Posted by MrLynch | Posted in Weekly Newsletter | Posted on January 12, 2014
We’ve got a four-dayer this week, and then students have a four-day weekend to finish off the week.
I am excited to announce that all students at Thompson Brook had their Gmail accounts activated as of Friday. This has been in the works for quite some time and eventually all students grades 4-12 will have e-mail access. I’m actually not that interested in the e-mail component at the moment (which only works internally anyway – a good hing), but am thrilled that students will now have access to Google Docs. All Thompson Brook students will be taught how to use this in Library class. However, since we have the iPads in our class, I am fast-tracking this and teaching students how to use Google Docs on Monday. They will still learn more in Library, too, especially about e-mail. In a nutshell, Google Docs means that the days of saving files and moving them around to different devices via flash drives is over. Students will have instant access to any paper or project they are working on via their home computers, tablets, iPods, iPads, or a Smart Phone. When they get to high school, this short story (assuming they don’t erase it), will show up on their phones.
Last week I introduced students to a Historical Fiction Short Story project. Students will be writing a historical fiction short story based on the time period of 1600-1763. Students created timelines, did research on potential time periods, and then had a specific time period/event approved on Friday. Although I’ve tweaked this project a bit, the basic premise of the project was created by the fifth grade Language Arts committee for all fifth grade students. This means that all fifth grade classes will be doing some form of this project. The way it’s graded (the rubric) was created by this committee as well and they modified it since I passed out the packets so I will be replacing their packets this week. We will spend a lot of time on this in school utilizing both the iPads and the Computer Lab although some of the work (in small increments) may be done at home. The story is due on Wednesday, January 29.
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