We Published Our Books! #Writing #Publishing #BuildingCommunity #Books

Our library is exploding with AMAZING books!

Link to video: https://animoto.com/play/7k6gyGhNnuc7xvwD0EPtvA

Thank you to everyone who helped to make our publishing party even more special by sending in a treat!

Makerspace

Making things move!

Adding Our Names To Our Bathtub #community

TerraCycle: Pumps, Triggers & Air Fresheners @TerraCycle #Create #RESVT

Watch this awesome video to learn about more items you can TerraCycle at RES!

Wishing Our Friend Good Luck Before The Geo Bee #GeoBee

Circus Night!!! @RESPEVT @resvt @CircusSmirkus

Circus Night at RES is next Friday!!!
Proceeds will go to support Artist and Residency Program and promoting the Arts at RES

What: Troy Wunderle of Wunderle’s Big Top Adventure & Circus Smirkus will be helping Mr. G host a Kids Night Out Circus Night. Parents are welcome to volunteer or drop kids off for the evening. A pizza party will be included. Kids will have the opportunity to watch a circus show and explore lots of different types of circus equipment including Pogo Sticks, Moon Hoppers, Unicycles, Stilts, Juggling scarves, balls, rings, and clubs, Devil Sticks, Diabolos, Feathers, Plates, and Much More.

When: Friday, January 27th at RES 5:30pm -8:00pm

Cost: $20 per child (if you need a scholarship email diane.kane@cesuvt.org)

Sign-up: Online at http://tinyurl.com/gplchee or at Mr. G’s Blog

 Contact: Brian Godfrey at brian.godfrey@cesuvt.org with questions

TerraCycle at RES: Dental Care Products @TerraCycle @resvt #CareForTheEnvironment

Watch this video to learn about all of the different dental care products that you can TerraCycle at RES!  Remember, when you take the time to TerraCycle you not only help our planet Earth, you also support the Richmond Food Shelf!

App Smashing, Media Literacy, and Book Trailers in Fourth Grade Enrichment Library Classes #vted #vsla

This is a guest post from our enrichment teacher, Darcie Rankin and our library media specialist, Beth Redford.

Fourth graders at RES are continuing to wrap up a unit on media literacy. They learned about several strategies that advertisers use to get people's attention and convince them to buy products. Then they practiced finding those strategies in different kinds of advertisements. Finally, the scholars created video advertisements for books, also known as book trailers, to try to convince other scholars to read their favorite stories. Here are two more great examples, from a fourth graders who used the advertising strategies of Intensity, Plain Folks, Fear (to get the viewer's attention), and Repetition in their book trailers for Smile by Raina Telgemeier and The Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little.

And a behind the scenes note: these scholars used the "app smashing" technique of using more than one application on a digital device to create a single final product. The fourth graders used the iMovie, Green Screen, Camera, and Notes apps together make these amazing videos!

Create Something That Moves! #Makerspace #VTED #NurtureCreativity

Last Friday, I asked students to create something that moves.  Today we continued to work on our projects for Fabulously Fun Friday!  I love to watch kids collaborating, problem solving and creating!  We will continue to work on our projects each Friday until our ideas come to fruition!

Link to slideshow: https://sharalike.com/s/p7ZT

Reading Party!!! #Read #VTED

Link to slideshow to watch it fullscreen: https://sharalike.com/s/p7ZR

Wellness @JeanCampbell @HemmettHealth @ModMindfulness #Podcast #Wellness

I just had the honor of being interviewed by Jean Campbell for a podcast about wellness.  We focused on how I incorporate wellness into the classroom, so I thought you might enjoy hearing it!

Link to Wellness Podcast Site:
https://sites.google.com/cesuvt.org/wellnesspodcast


  

Woohooo! We're Composting!!! #Compost #CareForTheEarth #VTED

Everyday, I am so amazed by how aware and thoughtful my students are of the people and world around them.  My students have become very passionate about caring for our planet!  My incredible kids decided that we could go beyond TerraCycle and recycling to make a difference; they said that we needed to compost too!  So this generous scholar and her family donated a compost bin to our classroom!!!!  Everyone was so excited to compost their food scraps today!!!!

I am so moved to see that my students understand that even small actions can build up to make a big difference!  They are truly wise beyond their years!!!! 

