Day 54: Razan, 2nd grade student

New Family Addition Leads to New Experiences

Razan, a 2nd grade student in Mrs. Estep's class, recently had a new member added to her family.  Her baby brother has brought new joy into her life, as well as some new learning experiences.  In the video, Razan shares a "how-to" book that she hopes will teach others a valuable skill for anyone with a newborn baby brother or sister.

Razan How-To from HZN165 on Vimeo.

Day 53: 5th Grade Junior Ecologists

Junior Ecologists Museum

From the informational brochure:

"Junior Ecologists in Mrs. Humm and Mrs. Ringhiser's rooms have been collaborating to learn all about ecosystems by studying different habitats around the world.  Throughout this project-based learning research project, students have used their 21st Century skills to demonstrate communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking!  We are very excited to share with you!"

Ecology Project from HZN165 on Vimeo.

Presentations that were created and used during the museum hours:

Day 52 : Miss Tucker's 1st grade students

Today's post comes from Heather Tucker, 1st Grade Teacher at Hilliard Horizon Elementary

Exploring Changes with VoiceThread

In Social Studies, we are learning about how things have changed over time. 

Each student chose a topic they wanted wanted to explore, for example, TV, games, baby dolls, houses, schools, clothing, telephones, etc. We looked for images of each topic on the internet. This helped us compare things from the past and present and how they change over time. Some students even brought in artifacts from home, like a James Brown record! :) 

After exploring, students drew a picture of what their topic looked like in the past. Then we really had to use our creative thinking and our new knowledge to come up with a prediction of what we think each thing might look like and what it might do to help us in the future. After drawing our pictures, we wrote down a caption to go with each past, present and future picture. We used the computer webcam to take pictures of our posters and then recorded our comments. 

This is such a cool way to share our new knowledge with others!

Take a look at some of the VoiceThread projects students created:

Day 51: J.J., 3rd Grade Student

Saved by a Book

Many of us can think of the one book that changed us as readers -- the book that saved our reading life.  Before reading that book, we didn't really take an interest in reading.  However, after reading that one book, our reading life was saved and we became life-long readers in that moment.

J.J., a 3rd grade student at Hilliard Horizon, recently came across a book that has saved many students' reading life: Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  In the video below, J.J. talks with Mrs. Showalter, one of Hilliard Horizon's ELL teachers, about how his reading life has changed.

Day 50: Emily Potter, 2nd Grade Teacher

Sharing the Love for Reading

One of my favorite things to do as a teacher is read aloud.  I find this is also one of my favorite things to do as a mother.  The amazement, suspense, giggles, and innocence a book can give to a child is priceless.  Through my effort to keep things "fresh" in my second grade classroom, I've found some new books that have captivated my students and my 3 year old daughter.  

Mo Willems is an author that has recently found a place in the hearts of my family and second grade friends.  I've found his books lend themselves to many teaching concepts and make reading just plain fun.  As I read his books to my second graders I have been taking them home to read to my daughter as well.  Knuffle Bunny has already found it's place on the "classics" shelf in our house!   

On the flip side, my daughter received a book for Christmas last year called, I Want My Hat Back  by Jon Klassen.  This book is one of my daughter's favorites and is now a favorite of my class!  

This ability to share good books with my family and my class is so much fun.  

Mrs. Potter is a 2nd grade teacher at Hilliard Horizon Elementary.

Day 48: Sharon Esswein, Hilliard City Schools

Writing as a Gift

I see it everyday when I awake…our grand daughter’s letter to us saying how she loves us SO much that her heart is going to BURST with JOY.  Those simple yet powerful words mean more to me than any other gift anyone could ever give to me.  In fact, those words are so special to me that I put them in a frame.  

This got me thinking about Ralph Fletcher’s story in his book titled Poetry Matters where he tells about being a college student with no money at Christmas time.  He decides to write a poem for each family member.  Ralph stays up all night, writing, and then rolls up each piece, carefully tying them with ribbons and tucking them into the appropriate stockings.  He awakes to hear his little sister’s excited voice when she discovers her poem.   

