My Classroom Walls Are CRASHING Down!

In the last year, my classroom has begun to change dramatically.  In December of last year, I was given a classroom set of iPads.  I have been extremely impressed with the amount of creativity and collaboration that these devices have brought to my classroom.  As we all know, each class is different and I am discovering that many of the things that worked for my class last year aren’t working as well this year and things that are working this year, didn’t necessarily work the best last year. My classroom this year consists of a room full of high-energy boys.  This energy can be a blessing or a burden depending on how you handle it.  I decided to take this energy by full force and filter it into learning.  My class wants to learn, and they want their learning to be immediate and meaningful. Who doesn't? Right! 

With the help of my colleague, Brent Catlett, this is starting to happen. Brent is the creator of http://eduhangout.org (#eduhangout)  which encourages teachers to make connections with other teachers across the globe.  Through this connection my class, as well as 3 other classrooms in the U.S. were given the opportunity to participate in virtual field trips through Google Hangouts. This event was the beginning of Google’s new community Connected Classrooms (#connectedclassrooms).  As an educator, joining these communities is a MUST!  

Our morning started with a visit to the Seattle Aquarium.  My students in Nebraska were able to meet with marine biologists and learn about the changing seasons in the ocean.  A scuba diver used an underwater camera to show them some of the marine life such as kelp, rock fish, and salmon.  While doing this, the scuba diver would explain to them what she was showing them.  I was amazed.  I never thought my classroom in Nebraska would be echoing the sound of scuba equipment as we discovered that salmon use their noses to navigate home.  The students learning was immediate and at their fingertips.  Throughout the presentation, my students were able to share about the seasons changing in Nebraska and how it was similar to the life in the ocean.  I couldn’t believe how much my students were learning in that short amount of time.  

Seattle Aquarium

Once our visit to the Seattle Aquarium was over, we ventured to the Minnesota Zoo.  The students met with a zoologist, Adam,  who shared with them interesting facts about the black bear and it’s preparation for hibernation.  The students loved interacting with Adam and asking him questions.  This Australian, in Minnesota was able to get their wheels turning.  After the hangout, my students were still talking about all of the facts that they learned.  Hibernation and black bears became a sparked interest as well as how this guy from Australia ended up in Minnesota.  They were anxious to explore and find answers.

Touring the NASA warehouse.

Our final visit for the day was to NASA to learn about the Solar Impulse!  The what?! You might be asking (me too!).  Prior to the hangout, my students were asking me where is the NASA we were going to visit and what is Solar Impulse?  My response...."I don’t know, I guess we’ll find out."  As the hangout was starting to begin all we heard was French being spoken between the gentlemen from NASA.  I’m pretty sure this is when the goosebumps started.  I thought to myself, this is big! The kids were confused and in awe.  When everything was in order and the presentation began, the gentlemen shared with us that they were in Sweden and Switzerland working on an airplane called the Solar Impulse.  In the next few years, this airplane will be able to fly around the world without stopping.  It will be completely powered by solar energy.  My students were taken to the warehouse to see the making of the plane.  They were able to see the massive wing and small cockpit.  They were enthralled with the idea that a toilet was built into the seat and that the pilot would only sleep for about 20 minutes at a time during this almost week long flight.  I on the other hand, couldn’t believe that the co-founders of this project were talking to MY CLASS!  It was amazing to hear them share their knowledge and to listen to their words of encouragement and inspiration.  I hope that in a few years when they hear of the Solar Impulse flying across the U.S. they will remember the advice that was shared with them.  "When you have dreams, you have passion and when you have passion, you can do anything!"

This opportunity was amazing and brought so much learning into my classroom.  The walls of my classroom are “falling down” as I speak.  My students are anxious to explore the world and I’m anxious to guide them.  Thank you Brent and Google for sparking the fire in my students and myself.  Connections like these are what keep my students motivated to learn and I’m looking forward to making more connections across the world in the near future!

Technology Tool I LOVE!

When I think about a technology tool I use in my classroom, my immediate thought is our classroom set of iPads.  Prior to having iPads in my classroom, I hadn't really used an iPad.  I was aware of the potential they had in the classroom but hadn't had the opportunity to experiment with them.   After working with the iPads in my classroom, these are some of the opportunities they have brought to my classroom:

Blogging
  Throughout the year my students posted about different things they were learning in the classroom.  Through their blogs, they were able to share their writing about their learning and received comments from people across the world.

Flipped Classroom
  I was able to create iBooks for the students to use in Math.  With this, students were able to watch videos I had created to explain what they were learning.  I liked this because students that needed to review a lesson were able to do it on their own so they were continually getting the extra support they needed.

Paperless Classroom
  Since the students have the capability of accessing their school email.  My classroom has become virtually paperless.  When students complete and assignment or project, they are able to email me the information or share their Google Docs with myself or other students.  This has made the workflow in my classroom run smoothly.

