Voki ..... More Tech Fun!

O.K.....so it's the end of the year and I'm struggling to keep my students interested in school. Last week my students had been so excited every moment of creating their power point presentations that I wanted to see the excitement on their faces again. So I came up with the idea of letting them create a Voki. This lesson turned out far more beneficial than I ever imagined! Again, I was AMAZED! To provide structure, I followed a similar format as the PPT lesson. This time each student chose an animal, used a book or encyclopedia to list three facts about the animal, then created an avatar/character for their presentation.
http://www.voki.com/mywebsite.php

Second Grade Power Point Presentations.....Wow!!!

I am so amazed by how much my little ones can do using technology. If it involves a computer or tablet, my kiddos can tackle it. I have witnessed the power of technology this year as my school system implemented BYOT (bring your on technology). Yeah....I was skeptical at first....didn't quite know what would happen when my students walked through the door with a plethora of devices, but we have muddled through the year and learned a little more day by day. Oh yeah, we learned by making plenty of mistakes, but by the end of the year even the most naive students were fairly proficient with technology.
First.....We chose a state to research. This is the foldable we used to organize the information on our state. We used an encyclopedia to research states.

Next.....When the first group of students finished, I had them gather around the computer as I demonstrated how to use the Microsoft Power Point program. They caught on very quickly and went to work creating their own presentation. Once a slide was created for each area on the foldable, I called them back to the computer to demonstrate how to copy and paste images to go with each slide.
As the other students finished they sat with a student at a computer to watch what was going on. Fortunately, we were also scheduled for the computer lab so we were able to save our presentations to our school's user drive and move to the lab to work.....Very nice since it was going to take FOREVER to complete twenty presentations on my five classroom computers. In thirty minutes, everyone had the slides made with images! Unbelievable!!!
Then.......The next day we made revisions and jazzed up the slides. By this time, my kiddos had discovered how to add special effects to the slides. One student added a hyperlink to a video of his state's song! Can I tell you that I was AMAZED!!!

Let's "Taco" Bout Summer!

Who's ready for summer? We have three more days until summer vacation!!! Yay!!! This board was done by my friend and fellow second grade teacher, Mrs. Melissa Howard. It's too creative to not post. Check it out!

Don't you just love the use of commas in this sentence? Very Yummy!

Loving QR Codes!!!

My class just loves to use QR codes! Talk about engagement!....My kids really get busy and stay on task anytime they can use an iPad to scan a QR code.
     This week we have learned how to use quotation marks. This activity was borrowed from my friend Lindsay at Mrs. Miller's Monkey Business.
     The kiddos scanned the code which took them to a comic strip. They read the comic and copied it, adding quotation marks and the speaker's name.
     I was able to move around the room and give "mini lessons" to those needing help. I have to tell you, they learned more from this 40 minute lesson than they have all week doing the language worksheets we normally do.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Suess!!!

Theodor Seuss Geisel was by far one of the most creative Geniuses of his time! Without a doubt! His birthday is one of my favorite days of the year. We all dressed up as Thing 1 or Thing 2 and listened to his stories all day. What makes a Dr. Suess story sound even better? Having your mom or dad read it to the class.

Which book was our favorite?

We followed up our story time by writing about our favorite Dr. Suess book. I think they did a great job! After all that work we needed a Suessy Snack!

Days like these are excellent opportunities to include families and friends. Mr. John, Mrs. Paige, and Preston made this day extra special for us. I think they enjoyed it too!

Edmodo???

Is it possible for second graders to use Edmodo??? I kept hearing my middle and high school teacher friends talk about posting on Edmodo, so I decided to see what all the commotion was about. I set up an Edmodo group, signed my kiddos up, and sha-zam!...they are addicted!!! Really, they are going home, logging in, and posting. I am amazed at how excited they get when I give them a quiz on Edmodo. I can post class presentations for students to review at home, along with assignments and quizzes. There are so many possibilities!!!

Presidents' Day!

What if you could be President of the United States? If some of my kiddos become the President we will have a carnival every week and have donuts! They can count on my vote!

Love the bulletin board idea from Teacher to the Core.

My students' favorite part was seeing their faces on the dollar bill.

If you like the writing form you can grab it here.

If you like the venn diagram you can grab it here.