Think about giving the gift of writing to your nearest and dearest this season.  Writing touches hearts.

Sharon Esswein is a Teacher Leader for Hilliard City Schools.

Day 47: Tami Remington, 1st Grade Teacher

Today's post comes in part from Tami Remington, 1st Grade Teacher at Hilliard Horizon Elementary.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/venosdale/7815225552/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Today, a group of 1st grade and ELL teachers met for one of five "data team" meetings that take place throughout the school year.  A data team is a group of teachers who collect and analyze specific student data in order to identify classroom trends.  Teachers collaborate on lessons and instructional strategies they would like to try in their own classroom to best meet the needs of their learners.

This data team meeting was different than usual.  Two second grade teachers opened their classrooms up for 1st grade teachers to come in and observe a literacy lesson.  The 1st grade teachers came in ready to look for instructional strategies and language that they might use in their own classrooms.

Here is list of observations and reflections from one 1st grade teacher, Tami Remington:

Personally, I felt many emotions!

• "Happy"-that my children are going to such an amazing classroom!!

• "Proud"-that we have such amazing teachers at Horizon!!

• "Impressed"-that the students were so engaged with the lesson!!

• "Jittery"-because the lesson was so amazing that I wanted to jump in and join in!!  

• "Encouraged"-I learned so many things and am excited to use some of the ideas in my classroom towards the end of the year to better prepare the kiddos for 2nd grade!

Each grade level will be participating in data team meetings similar to the one held today.  It's just one way we are all working together to continue to provide high-quality learning experiences for each one of our students.

Day 46: KLIP Hallway Mural project

When the leaf blew in...

Students in Mrs. Granger's Kindergarten literacy intervention program (KLIP) class recently read the book When The Leaf Blew In, by Steve Metzger.

http://www.amazon.com/When-Leaf-Blew-Steve-Metzger/dp/0545112818

The students created a wall mural that retold the story.  They colored in characters from the story, rewrote some of the lines, and practiced reading the sentences by pointing to each word.

Here is a clip Mrs. Granger recorded as the students were retelling the story.  Take a look:

Day 45: Now I get it.

Some things are funnier when you're older.

My family and I have lived in our house for 3 years now and each year I'm expected to put up lights outside during the holiday season.  I don't really have a say.  When I complain, I get a reminder that our daughters (the bosses) won't be young much longer.  After my guilt trip, I usually get going.

Usually decorating consists of me throwing a few strands of lights that still work from last season around the tree in the front yard a couple of times and calling it a day.  That wasn't going to cut it this year.

For the past few weeks, my four year old (the manipulator) looks out the window at the neighbor's house lighted up in all it's glory and says, "Can we make our house look like that?".

The neighbor's house: success.

This time I took holiday decorating as a challenge.  I made a plan for how I'll get things done and start early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  By the end of the day, only half of what I wanted to complete was done because I didn't account for two things:

1. The ladder didn't reach the rooftop.

2. I still haven't conquered my fear of falling off ladders that don't reach rooftops.

Our house: fail.

The day ended with me trying to grab onto some shingles for leverage while I kick my leg up onto the gutter.  What was I thinking?  I stopped and actually said, "What am I doing?  I'm going to end up like Clark Griswold."

And that's when it hit me.  The scene in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, where Clark is hanging on his gutter trying not to fall from the roof, got 10 times funnier in that moment.  I used to think it was just a funny scene, but now I get it.  I guess somethings are funnier when your older.

Day 44: Opportunities

Creating Opportunities for Yourself

I feel strongly about using Twitter for professional growth.  Each day, I run across dozens of great ideas shared by amazing educators across the world.  Being involved with Twitter really has changed me professionally.

Every now and again, someone will share something short and to the point (which is the point of Twitter) that really changes my thinking about teaching and learning and what I can do to help improve learning experiences for students.

