Blogical Minds

A day to create and explore

This is our last week (sniff, sniff). We were creating google maps today, learning the program, and exploring some other tools. One was Flickr Motivator and I know some of you may not get yours posted as this week is one of interruptions, other activities, and taking the time to pursue some learning that we love! I want to share a few from today. Not everybody was able to attend today so don't worry. We'll show you how they were created. Again, many thanks to Chris for providing all the wonderful photographs for the blogicians to use!

Rosalinda:

Cena:

Eddie:

M.V.:

Michael:

Flickr Motivator Link

Researcher pours plaster down anthill

Now we have had more fun with this picture and I got several questions about it in class yesterday. They were questions that I did not know the answer to but they got me wondering. One of you wanted to know exactly how the scientist used the plaster. How did it work? How did they get this study done? You were curious about so many things.

I plan to show you how I went about finding the answer. But for now I have a challenge for you. See if you can answer some of the questions you asked by looking through the article. I warn you that it is quite long but don't let that put you off. I found out some fascinating things. You will too!  Have fun! Use the comments feature here to post answers. Any other classes want to join in, feel free! Here is the article link.

Now blogicians you know that we are researching about blogging and how it affects your literacies. Aren't you glad that we didn't have to use plaster in our research? For those who interpret things literally this is an attempt at humor.  :-)

Can't wait to see you tomorrow!

   by  cotinis 

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Yesterday we made a second try to Skype with Mr. Fisher's class. We still were not successful. The connection would start out ok but then it would fade out. We could hear here in Georgia but they couldn’t hear on the Canada end. I think something is off with the school connection. We tried to fix it but unfortunately we could not. We’re really not sure what the problem was. It works well everywhere but at the school so we suspect it has something to do with the school setup. We don’t have the know how to fix that but we will continue to ask for help. Yep, we were disappointed! Yesterday was one of those days when Murphy was loose in our labs. Once again I was very proud of you though as you carried on despite the frustration.

The day was not a loss though. Here's a quick review. You entered the lab and I did a quick run down of what we needed to do before the call. You were to pick one of Mr. Fisher's students, read the blog post where our questions were answered, and then think about how you would respond if you got a chance to talk with the student who authored the post. You were hooked. We decided to do a draft first in Word so that we could fine tune it later but this thinking and writing would help us focus for the Skype conversation. You got to work! Each of you had different students so each of Mr. Fisher's students would receive a response, if not on Skype later in our blogs. Johnny and M.V. even volunteered to do two so everyone would receive a response. We even squeezed in a couple of practice sessions where you came up front and we role played your “talking”. Now that was interesting. One question, why is it so hard to talk loudly? You even had the teacher's OK to talk loud! I know you can do it. But I also know how hard it is on the first few tries. It really makes you feel self conscious.  But speaking a little louder, a little clearer, and with emphasis will help you get your voices heard! We had fun! You regrouped, got right to work and came up with some good blogging.

Then we enjoyed watching the movies I had made of you talking about blogging - with music and accolades for all of you! Another question? Why did most of you bury your faces in your hands when your movie came up? (Grin!) That was your very first try! You did great for a first try. Now you know what to work on to make it better. Those were practice! No we won't publish them all over the net! (Smile!)

Guess what! I have a back up plan that I will share with you Friday! There's another Web 2.0 tool that may let us have those conversations with Mr. Fisher's class and other classes.  We won't give up! We will persevere! I just wanted to let you know that I was proud of you and your flexibility!

I thought it would be helpful to give a quick run down of who got what done on the posting so that we can maybe finish up on Friday. We’ll give it a try.

Eddie completed his post to Darren.

Emmy finished her post to Katie.

Mia got all of her post done with the exception of a link to April.

Anni needs to complete her post and make a link to Elaine.

Johnny blogged about Josh and Dustin but needs to  add the links to their blogs.

Lindsey needs to do her post and link to Anna.

M.V. had a good post and links to Derek and Matthew but is nowhere to be found? It's probably still on Word?  We'll check.

Mary was one of the first to finish and has both post and link to Ashley.

Michael has a tribute and a link to Randy.

Tina has her post ready for Shyla but needs to include the link.

Victoria has both link and post ready for Ashley H.

T.K. needs to finish his post and link for Tyler

I will see you Friday. Can't wait!

Flickr photo credit to http://flickr.com/photos/sposnick/422851157/

Another good day in Georgia!

It seems that we continue to have flurries of activity and exciting events happening. It was exciting to hear the announcement of Mrs. A's baby being born today! I wish she could have seen your happy faces.  We welcome little Eli to the world and both parents and baby are doing just fine!

