From Start to Finish

Have you ever wondered how something is made?  

Where do we get the resources to make all the things we use every day?  

These were two questions that helped launch a unit of study as we traced the development of a product from a natural resource to a finished product. 

We began with an open sort of items and students were asked to sort them in any way that they thought would make sense.  We learned there was one secret way to sort the times.  

The different ways we sorted

Things we use and Trash

Things that are not flexible and Things that are flexible

Plants and Not Plant

Things you find inside and Things you find outside

One group guess the secret sort:

Things that are made by man and Things that are made by nature

Each group took a picture of their sort using our classroom iPad and then shared it with the class using AirServe to explain their thinking. 

Then we went on a walk around our school to find more examples of natural resources.  We took pictures of what we found using our classroom iPad.  We also read a passage from our social studies textbooks and viewed a video about natural resources to get more information.

Next, some students were given a clip art picture of a natural resource and a man made product and mixed around the room, using a Kagan cooperative learning strategy.  Students had to find their partner by matching the natural resource to the man-made product. As groups found each other, they were given a corresponding book from the start to finish series that explained how the product is made from the natural resource.  

After having time to explore each of the different books in the series, students broke themselves into groups and three and each group selected one of the books they would like to explore further.  

Groups read the book and discussed the process.  They then made a Flow Map (Thinking Maps) to trace the development of a product from a natural resource to a finished product. 

Because we wanted to share our learning with others, each group also created a short video to explain the process using Educreations.  We were inspired byt the book Tomorrow's Alphabet as we created our titles.  We added a QR code to our maps and sent an email out to our campus inviting students to view our work.  

 We also learned how to use the i-nigma app to scan other groups QR code to view their videos.

This unit addressed the following enduring understandings:

People depend on their physical environment, including natural resources, to satisfy their basic needs.

All goods begin with natural resources.

Below are the Educreations projects we made:

Brining Experts into the Classroom Virtually

As we were working on our Digital Citizenship PBL, the Smart Hawks team realized that they needed more information about using Smartboards safely and responsibly than they were able to find online.  We decided to invite Ms. Heather Lamb with Smart Technologies to Skype with the team so they could learn more.  Mrs. Lamb was so incredibly accommodating and sent the team several documents in advance. The team crafted some questions and were excited to collaborate with Mrs. Lamb.  

When it was time to make the phone call, all I did was was get Skype set up and the team took over from there.  We are so grateful to be learning in this time where technology helps us break down the walls of our classroom.  We also realize how lucky we are to be learning in a district that embraces 21st century skills.  If you would like to learn more about how our district is transforming so "All students enjoy thriving productive lives in a future they create," please visit the Lewisville ISD Strategic Design website.  

Lessons Learned from Blogging with my Students

Two weeks ago, our class began blogging.  A great deal of learning, practice, and discussion went into the weeks leading up to students crafting their first post.  We also learned how to compose meaningful comments.  These were all important lessons; however, during these past two weeks I have also learned what a powerful tool blogging can be for a variety of reasons.

Blogging is powerful when is a choice not a requirement.  In our class, blogging is (and always will be) a choice. Each week I do have an optional blog challenge.   Students may respond to the blog challenge, post about any school appropriate topic they would like, or choose not to post at all.  In the past two weeks, students have composed over 100 posts.  Some students have more posts than others and that is fine.  We write in class every day.  Now that we have learned how to blog, blogging will one choice in how we can publish our work.  Blogging provides an authentic audience for our writing; however, we do have other outlets as well.  

Blogging allows us to connect with other students.  We have a class in Canada that we have connected with in Kidblog.  It has been very interesting for us to read what second graders in another country write about--surprisingly we write about very similar things.   

Blogging provides a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss digital citizenship and safety.  We are learning how to leave a positive digital footprint.  We have discussed how to choose our words carefully and have had to edit some of our posts and comments to be sure we are mindful of others feelings.   We also had a situation where one of our learning friends in Canada asked one of our students where they lived.  Because I have our settings set so I have to approve all comments, we were able to turn this into a teachable moment and talk about putting personal information online and how to respond when someone asks us questions like this.  

