Mr. Williams’ Class Blog

Well, I’ve decided to move the class blog to a new address. This one should be easier for everyone to remember.

http://mrjwilliams.com

I tried to move everything over to the new site, so most of the posts and comments are already there!

Anything new will go on that site as well.

You may have noticed recently that there are add links in the blog posts on our class website.

Edublogs recently started adding them as a way to pay for the server space. I didn’t notice them because when I am logged in with my Edublogs account they don’t show up.

I do not mind banner adds, but the linking directly in the posts is not something I like. I don’t have control over what exactly the advertisements link to and do not want anyone to think that I put them in there. I know that the content is safe for students to visit because Edublogs is for teachers and students.

I’m currently looking into options on what to do about this. I could pay a fee and have them all go away, but I’d also like a better website address that would be easier for students to get access. So if I’m going to be paying I think I might just have the website hosted somewhere else so I have more control over it.

I’ll let everyone know what ends up happening. Thanks for visiting our site!

Mr. Thelen was gracious enough to take about 80 pictures of Whirlybird Wednesday.

If you want to view the pictures you can here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23757202@N02/sets/72157611070061557/

If you want to watch them a bit quicker and hear a little music with them, click play below. They aren’t as clear as the photos in the link above but you’ll get through them a lot quicker. If you want to view them full screen, go to http://animoto.com/play/yHkZWedYtqleWA0TktIXUg to watch.

Yesterday,  Fox 10 was at Trailside Point for Whirlybird Wednesday.

There is video on their website of the event. It can be found at:

http://media.myfoxphoenix.com/KSAZ/hilites/whirlybird.html

Students from 6th grade can be seen in the Trailside Point 3 video.

We answered the following questions in our Math Journals:

1. What is easy about fractions? Why is it easy?

2. What is difficult about fractions? Why is it difficult?

We then entered them into a Google Form. It is the post below this one. If you would like to add your opinions feel free to do so in the text boxes.

After the students entered their journal entries, I copied and pasted them into Wordle.net.

Here are the resulting Wordles:
(You can click on the picture for a larger picture)

Easy:

Difficult:

Quite a few students have asked for links to some of the software and online tools we use in class. I’m going to list some of my favorites that I use in class and at home. All of these programs are free.

Google Earth – “Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places and share with others.”

Google Maps – A lot like Google Earth, but online instead of a download. There are not as many features.

Cooliris – This is a visual picture viewer that we use in class. You can search for images and video about a topic. It is a really visual way to experience the Internet. This is a browser-add on.

Skype – We are not able to use this at school, but it is a video conferencing tool. If you have a camera hooked up or built in to your computer you can audio and video conference with other people that have Skype installed. It is a great way to keep up with family and friends.

Google Docs – By signing up for a Google Account you can access Google Docs. It is a lot like Microsoft Office, but completely online so you can use it from any computer with Internet access. It has a word processor, spreadsheet application, interactive forms, and a presentation tool. You can also share documents with other people and they can edit them. Up to 10 people can be editing a document at one time. This is great for collaborative projects or documents that you want to be able to access on more than one computer.

UStream.tv – “Experience live video. In just minutes, you can broadcast and chat online with a global audience. Completely free, all it takes is a camera and Internet connection.” If you have a camera and microphone you can have your own video broadcast. I’ve seen this used for classroom presentations, professional development videos for teachers, and live video of different events. We have not used this in class yet, but it is a very interesting tool.

VoiceThread – “A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.” We will be using Voice Threads soon for a science picture dictionary. It is a great tool to share student work with the world. There are some examples from my previous classes on this blog.

These are a few of the interesting tools we’ve used in class or that I use personally. If you have any questions about any of the software or websites please feel free to contact me or leave a comment on this post.

Here are some links to content we used this week in class.

Water Cycle
Fruit Basket Science Water Cycle Video – YouTube (This link won’t work at school).

Oceans
David Gallo – The Deep Oceans Video – TedTalk.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Web Cameras – Live video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Math
Classifying Angles – Math.com - Interactive measuring and classifying of angles.

I’m excited about this. It is the first time I’m trying to put up audio versions of my presentations so please excuse my umm’s and ahh’s as it plays.

Here are the presentations from Chapter 1.1 & 1.2 with audio narations. These will be great if you miss a day or just want to review what we went over. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to put these up like this, but I’ll try to keep up with it during the year. I’ll be sending a letter home sometime this week (and also posting here on our class website) showing how to download these presentations into iTunes and put them on to a video iPod.

Above each presentation is a link to the guided notes we used in class.

1.1 – Place Value
1.1 Place Value Notes

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by mrwilliams

1.2 – Estimation
1.2 Estimation Notes

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by mrwilliams

None of the slide shows are showing up on our class blog right now. I’m in the process of fixing that.

Edublogs changed the way that certain types of files are linked. They let me know quite awhile ago that this would happen, but I thought I had them linked in a way that would still work. I was wrong, so I’m in the process of getting them all linked back up.

I really like Google Analytics. Here are some stats for the last two months from our class website.

Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Here are the Math Slides from this week. They don’t fill the screen like they do in the SmartBoard software on here, so I’d suggest clicking on the Slideshare icon on the bottom right, then view the full screen option. I’ll work on making them look better on here next time.

Use them to supplement your notes and fix any parts you might have missed.

9.1 – Geometry (Monday)

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9.2 – Angles (Tuesday)

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9.3 – Classifying Angles (Wednesday)

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9.4 – Classifying Triangles (Thursday)

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9.5 – Classifying Quadrilaterals (Friday)

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