This quote made me have one of those moments:

Your professional growth is not dependent upon opportunities created 4 U by others; it's about opportunities you create 4 yourself. #edchat
— Dr. Justin Tarte (@justintarte) November 18, 2012

This quote really resinated with me in two ways.  First, this quote is something I'm realizing more and more the older I get:  If you have an idea, go for it.  It may be a risk, but isn't it riskier to never know what might have happened if you didn't try?

Second, and more importantly, this quote made me begin to think of how we can teach the kids we work with how they might be able to create the very opportunities they are waiting around for.  How many of our students are secretly wanting to start some sort of club?  How many are wanting to do a big project, but need more likeminded folks to help out?  What could we share with students to help them get going on their own big idea?

I've just started thinking about how I might help students advocate for opportunities.  Right now I have more questions than answers, but I might just start listening a little more closer to what kids are asking for to see how I might help them get there.  

Day 43: 3rd Grade Instrumentalists

The Sound of Learning

For a few weeks, 5 third grade students have met with Mrs. Romine, Hilliard Horizon's music teacher, twice a week to work together on a song for the upcoming choir concert.

The girls are using hand chimes to create a sound that will accompany a song the choir will sing during the performance.

The girls shared how challenging it was at first.  They had to learn when to play and when to rest.  They admit that they have come a long way and they are excited to share their hard work.

Take a moment to listen in on one of their practice sessions with Mrs. Romine:

Day 42: Mrs. Marsh's Leadership Academy

What is a leader?

Four weeks ago, Mrs. Marsh started a project-based learning experience with her 1st grade students by asking this simple question:

What is a leader?

The project involved aspects of math, social studies, science, and language arts, and featured leaders like our principal, Mr. Blum, and our superintendent of schools, Dale McVey.

Students began by brainstorming different characteristics they thought described a leader and by thinking about important leaders in their lives.  They interviewed family members about who they consider leaders and what makes a leader.

Mrs. Marsh had different guest speakers come in to talk about leadership.  She coached her students on asking quality interview questions.  Mr. McVey shared that you may think you're a leader, but you're not if no one is following you.  The students compared the different leadership qualities of the guest speakers and added the information to their research.

While the students continued to research and share ideas, Mrs. Marsh read 6 books that featured 6 different characters that demonstrated some sort of leadership qualities.

After researching what makes a leader and reading each of the books, students worked together in cooperative learning groups.  Their task: develop an election campaign for the book character they thought was the best leader.

Students worked on campaign speeches and campaign poster to gear up for the big event: the election.

Next, students campaigned in different precincts (the other 1st grade classrooms) to try and get other students to vote for their book character.  They made campaign speeches to try and win the vote.

After the campaigning was done, the voting began.  Each precinct voted on one of book characters.  As the votes came in, Mrs. Marsh's students tabulated the results:

Somes students were stunned to find that while their book character won in one of the precincts, they did not win the over all vote:

The winner?  Molly Lou Mellon!

Overall, the students learned a great deal about leadership and about what leaders do in order to lead others.

Enjoy this VoiceThread of the book character campaign posters and speeches:

Day 41: Mrs. Nott

"The heart of teaching..."

Hundred Years

A hundred years from now
it will not matter
what my bank account was,
the sort of house I lived in,
or the kind of car I drove -
but the world
may be different
because I was important
in the life of a child.

~Forest Witcraft

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3314/4574733303_c568605333.jpg

I have always loved this poem; it speaks to the heart of teaching.  Children, guiding children through the wonderful world of education -  discovery of themselves and world around them and helping to build confident, self-reliant, and compassionate people - is, for me, the best career.

To the many families who have let me be a part of their lives through school, thank you.  Thank you for allowing me to take part in your lives and your childrens’ education.  And a very warm and special thank you to Nimo, Naima, Anas, Iman, and Amina for not only letting me be part of your lives, but also for including me as part of your family!