Parents are powerful partners in blogging.  Before launching our blogs, I obtained each parents' permission.  I explained the purpose of our blogs and how I saw us using them.  I also explained that I wanted the blogs open so families could comment on them.  Even though some parents were apprehensive, 100% of them gave permission with the understanding they could opt out at any time.  So far, I have had overwhelmingly positive comments from parents about our blogs.  It is important to me that they know they have a voice and choice in their student's online presence.  I also have a team of parents who serve as blogging volunteers.  They help me comment on blog posts, and they write the most amazing comments!

Blogging allows us to tear down the walls of our classroom and allows families and friends to communicate with us.  In the past two weeks, we have had over 360 comments (and counting) to our posts.  I had been worried that we would not have very many comments.  That simply had not been the case.  Grandparents, cousins, aunts, big sisters, and parents comment on our posts. We have had comments from all around the United States and Mexico. I love reading these comments and knowing that blogging has allowed student families to see what is happening in our classroom.  

I am excited about the learning opportunities that blogging has brought to our classroom.  I would love to hear how other classrooms use blogs and what they have learned.  

A Week of "Firsts"

This was a week of "firsts" for our 2nd grade class.  The first first was that we Skyped for the first time with our learning friends in Mrs. Goodwin's 2nd grade class in Indiana.  Mrs. Goodwin's class is one of friends in the Primary Blogging Community.  During our Skype session, Mrs. Goodwin's class shared a Halloween poem and then three students shared poems they had written.  

Nadia introduced our class and shared some information about us.  Our class has been working on the reading strategy of visualization and so we also read a  Halloween poem to Mrs. Goodwin's class.  Jordan and Morgan then shared their pictures they had drawn based on what they visualized as they read the poem.  It was exciting to get to see some of the students we have been learning with.  

Our next first was that we linked our Kidblog account with our some learning friends in Canada.  Mrs. Roddau's 2nd grade class loves to blog just like us. Now that our classes are linked, students can comment on one another's blogs. It was really neat to see what students in Canada write about.   

Learning to collaborate safely and responsibly with other students throughout the world is a major professional goal of mine this year.  One of the most exciting things about technology is that we are able to tear down the walls of our classroom and learn alongside other students in meaningful ways.  

Can't wait to see what other "firsts" this year brings.  What new things is your class trying for the first time?  We would love to hear from you!

Primary Blogging Community Friends

Our class is participating in the Primary Blogging Community.  During the first round, learning friends from the United States and Canada will be visiting our classroom blog to learn more about us.  Below is some information we wanted to share with our new friends.

Dear Learning Friends,


We are second grade students who learn together in Carrollton, TX.  

Our school is Polser Elementary which is in the Lewisville Independent School District.  

We created a Google Map and put a pin to show where we are located.  Click on the link, zoom out, and add your pin to our map so we can see where you are.  


Here is a link to a video that shows what learning looks like in our classroom.

Here are some of our favorite blog posts that show some of our learning:

Features of Nonfiction

Citizen Heroes

What Happened to the Ice?

What Happened to the Ice? Continued

We are looking forward to learning with you!

Your learning friends, 

2nd Grade Superstars

Playing Guess My Number via Google Docs

This week, we collaborated with our second grade learning friends at Old Settlers Elementary in Mrs. Ferguson's class.  Mrs. Ferguson and I have been friends for several years and we get together every three weeks to share ideas and bounce ideas around.  She is an important part of my PLN (personal learning network.)  Even though we do not teach at the same school, we text, email, or talk at least a couple times a week to collaborate along with another of our friend's Mrs. Curry at Southridge Elementary.

Both of our classes enjoy playing the math learning activity Guess My Number and we were looking for a quick low tech way for us to collaborate and bring our classrooms together.  This activity is part of our classroom routine through our Investigations curriculum.  We decided to utilize Google docs to play the game. We also thought this would also be a great way to review different types of sentences and proper punctuation.  

