The Week in Review

This week saw an enthusiasm for Level 2 Quests.  The kids seem to really be jumping on my "technology" bandwagon. I made a "Questing Wall of Fame" with the students names on note cards.  I placed stickers on their cards to help them visualize what level they are working at and to also notice if their grades are suffering.  Amazingly enough, this seems to have hit home with the "little darlings" that needed to "see" where they stand.  I will post a picture of the wall later. Now, if we could just get all the laptops working at the same time so that all students could use one I would be one extremely happy camper.

The lab we did this week was one on measuring distance, mass, and volume.  The students had a bit of trouble converting metrics but I think several of them do now understand that centimeters are NOT the same thing as meters.

Next week's lessons include Matter foldable, one lab that I call Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures, and a variety of density demonstrations.  These will include "How Sweet It Is", a hot and cold water mixing demonstration, and dancing raisins.  I hope the kids will love it!

Blogging with Students

In 2008, I began blogging as part of the 23 things challenge hosted at Library2Play.blogspot.com.  As part of the 23 things I reassessed my thoughts on lifelong learning.  I knew I was a lifelong learner but didn't recognize the full meaning of that until much later.  While I have no intention of acquiring another degree, I am continuing to learn.  Mostly, in the field of educational technology.

In the near future, I hope to begin blogging with my students.  I plan to try something I read about at the middle school science website.  Mrs. LaRosa states in a blog post that she posts an article and requires her students to comment about the article and on each others comments.  I am planning to try this with my first period class.  I have several concerns:

1. Monitoring student comments.  (What do I do with inappropriate/derogatory comments?)
2. Managing 130+ comments in timely fashion. (How can I "grade" this many comments?)
3. What about the kids that do NOT have internet access? (Surely within one/two week time period they could make it to the library to read an article and comment on it.)
4. Do I use my blog here or do I need to set up another on some other account?  My school's webpage has a place for blogging.  Some how this experiment seems less intimidating with "strangers" than with my co-workers being privy to it.  

I am sure other issues will arise which is why I am going to start with a small class of kids that will follow instructions.