This morning I was greeted with several students stopping me in the hall to ask if we were going to do another challenge today. I was happy to say yes and see the excitement in their eyes! Students completed the straw challenge today. This was extremely difficult for them because their initial thoughts were to tape the structure to the table as they did with their spaghetti tower on Tuesday. Their expectations were high...like their towers, however, they quickly found out that their high towers would not support the tennis ball. I also let them choose their own groups today to see if that made any difference in their "teamwork". I'm excited about tomorrow's challenge...we're building boats!
Enjoy the rest of the pictures from today.....
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Our STEM activity for today was the paper chain challenge... Each group was given a different color of construction paper and challenged to make the longest paper chain possible Mrs. Burnette's homeroom winner: Team Royal Blue! Ms. Mitchell's homeroom winner: The Black Team! Everyone's paper chains: I made my own paper chain. It's hard to believe that in only 22 days these awesome kids will be 4th graders. I will be so sad to see them go! Additional Photos: Things we learned from this activity:
As mentioned in my Monday Message, we have several STEM activities planned for this week. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education. We focus on these areas together no only because the skills and knowledge in each discipline are essential for students success, but also because these fields are deeply intertwined in real world and in how students learn most effectively. STEM is an interdisciplinary and applied approach that is coupled with hands-on, problem-based learning. Today, we completed The Marshmallow Challenge. Students amazed me with their teamwork and creative thinking. Students were allowed 30 minutes to build a structure using only 20 spaghetti noodles, a yard of tape, a yard of string, and a marshmallow. The winning team got a pass of their choice! Mrs. Burnette's homeroom winner: Ms. Mitchell's homeroom winner: In my homeroom, we only had one standing structure at the end of the time limit. With about 3 minutes remaining, the winning group realized that everyone else did not have a standing structure and chose to play it safe and place their marshmallow near the bottom where it was more sturdy.
Mrs. Mitchell's homeroom had 4 standing structures at the end of time. We had to measure to find the winner. It was very close...the winner's was 20.5 inches and they were closely followed by a 20 inch and 19.5 inch structure. We learned many valuable lessons during this activity...
Hope you enjoy viewing the photos from our activity. The kids seemed to love it! Good morning! You will find third grade newsletter attached. Graded test papers and Dojo Reports will be sent home today. Please return these tomorrow. This week is our ACT Aspire testing week. It is VERY important that students are present and on time each day. You will see the testing schedule outlined below: Tuesday, April 28th – ACT Writing (30 minutes) / ELA (30 minutes) Wednesday, April 29th – ACT Reading (60 minutes) Thursday, April 30th – ACT Math (55 minutes) Friday, May 1st – ACT Science (55 minutes) After testing each day, we have several STEM activities planned. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education. We focus on these areas together not only because the skills and knowledge in each discipline are essential for student success, but also because these fields are deeply intertwined in the real world and in how students learn most effectively. STEM is an interdisciplinary and applied approach that is coupled with hands-on, problem-based learning. I think the kids will love these activities and I can’t wait to see their brains at work. I’ll be sure to send pictures of their projects! We will also be completing several review packets this week. I would encourage students to review these at home each night to help review and prepare for testing. We will continue working each afternoon with Math 4 Today #32. We will complete the test together in class on Friday. I have also attached their extra credit math packet again for your convenience. These packets are due by Friday, May 8th. These are not required, however, I strongly encourage students to complete them. They will be graded for completion and entered as two test grades. Please be reminded that we will have our “Pay and Play” event on Thursday afternoon. Students received green half sheet flyers last week with information. Students should bring in $5 if they wish to play on the inflatables and an additional $5 if they wish to attempt the rock wall. (flyer attached) Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
Hello! I have attached the newsletter for this week. As mentioned last week, we will not have DREAM sheet anymore. Dojo reports and graded test papers are being sent home. Please sign them and return them tomorrow. In Science this week, we will be reviewing states of matter and heat. You can review at home by watching the coresponding Brain Pop videos: https://jr.brainpop.com/science/matter/ We also have several cute activities planned for Earth Day on Wednesday. In Math we are going over different test taking strategies to help prepare them for the ACT Aspire. Students made foldables to go along with the acronym posters below. They also have a bookmark to serve as a reminder of these. Copyright © Kim Miller {For a Love of Teaching} We are working on Math 4 Today #31 this week. We will not have a study sheet. Students should also continue studying their multiplication facts, as we will have several Kiwanis tests this week so that they can attempt to become a medalist. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
My original reflections from my classroom and learning style are easily paralleled to the constructivist learning theory. My personal theory is centered on facilitating the active learner. As Orey stated, “You want to have your children be active in the learning process, regardless of which approach you take” (Laureate Education, n.d.) He also spoke of immersive experiences being the most authentic and meaningful learning experiences. It is my goal as a teacher to focus my instruction around this idea. If I can immerse my students into the lesson, content, or curriculum through experiences, I offer them the opportunity to build connections and more depth of knowledge. Inside my third-grade math and science classroom, students are given the opportunity to learn through experiences and extend their knowledge and understanding by becoming involved in project-based applications and real-world scenarios. Although I have not made many significant modifications to my personal theory, I have developed a stronger understanding of how the mind works and also how I can supplement this theory with some amazing technology resources and practices. I have extended my “Teacher Toolbox” with many technology tools that work well alongside a constructivist approach. Such tools as VoiceThread, concept mapping, and blogging are new ways I plan to extend this theory of learning inside my classroom. I plan to use VoiceThread for students to present their research and then offer interactive feedback and questioning between groups. I also plan to incorporate a blog response system for having students read some non-fiction science articles, posting a question or response prompt, and then having them blog their responses and give feedback to each other. As we