Grade 3 and Multi 3/4 Update

Note: This year I am blogging weekly reflections at my school site (weskids.com) in order to provide more transparency in my teaching for parents, students, and the community (local and global). I will be cross-posting most of the entries here at Bit By Bit as well. You can see the original posts at the “Reflections by Mr. S” blog.

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Grade 3 classes have all published their Internet Safety Posters and have returned back to Centers. One Center is based on the “Self-Assessment” piece that I told you they would be doing in a previous post. I’m almost finished conferencing with every student to discuss their self-assessment, and these will be coming home soon.

Another Center is called “TED Talks”. In this Center, students watch a movie from one of the TED Archives that connects to our studies. If you’re not familiar with TED, it is an amazing resource of knowledge. (Note: not all talks are geared towards a “younger audience,” so you definitely want to pre-watch their talks before your students watch them at home.) In the “TED Center,” students watch the film as a group, and then meet on the floor to discuss what they saw. Right now, they are viewing 2 videos that connect with the STEM work they are doing with Mr. I on wind energy. There are two videos that show a young man who discovered how to make a windmill to harness energy for his small village in Africa. When students meet on the floor to discuss, I am listening in, but it is up to them to keep the conversation going. We’ve talked about the importance of making sure that everyone in the group gets a chance to be heard, and discussed prompts that could keep the conversation going (for example, “I liked the part where…” or “I was confused by this part…”). TED groups focus on the following National Standards and skills for students:

  • Social, ethical, and human issues, digital citizenship
    • Students understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology.
  • Critical thinking and problem solving and decision making
    • Students employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.

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One other Center I wanted to draw your attention to is the Router’s Birthday Surprise Adventure. In this Center, students return to netsmartzkids.org to refresh their learning about Internet Safety. It’s a fun and engaging journey while learning important rules of how to behave and act online.

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