Pam Cranford

We are now enjoying the fall season. Outside our classroom window we can see the leaves as they are changing colors almost daily. What a beautiful time of the year! Please enjoy these answering these questions about trees using the research database for children, FACTS4ME.

Username: white

Password: oak

When our class read The Perky Little Pumpkin by Ellen Javernick and the children asked what a jack-o-lantern was, I knew that we had to find the perfect pumpkin and carve it ourselves. We had already committed to participate in Pumpkin Seed Project 2008 hosted by Jennifer Wagner so the timing was perfect. We each selected a pumpkin for carving and decided which pumpkin we would use for the seed project.
We had so much fun with these pumpkins and wanted to share our experiences with all of you.
THIS FILE MAY TAKE A LITTLE WHILE TO DOWNLOAD, BUT BE PATIENT. IT IS WORTH IT!

About a week ago, Scott Floyd sent me an invitation to register for Jennifer Wagner's online Pumpkin Seed Project 2008, and I was eager to jump at the opportunity to sign my class up for this experience. We registered on October 6th to participate and will soon be posting our classroom results to the Pumpkin Seed Project website along with many other schools. In the meantime, we have been using several of Ms. Wagner's suggested activities involving pumpkins for this fall season. One the students' favorite activites was to virtually carve a jack-o-lantern from an online pumpkin. I was surprised to discover that more than a couple of my students did not even know what a jack-o-lantern was, but I can assure you that they cannot say that now. Here is a Flip Video of four students carving their own Halloween Jack-o-Lanterns. Enjoy!

Recently I purchased a new digital camera as did my daughters. I collected our old digital cameras and brought them to my classroom. A big thank you to Michael Gras, who in his vision to promote technology at White Oak Intermediate School, furnished us with SD cards for each camera so that we could store our pictures. Today my third graders placed their "Press" tags around their necks and went on a digital walk. We were looking for sets of objects representing the numbers 1 - 15. We had to do a lot of counting, but we eventually found all of them. Here is our podcast showing you all that we found. When you finish watching, be sure to visit our class website because we are adding things daily.

There is no better way to start a Mother's Day than with Green Eggs and Ham......even if the reader has a bad case of the hiccups. Thank you, Katelyn Jester, for a tasty reading.

Today I was surfing through TeacherTube.com and listening/watching some elementary classrooms that were very involved in blogging. I already have made arrangements for my students to have Gaggle accounts next year for emailing, but then I began to think if what we really needed was a Wiki to encourage collaboration and cooperation. There are more outlets available for teaching than we will ever have time to fully explore, and I want to use them all!!!


These were the thoughts going through my head when my 4-year-old granddaughter knocked on my front door. Her parents were on their way out to a wedding, and she was going to spend the evening with me. Now most 4 year olds would go straight to the toy box and begin to empty its entire contents. However, I had different plans for this evening. Her mother had brought Madison's bag of library books for us to read, and Madison had a favorite among the group. It's title was No Bows. In fact, using the pictures as cues, Madison could successfully "read" the entire book. So I asked her if she would like to make a movie. WOW! She really wanted to do that, and so we did!


After only 10 minutes, we had all we needed to make an enhanced podcast. Here is the first book Madison Isgitt "read" from cover to cover, and I will treasure it forever.
If a mere 4-year-old can get excited about podcasting and reading, wouldn't the same hold true for all of our children? That same level of excitement was the one constant that became evident over and over again by students blogging in their classrooms. We must get our children involved with technology if we expect them to succeed in this world today because times are changing, and I for one am glad.

When we read, we should visualize a movie taking place in our minds. Some children who have reading difficulties do not produce a picture and this hinders their comprehension. The program, Visualize and Verbalize, used at White Oak Intermediate School helps to train children to create that movie. They are taught key words that trigger self-questioning before, during, and after reading. By using these techniques on a regular basis, the cognitive action becomes automatic and has been proven to increase comprehension.

Parents are encouraged to print out each of the cards above and use at home with your student. I have included some possible questions on each card to be used when guiding your child to create a movie as he/she reads aloud to you. You will be amazed at the difference between reading without questioning and reading with questioning.