choose these new tools, we should continually evaluate them. We should consider Orey’s discussion and differentiation between instructional technology tools and learning technology tools as we do this. (Laureate Education, n.d.). Instructional technology tools are those tools that a teacher can use to aid in her teaching. Learning technology tools are those that students use to enhance their learning. I think a simple way for teachers to evaluate their incorporation of technology and its enhancement of student learning is by reflecting after such lessons and simply asking “How did my students benefit from this?” and “How did this enhance their learning?” There are so many technology resources out there, but we should select them wisely on basis of their impact on our children’s education. One long-term goal I have for transforming my classroom is obtaining devices to create a 1:1 student technology ratio. I am constantly working to complete grants through Donor’s Choose to obtain funding for this technology. I already have 6 iPads and would like to continue by attaining 18 more for a class set. I also have 2 touchscreen laptops, and I would like to acquire 4 more so that when we do group work, each group could have access to a laptop. Donor’s Choose works off of a point system. You receive points by completing grants and then following up by posting pictures and submitting thank you notes. To accomplish my goal, I will complete follow-up steps as soon as possible after receiving funding to ensure that I receive points and can upload my next project without experiencing any downtime between projects. My second goal is to teach my students about our class blog so that we can transition to it being a student blog rather than a teacher blog (as mentioned above). I would like to implement a question of the week for my blog where students can respond by posting. I would also like to have student showcases where they actually write the blog posts, rather than me writing them all. This would require me to set up accounts for each student to comment. I believe to accomplish this goal, I would do better by beginning the year with this practice rather than trying to implement it with only a few months to go. I could see this working by having students create their accounts with their parents as they come in on registration day. This would ensure that their parents are aware of this practice and also involve them in the process. My goal is to put this into action by August 2015. I will definitely have to make sure I have all ipads and laptops readily available at registration so that I can attend to multiple families during busy times of registration. Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Instructional theory vs. learning theory [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Technology: Instructional tool vs. learning tool [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu We went to the BMW Lab this morning and students worked in Front Row. (Ms. Mitchell’s homeroom will go this afternoon.) They loved it! Emily said as we were leaving, “I really enjoyed that, Mrs. Burnette!” We are also scheduled to go to the lab again tomorrow for more review. Please be reminded that students can work in this program at home by visiting www.frontrowed.com and using our class code: 6aj3ew Yesterday, students made “Cootie Catchers” or “Fortune Tellers” with Force & Motion review. They LOVED it! I was surprised at the number of students that had never made one before. Since they enjoyed it so much, I found some others to use in our Math review. I had cootie catchers for telling time, multiplication, division, polygons, and fractions. I instructed students to choose the cootie catcher for the area in which they struggle the most. I was very impressed that they could identify their area of weakness and with their excitement to work harder in that area. Here are some pictures of them partnered up… I have also attached the cootie catchers in the event your student wants to print the others and work with them at home.
Hello, parents. Many apologies for my failure to send my "Monday Message" out yesterday. I received a phone call while the kids were in the computer lab that Sadie had fallen at school and had broken her arm again. Needless to say, I left in a hurry and didn't get to finish the things I was working on during my planning. I am unsure if graded papers were sent home, however, if they were not...I will be sure to send them home with the newsletter tomorrow when I return. I have attached the newsletter, as usual. You will notice that there is no DREAM sheet attached. We have completed all of our units of study in both Math and Science so we will now begin reviewing back through previous units to prepare for ACT Aspire Testing, which will be the last week of April. A few important reminders: * We have our Parent Celebration at Zaxby's tonight from 5-6pm. * Money for Carowinds can still be turned in. Please submit the permission form with your money. If you need an additional copy, please let me know. *Each students has a login for FrontRowEd.com This is an excellent math review that can be used at home, if you wish. *Students can also review at home with Study Island. I have created a review assignment for Science for them to work in. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
I did some further research on social learning theories this week. I found the following video that I enjoyed bits and pieces of:
Social learning is definitely taking over our lives and creeping into the classroom more and more each day. Just like in the video, if I am stumped on something, I Google it. I learn from tutorials, blog discussions, online diagrams, chatting with online help, etc. I am a social learner that has become dependent on others to enhance my knowledge.
As we teach 21st century skills and better prepare our students for the future, we are focusing on collaboration, creative thinking, communication, and creativity. As stated in our textbook, cooperative learning is an instructional strategy that focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012). When we require students to work in cooperative groups, we are forcing social interaction and learning that deepens understanding, prolongs retention, and increases motivation. We can pair this strategy with technology tools such as Facebook, Facetime, Blogs, Google Documents, SyncPad, and Webquest to enhance learning even further. By implementing these technology tools in our classroom, we are teaching our students to be responsible citizens that know how to interact through technology, validate online information, and provide valuable feedback for others they are working with. Cooperative grouping is definitely social learning in practice. Students are able to learn from "a more knowledgeable other" (Laureate Education, n.d.), discuss and negotiate discrepancies for a deeper understanding, and enhance their learning through teamwork! As I considered this, I was reminded of an acronym from a fellow teacher's bulletin board: Together Everyone Achieves More
Resources:
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Social learning theories [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu Pitler, H., Hubbell, E.R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD
http://voicethread.com/new/share/6680180/
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My dream is to create a 21st Century classroom that encourages collaboration, integrates technology, and promotes thinking deeply.
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