Just like Narcissus, I’m enjoying the view

September30

I redid the blog themes on all of the blogs so that they will have a separate look/identity. I’m getting risky by doing the sixth graders in black.

Sixth Grade Blog » Assignment #4

As a prelude to having them create commercials in MovieMaker, I had them create a single slide in PowerPoint about their theme perseverance. The four slide contest (while it broke my heart) did inspire me to think simple, and just have the kids doing one slide, or a few sentences at a time. Christian Long will be happy to see that I did give students examples of single image for the entire slide with words on top (and some of them did this) even though it’s not a palette I prefer to create.

My predecessor had the kids do a fair amount of work in PowerPoint, so they have good basic skills there. This is good because I want to work with them on layout and design issues. Here are the slides they made:
[slideshare id=121721&doc=final-slides-perseverance4806&w=425]

Assignment #4 — Fifth Grade Blog

It was a good week for fifth grade. I had students reflecting on competition. Started with review of last week doing an Inspiration mind map on cooperation. Then a short film from unitedstreaming on competition in commerce. After that, they had to write three sentences on competition. They did pretty well at it. A few even linked back to cooperation.

Error Feedback: Practice

Came across this link from Larry Feralazzo’s carnival of ESL/EFL blogs. I’m trying to work on error feedback with the fifth graders. I’m telling them when I restate their comments with writing in bold, that is highlighting where they made a mistake. If you have other ideas, let me know.

» Assignment #4 Fourth Grade Blog

It was a great week for the fourth grade. I had them view a unitedstreaming video on taking risks (good ones), showed them a slide show, then they had to write two sentences about a good and bad risk. Most got it, some concentrated on just one type of risk. The fourth grade teacher I have the most discussions with would prefer that the students learn that it’s not just saving lives (which many of them cited), but small risks, like raising your hand in class. His kids seemed to get that better than the other class.

I’m using unitedstreaming with Primary to show them stories. The second graders are doing a unit on story telling, so I will probably have the analyze the structure of a video story next week. I’m showing a series called Read-alee-deed-alee to the first graders which emphasizes rhyming.

I started taking in a group of EOs for ELD (English Language Development). It was getting to know you week (I only have them for 30 minutes at the start of the school day). I had them do self-portraits in paint, and add sentences on who they were, a goal they have, and then a comment from another student. I still haven’t got a plan for next week. In the future, I’m planning to have them do test prep online, while I do pull-out groups on cross-grade projects (I have grade 4-6 together).

NPR : Vocal Impressions: Hearing Voices, Round Seven

This is a project on NPR, to have people send in metaphorical descriptions of famous voices. I’m thinking of doing a project like this to help support instruction in metaphor, but I know I’ll have to scaffold it a bit. Ideas appreciated.

by posted under practice/pedagogy, reflection, weekinlab | 3 Comments »    
3 Comments to

“Just like Narcissus, I’m enjoying the view”

  1. September 30th, 2007 at 4:01 pm      Reply Lisa Parisi Says:

    Thanks, Alice, for sharing these great ideas. Can I steal some? I am planning a character ed unit on Hope. I think the PowerPoint slide idea would be great for this. Although I was also thinking I’d give each child a page in Mixbook. Hmmmm. Choices, choices.

    Anyway, keep up the good work! I need the ideas. :)


  2. September 30th, 2007 at 9:27 pm      Reply Glenn Says:

    Merc – I think this is my favorite for perseverance:

    http://images.despair.com/products/demotivators/incompetence.jpg

    Enjoy.

    P.S. I know you’ve had it for a while, but I love the new look of your blog.
  3. October 1st, 2007 at 8:54 pm      Reply alicemercer Says:

    Glenn, I’ve thought about the demotivation posters, but it can be a little dangerous using that kind of cynicism with sixth graders. Maybe at the end? Thanks for the compliment! I’m still kinda in love with my old Freshy theme. I may go back to that again.

    Lisa, we’ll see how it all goes. I started on Movie Maker with my first class today, and it went pretty good. You are always welcome to steal. I should post a Creative Commons license up here.

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License

All of Ms. Mercer's text, lessons, graphics, etc. are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 License. Creative Commons License

Howdy! I teach fifth grade at an elementary school in Sacramento, CA. I started my career in Oakland, Ca, and moved here to Sacramento in 2001.

My goals are:

  1. To reflect on how I am teaching, and how effective my practices are;
  2. To integrate and embed technology in the curriculum I teach; and,
  3. To network with other like-minded educators.

To help me reach my goals, I use this blog as a place for me to reflect on best practices, and the practices I’m (trying to) putting in place in my classroom.

My philosophy of teaching is pragmatic (I’ll use what works, and I’m not particularly wed to one theory or another). I want students thinking critically, and engaged in what they are learning (Constructivism), but I know that many of my students (language learners and others) need schema, scaffolding, and explicit modeling, so I’m not afraid to use those as well.

My philosophy of technology education is that teaching comes first, but technology is an awesome tool to use to engage students, and help them create stuff. I prefer that the learning goal guide the use of technology, and not the other way around.

That’s the big picture. Other salient details are that I can be sharp, but I prefer to see the positive and connect with others rather than fighting and argufying. I can be hard on others (having high expectations), but no harder than I am on myself.

I can be contacted here.

Disclaimer

The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not those of Sacramento City Unified School District.