Making Connections Through Math

Math is found and used everywhere in our world. During November and December, students have participated in a collaborative project to share their experiences with math and discover the connection of mathematics study to their own real world experiences. This year's project is centered about four CHALLENGES which use a variety of online tools to engage students in exploring and communicating their understanding of math within four different strands.

The first CHALLENGE the students have explored is focused on Data Analysis.

• We began by brainstorming all of the different types of questions that might be asked and solved by gathering data whether it be in their personal world, the world of school, or the larger world.
• Learning how to develop and improve their search skills was the next challenge.
• Once students found real world data, they were challenged to create their graphs.
• Students pose questions and problems about their real world example for others to explore and solve.
• Students post their example with questions on their individual wiki page in Math Connections using the Web2.0 tool VoiceThread.
• Students are partnered with another student from a different classroom enabling them to work collaboratively to ask questions and solve the problems posed. See the Students and Partners Page.

By focusing their attention on finding examples of math in their world, students will broaden their understanding of mathematics study. Both synchronous and asynchronous interactions will provide an opportunity for students to share their own experiences and dialogue with others about their discoveries of math in their world. Through these collaborations, students will discover that mathematics is found everywhere in our world, expand their understanding of the universality of mathematics, and further understand the role of math in their everyday lives.

Oreos and Scientific Thinking

The Science Fair is just around the corner! Hopefully everyone has completed all of their experimentation with the dispay board left to design and complete. I thought this would provide the perfect opportunity to reflect upon the Third and Fourth Graders earlier work with the Scientific Proecss and their work with the O.R.E.O. Project.

Developing a through understanding of the steps in the scientific process can take numerous experiences. The O.R.E.O. project provided third and fourth grade students with an opportunity to conduct an experiment created by Jennifer Wagner from JenuineTech project. We approched the project with a scientist's eyes, identifying the question being explored, generating a hypothesis, and following the procedure provided. A careful analysis of the process followed with students then being challenged to craft their own Oreo question. Learning to focus closely on what one variable would be tested and how it would be measured was challenging work. Take a look at the Oreo Experiments students designed and implemented on their own and check out their scientific thinking.

STARS Read and Record for CHOP

This year, my STARS students combined with Miss Houloose's third grade class are working together on a holiday community service project. We have ordered picture books for the studetns that are on their independent reading level. The students have been partnered together to practice fluency, reading with expression and accuracy of the text. Next week the students will be recording their voices of their reading of the book and crating a podcast. This vook will then be donated to the children at CHOP, Children's Hospital of Pennsyvania, and access to the the podcast will become available.

This time of year gives us all the opportunity to reflect on how fortunate we are. What makes this community service project so special is that it is one child halping another. Our hope as a classroom is to allow one child to take another child far away from the pain, fear, and fatigue through the words of a story. Together, we are helping to make this special event a magical and memorable onr for many!

STARS at East Vincent

We having been have a wonderful learning experience together during our STARS time. The students have engaged in a variety of experiences to develop their reading, writing, research, and oral expressions skills. One project, The Best Book Poll, asked students to select their favorite book and to create a short oral commercial which included important story elements along with their reason why their book was the best. Each student created a podcast of their commercial using an iPod and TuneTalk microphone. Our next step is to ask other students to listen to the podcasts and vote for their favorite book.

Maybe you heard about our “All for One, One for All” project which was the November task for Voices of the World, a collaborative global project. Together we explored the theme of working together through read-alouds, independent reading, and through the creation of a short video which included our visual interpretation of the theme.

Have you heard about Morpheus Fortuna? He has been the focus of our current project. He is visiting our class, learning all about East Vincent, and experiencing all sorts of fun activities. Each student is writing about his experiences all over the school from the point of view of Morpheus Fortuna. In addition, we are taking photos of him to document all of the fun he is having.
An important part of learning is also sharing what you have learned with others. Our podcasts are ready to share with other students. Our writings about Morpheus Fortuna are ready to be shared through his blog. Helping to prepare our students for their futures in a globally flattening world is an important goal. With your permission, I would like to post their work and creations from our classroom projects online linked through my class website, LearningHub.wikispaces.com.

Online Safety
Learning to interact safely online is vital to your child’s work both at school and at home. Throughout our projects, we will address and emphasize the issue and continue to infuse online safety with every online opportunity. Please note that no personal information about your child or photos of your child will be shared online. Students will create their online pseudonym (alias) as their online identify. In addition, each student will create an avatar (a personal icon that is not their picture) for their online presence.

Connecting and Learning in a Flat World

We have been accepted as Peer Reviewers in The Flat Classroom Project which links students in five different countries. The Flat Classroom Project is a global, collaborative project using Web 2.0 tools to foster communication, collaboration and creation. For inspiration and content material it draws on the work of Thomas Friedman and 'The World is Flat'. Read more about the project background and view 2006 and 2007 archives.

Our task is to review and comment on their work.Our comments will be read both by these students and by some serious experts who are evaluating the project. The main audience for our comments are the high school students.We need to remember in our writing that they are working very hard and also that only some of the students are from the USA. Our students have the responsibility of reviewing two of the eleven projects- 'Connecting the World Online' and 'Why we should be promoting Web 2.0 Tools for Sharing Information'

Students evaluated each group's work on three different criteria:

• Quality of Content
• Communication / Collaboration
• Presentation - Layout and Design

Take a moment to look at the evaluative thinking that took place by checking out their Graphic Organizer Summary of their Feedback here and here.
Students then had the task of organizing their feedback into a 3-2-1 model:

• 3 good things about the wiki project
• 2 improvements for the wiki project
• 1 piece of new knowledge that your group has acquired due to these high school students participating in the Flat Classroom Project

Take at look here and here to see the response the students sent to their high school Flat Classroom project partners.