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

Another Great Week

Wow, this year is flying by so fast!  We are already into our 2nd six weeks and we have been so very busy.  Last week we got to be the first ones to use the brand new I pods   What did you guys think?  Did you enjoy using the I pods?  We also made our own videos and uploaded them to YouTube.  Here's one of my favorites Cyberbully.  Once our videos were uploaded we generated QR Codes for the videos and put them out in the hallway with the matching vocabulary words.  Everyone did a great job of working with their groups and getting their videos done.  I hope that the project helped you as students to learn about QR Codes, using the I pods, making videos and most importantly allowed you to hands on learn about your vocabulary word.  I also hope that you enjoyed scanning the QR Codes and following my instructions in my videos, as well as, scanning and watching everyone's vocabulary videos.

Here's a few pics from the project.

 

 
 
 

Let me know how you felt about the project and what you learned?  Did you enjoy it?

What a great week!  GO WILDCATS!

Dream Big, Work Hard!!!

What a Week!

Well, what a week it has been.  This week was homecoming week and we had a lot of wild and wacky events happening around the school.  From crazy hats, nerds to a few of the elderly, it was certainly a week like no other. It was really fun to see all the students and teachers dressing up in full costume to show their Wildcat spirit.  Of coarse, geriatrics day would not be complete without a friendly, walker hall racing competition.

This week was full of fun homecoming events but students also made the effort to arrive at school early and  gather around the flagpole to pray.   Students united together to sing and pray.  They prayed for their school, their country and their fellow students.

Although we have had lots of fun outside of class we have certainly accomplished a lot in class as well.  Students have been working on a project that required them to find, print and the nine major parts of a computer.  Students have learned about the basic functions of the heatsink and fan, CPU, RAM and motherboard.  It has all been quite interesting.

      

Last of all the students were introduced to Quizlet.  Quizlet is a great Web 2.0 tool that allows you to make and study note cards.  It allows you to play several different games with your card sets as well as study and test yourself.   It is also available as an app on iOS.  Students spent time creating and studying different note card sets for all of their core subjects. Hopefully, this experience has helped them become more familiar with a great Web 2.0 tool, as well as, getting some valuable study time for their other classes.  If you want to check out Quizlet for yourself go to www.quizlet.com.

What a week! Go Wildcats!

Guest Blogger Mr. Adams!

Guest Blogger today: Mr. Adams


I am very excited and honored to be a guest blogger on Mrs. Johnson’s class blog!  I have been so impressed with all the great things going on in Technology Applications!

After just six weeks, you have learned your way around the inside of a PC, and have some experience doing maintenance and upgrades to make computers work more efficiently.  Using Web 2.0 tools, you’ve seen how to apply technology to help you learn and study for other classes.  You have learned how to create and protect your digital footprint.  And finally, you have experienced connecting with other students and sharing your thoughts and feelings about cyber bullying.

I encourage you to continue learning about technology and the incredible things that it can do.  There is a global need for bright, young learners and thinkers like you who can apply the power of technology to change the world.  You could be the one to innovate a new concept that brings an end to the nation’s energy crisis.  You could be the creator of a new device that revolutionizes the way the world communicates.  You could be the person who develops a cure for cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s using the latest medical technology.  The ability to make a difference rests in the hands of You!  

The skills you are learning in this class are the foundations of digital citizenship and technological innovation, so I challenge you to learn all you can!  And finally...Dream Big, Work Hard!!

TJ Adams, Principal
Kirbyville Junior High

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@KirbyvilleJH


Thanks to Mr. Adams for taking the time out of his busy day to write a post for my blog.  When you see him in the hall tell him thank you for being involved and let him know what you learned from his blog post.

Go check out Mr. Adam's blog!        kjhprincipal.wordpress.com