You have brought this poem to life for me.  Thank you all for being so important in my life.

Mrs. Nott

Day 40: The Letter Sounds Song

"Do you know your letter sounds?"

Mrs. Granger helps kindergarten students link the sounds letters make through singing...

Students use the Alphabet Linking Chart to  learn the letter/sound relationships of the alphabet and in words.

Day 39: Mackenzie, 2nd grade student

Using VoiceThread to Share Learning

Recently, Mackenzie, a 2nd grade student in Mrs. Potter's class, explored VoiceThread.  VoiceThread is a social way of sharing your thoughts and ideas with others.  

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/01/dozens-of-examples-of-voicethread-in.html#.UKFZLLDwsTY

"You can do this anywhere there is a computer," explains Mackenzie.  "I can see myself going to different schools' [VoiceThread sites] and talking to different students on their VoiceThread and making comments."

Mackenzie and her class learned how readers describe characters by thinking about the character's traits.  She also learned that it is important to include evidence from the text when she describes characters.

Take a look at the VoiceThread Mackenzie and her classmates put together.  Use the buttons on the bottom of the VoiceThread to navigate between threads.

Day 38: "Number Talk" with 1st Graders

Supporting Young Mathematicians

Each day, teachers throughout our school engage their students in "Number Talks" as a part of their math lesson.  A number talk is an instructional method that strengthens each student's mental math skills.  A number talk is designed to help students understand a concept that will eventually help them be more efficient when solving math problems.

There are certain guidelines for a number talk.  These guidelines allow students to be flexible in their thinking about a math problem and to give them the necessary time they need to successful solve a problem.

 

Number Talk Norms for learning

A couple of guidelines are really important in making a number talk successful.. The first is using hand signals to communicate that your are "thinking" about a problem or if you have a strategy to share.  Hand signals keep students from waving their hands or shouting out answers and allows everyone to think through the problem.

"I'm ready to share my thinking."

"I was thinking the same thing."

The second important guideline is sharing your thinking and listening to others share.  This allows students to hear different strategies for the same problem and helps them see that there may be more efficient ways of solving math problems.

Watch as Mrs. Remington leads her class in a number talk.  She is wanting students to see "5" fast and then quickly add on what is left.

Day 37: The World is Getting Smaller Faster

"One Laptop per Child" Experiment

This weekend, I learned about a project the One Laptop per Child program recently documented.

They delivered tablet computers into an Ethiopian village that was completely disconnected from the rest of the world, technologically speaking. 

The program left no instructions.  They didn't even show anyone how to turn it on.

What is amazing is that after 4 months, kids who had absolutely no knowledge of literacy were singing "ABCDEFG...".

Two thoughts came to me immediately:

1. Technology is amazing and it's making the world smaller faster.
2. Kids are awesome, curious people and have more skills and intuition than we sometimes give them credit for.

Take a look at this video that summarizes the project:

Day 36: Kids Vote

"Securing the Future of Democracy"

http://kidsvotingusa.org/

As we get closer to the Presidential Election, students at Hilliard Horizon Elementary are getting the opportunity to register their vote for President online through a non-profit organization called Kids Voting USA (KVUSA).

The mission of KVUSA is "working to secure the future of democracy by preparing young people to be educated, engaged citizens."

Each student receives his or her own "Voter ID":

Then, they log-in to view a ballot similar to the ballot adult voters see:

Our Media Specialist, Dr. Christina Dorr, explains why there are more names on the ballot than we would expect to see:

Day 35: 4th Grade Matter Day

The Melting Witch

Today, 4th grade students spent their afternoon attending 5 sessions that featured chemical change experiments.

4th grade students have been studying matter (solids, liquids, and gases) and how it changes.  Some of the more interesting changes to matter occur during chemical changes.

Check out one of the five experiments students got to participate in:

Day 34: Amina, 2nd Grade Student

Learning from a Road Trip

This summer, Amina, a 2nd grade student in Mrs. Potter's class, traveled to Minneapolis, MN to visit family.

