NewsQuest

No Good-byes!

How do you say good-bye to such a fine group of students?  Well, I just don't think I will because I know our paths will cross in the future.  I have a feeling that all of you will go on and do some great things with your lives.  I know I will be reading about many of you in future newspapers, and maybe even edublogs!  It has been a joy to teach each and everyone of you and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. It has been a successful journey for us as we have explored possibilities for edublogs in education.  We have learned much together!  You have worked hard all year and I think you all have soared.  Remember to read, read, read.... Then reflect, think, contemplate, and ponder..... And write, write, write!!! I would like to say a special thanks to every parent.  Your children have been an absolute pleasure to teach.

Mrs. Davis

Keep in touch...... [email protected]

Do You Know Your Teacher?

This past Thursday more poetry in the news was posted on the student sites! They are getting good at this!

The students were delighted to find their discussions were now posted as comments! They thought this was sooooo much better. Then added joy when they discovered how easily they could post links on their site. They like the thought of just click and go to the various links they chose to put on their sites.

Students had already reviewed the lead mini lessons - Feature Leads, Writing News Leads, and Writing Other Leads. I have to say that having all these mini lessons is MOST helpful. Thanks again to Will's students!!

Next we all viewed the Asking Questions section of the mini lessons created by Will's students. Since our time is limited and we only have a few more times together we decided that each student could invite a guest from their classroom to come with them next week. They will be introduced to weblogs and how much fun learning is with them! They are going to simulate an interview with their classroom teacher. Each pair will conduct this "pretend interview" with their teacher - they will work together on the questions and answers. OK, how well do they know their teachers? We will see. I am sure their teachers will get a kick out of this. Today the group brainstormed questions on their website. They are going to meet with their partner this week and discuss answers they think their teachers would make. They came up with some thought provoking questions. Then they practiced with each other interviewing and answering the questions. I was impressed! I'm looking forward to next Thursday. If you get a chance, take a look at their questions and make comments, suggestions. The students like nothing better than having responses to what they write.

Poetry in the News

I arrived at school to discover that half my class were being tested for an advanced math class placement for next year in Middle School- good for them! They arrived back about half way through the session. Spring break has just ended for these students and now comes lots of end of the year activities that require readjustments in schedules. I decided to let them have a little fun with language and taught them how to create Poetry in the News! It's also National Poetry Month so what a delightful way to celebrate! We had a lot of fun and they were very creative. I'm going to spotlight them here:

First we tackled haiku - remember the rules for that type of poetry:
five syllables
seven syllables
five syllables

They read their articles and referred their reader to source. They learned about links in their weblogs. They also learned how hard it was to come up with the first one, but after that and with practice it gets a lot easier.

Ben chose an article entitled The New Robots Are a Lot Like Us

Started in Japan

Over 20,000 words

Next generation

Brianna had a burning desire to write on the First Amendment.

The First Amendment

Gives the right to speak freely

Has Consequences!

Derrick interest in planes led him to a news article on the Concord entitled Bye, Bye Concord

Sleek looking jet

New York City to Europe

Flight of the future

Building a Better World grabbed Emily's attention.

Camille and Wissam

They are all just kids who care

About the whole world

Mrs. Mateling's good teaching in her classroom piqued Jacqueline's interest in writing about the dust bowl.

Dust, dust, everywhere

Dying, Choking, Suicide

In the Big Dust Bowl

Jennifer is concerned about SARS and read an article called Asia's Mystery Illness.

Guangzhou, China SARS

Asia's Mystery Illness

Helping to prevent

Kayla cares about school lunches and wanted to write about her feelings.

Feelings on Lunches

Are they healthy ? You tell me.

Doubtful Opinions

An Era Ends in Iraq was Lindsay's article. That brought this poetic response from her.

Tanks entered Baghdad

Welcomed with cheers and flowers

Saddam rules no more

Lucy dived in with the Dolphin Brigade and created this haiku.

Dolphins in Iraq

Searching for mines in water

K-Dog the hero

Melanie chose Women Aviators Now Flying Military Aircraft to create this haiku.

Women pilots soar

Serving as combat pilots

Females earned their wings

Good job students! What a great first attempt! Some of them even got to Cinquains so go to their sites and enjoy reading their Cinquains in the News!

Smile for the Camera

Hey team!

