Merry Christmas

Yesterday, I had second grade students visit me in  the lab and we worked on animation in PowerPoint. They typed their message in WordArt and customized it how they wanted. Then they animated each letter.  I think they turned out real cute.  The idea was borrowed from one I saw on appsolutelyapril.com.



LILIANA from Nikki Polk on Vimeo.

Hour of code

The nation is participating in Hour of Code and the kids are diving head first in it. During computer rotation the teacher was trying to use code.org and tynker.com but the sites were bogged down. Imagine that. I guess they weren't ready for every kid around the country to jump on their site. I suggested botlogic.us. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. It worked!! I heard one kid exclaim "Bazooka!" while plotting his way thru the course. I'm going to assume that means he was enjoying himself. By then one class was saying how much they LOVED the activities and were asking to do it next time they came to the lab.

Plickers

Today was a extra busy day. After helping an excited 5th grade class log into their GAFE accounts, experiment with Gmail and share documents, I headed over to another 5th grade class to try out a new site. I stumbled across Plickers yesterday and wanted to see if really was as easy as the video made it seem. I typed up some science questions to go with the Energy unit 5th graders are currently studying. Then I ventured over to the classroom of  my neighbor Mrs Friend. Doesn't she have the most perfect name for a teacher, Friend? And she lives up to her name, she is one of the most friendliest people I know. Anyway she agreed to let her class be guinea pigs and let me try this app/site out on them.  They had so much fun and it was super easy to use. I didn't have to walk around or hold a receiver in a strange angle so that every one's remote could reach the signal.  I just stood there with my phone as they held up their pieces of paper. I can't wait to try it out with more classes next week. Well I'm off to paint pumpkins and make BOO bags. When did Halloween become the new Christmas? I am doing just as many crafts this weekend to prepare for next week as I do in December. Bah Humbug!

If you show it, they will come... Right?

When I began my career as a CIT I thought "If I show these neat tools and lessons to the teachers they will bring their class." I mean it worked on me when I was in the classroom. All I had to do was see it at a collab meeting or at a staff development and I was there the next day doing it with my kids. Well it is not that easy. Teachers are A WHOLE LOT more busy than I ever was and some are just too intimidated. So if they can't come to me I could go to them. There is a kindergarten teacher who told me this year "Yes, please come to my class whenever you can." She's a dream!  So a couple of weeks ago I brought the iPod cart to her room during centers time. And she made me a center! There were 4 reluctant kindergartners selected to visit me. (It's hard to be up against housekeeping or play dough center. They are tough competition when it comes to kindergartners) But as soon as I rolled up the door to the cart, their eyes widen. They were so attentive and excited. By the time I left they were asking "When do you come back?" And when they see me in the hall I'm greeted with "Hi Mrs Polk! Are you coming today?"  All I did was use the app AR Flashcards (click the link to see it) but it was a good introductory lesson on how to use the devices and it got some learning in, letter/sound recognition. If you're on the fence about mobile devices almost anything with Augmented Reality is a sure winner.

10 Things About Me

I was supposed to start this blog years ago and so I have had a collection of "Things I am gonna post one day". This post is one of the things in that file. It was my part of a submission  to a link party held earlier this year but I never got around to joining the fun. I thought this would be a good way to introduce or reintroduce myself to readers.