A few weeks ago, I blogged about my plans to bring in special guest, bio-chemist Erika Ebbel, to our class. Well, today all three of my classes had the unique experience of having this video conversation with Erika. Erika was profiled on The Secret Life of Scientists which is a wonderful site where students can learn about many different types of science and the real people who live it daily. Additionally, Secret Life of Scientists provides video snippets into the “secret lives” of these brilliant folks allowing students to get a glimpse of the diverse interests and hobbies that even “really smart” people enjoy!

Leading up to our conversation today, I prepared my students by watching Erika’s videos (each one is no more than a few minutes) and having some conversations in class about the context. It was very good for the students to see Erika speak to the fact that she studied very hard and did well in school, continues to study science (and loves it) and entered and won beauty pageants. Perhaps the most interesting to the students was the video, Whiz Kids, where Erika explains how, when she was in 11 years old, she got her idea for a project to see if cells commit suicide when diseased. She got her idea from visiting a crocodile farm where she learned that when crocodiles become fatally wounded, they roll over in the water and commit suicide. She goes on to describe how she set and achieved her goal to conduct this experiment. The challenges she faced with her experiment were not much unlike some of the challenges my students are facing with their own Science Fair experiments. Some of my students are also finding their results to be inconclusive or that the resources they need are not readily available and so they need to change their plans.

This was a great opportunity for my students to ask Erika questions about their projects, science, the beauty pageant or anything really. The students prepared questions and we were ready to go.

Erika graciously agreed to do this video conference with me three times (so that each of my classes could benefit). I didn’t want to consume too much of Erika’s time, so I vetted the questions in advance and only a few students in each class asked their questions.

A couple of highlights:

• Hearing Erika talk about her successes was fascinating, but listening to her talk about the many times she failed was pretty important too. It’s easy to set a goal and get started. It’s also easy to turn away and give up at the first sight of resistance. It is good for my students to see that being successful doesn’t usually come easily.
• Jack speaking about his project on growing crystals and how the paper clips used for weights kept rusting causing the crystals not to grow. He and Erika discussed running more trials and some possible solutions.
• Jordana asking Erika about the diseases she is working on curing.
• Santiago asking Erika about how to measure centipedes without getting bit.
• Eriel wondering what people want to talk to Erika about more; science or the beauty pageants.
• Noah, whose experiment requires exerting the same force on a hovercraft to measure on which surface it will travel the farthest, wanted to know how to make sure he was exerting the same amount of force each time he ran his trials.
• Erika responding to a question about her daily routine. She described how she is in a PhD program and only recently stopped attending classes and taking tests, but now goes to a lab every day. She also described her routine when she has days off and the activities she enjoys doing such as SCUBA diving.

Erika is incredibly engaging and developed a lovely rapport with the students right away. She obliged us with talk of her awards and achievements, but you could tell she was much more comfortable talking about where she/we still needs to go. It’s clear how passionate she is about her work and how much she wants young students to develop the same love for science and math that she’s embraced.

There were many messages to be gleaned from the conversations and I’ll be spending some time next week debriefing with the students and having them work on their own “Secret Life of Students” profiles where they will identify their own areas of expertise to share with others.

I want to thank Erika for spending so much time with me and my students. Additionally, I’d like to thank Tom Miller and Karen Laverty (some behind-the-scenes folks from The Secret Life of Scientists) who helped facilitate this wonderful instructional experience that my students will surely remember always.

Special thanks to Ms. New, university student from FAU, for all her EXTRA help that day!

Have you ever wanted to be on TV? Well, this wish came true for one of my students last week!

Katie G. won a guest appearance on PalmBreezeCAFE as part of our school carnival fund-raiser. It was a great pleasure having Katie on the set with me as my co-host for the segment below. She was the perfect on-air “talent.” She arrived on time to have her make-up done (Thank you, Kay!) and was then whisked away for her personal tour of the studio (Thank you, Greg!). Not only did she get to host the segment with me, but also watch the other segments from inside the studio as well as, (and perhaps even more fun) from the control room where all the magic really happens.

So, what did we talk about on-air?

As our readers know, our class has been blogging, not only here at our class blog, but also over here at our kidblog site. The students are doing such a great job with their blogs. You can read their poems, essays, ideas and even some original plays they’ve written. They are also doing a wonderful job commenting on each other’s posts.

For this reason, I was very excited to finally be able to share our kidblog site on PalmBreezeCAFE and who else to tell you about it, then one of my students herself?

Here Katie and I tell you all about it. Please leave a comment to let Katie know what you think of her debut. Also, if you are a teacher who is using Kidblog with your class, we’d love to read what your kids are writing, so please leave a comment with your URL.

You can see all PalmBreezeCAFE educational tech segments here on YouTube.

Thank you to everyone at TEN and PalmBreezeCAFE for making Katie and her mom feel so welcome. You guys totally ROCK!

In the last of our Expository essay series, Ryan shares his thoughts on why school would be much better if every student were given a laptop to use.

Imagine if each student got a free laptop in school and you are allowed to use it.  It’s an outstanding idea because it has learning games that can give your teacher a break, it can help you understand technology and I can leave a comment on my classmates or teachers’ blog on our school’s website.  I bet laptops will make school ten times better!

Let’s go to Brainpop or Learning Tools!  With all these learning games online, we can learn anything we want or do anything our teacher assigns.  All these games you can play and learn can also lead to terrific grades and magnificent report cards.  You can not believe how fun learning can be when playing a learning game.  Learning games online can also give your teacher a break while you learn.  There are a variety of learning games you can play during school.  For example, Brainpop has videos, activities, and games you can play.  You just click Learning Tools and you will see it along with many other games as well.  Learning games are extremely helpful when it comes to learning, you have to just  wait and see.

Having a laptop can also help you learn about using technology.  It can teach you to type, how to use a computer and a whole lot more.  Soon I will be an expert at technology just like my teacher Mrs. Kolbert.  She loves teaching us about technology when we ask her.  When you get a new computer it usually comes with an instruction manual that tells you exactly what to do.  Always read the directions given to you or something wrong will happen.  The computer might also have some information about setting it up.  Getting a laptop at school would be a great way to learn about technology.

Let’s Blog! Blogging is another reason why we should have a laptop at school.  I get to comment on many of my teachers and classmates and they are amazing to read and comment every day.  Guess what? I can make my own blog post too! I type what I want and put a picture on top.  When my teacher edits and approves it, my blog is ready for people’s comments.  I haven’t blogged yet, but know that my teacher is making it better, so there’s no time to lose.  Now I know that blogging can be as easy as ABC, and I can blog about whatever I want to when we get a laptop for school.

Oh Yeah! Having a computer at school can be an astonishing experience.  We can play learning games, learn about technology, and blog anytime we want to.  Having a laptop computer at school will make me as happy as a pig in a mud puddle!

These are the days that touch my heart…

“I’ve known you for about a year,

When I hear your voice I just might cheer.

As a teacher, you make me laugh and play,

I want to see you every day.

You never think of me as stupid,

I think I might be visiting Cupid.

Just as I think the day is done,

You show up and it’s just begun.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love,
Elly”

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.