New Possibilities for Learning

With enrichment classes up and running, students were introduced to the new possibilities for this year. Exploring our classwebsite, Learning Hub, students discovered a great variety of choices to enrich them this year. Enrichment units to get everyone excited about learning include:

• GIEP Podcast Show


• GPS


• National Writing Day


• Passion Based Learning


• Tech Wizards


• We're Going Green

All third and fourth graders will develop their scientific research and experimental process skills as they participate on design teams to build and test Jet Toy Cars for the Earth Toy Designs, Inc.

Fifth and Sixth graders will dive into creating an action plan for their Passion-based Learning Project. In addition to making choices about the other units, all sixth and fifth graders will initiate plans and publish our first segments for the GIEP Podcast Show

Visit our classroom website to read more about each of the different new possibilities!

A Vision of 21st Century Learning

Our enrichment classes started out the year by pondering questions associated with how they learn, engagement, and purposeful learning.

Students watched two incredibly insightful movies, “The Networked Learner” and “Pay Attention” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_336pDWoM), which were created to make educators, teachers, students, and those concerned about elevating our students to success THINK! Our society has expectations that students be able to analyze, evaluate, critic, gather and manipulate data, and most importantly create to further the pursuit of knowledge or the cause. Content is easily accessible- in fact it is practically in our pockets (Iphones, data phone, IPODS, etc.).

After watching both videos, students were asked to reflect upon these questions:
• How do you learn?
• What are your passions?
• What does it mean to be a student today?

Students used an Etherpad document (collaborative spaces that allows multiple users to contribute to one document) to record their reflections and ideas on these questions. The conversation was opened up and topics such as advocacy, responsibility, strengths, weaknesses, and choice were built into passion and engaged learning.

Fifth and sixth graders were asked at the end of the discussion to identify a topic for their personal learning answering the question:
What am I going to do this year in enrichment that is going to make a difference in my life, and in the life of others and serve my passions?


Here are some of valuable collaborative ideas that were developed in regards to how we learn
( these are student's raw ideas in note taking form :)

Taken from the Etherpad...

What are your passions?

• programing,math,robotics,health,computerized work,WRITING!!!!!!!!!!!!Homework,inveting
• I like to try to invent the things i think would save energy (electrisity,human)life easier healthier.
• I would like to study the brain i think it is awesome
  designing things is something we could do I liked that last year.
• Some of my passions are math, science, I also liked the Design Kids project last year. I also like history. It would be cool to do a history project. I would also like to do another mueseum. I also like programming. I could look more in depth to numbers by coming up with difficult algebra eqations. By going on discussion boards and discovering mathematicians ideas. See if I like or not.
• I like math.
• Some of my passions are math and animals.I dream to become a vet. I also like the design kids project and the oreo stacking project. Turning off computers was really fun and I got to run around the school.
• I love computers so anything with computers is fun for me. I like to learn on the computer and doing something like outside or hands-on instead of sitting in a desk. If I watch someone treating an animal it could inspire me to want to help and become a vet.
• My passions are animals( like veterinary type) and math. I also like writing.

How do you learn?

• I like to learn by actually doing something hands-on.
• How do you like to learn? like to learn by looking on the web getting info and then trying to make something that would help.
• Computers,lectures,hands on,discovering on my own,research,read,notetaking,fun ways like my 5th grade game
• I learn by going hands on and going out there and experimenting. I like to do brainproblems. But I'm bad at computers.
• We should find things that are bad and making stuff that would make stuff better
  I'm all for hands on.
• I would like to study the brain by listening to doctors and watch a brain surgeon go to work
• I like to learn by doing physical activities, on the computer, visually, I also like doing hands on problems. Maybe a little bit of research, just a little. Short Lectures, sometimes being showed to.
• I also like playing games while learning.Demonstrating things also works if the explanation is thorough. I also like to research and get to know the topic more.
• I like to just take somehing mess with it and make it better I like to learn by actually doing something hands-on. Demonstrating things also works if the explanation is thorough. I also like to research and get to know the topic more.
• I like to just take somehing mess with it and make it better

Stay Tuned to see how the Fifth and Sixth Graders embrace the opportunity to empower each other to make a difference! More to come. Feel free to post ideas or comments that contribute to our conversation and discoveries.