So Amaze YOURSELF by all means.

Today I was walking down the hall returning to my classroom after several RtI Meetings when I noticed a crowd of students in the White Oak Elementary Library. Now the number of students did not surprise me as Shaynee Elder always has varied activities going on in the library, but then I noticed that they were all crowded around the new NComputing system recently installed by Scott Floyd, Michael Gras, and Cheryl Hawthorne. Upon entering the mix of excited students, it became obvious that they were not only excited over the use the new "surfing" system, but they were reacting to the newly developed teacher's websites at the White Oak Intermediate School. I ran to my classroom and got my Flip Video camera, awarded to our classroom by the PTO Grant program, and videoed a short clip capturing the excitement of these 10 and 11-year olds. There is no better way to evaluate the decision to place this system in our library than to watch this clip. So here it is!

Mrs. Dickson and Mr. Gras recently signed the White Oak Elementary School up for an annual subscription to the research database called Facts4Me. It is important for students to be able to manuever around the internet to search for answers to problems and questions. However, as educators and parents, we are obligated to provide such opportunities to develop these skills within safe boundaries. I have decided to make use of this site by creating and regularly posting Online Scavenger Hunts. Students will use reading, science, math, social studies, and technology skills to answer 5 questions posted in varied levels - EASY, MEDIUM, HARD.

DIRECTIONS:
Students will choose the desired ability level from the three pdf files. Open the file and print out the document. Go to my class website and choose Student Websites - Facts4Me. Login into the site. Our username is white. Our password is oak. Use the titles on the left column to help locate the answers to the five questions.

What teachable moments we find in the weather of East Texas! One week we have snow and the next we have 83 degree temperatures. It inspired multiple podcasts from Billy McBride's water cycle lesson to Pam Cranford's students writing of spring poems. Here are my students' Welcome to Spring. I hope you enjoy listening to the children's work as much as we enjoy producing it. If you do, then please visit our class website for even more.

Our students just finished a Black History study. During these weeks we read several books written by or about African Americans. The students were surprised that these books soon became their favorites. We decided to write book reports on these stories. Each student choice a favorite and, after practicing, recorded their reports. We used Garageband to add background music for ambiance. You will certainly enjoy this podcast entitled Black History Reports. We hope to post more on our class website very soon.

There is nothing in this world that brings me greater joy than to hear a child read, and this is an excellent reader sharing an excellent story. Tyler Smith, a second grader in Jan Belcher's classroom, came to our classroom as a guest to read A Christmas Star. It is the story of a family during the Great Depression who has very little money. They celebrate Christmas as a community at the local church. This year, however, someone has stolen the Christmas tree along with the mittens that all the children look forward to receiving. The emotion that the entire town feels comes through this 7-year old's expression. We were honored to have him share. Please listen to the entire story. It will be a truly unforgetable experience.

One of our class's favorite books is Eve Bunting's Night Tree. It is the story of a family that drives a short distance to the outskirts of the city to a secluded placed called Luke's Forest. The entire family partakes in this ritual annually. They prepare for weeks making feeders and cutting up fruit and shelling nuts for the animals who live there. After hanging the feeders in the tree that they have adopted as their own, they all sit down on a warm blanket, sip hot cocoa, and sing songs. The students thought it would be fun to make our own feeders with peanut butter and bird seeds. We wrote about Our Night Tree, and then had Mr. Mike Jordan hang our feeders in the oak trees outside the Intermediate School. Enjoy the quicktime movie of our day.

Tonight as I am sitting at home in the midst of paying bills, doing laundry, and luring yet another teacher into the exciting world of podcasting, I receive an email from a parent of one of my students. She relays to me that her child was ill and her concern for his school work is evident. I promptly reply with a personal note of assurance and well wishes for his speedy recovery. What a wonderful connection technology has brought to us! Why do we all not take advantage of what is readily available? Think of the increased support we as teachers would gain if we would only use technology to make our parents feel connected.