Cool Circulatory System Video

Check out how the the heart pumps blood!  A very cool TedTalk Video that I'm sure you and your students will love.  ENJOY!

Let It Go...

Today I stumbled across a video that combined one of my daughter's favorites, Frozen, and one of my favorites, Jimmy Fallon.  I figured it was worth a share for a little "Let It Go" of all of the ISAT, Conferences, and crazy March stress!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

United States of America - by Lincoln Middle School Students!

The middle schoolers over at Lincoln have been very busy!   They have created a Google Site with videos for each one of the 50 states!  Some states even have more than one video.  This would be great to share with students, as they learn about the 50 states, or even regions in 4th grade.  

Check out all of their hard work - as you may recognize some of them at Roosevelt Alumni.  Click here to visit their United States of America Videos!   Thanks to Amanda Walsh, ITC at Lincoln, and Tom Nasshan for sharing their students hard work with us!

Another Awesome Parody from Sesame Street

Just thought I'd share this awesome Hunger Games Parody in anticipation of the Big Catching Fire opening this weekend. 

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a safe (and dry) Halloween!   Click here or on the spooky family below for a fun Halloween video greeting!

A Spooky Halloween Family!

If you are interested in a free Storybots account for educators, click here to read my previous post about Storybots and how you can use it in your classroom for free!   Or you can access their You Tube Channel by clicking here.

Parody: A Great Video

I don't know if you are a fan of Showtime's hit show, Homeland, with Claire Danes, however, this parody is hysterical by Sesame Street.  My educational connection is below...

If you were going to teach your students about what a parody is, Sesame Street's You Tube Channel has a variety of parodies using their kid friendly and well recognized characters.    If you need help accessing You Tube in your classroom, please let Allison or myself know and we'll get you set up!

The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

I know many classrooms are studying fall and some classes are even heading to the pumpkin patch!  Check out this video of the life cycle of a pumpkin!

"If we teach today's students the way we taught them yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow." John Dewey

"In the 20th century, we taught our kids what to what to learn. We lined their desks up in rows and put the teacher at the front of the classroom. But in today's world, many teachers are questioning the status quo by meeting young people where they are. They're using 21st century tools to help prepare kids for a 21st century world."

The first 30 seconds of PBS's documentary New Learners of the 21st Century offers a perfect thesis on 21st century learners. The program is worth viewing if you are a teacher or a parent of a student. The 60 minute documentary can be viewed here. Watch the first 4 minutes below.

This post is courtesy of Mike Johnson, ITC at Field.   Thanks so much for sharing this awesome resource!

Storybots

I know that I've posted about the Storybots website in the past, however, they have a lot of FREE videos that are on You Tube for you to access with your students!   Storybots, whose main goal is to make learning fun for kids, is related to JibJab, another fun video site to send ecards.    To learn more about the company, click here.

To check out some of the videos, see below.  Or please visit their You Tube page (which is not blocked at school) and you can check it out for yourself!  They are cute, short, very informative, and lastly FUN!

If you like what you see, you may be interested in joining their Educator Network. To request a code to join the Educator Network please fill out the form here.  By joining their educator network you can access all of their other videos on their website, Storybots.    The YouTube videos are free no matter what.  

Enjoy!

Bones in Your Body
Science

 



When You Breathe (Lungs)
Health




Seasons

Happy Birthday Clifford!

Happy Birthday to our favorite Big Red Dog!

Enjoy this mini episode courtesy of 1st grade!

CNN Student News

One resource I loved using when I taught 5th grade was CNN Student News.  CNN student news is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program for students produced by the journalists and educators at CNN.   This award winning show and its companion website are available free of charge throughout the school year.   This was always a great way to incorporate current events as well as keep students informed about what's happening in the Nation and the World.   There are also materials available to use with the show, free of charge!   There are daily discussion questions, Media Literacy Question of the Day, Daily Discussion Questions, etc.      If you are looking for an engaging, student friendly way of incorporating current events, please check it out by clicking here. There is a new episode every morning, Monday-Friday.

Here is today's episode:

The Kid Should See This

The Kid Should See This is an awesome collection of videos to that a friend just shared with me.

There’s just so much science, nature, music, art,technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven’t seen. It’s most likely not stuff that was made for them…

But we don’t underestimate kids around here.

Not-made-for-kids videos for kids. Watched & collected by Rion Nakaya with her 2 & 5 year olds.

I watched a few of these videos and was totally hooked.  Check out this video below.  It it a variety of 6 second science experiments that are beyond awesome.

There are a ton of videos on this site.  If you are interested in using some in your classroom, let me know and I'd be happy to comb through them!   This would also be a great to show on your SMART Board!

Making New Friends

This past Wednesday, Mrs. Kulnig's class of 4th graders Skyped with their new “mates”.

