I hope you all had a fantastic halloween. I encouraged my students to work hard for their candy and I can only hope that their parents late played a trick on them that Jimmy Kimmel leads on. There is something about the concept of taking candy from a baby that is just so wrong about that trick, yet every halloween parents video tape their child's reactions to the phrase "I'm sorry honey, but we ate all of your candy". Let the wailing commence.
On that note I do have to say that I did not do anything that was halloween themed.
However, I am getting ready to host a Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of thanksgiving thought, we will have store bought items and my students will come in at around 6 to share what they have learned on their computers. This will be called "Techsgiving".
Edmodo is seriously one of the best tools for homework, quizzes, and social interaction for these kids. They are polite and get their work done efficiently. They even help each other when they forget the homework or have a question. If that isn't Danielson I don't know what is! :)
Everyday students have journal prompts and since our social studies has been about the Early Civilizations and how communities start up I asked them this question:
How does a community get started? What are some components of community that are always present? What are elements of the community around you?
Why do we need these components and elements?
Here are some of their response via edmodo:
"I think a community gets started by people working together and thinking about all the details in the future society. They think about what to build and how to build it. They build all their components by looking deeper into stuff, like the structure inside the object and how strong it will be. Elements of most communities are the pollution levels, like, how to keep your community clean, or keeping your community safe. These components and elements are all important to a strong community because without many of these things, the community you live in would be dull, and out of place, and if you do these components and elements, you will have a nice, happy, and safe environment and community."- L
"A community gets started by, working together to put all of their strengths to accomplish this task. The components that are always present are, Doctors, Dentists, and counslers, (ect.). we need these components and elements because we need to stay healthy, clean, and nice looking." I.
"A community takes time to build. Lots of people helped build the community. Important parts of the community are homes. Without homes, we wouldn’t have a place to sleep. Grocery stores also play an important part in the community because that’s how we get our food. Also clothing stores give us the clothes we need. Jobs play a big part in a community because without jobs people wouldn’t be able to make money and if you don’t make money you couldn’t buy things you need. All of these things are very important but I think people are the most important part of a community because without people it’s not a community at all. It would just a place with buildings. " D.
These students are so intrinsically motivated to be positive role models in society. It is so encouraging to see hope left in a society that often feels too materialistic or oblivious to the world around them. These kids have heart, and soul. Something that needs to be encouraged in our school systems.
Speaking of how amazing my kids are, today I posted a question about how technology can help the classroom or hurt the classroom environment and if it has made school easier for students, their responses were awesome! I am really enjoying this year of teaching!
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