Welcome Back to School!

Another school year is beginning. Our class sizes are a little bigger this year, but I'm still looking forward to an exciting year. We have lots of new technology and I'm getting better and better at learning new ways to use it to make learning and teaching more fun and more successful.

Here is a quick website I found with ideas that parents can use to help teachers out. Check it out.
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/ways-to-help-childs-teacher/?cid=90.

Sorry, one more butterfly pic

Freedom

Tiger Swallowtail

Ain't she perty!

Our butterfly came out today!

Caterpillar has begun chrysalis

Tiger swallowtail butterfly found outside class Friday

Field trip day

Cracking geodes

Climbing in giant tree roots

Drapes in the cave

Wedding cake

Death march to cave entrance

Boyden..a better pick

Boyden Cavern Field Trip

Trying out tumblr

We added a new blog this week on tumblr which we can access more easily from an app on our iPods. Check it out.

G2iscool

iPods in the classroom

In December we received our iPod carts and orientation on iPods basics. Each student has their own iPod touch to use and to be responsible for.

A few of the students were immediate experts, many more spent a lot of the scheduled iPod time just trying to figure out how to turn in on and operate the buttons and never got to the internet or to the apps.

Five months later, we have a class full of experts. Sure, from time to time we have technical difficulties, like the iPods mysteriously jump Wi-Fi networks, keeping us from going on line. Or we have a network slowdown when we all try to go on IXL Math at the same time. But all in all, we enjoy using the iPods to supplement and support our learning. Here are some of our favorite apps.

Pocket Frogs - not all that educational, but fun when all of our work is done

Motion Math - helps us practice fractions and decimals on a number line, one of our toughest standards

Math Zombie - helps us practice our mental math, speeding up our addition skills

We also use the iPods to listen to podcasts. One of our favorite Podcasts is

The Princeton Review's Vocabulary Minute.

Check out our class blog G2Rocks next week to hear thoughts about using the iPods in class directly from the students.

http://kidblog.org/MrsCsclass4/

Mariposa rock and mineral museum

Took a trip to Mariposa to check out the rock and mineral show. Decided to stroll through the museum. It might make for a nice field trip next year!

Pyrite

Obsidian

Colemanite :)

Halite

Look at that crystal shape!

Rock with gold

Magnetite

Hematite

Garnet

Happy New Year Survey

We use a site called QUIA for doing online quizzes and surveys. On our first two days back from vacation, the students used their new iPods to answer a few questions about their Winter Vacation.
Here are some of the results.

How many books did you read over vacation?

0 books - 9
1 book - 7
2 books - 2
3 books - 2
more than 3 books - 6


Did you stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve?

no - 3
yes - 23


What activity did you do the most over vacation?

read 1
watch TV 7
play videogames 9
skateboard 1
listen to music 8

What was the best part of vacation?


sleeping late 1
staying up late 5
no homework 6
spending time with my family 14