BJU Press Blog

First Time’s the Charm!

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We just finished chapter 1 in our BJU Press science book—studying cold-blooded animals. And we finished it off with an experiment about the body temperatures of cold-blooded animals. (Watch a video that sums up our experiment!)

We worked in groups according to rows. Each row had two paper lizards. Students colored and cut out the lizards for their row. Then we went out into the courtyard and placed one lizard in the sun and one in the shade. We laid a thermometer down on top of each one to show the lizard’s body temperature and then recorded the temperatures. After a few hours, we went back out and checked our lizards. We discovered that the lizards in the shade had a much lower body temperature than the lizards in the sun.

We have such a great God! He made it so that each animal has exactly what it needs to survive in the conditions where it lives. A lizard that is too hot can move into the shade. A lizard that is cold can warm up by moving into the sun. At the end of the week, we made videos about our experiment, using 30hands.

30hands is an app that allows you to upload pictures from your iPad® and record on each one.  You can also draw on the pictures if you choose. The students in each group told about what they had done. It was their first attempt at using 30hands, and I think they did a great job.

I sent the videos off to the parents, so they could enjoy our hard work. Now on to the next chapter . . .

What experiments have you and your class enjoyed? Any using technology?

And the Darkness Came After the Rain

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Almost everyone looks forward to the first day of school. Kids have all their new supplies. Usually they also have new outfits waiting to be worn. Lunchboxes are packed, and backpacks are ready. Then the first day arrives.

We had the usual exciting first day. It rained. Thankfully, all the students had a great attitude even when the rain caused us to have indoor recess. I’m not too sure about the teachers though! I recently heard the statement “‘I love it when it rains because I just get to spend more time with the kids in the classroom,’ said no teacher ever.” But we made it through the first two days with indoor recess.

On the third day, we were hoping for the best. And then ten minutes after we arrived at school the electricity went out. Two days of rain and then darkness—not exactly what we were hoping for. But I think the kids handled it pretty well. We were without power for about three hours and still covered math, reading, and Bible. We even managed to use our iPads® in math. The chapter 1 lesson reviews addition. So to practice the concept of adding with multiple addends, we used Educreations Interactive Whiteboard.

Educreations is an app that allows students to work problems out on a whiteboard and record what they are thinking. I love it! The students chose a problem and worked it out for me, telling me how they arrived at their answer. (See how a student solved her math problem.)

With Educreations you can actually know what your students are thinking. It helps you narrow down what area(s) your students may be struggling in. What teacher wouldn’t love that?

Have you used Educreations before? What other tools have you found helpful for giving you insight into your students’ learning?

Old Goodbyes and New Hellos

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The last day of school for us comes each May. By that time, we’ve spent over 1,000 hours together as a class—a family. My kids leave school that day, but when they return in the fall they are no longer my kids. It’s tough. For a fleeting moment, I wonder what next year will be like. Who will I be spending 1,000+ hours with?

There are so many things I want to do during the summer and so much to catch up on around the house. I’ll take a trip or two; maybe hit the beach. Still, I can’t help but wonder “who will be in my class next year?” I’ll go to some conferences to attend or present workshops. Yet I think “what names will wind up on my class list?” I pop in and out of my classroom to get ahead for next year. Summer comes and goes in what seems like the blink of an eye. Before I know it, the new class lists come out.

I’m looking down on a list of 24 new names.  I might recognize two or three.  And then those names begin to go up all over my classroom. Name tags, desk tags, helper’s chart, the birthday calendar—all have new names! I know the kids are just as eager to find out who is going to be their new teacher, as I was to see my class list. So this year I decided to introduce myself to my students in a new way. I used Tellagami.

Tellagami is an app that allowed me to create an avatar, or “gami” of myself. There are options for eye, skin, and hair color. I was also able to pick out the outfit and background I wanted to use.  You can choose from their gallery or upload your own picture.  (I decided to upload a photo of my desk.)  Then, I recorded a simple welcome message to my kids and invited them to our Back to School night. I attached the message to an email, and within 10 minutes had a fun, new, original way to say hello to my new students.

Maybe I still have a few minutes left to catch up on the things around the house . . .

How do you introduce yourself to your new students?

Extreme Makeover—Pinterest Edition

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A while back my friend posted on Facebook that she just wished she could get back the last hour of her life that she had spent on Pinterest. At that point, I made the decision not to be lured into Pinterest. Teaching can be a pretty time-consuming job as it is. And balancing home and school is tricky. But recently, I was checking out another teacher’s blog, and she had a link to Pinterest. I figured, “What harm can it do? I will just look at this one thing.” That thing opened a whole new world to me.

Who knew there were tons of educational ideas on Pinterest? I sure didn’t, but now I do! Some of the ideas are so cute. Christi Fultz at Ms. Fultz’s Corner had a great idea for morning lunch count. I loved it!

For lunch count, I had been using small metal buckets containing popsicle sticks numbered with each child’s classroom number. They simply moved the popsicle stick into the correct pail, hot lunch or milk, depending on what they needed for the day. This always worked fine during lunch count, but I didn’t have a really good place to store the little buckets, and they were always getting knocked off my chalk tray.

So I used Christi’s idea, but instead of putting my lunch count on a cookie sheet that I would have to store, I used a section of my whiteboard that had my calendar on it.

lunch count boardI simply downloaded various food photos, laminated them, cut them out, labeled them with classroom numbers, and put magnets on the back. Then I divided a portion of my whiteboard into sections using some bulletin board border I already had.  It works really well and didn’t cost me anything—except for the hours of my life I now spend on Pinterest!

Do you use ideas from Pinterest in your classroom? If so, how have you tweaked them to fit your needs?

Christmas in August

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I think orientation week for teachers is somewhat like the week before Christmas. Everyone is excited. There are so many things you need to do before the big day comes. You purchase new items. You decorate your classroom. You sit in what seems like endless meetings thinking of events to come. You want everything to be just right.

You think you will never get everything done—but somehow you do. The week finally culminates with one of my favorite nights of the year—Back to School Night.  This is when those names on a list finally become reality.

This year, I had some different things ready for my kids—like a welcome sign on my door where I asked them to sign their names.  I simply hung markers from the door knob for them to use.

Since I have a few iPads® in my classroom—and I am so excited about that!—I wanted to use them. My husband and I took a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary trip to the Bahamas this year, and I brought back a shell for each of my students.  So I created a video about that trip using Animoto.

image of sea shells on a table

I shared some of my photos and told the kids in a message at the end that they could keep one of the shells. I had the video playing on two of the iPads. (See the video of my trip to Long Island, Bahamas.)

We also have a MimioBoard™ interactive whiteboard in our classroom.  Using the Tellagami™ app, I made a message to the students explaining how they could use the whiteboard. That was displayed on a third iPad.

I always try to have something the kids can take home with them.  This year my classroom theme is popcorn. So I popped some popcorn and put it in cute popcorn bags I found at the local dollar store.  All of my students had one waiting in their cubby.

image of popcorn bags in school cubbies

I had a great time meeting all my students, and I think, from all the smiles, that they were pretty happy too.

What special things do you do for Back to School Night?