Category: technology

blogging, students, technology

So You Want to Use Kidblog?

Pernille Ripp

I am practically counting down the days until school starts just bursting at the seams with all of the great technology we are going to use next year.  One of our main components will be our kidblog but since this is the first year anyone has done anything like this in my school, there was some safety business to handle first.  So here are my links to an internet safety plan my students will sign as well as the kidblog introduction letter I am sending home to parents.

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technology

10 uses for Voki

Pernille Ripp
So I stumbled across Voki during one of my check ins with Twitter and my creative juices have been flowing. Here are my first 10 ideas for how to implement it in my room:

1. Have students introduce themselves to each other during the first week of school
2. Use it to deliver my morning message to the students
3. For shy students use to read haiku’s or other poetry aloud – or really any (short) writing
4. Introduce new vocabulary in science and math
5. For student created podcasts (we do one named “Guess that Cow”)
6. To introduce main characters in student created stories
7. My ELL students can use it to help them with pronunciation of vocabulary
8. After biography unit, have them create a character that tells facts about their researched person
9. Email them to our penpals asking them questions about their loves.
10. To share book reviews of favorite books read
These are just some of my beginning ideas, have any to add? Please do so in the comment sections.
Be the change, curriculum, Student-centered, technology

I Am So Sick of Grammar Packets

Pernille Ripp
Part of 4th grade’s curriculum at my school are grammar packets, or some sort of grammar lesson every week to ensure that students know the difference between verbs, nouns, adjectives and so forth. The idea of wrapping the lesson in a packet format meant less time needed to teach; all I had to do was introduce the various exercises and then assign the homework. Students would get a week to finish and then we moved on to the next topic. At the end of the year, after several eye rolls and disheartened moans from students when they realized it was time for grammar, lightning struck. Of course they hate grammar packets – I do too.

You see, packets can be fine when we need something to grade. However, if I am looking for a true learning experience, I cannot just assign something and then leave the students to their own devices. Learning must be shared, not handed out with a deadline. One student actually loved the packet; it was manageable, she knew that if she spelled everything correctly she would receive a good grade and most of the stuff she remembered from years prior. Some students saw them as a dreaded chore that they lumbered through and were happy with the grade they got. And then there were the kids that really needed to learn the grammar. Those kids lost the packet, would not realize they had lost it until the night before and would therefore hand in a half-finished product sometimes with pages missing, usually with the wrong answers because they had not understood the directions and had had no one to turn to for help. Those kids, the ones that really needed to learn, were not being given any favors by me or the packet.
Another aspect of the packet was the sheer number of points that I assigned to them; after all if a students was going to slave away over 5 pages of work then the points needed to be a reflection of that. Again, great for the students who had no problems with the topic or had help at home. Detrimental for the not so fortunate students. We don’t give a separate grammar grade in 4th grade, we lump it under writing. And yes, understanding and using correct grammar is a vital step to being an accomplished writer, but the point value was so high that the packets counted toward a bigger piece of their grade than their actual writing. One student who was a very creative writer and used verbs and nouns correctly, could not identify them in a packet, even with help. But his ears told him how a sentence should sound so how do you grade that?
So under the constraints of having to teach grammar, I started to ponder, then how? We have a grammar book available which is kind of like the packet, except in a book form. So I knew that the book would not be my solution. The book does offer one thing though which is what the topics are that need to be taught, so that’s a help. A solution came form an article I read, which I regretfully did not bookmark, in which the teacher described handing digital cameras to her students and having them search for nouns, verbs etc throughout the school. Now that is hands-on-learning. While not every grammar topic lends itself to the digital image – difference between an action verb and a helping verb as an example- this represents a start for me. A new idea where students are assigned a quest and they have to represent their answer somehow to their fellow students. I set up the learning, we discuss it and then with scaffolding, off they go. I only have my own digital camera but I am hoping to write grants for more or to come up with other methods for teaching the fundamentals of writing. Using Wordia and Voki keeps popping into my thoughts as well. Anyone out there with other thoughts or ideas? I refuse to believe I am the only one trying to escape packets.