C4K

C4K week 1:

I was assigned to post to Eric, but he had no posts, so I posted a response to Liam's Valentine's day post. He wrote instructions (and included a picture of the finished product) of how to make lollipop butterflies. It was cute!

I introduced myself and told him that I teach 1st grade, and did he think 1st graders could do a project like that?

I also told him about a St. Patrick's day unit that I teach and asked him if he had any thoughts or ideas that I should include to enhance my lesson. He is from Ireland, after all! I included a link to my blog page. I look forward to seeing what he thinks I should teach about Ireland and St. Patrick.

C4K week 2:

This week we have 3 students to follow.

The first for me was by a fifth grade student named Dillon. He responded to the question, "What is love?" And, I was so delighted with his response! He got it! At 4th grade, he knows what love is, and he even gave simple thoughts of love in action: random acts of kindness, small loving words or actions, smiling, etc.

I asked him if he ever 'planned' to act in love, or was it always spontaneous? If he planned, what would he plan for? 1 extra act a day? 5? 10?

Check out his post- here ; you will likely be as impressed as I was.

(The second two students are both in the same class with the same blog. Here is their school blog address: (click here) .)

The second student I visited was Averie B., a 4th grader, who used her blog with screen shots to show how to add fractions with unlike denominators. She included in her blog 3 screen shot images on her initial problem, how to create common denominators, and then how to reduce back to the smallest fraction. How impressive! My fourth grade son is also working with fractions, and I'd love to see him creating posts like this.

I asked her if she thought she could add audio/video to teach the process step by step, in addition to the still frame images. I told her she could become a great teacher one day with the way she so clearly explained the steps and process.

The third student I visited was Alexis, another 4th grade student from Nebraska. She talked about birthstones in her post. They have been learning about them in science class. She shared that she was born in March and that aquamarine is her birthstone.

I told her that aquamarine is my mother's birthstone too then, because she also has a March birthday. I asked her if she thought my mother would like a birthday present this year with her birthstone in it? I asked if they were expensive, and if I could get nice aquamarine jewelry for $25-$50?

February 26, 2014 -

The first student whose blog I visited, "Guy behind the Waffle House" had written a paragraph about preferring a movie version of a story to the book. He neglected to tell me which book/movie it was, but I commented that I often prefer the book because there are more scenes and details in the book. Yet, I love watching movies, so I really enjoy both mediums.

I asked him what his favorite book/movie is. I told him mine is "Pride and Prejudice." I could watch it over and over again! :)

Here is his
blog.

The second student I visited this week was Dan, from a 10th grade class.

He brought up a frustrating point and a question. He asked, "Is there really a 'best' brand?" He spoke about how frustrating it felt to be talking about a brand of dirt bike, and have the person he was speaking to state definitively that "X sucks," or "Y is better." He said, if there were really a 'best' brand, then everyone would just get that.

I empathized with him and said it is frustrating (and rude) to have someone cut you off with those kind of comments when you were interested in having a quality discussion with them. I asked what he thought he could do to move past such comments. Is there anything you can do (diplomatically) to move past that type remark?

Here is his blog.


The third child I visited is named Tessa and is a 7th grader. She did a blog post about a book report she'd recently completed by using Power Point. I viewed it as well. It was pretty good! I feel somewhat compelled to read the story she reported on, "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana De Rosnay. At the same time, it looks like it would be upsetting (set during the Holocaust; children dying; etc. Knowing how my hormonally charged pregnant self is at the present, I might do better to wait on this book!). Still, it's a good presentation by a 7th grader.

I asked her if she would recommend that I read it or not. Here is her blog.