Apps I LOVE!!
  Notability, Google Drive, Doceri, iMovie, Comic Life, and Kid Blog

Word Work in Action

  I am currently teaching summer school so I decided to write about a lesson we just did.  I was inspired by a still picture video that I found on YouTube called Everything At Once.
  I have a classroom set of iPads and during summer school, I am using them to teach the students how to create different types of iMovies.  One of the movies my students created was a still photo movie with a letters.
  For this lesson, I had the students find a word in the dictionary that they weren't familiar with.  It had to be a word that described them.  Once they found the word they had to write the definition on a sentence strip and find the letters that spelled their word.  They then worked with a partner and took pictures of the letters changing directions and being manipulated to eventually spell their vocabulary word.  Once the students had all of the pictures they needed (around 100) the students then recorded the still picture movie and put it with music.  When you watch the movie, it looks as if the letters are moving by themselves to form the word.
  I thought this was a great activity because the students all learned a new vocabulary word that described them and when the students presented their videos, their classmates were learning the new words as well.  I was amazed by how engaged the students were, and I enjoyed seeing their creativity.
  While creating these projects, we did run into a little stump.  The iMovie app automatically adds the Ken Burns affect to still photos, and there is not an easy way to take it off.  The app also does not have an apply all option.  Since the students had 100+ photos they were working with, we decided this editing piece would take too long.  So the students used another iPad to record their screen, then took that recording and added music to it in iMovie.  The project turned out pretty good.  The filming is a little dark, but we worked with what we had, and the students were fairly happy with their projects.  It was a learning experience for all of us, and it was a simple reminder that as a teacher, I need to be flexible and find ways to work around those little barriers I come across.
  If you know of an app (free would be great) that would allow my students to record their screen, please share.  Or if you know of a very simple way to take off the Ken Burns affect and add an apply all rule to transitions on the iMovie app.  Please share!!!

Here is a clip of one of the final products.

Virtual Field Trip of the South

Thanks to iPad technology we were able to take a Field Trip through the South.  We discovered so many new things and made so many new connections with our learning.

This is how it worked!

Mrs. Geldes created QR codes for different places to visit.  Then she put the codes all over the school for us to find.  

Here is one of the QR codes we used.

Mr. Catlett brought in a couple of iPads along with Mr. Kaulk, and Mrs. Sudduth.  Each group was given an iPad to use for the scavenger hunt.  With iPads or iPod in hand, we started the QR code scavenger hunt of the South. 

 

 It was so much fun finding the codes and scanning them.  Each code gave us a new place to visit.  At each stop we had to write down the place we visited and where it was located.  We used this information the following week.

On Monday, Mr. Catlett and Mrs. Feldmann made this project even more engaging by showing us Google Earth.  We took some time to review the webpage of places we visited.  Then we picked 1 place out of the 10 that was the most interesting.  We jumped on to Google Earth and flew to our destination.  In most cases we were able to use street view to explore the actual place.  It was as if we were standing in front of the actual buildings and historical sites.  It was amazing!  This virtual field trip was such a learning experience for all of us and we can’t wait to do it again.  We were able to see and discover so many places in the South that we didn’t know about before.  Thanks again to Mr. Catlett and Mrs. Feldmann for helping us with our Virtual Field Trip!

 

**TEACHERS!!  More information on how this was created is on Mr. Catlett’s blog.  Check it out if you want to create a QR scavenger hunt of your own!**

Our First Mystery Skype!

Thanks to Mr. Haney's class we were able to have our first Mystery Skype!  It was so much fun and we learned many new things.  We started our Skype by giving a quick preview of our classroom.  This gave us the chance to wave to our new friends in a different state.  Then we got down to business.  Our goal was to guess what state Mr. Haney's class was from, and they were trying to do the same.  Each class took turns sharing interesting facts about their state, places to visit, important people from our state, climate, land forms and other important information.  When we were done sharing our information we could only have one guess, and.....we got it RIGHT!  Here are some pictures of this unforgettable learning experience!  Thanks again to our new friends in Mr. Haney's class.

    
Reflecting our our learning!  Some of our thoughts........
 
  "I enjoyed it because of the way we gave facts to each other.  One of the facts was almost the exact same fact! I can't wait to do it again."

"I enjoyed hearing their accents, it was interesting"

"The Skype was really fun.  I liked how it was a mystery and we had to ask all of those questions.  I liked the end when they guessed our state and we guessed their's."

"I never knew [the state] had over 300 caves and Elvis Presley was born there."

Geometry EVERYWHERE!!!

Today the students searched our building for different examples of geometry.  The students were asked to take a picture of intersecting lines, perpendicular lines, parallel lines, line segments, acute angles, obtuse angles, right angles and a point.  They had a blast and I was amazed at what they found.  They are so creative and observant.  Take the time to look through some of the pictures and see what they found.

Intersecting Lines and Acute Angle

Parallel Lines and Intersecting Lines

Smarties can make intersecting lines!

Can you find the intersecting lines?

                                                     

Perpendicular Lines

Perpendicular Lines on the Wall!

Obtuse Angles in the office 

Point inside of a point

Can you find the obtuse angle, intersecting lines and acute angle?

Even our favorite dog helps us with geometry.  I spy and acute angle.  Do you?

About Mrs. Geldes

I am a 4th grade teacher at Two Springs Elementary.  I attended Dana College in Blair Nebraska and graduated in 2005.  I earned my Master's Degree from Wayne State in May 2010.  I am the oldest of 4 and I am originally from Bellevue.  My husband Pete and I have been married for 3 years and we just celebrated our son Thomas' first birthday.  I enjoy working with my students and helping them discover a passion for learning.
I am a PC person simply because that is mostly what I have had access to.  As of now I don't really have a preference.  As long as it will get the job done I will use it :)  I try to use various technology tools in my classroom.  Recently I have used Glogster, Twitter, Flubaroo/Google Docs and various Microsoft programs.  I am always wanting to learn about more technology and find ways to use it in my classroom.
I would like to use this Blog to communicate with parents.  I think it will be a great way for parents to know what is going on in my classroom.  I would also like to become comfortable with blogging so I can help my students create their own blogs.  I believe that blogs are a great way for students to get in touch with other students around the world.  In the last few weeks as I have developed my PLN through Twitter I have discovered how useful a blog can be.   

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