During the past two weeks, I have been hosting a modified version of March Madness. Students have been voting for their favorite fictional book characters, including completing their own brackets, and explaining why they feel it would end in this manner. Students have also been creating posters for their favorite book characters, and displaying them in the school to promote their favorite, and persuade others to vote. Students have created posters using the same template from Black History Month, as well as drawing, and creating posters at home on poster board.
It has been very exciting to see the students invest so much in voting for their favorites and cheering them on. It has been a very successful campaign to encourage reading. Voting is still going on (as we are now in the Elite Eight) for at least two more weeks! Be sure to check out the March Madness page on iGould to follow the results!
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Over the past two weeks, I have been working with a second grade teacher to recreate a song with her students. Her students had been working on a unit in her class called "What does the shape say?" It was based off the song The Fox by Ylvis where students learned about shapes in books and crafts based on foxes. Her students began trying to change the words to the song, and she had asked me to help rewrite and record the song. During one pullout session, I worked with her students to rewrite the words. Over the following week, the class practiced the song during math time. Today, I recorded the audio of the song with the students, and placed it over a karaoke version of the song. It turned out excellent! I am now working to possibly record a video with her students. They are making props in class, and hopefully we will get to record in the next two weeks!
Be sure to listen to the audio below! I am now an official member of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Georgia Library Association (GLA)!
In the past, I have been part of many grants. I was part of a Title IID Technology Grant in 2008 to 2011. I have written mini-grants for both my classroom, as well as had many successful projects on Donors Choose and iPevo's Wishpool. At this particular point in time, Gould Elementary was in search of funding to attain tools and licenses for programs that could be used to improve reading, and collect data for purposes of RTI. When an opportunity arose, a group of teachers, including myself, decided to work together in order to make the grant as strong as possible. The group selected a spokesperson, and then began to work together and coordinate the written aspects of the grant. Over the week, the group met (including digital meetings/emails) to discuss which program was best to write into the grant, and allow teachers and students the most benefits. Scootpad was decided upon, and the group began writing portions of the grant, and working together to make sure the grant flowed, and described the need for technology in our school. Many of the lessons created during my practicum have revolved around information literacy. During each unit, at least one class session plagiarism and digital citizenship were discussed. At this point in the practicum, I felt students did not need a specific lesson on fair use, but instead needing something that would continually remind them what we had learned and discussed.
In my off time, my wife and I have been developing various teaching units and design items for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. Using what I have been working on during my personal time, and what was needed in my practicum, I developed these posters. The goal of these posters were to fit into a classroom theme or be added into any classroom. The posters contain a summary of the meaning or item displayed in the headlines. Displaying them in areas such as the media center, the computer lab, or the classroom, will help remind students what is expected of them when researching and writing. This week, my supervising media specialist showed me the media center inventory. Since Spring Break is beginning, she completed an inventory before students went on break. While this was not as extensive as the end of year inventory, it was still pretty extensive. My supervisor does inventory by printing out her materials, and keeping them in a big binder. If something is weeded out, she marks it off her sheet, and deletes it from the system. This helps her ensure items are where they belong in the media center (along with continuous reshelving). Probably what amazed me the most about her inventory, was the fixed assets.
One section of her binder is dedicated to fixed assets, such as computers in each classroom. She should me that the district actually has a database to help LMS keep track of each computer. On Acorn (the district intranet), there is an area that media specialist can use to look up any computer serial number (or work station tag). Once looked up it can tell the LMS which user last logged into the computer, and when they did so. This helps her determine its approximate location in the school. If a teacher has logged into it multiple times, it is more than likely in his/her classroom. If only the teacher logs into it, it is more than likely a teacher computer or projector computer. If students primarily log into it, it is more than likely one of the student work stations. I thought this was a pretty handy tool for LMS to complete inventory, and keep track of computer use. Tonight was the culmination of my collaborative unit with second grade. Students came to PTA tonight dressed as historical figures to put on Gould's 4th Annual Night at the Museum! Over the past month, I worked with second grade teachers to help their students write speeches to use during the 4th edition of their yearly "wax" museum display. Students have worked on research skills, discussed how to find relevant information, as well as fair use and copyright. Using these skills, students wrote facts into a prewritten (by their teachers) speech framework. While I helped teach students information literacy skills, teachers focused on CCGPS with lessons on main idea and details, as well as standards on some of the famous figures on display at the PTA performance. The lessons and performance turned out to be a hit (just see some of the photos below)! The second grade teachers were very appreciative of the help and support from the media center. By helping them with the research skills, it provided them some extra, and much needed time, to focus on the CCGPS. The final product turned out wonderfully! Below I am posting the lesson plans for this unit, which include some additional reflections and insights into the lesson, along with some things I would do differently next time.
Today was Read Across America Day! In celebration of Read Across America, and Dr. Seuss's Birthday, the entire school had a door decorating contest. While it wasn't so much of a contest (since everyone who participated won), it was an opportunity for me to create a school wide display. Where is the best place for a school wide display in Gould Elementary? The gym doors! The gym is at the very end of the main hallway at the school, and can be seen as soon as you enter the main doors of the school. For my display, I decided to create a display I have seen done on Pinterest. Using the doors, I recreated a "Readbox" (instead of Redbox, the movie rental service). Fourth and fifth grade students wrote summaries of some of their favorite books the previous week, and I used the summaries as "teasers" on the cover of each book. Also, instead of advertising movie rentals, I created a sign that read, "Free Book Rentals now available in the Library!" While the idea came from a Pinterest image, the addition of the student work element was my own. Also, I added a digital element to the display by adding QR codes on each of the books. Once scanned, the QR codes would take the scanner to either a book trailer of the book, the official site of the book, or an unofficial fan site of the book, in order to help "advertise" the book for check out at the media center. |
Jason SmithJason Smith is the 3rd & 4th Grade Gifted Facilitator at Gould Elementary. Archives
March 2017
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