What Do You Wonder About?

What Are Your Wonderings? The first graders at Memorial School have a lot of them! They're wondering about stars, hurricanes, spring, caves. You name it. They're wondering about it. I bet you are wondering why we're doing some much wondering?! Well Memorial's Teacher-Librarian Randie Groden (@randiegroden) is revamping the Big 6 research project to the Stripling Model of Inquiry- with the focus on learning how to ask good questions ..... or wonders.

It works like this. Students are introduced to making an inquiry and researching their inquiry using the new Emergent Reader Research (Science) Database called Pebble Go. Next they brainstormed a list of their wondering topics based on the Science categories and began their research documenting the facts and information they learned from the videos, images and text onto a (paper) graphic organizer.

Click on image to enlarge.

We posted our wonderings both on the LMC's bulletin board with 

sticky notes and our virtual bulletin board (padlet.com) too!

Click on image to enlarge.

After their research was completed, students drew a picture and

 wrote several sentences about their wonder.

Of course, we couldn't keep this all to ourselves!

It was important for us to create something 

to post on the blog and share our new learning.

Good thing we have iPads & the Chatterkids app to 

take a snapshot of our drawings and audio record

the facts we learned. That's what we did!

This is when students were teamed up with a partner to create 'talking' pictures!

Since it was this classroom's first time experiencing using the iPads,

working in partners helped students remember and/or

 figure out the directions together and sometimes 

you just need an extra pair of hands for picture-taking

and recording!

And now what you all have been wondering about... 
what does this Inquiry process really look like?

Now that this process has been modeled, teachers

can incorporate it into their classroom on a more consistent 

basis. Otherwise, in the past years with the Big 6th project, we found

that it was a once a year "big showcase" project that seemed

to be more teacher-centered than student. Hoping to see 

a transformation with the new Stripling Inquiry based approach and
the integration of technology to becoming more student-driven, collaborative, 
and connect students to a variety of resources.
This is just the beginning!

Besides.. wondering is neverending...

What's your next wonder?

FYI: Check out Wonderopolis.org as another place to Wonder

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Look Who's Talking?!

What's all the talk about creativity on the iPad?

Well one of the simplest ways to add creativity to any lesson or activity is by making an image talk in two quick steps. That's right, first you'll choose an image -anything in your camera roll or draw your own (like Sketchbook express or Drawing Carl). Second, use an app like  Chatterpix or Yakit to add a mouth or face and record your voice! Voila, C'est a piece de resistance!

Another popular app, Telligami is very similar although it offers a little bit more. With Telligami you actually create an avatar and add your own background image. there's a choice to record your voice or type the text.

By giving students and teachers this type of capability, there are many possibilities for how to apply it to the class:

• Oral practice of reading fluency or other languages
• Oral directions
• Explaining or introducing a concept
• Become a character or historical figure!
• Teach Perspective 
• etc.

An example from SCS Elementary School. Students created Talking Snowmen

to "talk" about the recent snow storm and the weather.  

Talking Snowman by Laniah from Southfield Christian School on Vimeo.


Our own 8th Graders in Jason Heim's Advisory reflected on their report cards with a Telligami to share with their parents.

During a workshop, our French Teacher Cindy Dalpe gave us a snippet of
her lovely singing voice w/ a drawing app and Chatterpix!

Here's an self-created example of Yakit- just to give you a quick demo.

(for fun, of course)

These tools do not have to stand alone either, when combined with other apps (called app smashing) you can have endless options:

Read more:   A Handful of Ideas for Using Tellagami In School

                     AppSmashing with Telligami
                     Yakit Tutorial
                     Chatterpix Book Talks with 2nd Graders
                     Aurasma and Chatterpix: A fun way to bring Photos to Life

Feel free to leave comments below of any ideas you have for using these 'talking' apps!

*Note: This post was inspired by Dan Callahan's Tweet about Pine Glen Elementary students using Yakit! I've love Chatterpix, but move over! Yakit may have knocked you out of your fav spot!

Redesigning the 6th grade team!

The Koala Cluster got a face-lift!

After a year long pilot using the Nexus tablets, looks
like the 6th grade team maybe moving onto the iPad next year. We had to 
have a little fun as we concluded the final Nexus workshop!

R-E-S-P-O-N-S-IBILITY!

Every month, Memorial School holds a very special assembly called the Get Along Gathering to promote social learning. This month's theme tackled the topic of RESPONSIBILITY! and Mrs. Colantoni's first graders stepped right up to the task!

And this time around.. we tried something new! Instead of playing the same ole tune (get it- hahaha) of just drawing and writing a sentence to share... the first graders turned to drama and their acting skills to produce their very own skits on the iPads.

Step 1: Planning

Mrs. Colantoni's class discussed what responsibility means and looks like in school.  Students were then divided  into teams of 2 or 3s and worked on drafting their ideas of what responsibility means on paper. (please excuse the ads)

simplebooklet.com

Step 2: Creating & Collaborating on the Video Production

Get out the iPads and open the Toontastic app! Let's turn these situations into a skit with three scenes: a setup, problem and solution. Students were introduced to Toontastic and collaborated on choosing the scene and the characters. They rehearsed their dialogue, timing and character animations and then hit ACTION! to record. Maybe the best part was adding just the right mood music to put the finishing touch on each scene. (If you think about it, it's the first time they've ever incorporated music into their written work!) 

Shhh... Quiet on the Set- Production in Progress! 

  Step 3: Now Playing

Once all of the Toontastic skits were shared through dropbox, we imported them into Explain Everything to create one presentation or movie. Then it was ready for Dr. Quigley to present it to the school at the GAG assembly. It was a big hit! The students and teachers absolutely loved it and could relate to our examples of responsibility.   And now we're sharing it with all of you so hopefully you can learn more about being responsible too!:)

To learn more about Toontastic, visit their website.