I’ve been in contact with some folks who work with Erika Ebbel (see last post) and we are trying to work out a plan for Erika to video-conference with my students at some point over the next week or so. The students are hard at work planning their Science Fair projects. I’d love for them to have an opportunity to “meet” Erika, ask questions and to run their project ideas by her. Understanding the Scientific Method is a challenge for my students. I’d love for them to have a conversation with Erika about how she uses the Scientific Method in her job as a biochemist.

If you could speak with a real scientist, like Erika, what would you say to or ask her?

The Secret Life of Scientists is a web-based program that brings real-world scientists into a different, more personal light. According to the site, even Einstein had a secret life (can you find out what he liked to do?). Below, check out the video of Erika Ebbel, a biochemist. You can also read her blog. Erika is not only a biochemist but she’s also a Beauty Pageant Queen who talks about “butt glue” on her page. Read about Erika on her site and you’ll see that “butt glue” was the most annoying thing about Pagentry. Wow! Who knew that biochemists have time for such things?

In class we’ve been working on writing essays, from start to finish in 45 minutes. It’s a really tough thing for 4th graders. To be honest, it’s a tough thing for anyone; especially if the prompt isn’t “your thing.”  In that time limit, we expect the students to have a well organized essay with clear details and vibrant vocabulary, grabbers, take-away endings as well as generally good writing conventions such as spelling and punctuation. Below is a narrative essay written by Raegan. Raegan is a voracious reader who is one of my best writers. When she submitted this essay, I couldn’t resist asking her permission to publish it for the world to enjoy. It is published as is however, I changed some spacing. Your feedback is most welcome.

The prompt was, “Tell about a time you broke a rule.”

by Raegan
My warm fingers slid across the keys of my phone, almost dancing. “Ding!” My message had been sent. I was in aftercare (boring!) and was bored so I started texting my friends. I could hear the shuffling of Mr.Davids feet coming towards me and quickly stuffed my phone in my jacket pocket. “Close one” I thought to myself.

In school there is this obnoxious rule that your not allowed to use cell phones, and yes I was breaking that far-fetched rule.

As I headed towards the school bathroom to text some more, I passed a yellow sign plastered to the wall that read “NO CELL PHONES!” I started to feel a bit like a criminal, but in the same breath how would me texting my friends do any harm? Without sleeping on the question, I hurried into the ladies room and got ready to start a marathon on a phone keyboard.

My fingers pressed the letters with desire and passion, almost as if they were a vampire who hadn’t drank blood in years. After I sent a message I realized I had to get out of here before someone noticed me. So I put my phone in my pocket and scurried out looking kind of sinister.

I creaked the door open and entered the noisy eardrum-breaking aftercare portable. Luck was on my side because no one had noticed my absent. I plopped down in a chair and started texting under the table. And that’s when my luck faded away.

Mr. David was tapping on my shoulder. I slowly turned around and gave him a worried “hi”. He just looked at me with a smug expression on his face. “No phones in school” and then he gave me a written warning. Oh no was all that was going through my mind.

Ok, so I broke a rule and got a warning. I guessed I deserved it, now I know I shouldn’t brake rules. As my dad says ” You can’t do the time , don’t do the crime!”

From Weather WizKids website:

“A powerful earthquake rocked Haiti flattening the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. Officials fear thousands may be dead after Tuesday afternoon’s magnitude 7.0 quake. This was the strongest earthquake Haiti has experienced in over 200 years. About 33 aftershocks continued to rattle the capital of 2 million people with the highest coming in as a strong 5.9. Haiti is an extremely poor country and has no real construction standards. The Red Cross dispatched a relief team from Geneva and the UN’s World Food Program is flying in two planes with emergency food aid.”

There are many adult-targeted relief efforts underway but what can kids do to help? Please leave your comments in the comment area. Thank you.

Are you ignoring Books? We have some students who are not reading for pleasure and that makes me sad. It also has a serious impact on their learning in every subject matter including writing.

You can help.Your recommendations are needed!

What books would you recommend for 10 year old boys and girls?

Please leave a comment and:

1. tell us a little about yourself like what grade you are in or what type of job you have and why you read
2. what book do you recommend and why.
3. tell us what state/country you are from (remember, never leave personal information, like last names, phone numbers or addresses, on websites).
4. feel free to leave any other information you feel will help our reluctant readers learn to find the joy in books.

Dear Parents,

Track Santa Online!

