag of 1918, is the 6th grade classrooms of MVJHS and the entire St. Matthews Elementary School!

photo by Third Generation Photography

Lincoln Flatboat!

2008-09-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

Our 6th grade White Team students welcomed the Lincoln Journey of Remembrance Flatboat to Mt. Vernon, IN on Sept. 12.

The students had a very rich educational experience which included touring the flatboat and talking with Mr. Lincoln.

Photos by Jacob H. and Melissa Miller

STAR, BYTES, and ME

2008-07-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

What a terrific summer! I've had the priviledge of working with 55 different educators from Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. We've had a very exciting and educational time learning and sharing ideas. I can't wait to use what I've learned in my classroom!

Christmas Eve

2008-01-04T16:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve at Kentucky Lake. Can you see Santa and his reindeer?

Veterans Day

2007-11-11T04:31:00.000-08:00

As part of our Veterans Day project, our students visited the LST-325 this week. Learning from those who have served is a very enriching experience for students and teachers!
We honor our Veterans!

The Guerrilla Season Book Blog

2007-10-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

In searching for student blogging projects, I came back to Eric Langhorst and his 8th grade students at South Valley Jr. High in Liberty, MO. Eric created a Guerrilla Season, by Pat Hughes, Book Blog for his students to discuss and reflect on their feelings as they read the book. I like the way he has given their comments to us to read. I'm assuming the students have their own private classroom book blog and Eric has chosen comments to share publicly. I like this, and think it would work well with my book groups. For 3-D-1, I sent a post to Eric's email and he responded with a comment to this post. If you follow the URL he gives in his comment, he explains the process he used to get his Book Blog rolling. Thanks to Eric!

I also ran across this article in the September issue of Edutopia. It has an example of a blog lesson plan which you might find helpful if you are working on 3-D-2!

Tips from Robin's Blog

2007-09-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

view Robin Martin's SPOTLIGHT here

http://www.cfpmsram.blogspot.com/

Welcome

2007-08-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our little corner of the Internet where we will post projects, educational sites, and news from our classroom!