On Friday, Mrs. Tolisano began teaching our class the basics of coding. Since the class is so “tech savy” this seemed to be the next logical step.
We began by talking about what coding is and the importance of learning this skill. Here are two great articles written about coding and what it means for students in the future:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323744604578470900844821388.html
https://www.edsurge.com/guide/teaching-kids-to-code
We then went on a website called Code Academy( http://www.codecademy.com/) and learned some basic coding skills.
The first class was a lot of fun and we look forward to more lessons soon!
This Tuesday, May, 21st, MJGDS will host our annual Talent show and new this year Art Show. On display will be the portraits created by the students in Art class and a picture they created, using Pic Collage, for their pen pals in Israel. Both will have a QR code in Hebrew recorded by the students.
If you have a QR reader on your iphone, ipad or android, please scan, listen and enjoy!
The 5th graders taught a lesson (as a group) to the 3rd graders on Quality Commenting. Then, on Thursday, the 5th graders paired with the 3rd graders to help them use the skills they were taught to write quality comments on the 4th graders’ blogs. Each 5th grader worked with 1-2 3rd graders, and the results were quite impressive. I was amazed with the patience, enthusiasm, and true knowledge of the content they each shared with the 3rd graders. Here is an example of one of their comments:
Dear Zach,
That was a cool video. I like reading. Now I like baseball. Was that video made because you like
baseball? And why do you like baseball? What are your favorite baseball teams?
Thank you,
Benjamin
We also started to discuss our next phase of our poetry book. The students came up with so many questions.
So many questions, and so much to do…The students developed a list of jobs (with my guidance) that would be needed to begin to answer these questions. Once the job list was complete, they had to determine what job would best suit each of them. Each student developed a resume and applied for one of the positions. I was thrilled to see that they each applied for positions, which really emphasized their strengths. I was also equally surprised that they all (for the most part) chose a different job. After receiving all of the resumes, Silvia, Andrea, and I looked over each resume to decide who would be “hired” for each position. Fortunately, they made it very easy on us. We ended up hiring Benjamin as our VP of Finance, Jamie and Itamar as our VP’s of Marketing, Zoe as our VP of Design with support from Evelyn and Ben, Jonah as our editor, Gil as our publishing liaison, Rebecca as our VP of Public Relations with Zachary’s support, and Elior as our VP of Business. They all have a list of their job descriptions and they will be reporting directly to Mike Fisher and myself on a weekly basis. This project will continue into next year, so I look forward to working with the Middle School teachers. The 4th graders will also be choosing the areas that they feel suit each of them, so they can be on a collaborative team with the 5th graders.
What tips do you have for the 5th graders in their new business endeavor?
I feel overwhelming pride and joy for my 4th and 5th graders that chose to do the “Speed Geeking” at EdJEWcon. They all did such a fabulous job, and I heard from so many people how impressive they were. Ariella T, Samantha Z, Eliana J, Rebecca Bu ,(from 4th grade) Jamie B, Rebecca B, and Benjamin C (from 5th grade) volunteered to present a tool of their choice, that they felt confident enough to teach to others. Then, they created a proposal, wrote out their presentations, made fliers, and practiced over and over again, so that they could share their knowledge in a 5-minute time frame to several educators. What a brave group of students! A couple of them were nervous, and it took them a round or two to warm up, but they managed to impress a large group, who have since blogged, tweeted, and shared about their experience of being taught by 4th and 5th graders! How exciting!! In the last session I attended today, it was mentioned to have students do a “Speed Geeking” session for the parents….Great idea!
Should we plan a Speek Geeking session for our parents?
What should we “Geek” about?
What do you think?
Comment and share your thoughts. Stay tuned for video footage coming soon….
Congratulations to the Fifth Grade on another successful Conference Day last Friday. Everyone was very prepared to share with their parents the progress that they had made since the last conference day in November. The students posted their presentations on their student blogfolios. This will enable them next year, and in many years to come, to take a look back and see how much learning has taken place.
Many thanks to Mrs. Hernandez, Mrs. Tolisano, and Mrs. Kagan for your help and guidance.
I am very proud of ALL the students. Great job!
During my trip to Israel in December 2012, I visited my cousin and his family who live in Kibbutz Negba. This Kibbutz has a very special place in Israel’s history because several key battles during Israel’s Independence War in 1948 happened in Negba. My cousin Oren and his wife Michal took me on a tour of the Kibbutz and told me the amazing history of this place.
Your assignment is to become a reporter for the Jerusalem Post in 1948. Please write a newspaper article or prepare a digital presentation about the Kibbutz and the battles that took place during the 1948 Independence War. The following are some of the presentations. Please click on each student’s name.
On Thursday, the Fourth and Fifth Grade went on a field trip to Kennedy Space Center. It was a wonderful day full of educational experiences and FUN! Stay tuned for relfections about our trip.
Here are a few of the 5th graders’ book trailers. The rest will be posted soon.
