Reflective Voices

We are thankful!

Thanksgiving will be here in just a couple of days. Wow! We do have much to be thankful for! I am thankful to work with a great bunch of students each week! You are a fantastic group.

Let's have a little fun with one of the cool tools on the web. Get ready to meet a talking squirrel, a cool cat, an amazing flower, a dazzling tomato, and an awesome owl. What about making some "thankful" comments? You might even want to give a "shout out" to some of your commenters using these fun tools. Be creative and have a blast! 

Posts, podcasts, and planning!

I am enjoying reading your "principal" posts and viewing your podcasts. We will try to do more of the podcasts next week. I know many of you were very nervous before your first podcast but soon you will be "seasoned" pros. Let's put our heads together next week and talk about what makes a good podcast. I'm sure you have many good ideas. We will plan together!

We also heard from Mrs. Mateling who was a former J. H. House teacher. She was the teacher of my very first blogging group - the NewsQuest group. Do you remember looking through their blogs when we did the webquest at the beginning of the year? They were a very special group, just like you are very special. She made a comment on a previous post. Do any of you remember her? Take time to reply to her questions. She will enjoy hearing from you.

Mrs. Emmert was giving you some good tips on posts and comments yesterday. Take them to heart, they will make you a better writer and a better thinker. I can't wait to hear from those of you who remember the tips. Be one of the first to share.

Have a great week!  See you next Tuesday!

Celebrating Comments

I can't wait to see you tomorrow. It looks hopeful that we can really devote some time to answering our comments. I have some tally sheets ready for you that will expedite the process. We have been hearing from Canada, China, and many different states in the U.S. A class in China has connected with us. They will be interesting to network with and we will learn a lot from each other. Remember your comment starters - you may want to try using some of them and let your commenters know how much you appreciate hearing from them.

• This made me think about.......
• I wonder why.......
• Your writing made me form an opinion about.......
• This post is relevant because.......
• Your writing made me think that we should.......
• I wish I understood why.......
• This is important because.......
• Another thing to consider is.......
• I can relate to this.......
• I discovered.......
• I don't understand.......
• I was reminded that.......
• I found myself wondering.......
• I learned.....

We will try to get to our Voice Thread project, too. We persevere! Aren't the students from Mr. Shareski's class great? They have been faithful to comment to you. And Harley has been on a number of blogs! He too is faithful. So show your appreciation with some dynamite comments! Have fun and if you need help with anything just let me know.

Election day approaches!

Hello boys & girls!

Just wanted to let you know that I miss meeting with you this week but I think it is great that your schools have decided to close for election day. Thanks to unprecedented turnout for Georgia’s advance voting, 2 million people won’t have to go to the polls on Election Day. Wow!

You may have seen some of the long lines of people taking advantage of the early voting. Thirty-one states offer this option and it seems that people are really taking advantage of this option. Voting is good!

As I listened to the news this morning I learned about some interesting polling locations. New Jersey and Nevada offer voting at mall locations. California has drive-through voting. In Georgia you can get a flu shot and vote at the same place. I'm all for anything that makes it easier for citizens to vote. Don't you agree?

This is an important day for our nation. Soon we will know who our new President will be!

I hope you enjoy your day off and I look forward to seeing you again next week!

Flickr Photo Credit: Ask What You Can Do for your Country from Randy Son of Robert's Photostream