Even for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, this is an amazing experience for your child. http://www.noradsanta.org

Every year on Dec. 24, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) opens up their special site so people can track Santa in real time. It’s not just a “Oh, there he is on the map” sort of thing. Once you see where Santa is on the map, you can see the sparkle trails of where he’s been already, and click on the video icons to see videos and explore more. There are Wikipedia articles and beautiful photos at almost every location. According to Google, almost 8 million people used the site last year.

As of this writing, Santa is in Aparri, Philippines but in 3 minutes he will be in Zamboanga, Philippines.

Too bad this wasn’t available when my boys were young.

For more information, here is how the whole thing started. (Sometimes, mistakes lead to amazing ideas!)

Just so you know, they take the site down every year right after Christmas Day, so bookmarking it for later won’t do a thing. (I tried it.)

I hope you’ll share this with your children. No work for you… just give them the link and let them explore. Believe me, they will figure it out. http://www.noradsanta.org

Mrs. Kolbert

I recently blogged about our class’ exciting participation in Discovery Education’s celebration of Palm Beach County School District’s increased use of technology in the classroom. Although meeting Philippe Cousteau was certainly great fun, the real celebration included having Discovery come in and film an actual commercial that is currently airing on our local Discovery networks. There are two. The first is the short version at 30 sec. and the second is the longer version at 1 min and 30 sec.

The longer version shows more of my students, has a few more quotes and gives a clearer picture of how the day went.

Enjoy!

:30 version:

1:30 version:

This is a guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online college classes for OnlineClasses.org.

10 Online Educational Sites for Kids

Educational websites are a great way to engage students in learning. The average site is set up so that kids are able to have fun while they improve their skills and boost their IQ. Here are ten free online educational sites that you can introduce to the children in your life.

National Geographic Kids – This Parents’ Choice recommended site from National Geographic hosts educational videos, games, photos, stories, and other activities for kids. The site also has regular contests and other interactive prompts to keep youngsters excited.

Big Universe – Big Universe is an award-winning literacy site for grades K-8. Offerings include a free library of books to read online and tools that can be used to create and share books with other Big Universe users.

The Stacks – The Stacks is a Scholastic website for children who enjoy reading. Site visitors can create a profile, get book recommendations, write and read book reviews, and chat about books on a secure message board.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park – Children who can’t make it to the National Zoo can still see many of the zoo’s different residents through animal web cams. Some of the animals kids can view on demand include otters, cheetahs, leopards, ferrets, flamingos, lions, tigers, gorillas, pandas, and fish.

KidsAstronomy.com – Part of the Kids Know It Network, this astronomy site is an excellent resource for kids who have an interest in outer space. The site provides games, activities, fun facts, and an astronomy dictionary. Kids can also take a free astronomy course online and receive a certificate of completion when they are finished.

NGA Kids – The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. provides an NGA site just for kids. The website is a great place for kids to learn more about art and try their hand at various online art projects, such as digital photography, image editing, painting, and collage.

Math Playground – Math Playground is a math website for elementary and middle school children who want to improve their math skills and have fun at the same time. While on the site, kids can watch videos, play math games, and complete word problems and logic puzzles.

Whyville – Whyville is a free virtual city and social networking site for kids. Members of Whyville can communicate with each other in a safe and secure environment while they learn about science, math, art, civics, economics, and other topics.

FunBrain – Created for kids in grades K-8, this educational website makes learning fun through web books, comics, movies, arcade games, blogs, and other online activities. Some of the subjects site visitors can learn about include math, language arts, history, science, geography, art, and music.

Kids Know It – The mission of this teacher-created network is to provide children with a fun and educational online resource. The network offers several education sites on topics like astronomy, biology, math, geography, geology, and spelling. Other resources include free educational music, movies, videos, and podcasts.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online college classes for OnlineClasses.org.

Who better to make an elf of herself than your teacher, right? Well here goes…

Writing, writing and more writing! It seems like everything we do involves writing. Well, funny enough… it does! That’s why learning to write effectively is so important. In writing class, the students are becoming master writers who are able to grab their readers’ attention and add interesting details to an already exciting idea.

Improving our writing skills does not come easily. It comes through hard work and lots of practice. Coming up with ideas is always a challenge, so I was excited to learn about this Story Starter site, by Scholastic.com. There’s a virtual slot machine where you type in your name and choose your grade level. Then you spin the handle and you’re given a series of random ideas where you can re-randomize any part you like. Your next choices are to decide between formats such as newspaper, postcard, letter or notebook and you can type your story right into the website (there’s even a dictionary right there). You can even add a drawing. When you print your story, the animation is fun to watch.

Give it a spin. What story idea did you generate?