First Mrs. Ferguson's class picked a number between 1-100.  We could ask them questions (we had to remember to put a question mark after them.) to try to guess their number.  We have been learning strategies when we play this game to help us eliminate a lot of numbers in each turn.  It was great to see the kids applying these strategies.  Students would huddle in groups.  Each group would have a turn to share out a response and help me compose the the response (including proper punctuation.)  While we played, we had student helpers keeping track of our what we discovered on our class number line located at the front of our room.  We love this game, but being able to play it with another class made it even more exciting!

You can check out our game on Google docs.  Below are pictures of our classes while we were playing.  

Mrs. Ferguson's class

Mrs. Haney's class

We are looking forward to our next collaborative activity with our learning friends!

Citizen Heroes

Our class has been studying the qualities of citizenship for the past several weeks.  We began our study will the question "How might we, as second graders, recognize and celebrate the citizen heroes who live among us?"  The students brainstormed in groups in realized this question caused additional questions for us.  We narrowed our questions down to three main questions and then decided to tweet our questions to our learning friends and parents on Twitter. 

We received numerous responses that guided our thinking.  

We also read information in our social studies textbooks and shared what we learned.  

 

Then Ms. Casida, our brilliant assistant principal, asked us a question that really made us think.

We thought about the people we have met at Polser and realized that there were many citizen heroes learning alongside us.  Below are our projects that we created to share our thinking.

Dylan

Mia

Gianna

Nadia

Sydney

Andrew

Kathleen

Olivia

Serena

Kendell

Payton

Caleb

Morgan

Emerson

Chance

Allan

Jordan

One amazing thing about our learning community is that each of us are teachers and learners.  Mrs. Haney showed a core group of students how to use the app and then each of them became "trainers" who helped train others.  Below are some pictures of the students collaborating to complete their projects.  Also, one of our students took advantage of our district BYOT policy and brought his iPad from home.  

Mrs. Haney's reflection after this project:

This project was a huge ah-ha for me.  When I first began planning this, what I envisioned was not at all what it turned out to be.  The kids and our learning partners on Twitter took in a different direction than what I initially thought.  I love that one of our parents also tweeted us to share her thinking. Opening our classroom up to learn with others is a professional goal of mine this year.  After collaborating with my colleagues during professional learning and with the support and encouragement of our campus administration, I felt empowered to take a risk and try new things.     

One thing I will keep in mind next time we do a project like this is the background noise when students are recording.  (I am sorry Superstars, I should have had you to into the hall to record.  Serena actually thought of that for next time--great idea!)  Gianna told me something that also made me think.  She said she has always enjoyed playing on the iPad but she really loves learning with it like we did this week.  Excellent point Gianna.  We will have to check out the iPads often this year!

We would love to hear your comments and suggestions to help us learn from this project. 

Connecting With our Class Through Social Media

There are a variety of ways you can connect with our class using social media. Select the one(s) that work best for you.  

Blogger:  Our class blog account

The purpose of our class blog is to provide a more in depth look at the learning in our classroom.  Posts will be updates at least once a week.  For parents, this will take the place of a weekly printed newsletter (parents may request a printed copy of blog posts if they do not have internet access.)  Pictures of students and student work will be posted (with parent permission).  We hope other teachers and classrooms will collaborate with us on our learning.  Comments on our posts are welcome.  Readers will be able to link to all other social media through our class blog. 

Twitter: @2ndGrSuperstars

We will be using Twitter on a daily basis to connect and learn with others.  We will connect with other classrooms and individuals.  Parents are welcome to follow us and share their expertise.  

Facebook:  Like our Facebook Page

  The updates will not be as current as our Twitter page.  They will also be different in nature.  Facebook is a place we will post reminders about special events and periodically post pictures.  If you are a Facebook user, you may want to like our page.  Our posts will show up in your news feed.   

Coming Soon!

Kidblog: Student Blogs 

Students, with parent permission, will have the opportunity to maintain their own individual blogs.  We are currently working on paper blogs in class to learn more about the blogging process.  We will be launching our individual blogs within the first nine weeks.