Mrs. A would have been so proud of you today. You all came into the blogging session and eagerly read your new comments and then proceeded to reply to as many as possible in the time we had. Eddie is getting a tremendous amount of comments. It seems a school from Australia has discovered his blog  and teachers have discovered his blog and of course his terrific friends from Canada continue to comment!  Eddie is striving to answer them all! I told him not to worry if he couldn't answer all of them but he wants to try! In fact I was working on some items last night and Eddie was commenting away as I worked. He was at home and I could just imagine him smiling as he read each and every comment. I think some other teachers have picked up on Eddie from Mr. Kuropatwa's blog, his class blog, and my other blog. We talked about that in class and how you never know for sure just how it happens unless one of your commenters tells you.  One of the favorite words of one of my past blogging groups was ANTICIPATION! They'd come into the room anticipating if they had any comments, what they would be, who they would be from, and what they would say. You don't always get comments and that's OK but when you do the ANTICIPATION erupts into a very warm feeling inside.

Everyone  received comments today. Lani is one we can always count on and she is so faithful. The world needs more people like Lani, right boys and girls? I heard you all second that! I know, I know, Lani is one of your favorite commenters! Also, thanks for the feedback on the comments sheets. The appeared to be very helpful for you. We will talk some more about managing comments and keeping up with them - not always an easy task when you get a lot. That's what I call a good problem to solve though.

Next we worked on categories. We need to work lots more on this and you will find that it will get easier. Practice makes perfect! Have you ever heard that saying? I think it gets perfect when we put all our heads together to problem solve. I wonder if any others have come up with good strategies to brainstorm about categories for blogs. If they have we encourage them to share their techniques. For now though keep thinking and we will get back to this soon. In fact when I come Friday we will do some more activites to learn this important skill.

Then each of you traveled over to Mr. Brune's fifth grade blogs and chose one student's blog to read through and then post about. I hope you had enough time to get back to the student's blog to make a comment and give the student a link back to your post. This was to give you further practice with linking and to learn what other fifth graders are blogging about and what they are thinking. The plan is to visit the other class blogs and pick students from those classes to blog about what they are learning. Blogging is reading, thinking, discussing, writing, commenting, linking, sharing and lots more. Think of words to add to this list!

Then some of you even managed to post about Mrs. A's new baby boy! Some of you got over to Harley's blog to respond to his posts. It was a productive day. You got a lot done and are really becoming good bloggers.  One suggestion though - proofread! I noticed a couple of posts with almost no punctuation. Remember we watch that while we blog. We want to be good role models for other student bloggers. All in all though  it was another great day in Georgia!!

I have also been in touch with Mr. Kruopatwa and some of his students will be mentoring you guys. We're working on the details. I am so delighted that this connection is emerging because the possiblilities are enormous. They always are when we have good students connecting and helping us learn how to guide this process to make it even more meaningful for all students.

Great day in Georgia

   by  wwnorm 

Mr. Kuropatwa reports that he had "A Good Day." Well, it was a great day in Georgia too! I wish others could have seen the smiles on the blogicians faces as they listened to the podcasts from the previous post. They got to hear voices from Seattle Washington and voices from Canada. What a day!

M.V. was so excited to get a comment from Mr. Ahlness and Eddie was beside himself listening to a podcast about him. As he quotes in one of these podcasts, "his fifteen minutes of fame!"

The best part of the day was seeing the smiles on each and every blogician as they celebrated with M.V. and Eddie. Enjoy  these three short podcasts.

The first is pre-class when Eddie popped his head in the door. 

Download EddieBeforeClassMar62007.MP3

The next is Eddie in the principal's office.  :-) 

Download EddieRespondsToPodcast.MP3

And the final is how Eddie felt at the end of the session.

Download MrsCEddieAfterClassOnPodcast.MP3

You're quite a team! I'm proud of all of you!

Harley tops off a day in the snow!

Harley was the hit of the day! I wish you could have heard the exclamations of joy coming from the students when his picture appeared. Lani gave us a great tour of the snow Chardon, Ohio is having and it was the next best thing to actually being there. Thanks Lani for giving us a tour of the winter wonderland. Your questions made us think and it was a fun-filled day in Georgia for students who rarely have the chance to see snow. Be prepared - lots of questions are coming your way and the blogicians are most interested in knowing more about Harley! Warm wishes are being sent your way from the blogicians and their teachers!

Two sessions in one week!

Two sessions in one week! Now that's the kind of week I like! We got so much done. We couldn't post but we will later. TypePad was acting up a bit on Tuesday so your posts will hold in Word until next week. We always have to have a back up plan when working with technology, right? You showed your flexibility by regrouping when you could not make comments due to TypePad glitches and then there were further posting problems. You didn't let it stop you, you simply went into Microsoft Word and started typing your thoughts and ideas about our guide for blogging. I think this project is going to develop into something special. You have learned a lot about blogging so far this year and you are trying to put that together into a product that could help others beginning this journey. We had good discussions.

We also had a visitor in class - Ms. Ricketson from a nearby high school. She is interested in blogging next year with a gifted class. I know she learned a lot from all of you as she went around the room talking to the different groups who were working on specific topics we brainstormed on Inspiration. She plans to come back again. We welcome her!

