PowerPoint

This week my amazing students dug back into their memory banks to remember some useful techniques they have learned in the past about PowerPoint. We then added a few new skills and came out with a PowerPoint presentation titled "All About Me." We were able to put them on our wikispace by changing them into PowerPoint movies. One of the dangers of changing a PowerPoint into a movie is that it loses the animations, however, I thought you would enjoy seeing what they accomplished this week.

I am totally excited about next weeks project. I am turning the tables, they are going to be the teachers and I will be the student. Their assignment is to find something they are studying in another class and go above and beyond what they have learned. They are then going to make a PowerPoint and teach me. This project is going to exercise their research skills, their writing skills, and their presentation skills. They will be blogging for the last five minutes of every class to report on the progress they have made. What a great project this is going to be! My hope is that you will become involved in this project and add your support from home.

Not a lot of time for blogging this week, however, we did have a few minutes to write about a Random Act of Kindness we performed. I hope you enjoy reading them. Your comments are so appreciated and mean the world to your child.

A Summary of Week Four

Honestly, this has not been the easiest week of my life. I am trying to engage my students into an activity that requires them to think. I want to teach them a skill that they will be able to use the rest of their academic life. I believe the ability to summarize is an efficient way to capture what is most important. We began by reading an article from "Time for Kids". We then used our highlighting tools in Word to highlight the Who, What, Where, When, and Why of the article. We then created a table and moved the information over. I thought this would be an easy lesson for them, however, most of them found it challenging and frustrating.

After four days of hard work, I thought we needed a "mental health" day so I introduced the students to Photo Booth. Photo Booth is an application found on the Mac computers that uses the built in i-Sight camera. Students just look into the lens, smile and click. The fun part is the effects that can be added. There were lots of giggles and wiggles going on today in room 301. Next, we took those photos and posted them on our blogs along with a fictional short story.

Here is the fun part, the students were all having such a great time, they did not even realize they were writing. What a great day! My favorite post of the day belongs to Michael R. What a great story he tells. You can read his story here.

NOTE: The site went down for repair during our 8th period so their blogs will not be posted until Monday.

Next week we will be starting our adventures into Power Point.

Have a great weekend!

Ten Speed or Three Speed?

This weeks class motto was "Like a ten speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use." I really kicked my kids into high gear this week. I had high expectations and most of them achieved their goals.

We are continuing to work on our word processing skills. We live in a digital age. The 21st century learner will need to be proficient on their word processing skills to be effective in the classroom and the workplace. Communication skills will continue to be a focus of our classroom through our blog and wikispace.

This weeks accomplishments includes:

• Students created Wikispace Page on our classroom wikispace.
• Students uploaded their Wordle and Vacation Documents to their Wikispace Page.
• This weeks blog post was about the five things that makes them the happiest. I am continuing to fight the battle of getting them all to write in complete sentences. (I will win this battle!)

Thank you to the parents and grand-parents who have taken the time to comment on our blogs. It makes a difference when they know I am not the only one who is reading their post.

I have made an important addition to my blog. You can now click on the "lesson plan" page at the top of the screen to see my weekly lesson plans.

Next week is an crucial week for my students. We will be discussing the dangers of plagiarism.

Have a great weekend.

Robin Phares

pharesr@edgewood.k12.oh.us

Self Motivated Learners

I believe that I am responsible for my student's motivational level. A student may arrive in my classroom with a certain degree of motivation, but ultimately it is my behavior and the design of my classroom that has the largest effect on their motivation. This week's theme was "How to become a Self-Motivated Learner." I post their assignments daily and they understand it is their responsibility to complete their work. I am starting to see some impressive work habits.

This weeks class motto was "If you need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm."

I can honestly tell you that my students have far surpassed my expectations. I am shocked at the level of work they are achieving and this is only the second week of school.

• We have completed three additional learning.com lessons on Word. Please remember that these lessons can be viewed at http://learning.com/. Students use their six digit school id number as both their user name and password. The district name is "edgewood-oh".
• Students completed the "Word" quiz and I am happy to report that the lowest grade was an 84%.
  
• We began two projects that will utilize their newly acquired Word skills. I will be posting their finished projects next week. About Me and A Teenagers' Guide to Everywhere
  
• This weeks blog post was about Super Heroes. I asked the students if they could be a superhero, what super powers would they have and why? You can read their responses here. Please take time to comment on their posts. I believe it will help them become better writers knowing you are reading their thoughts.
  

http://kidblog.org/PeriodTwo/

http://kidblog.org/PeriodThree/

http://kidblog.org/PeriodFour2/

http://kidblog.org/PeriodFive/

http://kidblog.org/PeriodSix/

http://kidblog.org/PeriodEight/

Have a great three day week-end!

If you need to get in touch with me you can email at pharesr@edgewood.k12.oh.us.