"We drove to Indiana, Chicago, Wisconsin, and then to Minnesota."

This was Amina's first time traveling to Minneapolis.  She traveled with her mom and her sister by car.  "It took us two days to get there.  We kept asking to stop because we were hungry or bored."  Along the way, Amina learned something about taking long road trips.  

She gets carsick.

"We stopped at McDonald's and I got some hot chocolate.  I drank it all, but then I started to feel sick to my stomach. I had to get sick in my cup."

After two long days, Amina finally made it to Minneapolis.  "We went to the Mall of America.  It was like going to King's Island. "  She rode some rides and had a great time.

Besides finding out she can get carsick, Amina learned a little more about the world around her.  Next summer, though, she hopes she gets to take a plane.

Day 33: Mrs. Richards's Mathematicians

Creating Problems

Mrs. Richards's 4th grade students recently challenged themselves two ways: 1) Create a challenging word problem; 2) Solve a problem created by another group.

The student-created problems and the work done by their classmates to solve their problem was displayed out in the hallway.  Students who were passing by stopped to evaluate the work by using the same rubric Mrs. Richards's students used to check themselves.

Take a look at some of the problems:

Day 32: Community

Our Learning Community Goes Beyond the School Walls

Tonight, our school held it's Fall Fun Night.  It was a huge success and a great chance to have the whole community come together to hang out, play games and bounce around in some inflatable bounce-houses.

Earlier today, I was at another school building and a teacher there asked how everything was going at Horizon.  "Awesome" was the first word out of my mouth.  

The strange thing was that it was too hard to explain why it's "awesome".  I told the teacher about the enrichment session before school that are new this year, how the media center is always buzzing with learning, how teachers are working hard to stay on the cutting edge of students' learning.  But all of that doesn't quite explain why my first thought was "awesome".

The awesomeness goes beyond the building and comes from the community.  It comes from the supportive PTO, the parent volunteers, and the local business who go out of their way to support us.

All of this made me think of an explanation from Daniel Fink of what a successful school culture is, and I think it sounds a lot like our learning community:

"It's not necessarily that something is different about the school.  They don't have different curriculum that they teach—no, it's just that it's more integrated and inclusive. You can walk down the hallway and you're not afraid of talking to anyone because of their race or their background, or anything like that. ... You walk in and there's just a smile on your face—and you don't necessarily know why—and you want to know more about why [the school culture] is that way." 

Day 31: Devon, 3rd Grade Student

Growing Up

Last year, if you asked Devon what his favorite subject was, chances are he wouldn't have said "math".

This year is different.

"Life changes when you grow older," says the 3rd grader.

Devon was proud of the hard work he's done in math this year. "I did all of my hard work to get here. There's a new profile in my head in 3rd grade."

Devon is starting to understand the big picture when it comes to learning and understanding math. Today, he pointed at a half sheet of word problems and he had completed and just smiled. "I did all of that hard work myself."


Devon is a 3rd grade student in Miss Brake's class.

Day 30: Listen

They might be trying to tell you something

Something that I've learned that I have found very useful as a teacher and a parent is remembering this:

When they aren't listening to you, listen to them.

How many times have we found ourselves wondering "Why won't you listen?"

However, how many times have we listened first?  Maybe our kids don't understand they way we are saying it.  Maybe they need us to show them how.

Instead of spinning our wheels about "what don't they understand", ask your kids (calmly), "What questions do you have?".

You'll be surprised what you find out and you might find a way to help your kids listen.

