3/10/10

2nd: We're going to have a special speaker come to our school next week.  He's going to be presenting on Abe Lincoln.  In order for the students to have some prior knowledge or schema on him, we watched the Animated Hero Classic provided by Discovery Education  The students were encouraged to take notes, but it wasn't something they had to do.    

SECOND:  Here Tiffany and Noah made an amazing decision!  They made their own Step-up to Writing outline as they watched the movie.  We've used the basics of Step-up a lot this year and I was SO impressed that they were applying it as I would expect a 5th grader to.  They added some creative colors, but have an effective organization of information.  Excellent work outliners!

3/9/10

2nd: We are learning about Humpback whales and their migratory journey along with Ms. Riddle's class in Hawaii.  My kids posted their questions for her students on a wall using Wallwisher.  Her students responded to our questions on our collaborative Wiki.  We used Abobe Connect today to have the 2nd grade and 8th grade scientists meet. 

SECOND:  Three of Ms. Riddle's 8th graders answered some of the students' questions live.  They said, "Is Alex there?"  He came up and said hello.  They answered his question and he was thrilled!  It was so much better to connect with experts this way than Ask.com.  Great question Alex!  Keep on being curious and leaning! 

3/8/10

2nd:  During reading centers, we started a new center - Write & Wipe.  Basically it's a collection of graphic organizers that the students can work together in pairs to complete based on the story of the week.  It was a hit!

SECOND:  The students must be catching on that I've been taking pictures of the awesome things that they are doing in class, since so many kids asked to have theirs taken after they completed their chart.  Here is a picture of Allison S. and Valerie.  They worked together and completed the WANTED poster on their siblings since we read Brothers and Sisters this week.   

3/5/10

2nd:  Group D has been working on a collaborative story using Storybird with Mrs. Plever and Mrs. Ditzler's class in PA for about a month.  Today we skyped to write a conclusion to the story and decide on a title. Nice job Mattison, Zach, Tiffany, and Matthew working together with the other 2nd graders to write Mr. Bobblehead's New Gadget and the Valentine's Surprise! 
SECOND:  I had to go pick up the group members for our Skype meeting and as we are walking down the hall, the students were so excited!  The comments of, "This is so cool!" and "I wonder how we should end it?" were just plain inspiring to me to show how they were motivated to write using this tech tool.  It just kept getting better after that - check out the detailed blog post on innovativeIMPACT. 

3/3/10

2nd: Mr. Inzana introduced our class to Jeopardy for review and has used it three times during his time here at RCS.  This time it was to review for the math chapter on money. 

SECOND: I've seen growth in the mini-management techniques that Mr. Inzana has applied during his lessons.  For this jeopardy session, he had the organization down to a tee.  Each student had their white boards out.  Each would take a turn being the "recorder" as they'd pass the one marker & eraser per table around.  The kids were motivated and engaged, but in a focused manner.  Awesome Mr. Inzana!  You've shown a lot of growth during your placement.  We will miss you. 

3/2/10

2nd:  We have currently been working on a chapter in math dealing with money.  To help prepare for the test, I created a Jeopardy game that the students played in teams. 

SECOND:  Before the game started, some students practiced their facts on the classroom computers.  In the photo, Ryan is practicing his facts.  I asked him if he was ready for the game and his response was, "Oh yeah!"  Ryan's team ended up winning Jeopardy.

by Josh Inzana

3/1/10

2nd: The students were currently working on a math chapter involving money.  I set up centers around the room for the students to work at.  The center in the picture was a cash register center where each student was able to check his or her work by punching in the amount.  If the amount was correct, the drawer would open and they could put the money in the drawer.

SECONDS:  It is a great feeling as a teacher to watch your students grow and gain knowledge.  This image will always be with me.  When Noah punched in his amount, the drawer opened and he turned to me and yelled, "Yes!!  I got it!!"  He was so proud of himself and I was too.

written by Josh Inzana