Category: technology in the classroom

We have been enjoying “place based learning” with all this snow landing at our feet.  Our class seems to hold the record for bringing the most toboggans or other toys to make sliding down the hill more efficient.  Many students have been challenging themselves building ice sculptures.  What did you like most about snow at school? 

The “Hour of Code” also took place at Buckingham this week.  Our class helped the primary classes learn how to turn on laptops or ipads, and log in to the school internet (not always trivial), and then search for “Code.org” to get them started.  Check it out at  https://code.org/.  A highlight I noted was a grade 4 student teaching a teacher how to code using this website.  I know they both enjoyed the experience.  I think all the students enjoyed working with buddies.  What do you think make learning to code fun? 

Hi  everyone! Sadly I’m at home with a miserable cold but my brain, while foggy and tired at times, won’t stop thinking about how to make our learning environment meaningful and fun. I sense that most students had fun designing and modifying their catapults. I heard lots of interesting conversations while you shared your ideas and then tested to see if they worked.  What is your definitions of it “working”?

QUESTION:     What did you learn that will help you next time? Did you learn how to manage your feelings when you get frustrated? Did you learn something about building a simple machine? Did you learn what words others used that made you want to keep trying or maybe quit? Please add a comment below to tell me about what you learned.

This month we have anti bullying day coming,

Chinese New Year, and Healthy Heart activities as well as our focus on Habit #4: Think Win Win.

In class, some of the big ideas we are focusing on learning about are:

• Writing: text features, poems, persuasive writing, and short stories. To see some of our class poems, click here
• Reading: developing good strategies for improving comprehension and fluency. To access the chapter assignments, click here.
• Social studies: Things that have shaped Canada and  past discriminatory practices in Canada
• Science: Resources – renewable and non-renewable and which  is the most important resource
• Math – we are almost finished our unit on developing  multiplication and division strategies –  UNIT TEST will be at the end of next week.
• French- we just finished making some very creative mobiles to explain a little about ourselves, our likes and dislikes.

Technology skills: are helping us communicate our learning, but also helping students develop their understanding of how to be a great digital citizen.

Please comment on which theme you think is most important to recognize and explain your reason.  Write your comment in the format of a short letter to me.

We are now into our 4th month of working with the laptops. I`d like to know what you think. Please add your comments to this post sharing your thoughts on the use of laptops in the classroom.

The big question is: How does the use of laptops in the classroom improve students`learning?

Think about using our Class blog and Google Drive