Kirby's Koalas are blogging!

According to Merriam-Webster, a blog is "a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections and comments."  Mrs. Kirby's class is using the class website as a forum to reflect on articles they have been reading.  Students are blogging their reading reflections.  In addition to writing their own thoughts and opinions about what they have read, students can see the opinions of their peers.  It has the added bonus of allowing parents to observe the class "discussion," which can stimulate a continuation of the topic at home.  By using the interactive aspects of the web, Mrs. Kirby is deepening her students understanding of what they are reading as well as teaching them twenty-first century technology skills. Her students are doing a great job of combining technology into their learning!

If you are interested in seeing what fourth graders are blogging about, you can check out Mrs. Kirby's webpage at http://teacherweb.com/TX/ForestCreekElementary/Kirby/newsflash.aspx and click on Koala Blog.

Mirasole's Marvelous Monkeys Are Learning Excel

Ms. Mirasole's first grade class is learning the basics of Excel.  This week, we learned all about opening a spreadsheet, the word "cell", how to use the fill tool, and how to save to their network drive.  The students created a graph about life in a fish bowl.  This is the introductory lesson into Excel. Throughout the year, we will continue to explore Excel and learn more about it's features, including using the Graphing tool.  I believe that giving students fun experiences in Excel will reduce future fear of that program.