An Amazing Year

You are almost finished with second grade! What will you always remember about this school year?

Through a Poet's Eyes

We have begun learning about poetry this week and how to look at things with a poet's eyes. On the blog, type the poem you started yesterday in writing. Finish writing your special poem, being sure to use line breaks!

Hi boys and girls!

Hello my wonderful students! I am so glad to hear that you are teaching Ms. Fisher all about our classroom. I know that you will have a wonderful rest of the year with her and with Ms. Arnett. I really miss all of you, and enjoyed reading your comments to the blog post this afternoon. You are such sweet kids! I am still sad that I don't get to see you every day, but I promise that I will come back to visit soon. We can also use the Smartboard and web cam to talk to each other after the baby is born. Have a great day and know that I love you and miss you!

Love,
Mrs. Foster

Changes in our classroom!

We have experienced both some sad and exciting changes in our classroom over the past few days. We were very sad to say good-bye to Ms. Foster as she left to take care of her new baby boy. We were also very excited to welcome Ms. Fisher to our classroom for the remainder of the year.

Describe the feelings you have felt over the past two days. What will you miss about Ms. Foster? What makes you excited about having Ms. Fisher in the classroom?

End of Year Video

Butterfly Field Trip

This week we went on a field trip to the All-a-Flutter butterfly farm. We learned about monarch butterflies, and got to go in a flight house with lots of monarch butterflies. Write about the time you spent in the flight house with the monarchs.

Undersea Treasure

We watched a video about Undersea Treasure and saw how people use math and science in the real world. What would you do if your job was to search for undersea treasure? How can you use math and science when you grow up?

Animal Life Cycles

We have chicken eggs and caterpillars in our room to help us learn about animal life cycles. Watch this short video on animal life cycles, and then write about what you learned.

Teeny Tiny Caterpillars

Yesterday we received our caterpillars! We will be taking care of them for the next few weeks, observing their growth, and watching them turn into butterflies. What have you learned about caterpillars? What observations have you made about your caterpillar?

Reflection on Teach 21

This year I have been involved in a training called Teach 21. We have been learning about how to integrate 21st century technology into our teaching and student learning on a regular basis. While sometimes the things I learned seemed overwhelming and I wasn't sure how to use them, I am very proud of the things that I was able to begin using with my students.

Being a part of Teach21 has definitely impacted my teaching. When developing lessons I try to think of ways that I can use my Smartboard and the other technology tools we have learned about. Each week one of my literacy centers is done completely on the Smartboard, and another center is done on the computer. I have tried to think of ways that students can use technology when completing projects. I also have my students blogging every Friday. I use the blog as a way for my students to summarize something we have learned that week, which allows me to integrate writing, technology, and science or social studies. I find myself doing online searches for interactive websites or already-created lessons that I can use with my students. The regular white board in my classroom is now used only as a bulletin board, as I use my Smartboard for everything. While I have learned many things this year that I have not yet been able to implement, I feel good about the things that I have been able to do because I have used them regularly to impact student learning.

I feel that I have made a positive impact on my students through the use of technology. Many of my students do not have access to a computer at home, and through the use of laptops once a week are now becoming proficient users. At the beginning of the year I had to walk them through each step when posting on our blog, and it took at least 30 minutes to type two sentences. Now they are able to find our blog in their favorites, type in our blog address, type faster, use the shift key for capitals and punctuation marks, copy and paste images from Google, save files, and use Microsoft Word.

I have been able to expose my students to so many things, from technology vocabulary to videos of world events that they may not otherwise have seen. I think that they have been given a jump start in preparing them for the changing technological world that they will encounter upon leaving school. They enjoy using the Smartboard every day, and the laptops every week. My students have told me that they like learning on the Smartboard, and I have seen them become more engaged during lessons. It really makes a difference when they are able to get up and manipulate objects and explore concepts for themselves through this interaction. One week on a blog posting I asked my students if they were given a choice between a school with technology and one without, where would they choose to go. Every single student chose the school with technology. I think it has definitely had a positive impact!

Beautiful Butterfly

This week we have been practicing using adjectives and describing words in our writing. Write a descriptive paragraph about this photograph of a butterfly.

Not a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day for Us!

On Tuesday we saw the play "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". What did you think about the play? What things did you notice were the same as the book, and what things were different?

Spring is Here!

Today is the first day of Spring! Describe this beautiful Spring day using lots of detail and describing words. We also learned about similes this week. Try to use at least two similes in your writing.

Science Matters

In science yesterday, what did you learn that everything in the world is made of and what can we group all of those things into? Write about what you learned and give some examples.

Technology Choice

This year we have been using lots of technology in the classroom, like our Smartboard, the laptop lab, and blogging. If you could choose to go to a school with technology or one without, which school would you choose? Why?

A Sticky Situation

Imagine that a piece of gum gets stuck to the bottom of your shoe. Imagine all the places you might walk. Just think, the gum would go along with you to those places too. Tell the story of the piece of gum and all the different places it travels.

* We had a potential computer virus on our computer network, so we were unable to get on our laptops today. Instead we wrote our stories on paper, and Mrs. Foster typed them for us. She tried to keep our spelling the same, but did fix some of our punctuation and spacing!

Famous African Americans

This month we have been learning about famous African Americans that made a difference in the world. If you could meet one of these people, who would you like to meet and why? What would you talk to them about?

Snow Day!

We had our second snow day of the year on Wednesday. Describe what it looked like at your house when it was snowing. Use as many describing words and details as you can.

Transition Words

This week we have been learning about how to use transition words in our writing. Write about how you get ready for school in the morning. Use as many transition words as you can.

Barack Obama

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States and the first African American President. Today we read about Barack Obama's life, and watched his inaugural address at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/obama_inauguration/7840646.stm . What did you learn about Barack Obama? If you had the chance to meet Obama, what would you say to him?

New Year's Resolutions

At the beginning of each new year, many people make New Year's resolutions. These are goals that people work toward to improve something in their life. What is your New Year's resolution?