Summer Camp Opportunities

Are you looking for a different summer camp experience for your fourth, fifth, or sixth grader this summer? Then look no further.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

News of an Archeological Experience in which students participate in an actual archeological dig located at historic Joanna Furnace funded should be coming home with your child. This opportunity is funded by the Regional Summer School of Excellence

In addition, I have received news of a Space Exploration Science Camp opportunity at the Vanderbilt University Dyer Observatory's Space Exploration Science Camp where real science with real astronomers and space experts equals real learning and fun. For more information about this opportunity, go to www.dyer.vanderbilt.edu or contact Lynn McDonald at lynn.d.mcdonald@vanderbilt.edu or call 615-373-4897.

Have a Problem?

It is always a challenge to consider and decide on the next enrichment projects to offer students during enrichment time. This time, I turned to the students to offer their ideas and interests. Having worked on a topics in social studies and math, students and I were looking for a different approach.

Their collective ideas brought us to the 2009 Design Kids Challenge, a collaborative on-line project, which offers students the opportunity to provide creative design solutions to real life problems. Students use their creativity to review, select one design and engineering problem presented by Kids Design Network and devise a creative solution to the problem. Student designers submit their work to their design partners who analyze the creativity, originality, approach, and effectiveness of the design. Designers then use their partner's evaluation and suggestions to revise their original solutions and refine designs to submit a final Design or Build. All student designers and teachers participating get the opportunity to vote on the top three design solution for each Design Challenge. All winners will advance to the finals round where professional designers and engineers will review their solutions and determine the Best Design of each Design Challenge Category.

Students have been brainstorming and sketching out their design solution and are movin into the build phase of the project. So should your child request some guidance or need some unusual items you'll know they are hard at work desiging, problem solving and creating. Be sure to chek out your child's ideas on the Students and Partners page.

Data for REAL?

Do you use data in your daily life?

Students in enrichment classes have discovered a multitude of ways that is used, learning that it can be quite useful also! Identifying a topic of interest, students gathered data and created graphs to represent their understanding. Using the online tool, VoiceThread, students uploaded their graphs and then used the built-in recording tool to record their thoughts and questions for their partners. At the same time, their partners from other classes across the world were also creating their VoiceThreads for them. Then came the interesting part. listening to their partner's ideas and questions and then responding. For the most part, students have competed their collaborations with their MathConnections partners for Challenge 1 - Data Analysis. be sure to stop by the Student and Partner Pages to see what you can learn. Feel inspired to add your thoughts to the student VoiceThreads. Learning never stops!

And we aren't finished with math yet!

Challenge 2 - Geometry is just around the corner and promises to be interesting with partners creating collaborative geomentry concept embedded drawings.

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.

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.

Decision08- The Next Step

For the fifth and sixth graders in enrichment, this year's presidential election provided numerous opportunities to learn about our government and to experience citizemship in action.

The week before the actual election, students worked feverishly to prepare our classroom and transform it into the East Vincent Election Center where students from every grade was able to vote for their candidate of choice through the Kids Voting USA Program. This followed two to three weeks of public service announcements and posters to inform students and help them meet our slogan, THIS YEAR - YOU DECIDE.

In the weeks prior to the election, the fifth and sixth grade students also worked on a collaborative project with classes from across the United States to study the issues and each candidates views. Working with partners in our own class, students researched information and posted it on our class website, LearningHub. Students then posted their research on the Collabortive Election Project site and were able to review and identify significant findings about the issues gathered from all participating students. An Elluminate session enabled all of the students in the project to talk about all of their issues.

While the election is over, the fifth and sixth graders are turning their study of the issues into a Call to Action for President-elect Obama. They will work with the other classes in our project to craft a video message to President-elect Obama. Partners will work collaboratively with students in the other classes using a jigsaw model with each set of partners adding their one sentence on their Hot Issue Topic to their call to action. When all of the students and partners have finished collaborating, we will have a call to action message for each Hot Issue the students studied. We hope that every student in the project will feel empowered to voice their ideas and recognize the power of citizens take an active role in our democratic process.

Be sure to check back to see our video message just in time for President-elect Obama's inauguration.