For my first “Comments 4 Kids” assignment, I visited the blog of Ms. Naugle’s 4th Grade Math Class. Ms. Naugle teaches math and social studies in New Orleans, LA. Her twitter bio indicates that she uses Web 2.0 tools like Blogger, Ning, Jing, Skype, and Wiki in her classroom. She has 34 years of experience. I commented on Madison U.’s student blog post "The Great Geometry."
I told Madison a little bit about myself and linked an interactive tangram puzzle link for Madison to learn more about geometry in a fun way! I also commented a week later on Madison’s blog post "A Sweet Kind of Project." To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Ms. Naugle’s class used conversation hearts candy to learn about estimating and predicting. Students were given a box of candies and told to guess how many were in a box. Yummy and fun! I congratulated Madison on her very close prediction.
My second C4K assignment took me across the ocean to Pt. England School in Aukland, New Zealand. I watched and listened to the podcast KPE Episode 339: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Kayla & Sylvia, students in year 6. Kayla and Sylvia read Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl. Here’s a little bit of what I said in my comments: “I really enjoyed hearing the enthusiasm in your voices when you told about the characters in the book. You're right! The moral, "don't steal," teaches honesty and integrity! You can take this lesson alone and go far in life! Have you seen the movie? My oldest daughter had a course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in film making. She learned to make films based on the techniques used in the movie version. I emailed her and told her that I had viewed your podcast and she told me to tell you a little about how the movie was made. It's really a neat process. It was made with a technique called "stop-frame animation." All of the sets and characters were made by hand. They were not digital. Pictures were taken of the characters in different positions and settings (stopping and framing them.) Then the pictures were combined (24 pictures per second) to make the movie. I can't even imagine how much time this took and how patient the animators had to be! Can you? The animators told about a night when they took a break from filming to sleep. Overnight, it rained and the humidity changed the position of the set by less than one centimeter. Because the animation is so precise, they had to scrap all of their work and start again.”
It was my 3rd C4K assignment that introduced me to Heremaia, a year 6 student at Pt. England School. Her teacher’s name is Mr. Somerville. Heremaia wrote a very imaginative story about a superhero named Broly. Broly uses a laser beam to fight evil and saves the day! I posted the following comments to Heremaia’s blog: “It is so exciting to be able to communicate with students like you who are so far away from the U.S. We have all heard about the terrible earthquake that struck New Zealand recently. I looked at a map and was relieved to see that Aukland is not located near Christchurch. Do you have any family or friends in Christchurch? We are praying for everyone there. I am so impressed by your story, "Broly the Superhero." I'm sure your teacher, Mr. Somerville, is impressed with your imaginative storytelling too. I think it's great that your superhero, Broly, was on the side of good! Have you thought about animating Broly? Maybe you could draw or paint a cartoon picture of him and upload it to your blog! You'll never guess how old I am!...Just to prove that you should never stop learning, I'll tell you my age. I am 41 years old! I want to teach English. I love being in the classroom and can't wait to have my own students! I look forward to reading your next post, Heremaia.”
I enjoyed blogging with all three of my “kids” in this first C4K cycle! It opened my eyes to how tech-savvy today’s students are and how important it is that I train myself to use the same tools. How cool is it that we can communicate globally with students of all ages? What an exhilarating time to be a student and become a teacher!
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