These are some of the points that we listed as far as the mechanics of blogging goes. It's a good beginning! Emmy was a great note taker. That's not always an easy task when everyone is talking but she did it well. We took her notes and then worked in pairs to get our thoughts together. The first part is the mechanics but we know there's a lot more to blogging than just mechanics. We discussed that a bit but will get back to those important discussions.

Then Friday's session was really productive. Emmy and Jhonny have posted pictures, podcasts and their takes of the interviews with legislators, GSU personnel, and others at the GSU Legislative Appreciation Night. They plan to add to their posts but worked diligently to get the podcasts and pictures up! Good blogging takes time! We can't post some pictures we would like to post due to our research but Emmy managed to get a picture of herself with our governor, Sonny Perdue! And Jhonny got to shake his hand and appear in other great pictures with our government officials. They'll get to take a CD home of all those fantastic pictures. Great week in Geogia!

The question is....What is literacy?

From Mrs. C.....

When you are actually really blogging it means that you have read something either in class or on some other blog or on some other website. And then once you read you question and think about what it is that you have read. You do this first in your own mind. You think about it and then you blog about it. Then you collaborate, which means you network with other kids, other students, other teachers, other bloggers  and you think some more about it. You reflect, then you may comment on another blog. You may do another post.   You may provide  some  links to extend the learning. Further conversations may develop on blogs. Those are the basic steps.

Think about how we  can use blogging most beneficially in the classroom. That's why you're using your blog to talk about your learning, to learn more, to share, to reflect, to let your teacher and others know your understandings, what you need help on and what you’d want to learn more about.

It is about literacy. Literacy is .................

Learning about literacy is our next quest. I will see you in one hour or so and we will put our heads together and come up with our own understandings. I can't wait to see you!

The proof is in the pudding

Great day, blogicians! Now the proof is in the pudding! Hmmm, next week who will be the star to tell me how that title fits this post?  The one who can answer may just be put on the roster for the photo stars! Here's a link to help those who yearn to learn. You may even want to check out this Figurative Language site to see examples and resources of different types.

It was fun watching you listen to your podcasts. Then you posted your thoughts about today's work . First you listened to the podcast of your Scotland story, next you read your comments, finally you posted a reflection on your learning. The homework assignment is to improve your stories based on the input you received. You'll post them next Tuesday.  Here are a few blogician excerpts:

Johnny observes.....

When you listen to one you can hear the mistakes but when you say it out loud you only say it like you want to.  That is a bad habit to get rid of. Pod cast have really changed my life I hope they change yours.

Leslie thinks....

I think by listening to the recording it will help me because next time I write a post I know to reread my post aloud.When I started writing the story  I was  careless. But when I read it over I saw the mistakes and it made me realize that I really was being careless.

M.V. reflects.....

I think by listening to the recording it will help me because next time I write a post I know to reread my post aloud.When I started writing the story  I was  careless. But when I read it over I saw the mistakes and it made me realize that I really was being careless.

Lindsey notices.....
 

Another why I know if  I make mistakes is on my blog when people type to me. Some of the people that type to me ask me questions on the mistake, and others tell me the mistake I have.  That is really friendly I think.  I am glad that they do that.

When I asked if you were up to the challenge in class today, you gave me a resounding yes. So, the long and short of it is that the proof is in the pudding.

Hitting the blogs!

Today we started off with a wonderful display of your work from Tuesday. It was fun looking at all those thoughts posted all over your diagrams. You sure were wearing your thinking caps. We saved the best part for last so just to keep your "anticipation" wheels awhirl I'll post that last.  Good things come to those who wait!

   by  adesh_saxena 

Then we hit the books, oops I mean hit the blogs! I know this was the best part of the session for you. All of you were glued to your screens as you read the posts of former fifth graders. You had four class blogs to choose from and an even greater number of student blogs on each of the class blogs. You were busy copying and pasting clips of points of interest to you from the student blogs. You toggled back and forth from Microsoft Word to your blog. I have to say you were quite skilled  copying and pasting but the way you zeroed in on important parts was outstanding. We teachers  wandered around the room stopping to have conversations with you to  listen to the reasons for the choices you were making. This was a very important part and you spent quality time enjoying the reading.  Remember how important the reading is to the ability to do good blogging.

Then you spent a little time thinking about a very short summary of your reading. You were to decide what you thought was relevant. Then you  got into pairs and decided what you would share with the group.  The plans were to share this last part with the whole group but we decided your ideas could be transferred to this class blog. This decision was made because our time was running out and we didn't want to miss the best part.

Are you ready? Here comes the best part! COMMENTS! Can you believe it? Everyone received a comment from the world's best  student commenter "Lani!" We were thrilled and honored to have her comment ! So with minimal directions, it was off to reply to the great comments! Now you were glued to the screens with your blog reading earlier but this time you were deep in thought from reading  the comments. You really took them to heart and spent time and were so very thoughtful about replying.

We went over the 5 W's assignment that you will be creating concerning some aspect of your learning in school.

Your "I Am" poems look good and we will begin work on them after you get back from your break in a week! You'll be creating your own blogs then! Hooray! Have a great holiday!