FlipSnacks, MS Word, & WebCams

FlipSnacks, MS Word, and WebCams.  What do these three things have in common you may ask.  Well, they are just three of the many technology resources we used to create our latest blog post.  Students have been working hard creating books about ourselves.  In the process of creating these books students learned a great deal about using Microsoft Word.

The students had to create a 10 page Word document following certain criteria.  The document told facts and details about themselves.  They had to use text boxes, pictures, list, SmartArt, WordArt and much more to create their document.  Students also used web cameras and their own digital devices to capture and create images.  Students learned about Google Maps and created hyperlinks within their document to a Google map containing a list of places they would like to visit.

After completing their documents in Microsoft Word they then learned how to save them as PDF files and how to upload them into a Web 2.0 tool called FlipSnack.  FlipSnack allows you to convert your PDF documents into digital books.  Once the digital books were made student learn about using HTML embedded codes.  They copied and pasted their embedded codes into the HTML of their blogger.  Finally they finished the project by writing a brief post and publishing them to their blog.

Check out some of the FlipSnack books below:

Katie

Lasee

Danielle

Amber

Mikah

North Carolina Mystery Skype

This week we had the privilege of adding another school to our global connections map.

We Mystery Skyped with Mrs. Podolinsky's 7th grade class in North Carolina.  It was a race to see who could guess the other classes state first.  Mrs. Podolinsky's students asked some really great questions and quickly narrowed down their search to our state.  Finding out that our state bordered Mexico was a clear sign they were on the right path.  It wasn't long before they had correctly guessed our state.  It took us a few more questions to figure out the location of their state.  In all it was a great experience and we look forward to more collaborations with the students in North Carolina.

North Carolina Mystery Skype on PhotoPeach

Alabama!

Mystery Skype Alabama on PhotoPeach

Connecticut Connection

Connecticut Mystery Skype on PhotoPeach


Nothing is more fun for my students than making global connections.  We once again had the opportunity to Skype with another school.  This time with a very smart group of 6th graders in Meriden, Connecticut.  We had a great time and were really challenged to know our stuff when it came to the geography of the Northeastern United States.  Connecticut was hard to find, it's a small state compared to Texas, but eventually we narrowed it down.  The students in Connecticut asked some great questions and quickly guessed our state.  Of course our thick southern accents gave them a bit of a hint :).  In all it was a great exchange and we really enjoyed the challenge.  We are now sharing an Edmodo group with the class from Connecticut and look forward to many more opportunities to connect and collaborate with them.  Thank Mrs. D for connecting with us!

Mystery Skype

Mapping, Googling, Skyping, critical thinking, geography, searching and questioning all add up to a fun and successful MysterySkype.  This week two of my classes had the opportunity to participate in a Mystery Skype with a school in Duncan,OK.  A Mystery Skype is a yes or no questioning game that two schools play to try to guess each other’s locations.  Students had to work together as a team to ask questions about the other schools location and then use maps, atlases and Google, along with their reasoning skills to come up with the location of the other school.  My students really enjoyed the interaction and the challenge.  Even though Oklahoma is not that far from us it was still really enjoyable to interact with students from another school.  Thanks to Mrs. Davies 8th grade computer class for the Skype call and for playing along with us!

Mystery Skype on PhotoPeach

Computer Parts and ThingLinks

It's been a crazy school year so far. I can't believe how fast the year is passing by. Only three weeks until Thanksgiving break. Currently students are hard at work learning about the different parts of a computer and creating a ThingLink of their computer parts. A ThingLink is an interactive picture. They are pretty cool and fun to make. Hopefully students will finish their ThingLink this week and then create a blog post about the project. Look for links to student blogs on the right hand side of my blog page.

Thailand Skype

What a fun day!  Students had the unique opportunity to Skype with a former Kirbyville student who is now living and working in Thailand.   Charity Cucancic is now a missionary in Thailand.  She has been in Thailand for about a year.  She took time out to talk with students about Thai food, culture, weather, and traditions.  Students also got to say hi to our school secretary Mrs. Cucancic who was in Thailand visiting Charity.  Students asked her questions about her experiences in Thailand and about how Americans are viewed by the Thai people.  Charity also gave students a tour inside her home.  She showed them how different her tiny apartment was from most American homes.  It was a great opportunity to get outside the walls of the classroom and visit a totally different country on the other side of the globe.

From our side of the Skype

A view of us from Thailand