Last week, Mrs. Yollis noticed this tweet from her Twitter friend, Ms. Moroder. The tweet mentioned a "Thank a Teacher" essay contest to win a free trip to ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), compliments of Promethean.
Mrs. Yollis mentioned the contest to her class and they immediately and enthusiastically jumped on the wagon train to support their teacher and get her to San Antonio, Texas, where ISTE will be held at the end of June!
On Friday, the winner was announced! Here is a video of Principal Hibler revealing the exiting news to Mrs. Yollis and her class!
When asked how she feels about winning the contest, Mrs. Yollis stated, "I'd like to give a big, Texas-size thank you to my students, their parents, and my principal for contributing such heart-warming letters on my behalf. As everyone knows, integrating technology in meaningful ways is a passion of mine. Last year, I presented Flattening Classroom Walls: Educational Blogging at ISTE with my talented Australian blogging buddy, Kathleen Morris. I saw firsthand how valuable this type of professional development can be for educators and their students. I look forward to this opportunity to continue my learning."
Thank you, Promethean, for selecting me as the recipient of your generous gift! I look forward to learning and sharing my insights right here on Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog.
What are some topics you would like Mrs. Yollis to explore while at ISTE?
Have you ever been to Texas? Please share some Texan facts!
A biography is a true story about a person's life.
Mrs. Yollis' class is currently reading biographies about
people who have made significant contributions to our world!
Artists, inventors, statesman, composers,
doctors, inventors,
aviators, astronauts, and pioneers in many fields
are among the amazing historical figures about whom we are reading!
We are each reading a library book, as well as doing research using World Book Online.
********************
After reading about your biography subject, please leave a comment as if you are that person!
Be sure to include at least three facts you learned from your library book or the online encyclopedia. Try to use the HTML code to bold your facts! DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! (Use your own words!)
Watch the comments to see if you can converse with another biography subject you may know!
Family members and friends: You are invited to choose your own biography subject and join in the conversation!
Today we had a wonderful Share & Compare session with two classes. One class lived in Nebraska, and one class lived in New York. We went from the west coast, across the plains, to the east coast of the United States! These teachers first connected at the Google Teacher Academy!
Yesterday, @MsJennyKirsch tweeted out a photo of her fifth grade New Yorkers preparing for the HangOut.
This morning, @catlett1 Brent Catlett tweeted out this picture so we could get a sense of what the day looked like in Nebraska. It was cold out on the plains today! Freezing is 32˚F! How many degrees above freezing was it in Nebraska?
What do you call people from Nebraska?
He also tweeted out this picture and asked, "How many snowmen do you see on the playground?" Look carefully!
In the spirit of sharing, we went outside with our thermometers and measured the temperature. It was quite a bit hotter here in sunny California. It was 81˚F at 10:00! As you can see, the Californians are wearing shorts and tank tops!
Here are some photos from the informative Google HangOut!
Share & Compare GoogleHangout on PhotoPeach
During the Share & Compare, students entered state data on a Google doc. The chart made it very easy to compare the three states, the three communities, and the three schools. It was also fun to watch everyone entering data from across the United States at the same time!
Second graders are reading The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr. This historical fiction book is about a family of pioneers who head out for California in the 1850s. Faith, the main character, wants to bring her hen, Josefina, on the trip west even though Pa says she is useless. He said that Josefina is too old to lay eggs and too tough to eat!
Ma gave Pa a special look, and then Pa changed his mind. Pa did say that if Josefina caused any trouble she'd have to go.
Public Domain Photo
Pick a character from the book and drop us a comment from his/her point-of-view!
This week, Mrs. Yollis' third graders is reading "Pepita Talks Twice!"
Pepita, who can speak both English and Spanish, decides that she doesn't
want to "speak twice" anymore. When her decision creates problems she
hadn't thought of, Pepita realizes that sometimes it can be a good
thing to understand two languages.
The story was even written in both English and Spanish,
so we began learning some Spanish words ourselves.
* * * * *
The video below, made by former students in both Mrs. Ranney's and Mrs. Yollis' class, demonstrates many Spanish words we learned!
Nonfiction writing is based on facts, real events, and real people. There are many helpful text features found in nonfiction writing. Some common text features are: headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, time lines, maps, charts, and the glossary.
Below is a humdinger of a video made by Sheriff Yollis and Sheriff Salsich. They hope their video helps you greenhorns learn about about these important reading features!
I am passionate about educational blogging. Below is a video I created with my second and third grade students. We hope that our video inspires and motivates other teachers to consider blogging with their classes. There are so many wonderful benefits!
Enjoy!
* * * * *
If you are new to blogging, here is an informative video made by my former students. They offer FIVE great tips for writing quality comments.
* * * * *
If YouTube is blocked, here is the same video on Vimeo:
On Thursday, the split classes at our school split! In other words, the 2/3 split and the 4/5 split classes embarked on a field trip together to the California Science Center! What an incredible day of learning!
Because the second and third graders are studying animals and their habitats, we spent a good deal of time at the Ecosystems Exhibit.
Enjoy some photos from the plethora (pleth • É™ • rÉ™) of exhibits. A plethora is a fancy word for a large amount.
California Science Center on PhotoPeach
The Giant Kelp Forest Exhibit was spectacular! Watch and learn!
One of the highlights of the trip was viewing the Endeavour Space Shuttle!
Posts
