100 Best Blogs by Teachers for Teachers

I opened my email to a nice surprise this morning- Spot To Read had been chosen as a top educational blog. Spot To Read was created last school year to connect and share our classroom happenings with our families and community. Little did I imagine that it would open the door to the world and involve our class in so many opportunities and celebrations!

I plan to visit the other honored blogs and share in their on-line learning.
Thanks to On-line Schools for bestowing such an honor on our blog!

Donors Choose Celebration

Soon we will be receiving our 4th donation from Donors Choose- a web site that matches donors with classrooms. This shipment will consist of a new netbook, speakers, head set and flash drive.
Individual donors from around the world, corporations like US Cellular and Yahoo, and smaller groups all have donated money to help our classroom stay updated with technology. If you are looking for a place to donate that really makes a difference, please go to donorschoose.org You can find many Oelwein School projects waiting to be funded by a donor like you!

If you have donated to a project-- THANK YOU!

Students Learn and Teach the Teacher

After viewing some of the other Global Read Aloud projects, my students couldn't get enough of voki an online talking head graphic. I had looked at this site before, but hadn't had a chance to play/learn.
The excitement was explosive to say the least.
Students: Teacher6th:
"How do you do that?" "I don't know."
"Can we do that?" "Go for it!"
"LOOK WHAT I DID!" "Wow, I need to try this!"
"You need to try this!"

The Little Prince Global Read Aloud

E2 Class has been participating in a global read aloud focused on the book The Little Prince. While listening to the story concurrently with about 60 other school around the globe, students shared predictions, facts, and opinions pertaining to the chapters being read. It was fun to read the wiki, blogs, and tweets from the other classrooms. Our students a were able to use Twitter to meet and share with a class from Canada in real time. More activities and networking is being planned along with individual student projects being created to share with others.