Mrs. Kulnig arranged the opportunity through the family hosting her son who is playing soccer there.  The host family’s 9-year-old is in the equivalent grade as her Roosevelt fourth graders.  We Skyped through the classroom’s SmartBoard with their counterparts in teacher Gemma Taylor’s class at St. Katherine's Primary School on Canvey Island. The island sits in the River Thames’ estuary directly east of London along England’s southeast coast.

The 9-year-old students on both sides of “the pond” had been busily brainstorming topics to present to their new friends.   They both shared “big picture” information about Roosevelt School’s location and make-up, and what they study as fourth graders including art, music and gym.  They also decried the many ways they use technology in their learning, and wrap up with a topic of universal interest – homework, describing assignments and the school’s after school homework help club. We heard similar accounts from the St. Katherine’s students. 

Check out the quick highlight video below to see more - and hear some great accents!

"Our Teachers Deserve Better"

A Video Camera in Every Classroom?

Over the weekend I read an interesting article from the Huffington Post about have have a video camera in every classroom.   Bill Gates brought up this idea during a recent TED talk - proposing to have a camera in every classroom to help teachers get better: rather than only focusing on evaluation, look at growth models where video is in the center of self reflection.  This does make sense as you are never going to get better at anything, including teaching, as long as you are in isolation.   Here are some key points they point out about videoing teaching.

• Elevating Your Practice
• Lessening Isolation
• Garnering Teacher Enthusiasm
• Keep evaluation and exercises for growth separate
• Cultivate trust
• Empower teachers in the process.
• Observations not judgements

Getting better is about looking at the difference between what we perceive about our teaching and what actually happened.    As you Instructional Technology Coach, I'd be happy to help you with this self reflective process.  Perhaps I could work with you on goal setting and watch you teaching with you!    I believe video can be a powerful tool, once you get past what you look like while being videoed... at least that is my fear of always being videoed!   

I've read a lot of Jim Knight, Instructional Coaching guru, and he thinks videoing is an extremely powerful tool.   I'm looking forward to my first video session this week with a second grade teacher.  Hopefully we both find  the process to be useful... and we hope to brag about it as well to spark some interest!     Let me know if you are interested and I'd be happy to help!

Are you interested in Bill Gates: Teachers Need Real Feedback.  Check out his TED Talk below.  

5th graders flipping!

Check out what some of our 5th graders are doing in a math lesson about fractions and decimals!  AWESOME group work on day 2 of a flipped lesson.

Google Has It

I feel like this week is super busy... and to keep things light today, enjoy this parody of Adele's Rumor Has It - Google Has It.      Hopefully a good laugh for you today!

Why do we "spring forward"?

Are you looking for a video to explain Daylight Savings Time to your students?   Check out this one below.

Harlem Shaking

Have you seen the Harlem Shake videos that are viral pretty much anywhere and everywhere on You Tube?   Here's a Harlem Shake video from Google.... basically one person starts dancing and then everyone else ends up joining in and doing their own thing... how fun!

  It looks like the Peanuts were shaking and doing there own thing well before the Harlem Shake was trending.   

What does this have to do with school?   This week I'm proctoring ISATs and my small group and I were talking about how cool it would be to have an ISAT Harlem Shake video... however, they decided it wouldn't be "legal" to post and share... so my group was over it.  I do enjoy the Peanuts version though... regardless... it's a great motor break for your kids taking their ISATs!

Flipping Out?

I know that ISATs, report cards, conferences, the big snow storm, committee meetings, trying to fit into your swim suit before spring break, among other things may have people flipping out!   But this is a different kind of flipped...

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media


There are many great resources to help you with flipping your classroom.  Like TedEd for example, which has videos, resources, and questions to assess students learning after watching the video.

TED-Ed is a great resource for teachers with instructional videos for students, like the one about water above, as well as great some great professional videos for teachers.

TED-Ed has amazing resources for teachers... especially if you are considering flipping your classroom.   I'd be happy to help you flip your classroom if you are interested, even if it's trying it for a lesson!   After the ICE Conference and some good researching, I feel that we can flip classrooms, even in elementary school!  Let me know if you are interested in trying out this concept with me!

Apps of the Week: Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr.

Apps of the Week: Brain Pop & Brain Pop Jr.

What is it?

Since our school has a subscription to both Brain Pop & Brain Pop Jr. this year (Thanks Dr. D), we also have access to all of Brain Pop's videos on our iPads.   If you aren't familiar with Brain Pop, it creates animated, curricular content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement.   After each short video clip there are activities to extend student learning as well as quizzes to assess understanding.    To use Brain Pop or Brain Pop Jr. on the iPads, simply press the log in button, log in, and get started with all of the content that is online.  

Who is it for?

Brain Pop Jr. is great for K-3 in whole class instruction, small group instruction, or for individual student learning, both on the laptops and the iPads.  Brain Pop is aimed at students in grades 3 and up and can be used in whole group instruction, small group instruction, or for individual student learning.  This is great for both math centers and literacy centers.    

CCSS

Brain Pop has been working to align their videos to the CCSS.  To check it out, click here.