Every year sometime during term 2, my school has student-led conferences. It is a way for students to showcase their work and explain their learning to their parents. As a way to introduce this concept to the parents, I asked my students if they would like to create a movie trailer, using iMovie, to entice …
At my school we have an iPad cart, with a set of iPads that can move from class to class. This has proven to be a little challenging, and we had many hiccups along the way, but they finally seem to be up and running consistently. I brought them into my class yesterday, and as …
In my class, we are currently reading the short story, Koko’s Kitten. In case you are unfamiliar, it is about an incredibly talented, sign language-speaking gorilla and her unusual friendship with a kitten. My students absolutely loved this story and empathized in the sad moments with the gorilla, and rejoiced in the incredible friendship that …
“I don’t even understand why we have dictionaries. All you have to do is type a word into the internet and boom, you know what it means.” “I know, right? It’s so much easier. Any time I don’t know a word, I just type it into my app and it tells me.” “So true! I …
Checking my students’ agendas before they left for the day I came across a note in one that said, “Do homework first, watch t.v. after.” I asked the student if her dad had written the message as a reminder and she said no, that she had for herself. I questioned why and she replied that …
Arriving home about an hour earlier than normal, I ventured out on a walk with my lovely dog. The bells must have just gone and the students dismissed from their day of school, as the pathways and sidewalks were filled with chatty children. A group of energetic girls, I’m guessing somewhere between grades 6-9, approached …
Heading out on supervision at lunch recess today, a young girl in my class approached me and asked if she could walk with me. Our conversation went something like this: “Ms.Petley, do you mind if I walk with you today?” “Sure!” “Ok, so what do you want to talk about?” Pondering for a few seconds, …
As my students were filling in their agendas today and looking over their nightly words, a student raised his hand and questioned, “What does the word choicest mean, and how would you use it in a sentence?” Together we looked up the definition, and struggled to come up with a sentence. It led me to …
Tonight, I participated in my first #edtechchat. These twitter chats have always frightened me as they are fast-paced, a continuous stream of messages to read and catch up on, and the whole idea of not knowing what is going on and feeling overwhelmed has consistently turned me away from trying them out. I guess you …
Recently, my district has become actively involved in using twitter. We are encouraging our staff to use it for professional development and as a way to connect with other educators all over the world. On Friday, I was asked to give a little introduction about twitter to the teachers at my school and provide any …
Out With Erin 