Our Stories

File under "serendipity"

I wasn't sure there'd be a sub Friday (Mrs. James was out due to a serious illness in the family) so I decided to see if I could find a video on telling time to reinforce our math unit and, at the same time, add some spark to the class day. Didn't find one (so I substituted Time Bingo), but I did find an excellent video originally shown on NASA TV in 2000, Windows on Mars. As so happens, we'd just finished two days of Mars exploration via our SpaceQuest.

Windows on Mars is a fast paced TV news magazine show for kids. The one hour show explores how the Mars environment would affect the arts and the development of a human settlement on Mars. Windows on Mars was produced by the National Endowment for the Arts as an additional resource for the Mars Millenium Project. A participation guide with lesson ideas and resources developed by NASA is available to download. We encourage all Mars Millenium Project participants to videotape the program to reuse.

The film is a wonderful example of interdisciplinary studies, incorporating art and architecture, music, stories and folk tales, and dance. Read the teacher's guide and you will come away excited and loaded for bear. Your class could spend an entire semester with this! (But of course you won't.)

Kudos to Mrs. James's students. Even though some of our kids became restless due to the film's length, (I recommend you split the viewing time in half - you can use the time out for a stretch break followed by a brief discussion) no one made any attempt to distract others during the show. I gave everyone five extra points on their daily reports for their excellent behavior.

BTW - We did have a sub on Friday, Ernestine Taylor. Ms. Taylor, assisted by an NMSU student observer, Amanda, showed our, at first, very disgruntled (they all wanted to be on the class computers as part of Friday's "fun day" - the last hour of the day Friday as a reward/incentive for a good week's work) students how to play the word game Scrabble. I think we might have hooked a few.

It's about time!

Mrs. James's class has begun a unit on time. Here's a good starting point for finding some interactive online lessons and games to supplement your teaching.

For Teachers

Las Cruces teacher Toni Gross, head of the speech and language program at Alameda Elementary, has a great website I want you to see. Goes to show what teachers can do when they embrace current technology.

Count me as very impressed, Toni (from her website) -

November 7, 2006:  Best Buy will be delivering our awesome te@ch award of $15,000 worth of technology tools next week!  Alameda will see a renewal in its technology resources in the form of digital projectors, laptops, digital cameras and more!  Go Panthers!

Toni this week told me of a promising site called Puppetools. I'm going to ask Mrs. James to take a look. Perhaps we might be able to integrate puppets into our curriculum.

Help with HTML tags (For teachers and students)

If you're like me, you can't remember some (or any) of those HTML tags just when you really need them. For a refresher, check out the Venice HTML Tags Reference, created by the good folks at Electric Minds. If you regularly incorporate HTML tags in your online work, I suggest you bookmark this site for easy reference.

Are your students hankering to learn HTML? Point them to Lisa Explains it All where you get everything from the basics to bells and whistles. Excellent site!

For Teachers

I found an excellent interactive math site this morning while visiting Apples4theteacher.

Check it out.

Reflections on our first WebQuest (For Teachers)

The test results are in following our completion of the Shark WebQuest. (The students were not prepped in any way for this test. In addition, they did not know they were having the test until I told them to clear their desks of everything but a pencil.) There were six 90s, three 80s, and one 60. I must admit that I'm impressed. All of the research was done online via the WebQuest.

We're just beginning our second adventure, SpaceQuest, and already the excitement has eclipsed the shark study. Oohs! and aahhs! ricocheted around the computer lab Tuesday as students viewed the NASA picture archive. Yesterday there was even more excitement at they took a virtual tour of the solar system. Mrs. Youngren, our librarian, happened by and even she had trouble looking away from the screens. She was so impressed that she asked computer lab head Andrea Santos to jot down the URL so that other classes could take the tour.

Although the shark study was done completely online, our study of the solar system will include daily in-class lectures and demonstations.

Our students require additional help in reading, which is why our WebQuests are not totally independent investigations. Grades four and higher should be able to proceed through a WebQuest with almost total independence, as long as the material presented is at grade level. And that's the beauty of teacher-made WebQuests - the material can be custom tailored to fit the needs of the students.

For Teachers

Today we started work on building our next WebQuest, SpaceQuest! Check it out.

For Teachers

Our students will soon link up with Mrs. Hash's class at Desert Hills Elementary. This is an experiment to see whether a blog can be successfully utilized as an electronic penpal format. We've named the site Friends Across the Desert.

Meanwhile, I'm totally convinced that blogs make excellent vehicles for customized WebQuests. I regularly go into our Shark WebQuest site to make curriculum adjustments according to the needs of the instructor and the students.

Teachers, if you're interested in setting up a customized WebQuest for your class, e-mail me and I'll help get you started.

For Teachers

Yes, we're creating our own individualized Shark WebQuest for Mrs. James's class. But what if you don't have the time or resources to roll your own? This morning I discovered a fantastic site featuring high quality WebQuests for "inquiry-based instructional activities." If you're thinking of doing a WebQuest, I suggest you start here.

Looking for online resources organized around specific themes? Visit eThemes for an extensive listing. You can search alphabetically or by grade level. Taking a dry run this morning, I searched alphabetically. Yikes! That's an extensive listing! I fished around under Animals and clicked on Sharks. And, as the French say, "Voila!"

More Constitution Day lessons (For Teachers)

I lucked up this morning and found an excellent lesson for Mrs. James's class. It's at The Constitution for Kids site. You'll also find lessons for older students as well as pictures of the Constitution.