Self-Assess, or Not

by recesstec tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 6-27-2011

Have you ever wanted someone to check your work,
or give you feedback,
or maybe you just needed another pair of eyes?

PaperRater.com will provide a “pre-grade” in the areas of

  • Title
  • Spelling
  • Grammar
  • Word Choice
  • Style
    • Sentence Length
    • Word Usage
    • Verb Phrases
    • Transitional Phrases
  • Vocabulary

This site is recommended for “authors” with a high school or college level education, but it offers good tips and suggestions for anyone. My recommendation would be to have students use this tool to check their blog posts, narratives, essays, and research papers. It not only provides some guidance, but it will save you time grading by offering students a platform to evaluate their own drafts, make some adjustments and corrections, and learn from that process. PaperRater will generate a “suggested grade” if the copy is submitted as a:

  • “Research Paper”
  • “Personal Narrative”
  • “Essay”
  • “Short Story”
  • “Speech/Presentation”, or
  • “Book Report”.

No grade is suggested for:

  • “Lab Reports”
  • “Letters/Emails”
  • “Movie Reviews”, or
  • “Other”.

Sometimes students need to be reminded that we are all on the same page. We all want them to succeed, and PaperRater can enable real support.

Within our classroom settings, Shannon and I continually remind students of their responsibility as digital citizens. This tool reinforces their accountability. They need to internalize the concept that they are never “annonymous” on the internet, and the “Plagiarism Detection” feature of this tool just serves as a reminder that they truly are responsible and accountable for their own digital presence.

Finally, this tool is “FREE”!

Enough said. Have a great week…

(Oh, and I’m going to have to settle for an “82%/B” rating for this Monday Morning Message.)

Revisiting the “Little Book”…

by recesstec reflections tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 4-25-2011

These next few weeks will find our students busy with year-end activities and field trips.

With that, I have been thinking about the “Little Book” that was featured in our March 28th Tip.

I am planning to use this “Little Book”, but my students love lines on which to write,
and they often love to include their own drawings.

So on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I designed two templates to give them a choice.
One I will use for a book on Geometric Shapes with definitions, and they can use the blank pages to construct their shapes using the templates that are provided with our Math series.

In our school arboretum, each of my students is assigned two trees for which they are responsible. They can make a book for each tree, and use the pages to draw the tree and leaf shapes, or to use for a rubbing of the new leaves as they emerge.
(As we wait for the rain to stop…)

If you need to refresh your memory as to how to make the “Little Book”, please visit the link above to watch the video.

I have uploaded a pdf copy of each of the templates.

You’ll find the links below.
Please feel free to use them and share them.
We would love to hear how you have used them in your classroom.

If you are returning to school after Spring Break,
we hope this next week finds you rested and motivated to make these last few weeks the very best.

Make sure you take time to have fun with your students.

Little Book With Pictures

Little Book With Only Lines

Seeing Double…

by recesstec tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 4-18-2011

My fifth grade students come to me with little/no keyboarding skills.
Their paragraphs are indented with anywhere from one to twelve spaces.

And the fonts and colors… Yikes!

I give them a choice of three fonts and three colors.

Fonts from which they may choose are Arial, Calibri, or Century Gothic.

The colors they may choose are black, black, or black.

Once we have learned to use the “Tab” key to indent,
I teach them about the space between the period at the end of the sentence
and the capital letter at the beginning of the next sentence.

The stress here is:
ending punctuation and
capitalizing the first word of a new sentence!

In typing class, we were taught to type two spaces between the period and the next letter. Lately, I have been hearing otherwise and thought, before I “misteach” my students, I should do some research.

Everything I read said, “Yes…” to dropping the double-space and moving to single.

I was a reluctant reader, though, and wanted some rationale.
I felt like I was “selling out” just because someone decided it was the thing to do.

Then I stumbled upon a post on “Good Design” by Alissa Walker.

In her post, Alissa explains that today’s text editing programs take into account the width of each letter, and adjust the spaces accordingly. When we were typing with typewriters.. (and that IS my history…) the keys were each the same width, and there would be more space on each side of an “l” than an “m”. Thus, a double-space between sentences made the separation more clear.

Now it made sense to me. A logical reason is something I can accept.

So now I can teach my students, and explain why.

And it only took me a few years weeks to reteach myself to single-space.
The “carrot” was the extra time I would have to do something fun!

If you are on “Spring Break”, even if it is for just a few days, make sure you take time to have fun, too…

How to Make a Little Book

by recesstec tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 3-28-2011

This is not necessarily a “technology tip”, but we thought using a piece of technology can give you several ideas for your week.