Thought you would enjoy viewing a great picture of all of you! I love it! Parents, don't your kids look sharp?

Mrs. D

Enjoy Your Spring Break!

Hi Students,

I hope you are having a wonderful spring break. Enjoy every single minute.

I am looking forward to seeing you all when you return. We are going to work some more on our stances. We are going to do some creative writing with the news. It will be fun.

We­ll also be taking a look at the mini-lessons prepared by Mr. Richardson's journalism students. They did good work and you will learn a lot from the lessons. It will be like staying in touch with a crew you really liked and admired. That's cool!

Also, we will be doing some reflective writing about this whole project. Be thinking about what you liked about weblogs and why , plus what you didn­t like and why. Brainstorm some project ideas that could be done with future students. Think about projects that I could do with students but more importantly, think about projects that your teachers might be interested in doing with students. I'll be sure to share all of your ideas. You always come up with the best activities. Reflect on how you have improved in your writing, how you feel about writing and just how you feel about learning this way.

I am proud of your writing. I have seen much progress and the most delightful thing to see is your pride in wanting to produce a good piece of writing. Keep it up!

As I said, enjoy your holiday and I will see you a week from tomorrow. Can't wait!

The Awesome Power of Writing

Today I received a very nice comment from an ESL teacher who is teaching an online session on creating student published online magazines. I wanted to share it with you....

Each time I visit your weblog, I am more impressed with its high
quality organization, the wonderful immediacy of its content, and the deep involvement of its contributors--you and the student writers.

I think the immediacy of the communication going on is contagious and truly hooks your young writers and shows them the awesome power
writing gives them. Without doubt, they are finding 'writing' a vital experience in their lives. This 'immediacy' is what makes it, in so many ways, more effective than publishing student writing on
conventional web pages.

The tremendous force that drives both you and the students to react
to ideas and issues and to respond in writing to a real online
audience is like a living force. It is alive, and we, the readers,
sense it and are easily swept in.

Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful 'online space' (as you call it!) with us.

Student Views on Weblogs

Be sure to check out all the individual student blogs to see their views on weblogs. They are excellent!

Read, Write, Think, & Reflect

I am looking forward to seeing all of you this Thursday. It will be great to have our weblogs back up once again!

I learned many new things at the Florida Educational Technology Conference. It will be fun sharing all the information with you. The weather was wonderful. I looked high and low for sessions on weblogs, but could not find any. We really are on the cutting edge here. The potential for improving your writing and thinking skills plus the ability to instantly publish is quite a combination. Your weblogs are examples for others so work hard on your assignments for this week. You will be exploring your topics in depth and your next writing piece needs to be top notch! We have lots to share and discuss. I know you will come well-prepared with good ideas and thoughts for your project. I can't wait!

Did you know that you are one of the few elementary students exploring this new genre? So think back to our talk on being good role models and representatives for your school and yourselves. I am proud of you!

Remember to read, write, think, and reflect!

See you Thursday....

Weblogs are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your weblogs are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We owe Tim

a big thanks! He did persevere and after he got some wonderful help from Sam Devore, the final troubleshooting touches did not take long! We learned a lot in this process.

I'm off to Florida tomorrow for the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC). I plan to attend every session I can at the conference and will be bringing back some more good ideas for us!

Keep thinking about your topics for your "in-depth" study. Some possibilities of topics you were tossing around like bullying, Georgia's Republican government, and computer abuses sounded interesting. Keep on thinking and be prepared for our first class when I return. Meanwhile I will try to add some of your stories to your blogs.

Have a great week!

It Pays to Persevere

Tim and I are here late Wednesday night working away trying to figure out how to get the weblogs back up and running. We may not be successful tonight but we are learning a lot! We will achieve success soon. Tim is busy as a beaver! We have networked today with lots of other technology specialists who have had experience trouble shooting these types of problems. I want all of you to know that I appreciate your patience as we work through the technology glitches.

Either way, there is lots planned for tomorrow. I can't wait to see all of you. I know you are going to have well-written articles about very interesting topics. Reading your work is one of the best parts of my week.

Our faithful friend, Julie Corey, has commented on many of your writings. We can always count on her support and boy, do we appreciate her. Boys and girls, she is doing her student teaching now. She is one great teacher! I wish she would travel out to your school and consider teaching there next year. :-)

See you in the morning.....