Flipped Learning

I've had a fabulous summer! It is surprising to me that there are only 3 more weeks left!
This next school year has already been on my mind as to where I want to go as a teacher this year.  A teaching colleague of mine suggested I read the book Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, by Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams since she knew I was interested in flipping my classroom.

Last year I had all intentions of starting this endeavor during the second semester with my math curriculum. I quickly felt overwhelmed and not sure where to go.
Fortunately, the same colleague that suggested the book is also a teammate. Armed with our own desire to improve our teaching and the classroom for our students, assistance from an expert mathematician (a.k.a. Ricky Mikelman), and a flip camera and tripod we set to work.
Our beginning seemed slow--not sure which videos to record first, being camera shy, technical difficulty, etc, but quickly we began to gain confidence with each video. (Huh, it's good for a teacher to suddenly remember what it is like for a student when presented with something that is new and possibly intimidating.)

We now have a great start to our videos for this year that will be starting in a only a short month away! This will be a learning process for me as a flipped teacher this year, but I already know it will be well worth the days of summer I've spent video taping. Here is a little glimpse into some of the fun that we had while video taping this week.

Thank you to Theresa for the snapping the pictures for us! Go visit her blog!

Thank You Chevron!

We have been chosen to have a grant funded by Chevron through Donor Choose.
We are so excited about our new river tank system, plants, fish, magnifying glasses and safety goggles.

Thank You Chevron!! 

I am...

Today Mrs. Harrell lead us in a fun writing assignment. First we brainstormed and wrote down our thoughts on a shared poster.
Then we wrote our own poems. We have a very talented group of writers!

A New Year!

Welcome back to a new school year! The 2012-2013 school year is going to be great!
This blog will be used to post updates for our classroom, links to extra resources--math, science, language arts, show case work from the classroom, and much more! I look forward to sharing our classroom with you!

Polar Bears Plight

ABC News’ Ron Claiborne reports: They are magnificent, captivating somehow, even magical. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada calls itself, “the polar bear capital of the world.” On a wind-blasted, icy tundra hundreds of polar bears come out of their summer-long torpor and head to shores of Hudson Bay waiting for the water to freeze over so they can go out on the ice to hunt seals. But, sometimes a polar bear will come right into Churchill. Wayward bears who wander into town get “arrested” captured and taken to “bear jail.” After several days of incarceration, they’re taken out, tranquilized and blindfolded, in case they wake up too soon Then they’re air-lifted away to the wilderness. “What’s happening is we’ve had successive years where the sea ice in the bay has melted much earlier, so bears are coming ashore much earlier in poorer condition and coming into town more often,” said Geoff York, a polar bear expert and head of arctic species conservation for the World Wildlife Fund, which is leading research into the bear’s habits and habitats. It is backed by a $2 million grant from Coca-Cola. York said earth’s warming climate means it takes longer for the ice on Hudson Bay to form and it is thawing earlier meaning a shorter period when polar bears are be out on the ice, feeding. Without enough to eat, they may not last the summer. “Polar bears are definitely threatened, and they’re threatened by habitat that now is shrinking on both ends,” York said. They’re hungry because they haven’t had anything to eat since coming off the ice last July. And once again this year, the ice has been late forming. “We’re late getting them to their meal this year and they were early getting off. Their meal window is shrinking on both ends,” York said. To find out more on how to help the polar bears, go to the World Wildlife Fund and ArcticHome.com Click here to see a video clip Polar Bear in Churchill, Manitoba

After watching the short video clip, please comment with 2 things that you learned.

Challenge For The Week

Trading Card

www.bighugelabs.com

Kids can go and create a trading card on something that they are an “expert” in. They may use Picaso, Flickr (if the picture is not copyright protected) or a photo that they have taken, or one taken by an adult. Unfortunately, they may not use a picture with the file extensions: .gif, .png, .btm It must be a: .jpg.

I have told them that they can either email me the trading card or print it out. If they do so, they will earn 10 tickets!

Healthy Leaders

Please vote for our class in the Del Monte Cash for Classroom contest.
If we win we will win a $1000 prize so we can host a taste off for the school and purchase some technology for our classroom! You can vote once per day and the awards will be given out each Monday for six weeks. Voting begins on Monday, September 26th. So vote, vote, vote!! THANK YOU!!

Contest details