Check out this video of what happens when we try to keep telling our kids to listen instead of listening to them (thanks to PrincipalsPage for sharing this clip):

Day 29: Samantha, 4th grade student

Rounding Rap

Samantha, a fourth grade student in Mrs. Smith's class, recently learned the rounding rap.  This has helped her remember the thinking you need to do when you are rounding numbers.  Here she is sharing the rap:

Here's one of the rounding rap videos that inspired Samantha's new learning:

http://youtu.be/OVmYl3x85j4

Day 28: In Case of Emergency, Read This Book

Helping Kids Through A Bad Day

This afternoon, I was running 10 minutes behind the time I was supposed to be working with some students on responding to their reading through writing.  I had made a commitment earlier in the week not to let anything stop me from meeting with these students since that kept happening.

As I was getting nearer to the classroom (walking at a pace that is probably not allowable in an elementary school), I saw a student outside of her classroom showing signs of being frustrated.  Now, it's not unusual for this child to get upset easily.  That's just who she is.  So, against what I wanted to do, I stopped and asked, "Is everything okay?"

She blurted out her frustration and said, "I'm going somewhere else," and headed down the hallway.

That's usually not a good sign.  Not just for this kid.  For any kid.

I followed her and tried to get her to tell me where she was going, but all she said was, "I need to get outta here."

At this point, I wasn't quite sure what to do next.  I was worried that talking about what happened would upset her even more.  It turns out, a few kids in her class were reminding her not to use so much lip gloss in that kid-reminding-another-kid-sort-of-way (think poor choice of words and a negative tone of voice).

So I turned to the emergency, never-fail, guaranteed to make a kid laugh book, The Blue Day Book for Kids: A Lesson in Cheering Yourself Up, by Bradley Trevor Greive.  

I told her I have the perfect book for you.  She was interested and wanted to see what I was carrying on about. It worked.  She loved relating to the different examples of blue days (and the funny pictures of animals, of course).

So if you ever find yourself in a situation where your child is too upset to think about anything but being upset, I highly recommend bringing out The Blue Day Book For Kids.

It works like a charm.

Day 27: Learning Through Games

Game Time!

This year, Hilliard Horizon Elementary students in grades 1-5 can choose from 6 enrichment classes that meet before school twice a week.  The purpose of these enrichment opportunities is to offer students a chance to extend their learning through creative or innovative ways.

One of the optional enrichment classes student got to choose from at Hilliard Horizon is the Game Club class.  While students play games like "Battleship", "Connect 4" and "Hedbanz", they also keep track of thinking skills they are using while they play the games.  Mrs. Nott and Mrs. Showalter, two of the ELL teachers at Horizon, help students keep track of the thinking that is involved with the games they play.  The two teachers are helping students develop vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and math skills, as well as helping students understand cause and effect relationships.



Comparison Chart of strategies used while playing various games.

Day 26: Honesty from an Author

Finally: Some Honesty About Writing

 Barbara O'Connor's tweet about writing first drafts.

You know that it's okay to think that first drafts are not fun to write when a successful author thinks so too.


Barbara O'Connor is a children's book author who has written many great books such as How to Steal a Dog, On the Way to Mr. Mineo's and (my favorite) Greetings From Nowhere.

She tweeted her thoughts on first drafts this summer on Twitter (@barbaraoconnor), and I had to save it so that I could share it with kids.  I like that she's honest about the challenges of writing.  It fits in with my philosophy of always being truthful with students, especially with challenges.  Our job as teachers is not to hide challenges from students.  We are supposed to help students recognize what's challenging and then help them find a solution to the challenge.

Day 25: Buckeye Children's Book Award

Rock the Vote!

Buckeye Children's and Teen Book Award 2012

Last week, Dr. Dorr, Hilliard Horizon Elementary's Media Specialist, introduced students to the nominated books for this year's Buckeye Children's and Teen Book Award nominees.

Dr. Dorr introducing students to the Buckeye Children's Book Award Nominees

The goal of this award is "to encourage more kids to read by providing the opportunity to share their joy of reading by voting for their favorite books."

Here are the nominations for this year's award:

Students are learning the importance of knowing more about a book before they vote.  Students have access to copies of the nominated books.

Click here to vote on the book you want to see win!