Let the Collaboration Begin

Today our 4th grade class began a new adventure.  We are embarking on a maiden voyage that will no doubt lead to a lot of excitement for our 4th grade class.

You might say, "What is all the excitement about?"  Our class began a project with another classroom in our district. The excitement is because the other classroom is in a building 3 miles from our building.
Although I could use the exercise, we are not going to walk to their classroom OR ride a bus. Our class will collaborate with students in the other classroom using Google Drive and Google Hangout.

The students will individually:

• write a persuasive letter
• write a first person report
• create an iMovie presentation

The students will collaborate to:

• research a Famous Missourian
• create a Lucidpress poster or Google presentation 
• create a wax museum using iMovie

Here is a link to our Smore Flyer.  

This flyer includes our goals, directions, instructional videos, and expectations.

Students will use the QR code below or the URL to easily find the flyer.

Our project will be complete in January.  We can't wait to share.

Project Based Learning on Halloween

Halloween has never been my favorite day of the year. The students are usually on a "presugar" high. It can be like taking a visit to crazy town.  

This year I decided Halloween was going to be filled with learning and fun. So my Halloween dilemma became a Halloween project...here it is...

Halloween Assignment:

Mrs. Huff is going to dress up like one of the Duck Dynasty guys for Halloween. She only has a camo shirt and needs your help to finish her Duck Dynasty costume.  Mrs. Huff will be Phil (the guy with the sunglasses, headband, and grayish black beard)  but she has one HUGE problem.  She doesn’t have a beard and a headband.  

READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

1. Choose a partner. Use the supplies on the back table to design a beard and a headband for Mrs. Huff (please make sure it will fit).

2. Write a paragraph to the class trying to convince them why Mrs. Huff should wear the costume your team created.  (Use a 5 block to organize your paragraph.)

3.  After your paragraph is approved please take a picture of Mrs. Huff wearing the beard and headband you created.  Insert the picture into educreations and record your paragraph.

4. When you are finished, watch your video quietly at your desk.  

5. The class will vote on the winning costume and educreations presentation.

6. The team with the best beard, headband, and educreations presentation will get to see Mrs. Huff wear the costume they designed during today’s Halloween parade.

Hint:  This is a lot to do in a short amount of time.  Don’t be tricked this Halloween...get busy quickly and quietly with a partner.

Any team that is not following the Cardinal Code will be sent back to their seat to work quietly and will not participate in the project.


My students were so excited. Students were measuring, writing, laughing, and having so much fun. I was absolutely amazed.

One of my students is usually not very thrilled to write but was so excited to do this project that he wouldn't hardly slow down to let his partner keep up with his writing.

Click here to watch one of the educreations videos.

and

Here is another one!

(Reminder: The students only had an hour for this entire project.)

This is our winning designer team and the winning costume!

PS. This project was so easy. I created it in Google Drive, shared it with my students, told them to open their drive, and said Go! How easy is that?

I'll never buy another Halloween costume! This was the best Halloween I've ever had.

I've Totally Flipped

During my high school and college days at Missouri Southern you might have seen me flipping while cheering on the sidelines of a game. Lately you will find me flipping again, but it's not on the sidelines...it's in my classroom.

"The Flipped Classroom" tends to be a growing topic among educators.  Teachers are taking their classrooms and flipping them.  What is a flipped classroom? Let me explain.

In a flipped classroom the teacher gives the student an instructional video as an assignment. The student watches the video instruction as homework and then completes the assignments during class. Normally the video instruction is between 8 and 15 minutes long.  When educators think about flipped learning, we think about students watching an instructional video at home and completing problems and activities at school.  This allows the teacher to help the student when the student is having difficulty.

I used to think flipping my classroom was not a possibility. There were 2 major hurdles I thought I would need to jump over:

1. My students are not allowed to take the classroom iPads home. 
2. All of my students do not have access to the Internet at home.

I thought to myself that eventually I would have to find a way to get the iPads in the hands of my students at home (that is a whole different blog post).  I also kept thinking, "How am I going to give my students the valuable help that is given in a flipped classroom when it isn't very likely that I can get them to watch an instructional video at home?"

After talking to other educators here is my solution for flipping my math class: 

1.  Divide students into groups. I have students from all ability levels in my groups and have 4 groups.)

2.  Set up stations in the classroom for students to rotate through.  Some of the stations I have used are listed below:

- instructional video (always a station)

- game activity

- multiplication practice

- teacher group (I meet with this group at the table and teach/review a specific concept). 

- creation station (students use an iPad app to create a video tutorial)

-math journals

3.  Give clear expectations and procedures. Before stations begin each day I give clear cut expectations for what students will complete at each station and review behaviors that should be exhibited at each station. 

4.  Set timer (I use 10-12 minutes at each station). I would also play music or ring a bell to signal that it is time to move to the next station.

The instructional video is played at one of the stations.  This allows me to work at a station with a small group of students on specific skills the students are struggling with.  I'm more able to assess what the needs are.  AHA moment...I just flipped my classroom.  I gave the instruction through a video and allowed myself more time to work with students one on one and in small groups.  Isn't that the purpose of flipped learning? Cartwheel, cartwheel!

I've used the following video presentation apps to create the short instructional videos:

• Educreations
• Touchcast
• Movenote

I also learned a long time ago not to recreate the wheel.  Good teachers beg, borrow, and steal.  Don't we all?  So...I also use:

• YouTube (Woo! Hoo! Already created!)

I love using YouTube.  I use a lot of videos from Talesof4thgrade and recently came across mathcrush. Mathcrush is a Bill Nye type video except the videos are math. One of my students thanked me today for letting him watch this one.  Click here.

Here is a link to one of the videos we watched this week from Talesof4thgrade. Click here.

I normally turn the video URL into a QR code poster.  This makes it really easy for the students to find the video I would like for them to watch.  The students open the QR code reader, scan the code, put on their headphones, and begin watching the video.  You can create the QR code at www.qrstuff.com/ 

Here is an example of one of the posters:

The following links are super easy to use and have made my life a whole LOT easier:

• www.tinyurl.com (Turn any URL into a smaller URL to make it easier for students to type.)
• www.tubechop.com (Use portions of a YouTube video and delete the rest.)
• www.viewpure.com (Place the video on a clear screen.  The students will not see all the adds and other videos that are usually on the YouTube video screen.)

Life in 4th grade is always exciting.  I'm definitely fancying 4th this year! 

Movie Trailer

4th Grade Productions is proud to present a trailer for our upcoming movie. The play was written and directed by Luke.

Luke began by drawing the characters and listing character traits.  Then he wrote a beginning, middle, and end. Next, he added dialogue, selected actors/actresses, designed face masks, and began filming a movie trailer. Finally, he plans to finish invitations to his premier, a program, and film his production. 

I have to admit that Luke wasn't very excited about writing at the beginning of the year. All he wanted to do was draw and take videos with his classroom iPad. Turning Luke's passions into a production has been fun for everyone. I can't wait to enjoy the show!

Don't miss his trailer: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xK0sbxp39u4

Friday Fun

What does Friday reward, senior football player, dancing, and 4th grade have in common? 

Fun! 

Our classroom celebrated our hard work by having a short (2 song) dance party with one of our favorite football players.

Here is a quick look at all the Fun! 

I used the Pic collage app to create the collage. The ipad was not designed to snap action shots but our photographer did a great job capturing the excitement on his iPad.