We LOVE this “Little Book”, and we can think of countless ways to use it in our curriculum.

What better way to “show you how” than with a video?

(Consider that our piece of “technology”.)

There are several tips here, in addition to the “Little Book”.

  1. YouTube is more than funny videos that are posted on Facebook and sent in emails. It is a very valuable resource for us as teachers, and in our personal lives.
  2. Consider using videos for your students’ “How To” projects. It is a great way to motivate students to write “Steps in a Process” papers.
  3. If you don’t have access to a video camera, consider using digital photos and creating a “stop-motion” video using Windows MovieMaker or Photo Story 3.

As we “spring ahead” into the final days of our school year, continue to push your students to learn and grow to be ready for next year, but don’t forget to make it fun!

*Note: We would LOVE to hear from you in the comment section how you might use this “Little Book” in your curriculum.

Once Upon A Time…

by recesstec tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 3-21-2011

Here is a quick way to motivate your students to write fairy tales.

Using the “Insert Drop Cap” option in Microsoft Word, students can easily add a special look to their stories.

In simple steps, students need to:

1. Type their story using Microsoft Word.

2. Once the story is typed, highlight the first letter and choose
a. “Insert”
b. “Drop Cap”  choosing “Dropped”.

3. Highlight the dropped cap letter and change the size, the font, and the color as best suits the student and the story.

The video below should help answer any questions, and is best viewed in full screen.

Have a great week!
Spring has finally arrived, so here’s hoping recess is outside for you and your students!

Blogging Maniacs

by recesstec Blog reflections writing

The start of school is behind us and we are into our 2nd week.  I introduced the students to our class blog which is being hosted at www.kidblog.org and I have been amazed at how excited and focused they are on their writing.  Not only are they generating thoughtful posts on which they are experts.  They are also generating thoughtful comments on each other’s blogs.  Now I have never been an expert on writing by any stretch.  But I do know that in the past I have struggled to get kids excited about writing.  By weaving technology and writing together, I have been successful at getting  a much higher level of buy-in from the students.  This is year is no different.  Plus, they are writing for fun.  Fun…that’s right…fun.  I am only requiring the kids to post one entry on his or her blog each week as part of the overall spelling grade.  Most kids are posting more than that already.  My daughter included.  Not because I asked her to.  Not because she wants to impress me.  Not because she wants to have the most entries in the class.  But because she WANTS to post.  She wants to have content on which others will comment.  The comments of the other kids and the feedback received by the parents of the other students in my classroom are driving her to want to post more work.  Will this be a phase?  Will it get boring and end soon?  I have no idea, but I am enjoying it while it lasts!

If you want to head over to www.mrsssmith.com and check out our “student blog” link on the homepage, I am sure the kids would love to have even more comments.

The Light Bulb Moment

by recesstec reflections workshops
lightbulbmoment

All teachers know it… The light bulb moment. The exact moment when all of your hard work pays off because you can see the light switch on in the eyes of your student. The “I’ve Got It!” look. The “Oooohhhhh…now I understand” expression. I am not sure what causes this to happen for some students or why it takes longer for some to finally get there, but it is one of the best payoffs in the world of a teacher. Better than dare I say…the paycheck.

 

However, as wonderful as the light bulb moment seems, I have found another moment as equally as satisfying. The smile. The smile that creeps on the faces of my students as they watch their completed digital stories appear on their screens in full viewing mode. The moment they see their creative writing combined with music and real images is unbelievably fulfilling.

 

That happened to me a couple of weeks ago in the computer lab. As the kids were finally done searching for images on Microsoft.com, putting them in order to coincide with their stories, double checking transitions, recording, rerecording, and recording AGAIN to achieve their desired fluencies, the time came to insert their background music. That was when the smiles started to appear around the lab. Since they each wear a set of headphones, I don’t know what music they choose while we are working. I can just see the smile and the heads bobbing. Then more clicking with the mouse. Another smile, head bob and finally a hand shoot in the air indicating the readiness to publish. Once the program runs its course and puts the elements together into a movie-like story, the students can view the finished project on full screen. It is the easily the best part of my job!

 

I am SO looking forward to doing the digital storytelling workshop in November at ROE #11 in Charleston.  It is one of my all time favorite workshops to conduct.  So many times the exact same light bulb/smiling moment is experienced by the teachers in that session.  It is amazing to see them realize the power of the digital story!  And we love to show our examples for ALL grade levels and subject areas.  This is not an “elementary” thing!

 

Please be sure to visit http://www.mrsssmith.com/ and click on student showcase. My students’ first digital stories are “Nothing Ever Happens at North Ward”.