Technology made simple!

Seriously? Did I really have to find such a great website at 11:00 PM on a school night? If you recall the quality of the “How Things Work” movies, you know that you will be excited. I just finished viewing movies on geometry in structional designs featuring the inside of the Trump Towers, math used in building the Rose Parade floats, and the algebra used in organic rice farming. All of the movies come with activities that some fifth grade students could handle.

http://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php

I tend to be a bit lazy. If I can’t figure out a fast way to do something, I go for the longer but sure way to get the job done. If you have noticed lately, I have a lot of screen shots on my websites. I use my ActiveExpression software to take pictures and record videos. Embedit.in is a great way to easily share files or website shots on your site.

http://embedit.in/

I think that the art of letter writing can be improved with this interactive tool at http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/letter_generator/. I would use it freely with young children – it even prints out borders. With older children, I would have them write their own letters and then use the letter generator to check the format on their letters. For the paperless classroom, you could save the letter and then send it to its destination. I found a better way to make brochures. I used to use Microsoft Publisher, but younger students sometimes have problems with the boxes. An on-line activity to make a brochure is My Brochure Maker at http://www.mybrochuremaker.com/.

We love this picture and we feel like we know all of you know. What a great idea to take a fun classroom picture. We will be sure to take one for you when we return from our break. Maybe we will be lucky and we will have some snow!

Here is the description of our Geobug that we released today. Here is a link if you want to learn more – http://www.geocaching.com/

Please send me to river regions around the United States and try to return me to my home by our school Multi-cultural Day in May. We are two schools (Rustavi School Number 20 in the COUNTRY of Georgia and Smith Elementary in Richmond, Texas).
Our lure named Georgia (named in honor of our friends) is attached to our bobbin. We hope not to catch a fish, but that it will pop up in cities near rivers along the way.

Georgia the River Explorer orginates from the home of the Brazos River in Fort Bend County. Both schools would love to hear about the history of your area. We will patiently wait for your exciting stories!

Great idea from Education World to use the http://www.weather.com/ Weather Channel in foreign languages to look up the weather. This could help our Europe penpals understand our weather each day. When we get to data and graphs, we can compare and contrast the data in different formats. I used to use this when we created travel brochures with Microsoft Publisher.

As I am sitting here watching the Texans lose their football game (I should really be grocery shopping), I have discovered a site that should inspire our Texas students along with their Georgia (the country) counterparts. At http://www.landmark-project.com/ggl/index.html, a project created by David Warlick, he streamlines an activity to compare grocery prices around the world. In addition, I think that it would be a an interesting activity to discuss and compare the currencies between the two countries.

In the past, Mailbox magazine was the place that I found my most interactive lessons. Education World’s website at http://www.educationworld.com/ appears to have the same quality of content but more focused on technology. Today I found some outstanding lessons. The first lesson that caught my attention was a lesson by Lorrie Jackson on Introducing Tessellations using an Excel Spreadsheet with step-by-step directions. Examples on tessellations are supported with work from a website on M.C. Escher. The lesson is suggested for high school, but I have no doubt that my fifth graders would have no problems navigating Excel.
Also appropriate for the season, was a lesson provided by Lisa Nash on Lighting the Perimeter. Students use pictures to find the perimeter of a house and then determine how many strands of lights are needed to decorate the home.
I will certainly mark this site for daily updates.

Credit for free site mosquito goes to animaltowns.com, however, I am sure my students cold have handled this drawing. The picture of the river was taken by the students in the country of Georgia.
We are finally able to post our own picture of the Brazos River in Fort Bend County. The Caddo indians at one time lived along the banks of the river and the first permanent settlers were part of the original three hundred familes to first settle in the area. The river merges into the Gulf of Mexico. It appears very muddy and we have a lot of clay type soil in our area.