Vlogging #StudentVlog @MichaelBerryEDU #Vlog #TechED

Last week, Mr. Berry came in to support our new vlogging adventure!  This is the film he made of his time with us.  We are so excited to see everyone's vlogs come to life!

I Walked By And Had To Smile... @wimpykid @wimpykidmovie #PassionForReading

I felt like my students were doing an advertisement for the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series!  I love the passion!

We Chose Our First Vlogger! #StudentVlog #Vlog #CaseyNeistat @MichaelBerryEDU @darcierankin

We were so excited to see Mr. Berry today AND get to learn more about vlogging!

After studying more vlogs and exploring different techniques, student began playing with editing.  Scholars got really creative and had a lot of fun trying out new ideas!

And then... The magic moment came when it was time to choose OUR FIRST VLOGGER!!!!!!!  Everyone put their name into a basket and waited for the name to be drawn.  And the first vlogger is...

We are so excited to learn more about each other and build our storytelling skills and classroom community through vlogging!

There a few things students must do in their vlog:

Each vlog must:
Start with a title and date--See below expectations:

*Video of a moment in your life

*Video of a setting (May do time lapse/ fast or slow motion)

*Overlay Title of Vlog   L4_Vloggers

With vlog number under title     Vlog_001
*Then overlay the place Richmond, Vermont

With the date under the place    January 4, 2017

End with a hold on your face

After the hold on your face, don’t forget to:

*Site music used (Don’t have to site WeVideo music)

-Remember to use http://makerbook.net/ to get awesome music.  The best sites for music
on Makerbook are Bensound & YouTube!

*Credit/show our production company: Orange Productions

Be honest--don’t worry about what you look like or sound like or if your house is clean, have fun

Be thoughtful in your music choices--make sure we can hear the talking over the music

Vlogs can’t be too long--Take out the unimportant parts (Remember that transitions are important!)

Students have this information and links to all of the vlogs we have studied on a document in our Google Classroom. Students know they can access Google Classroom by singing into their school email accounts. Students can also access their WeVideo accounts at home by signing in through their school email accounts.

This is going to be AMAZING! Thanks for your support!

Signing With Gia: Learning Our Numbers #ASL #SignLanguage #Learn

Gia came in to sign with us again today!!!  We love signing so much that Gia promised to come in every Wednesday to teach us new signs!  Today we focused on numbers!  You and your children can use these videos to learn and practice your number signs!  Thanks Gia!

Dubstep #WeVideo #Dubstep

Brady created his own Dubstep video at home using WeVideo!  Dubstep is a form of dance music.  Enjoy!

Author Jim Benton Loved Estelle's Book Trailer! @JimBenton #BookTrailer #Read

There is no better surprise than hearing that the author of a beloved book loved your book trailer!  Jim Benton, the creative author of the "Franny K. Stein" series took the time to watch and respond to Estelle's trailer.  Pure magic!  

Jim Benton's tweet:

Link to Estelle's AWESOME book trailer: http://lefrancoisvt.blogspot.com/2016/12/franny-k-stein-mad-scientist-lunch.html

Vlogging 101 #StudentVlog #Create @MichaelBerryEDU @darcierankin @CaseyNeistat

Last year, Mr. Berry and I gave my students a vlog challenge.  Our goals were to increase student confidence, build pride, break down barriers, practice storytelling skills, grow investment and empathy for each other, strengthen our sense of community, make global connections, build artistic value and expression, give students a powerful voice and get to know our students on a whole new level.  We reached all of those goals and so many more!  The project was a truly magical experience and I can't wait to do it again with my students this year!

Today, we immersed ourselves in the world of vlogging!  We studied and discussed vlogs.  We looked at techniques that famous vloggers like Casey Neistat use, and how Mr. Berry and my students made their vlogs come to life last year.  Students began playing with vlogging today and had an awesome time!

A vlog is a video blog.  Each student is going to get the opportunity to share a part of his/her lives with the world through a personal vlog.  Students will have our class iPod for about 1-3 days to record moments in their life.  They will then upload their footage to WeVideo and create their vlog.  Students will need to work on this pretty independently, doing most of the work at home or when they come into school in the morning. When they finish their vlog, they'll meet with me for fine tuning, then share it with the world.

We're so excited to play a little more and then choose our first vlogger on Wednesday!!!

Learn More About Vlogs:

Check out Mr. Berry's vlog that gives you an idea of what vlogs are about and how to vlog:

You can go to this link to see all of the AMAZING vlogs my students and Mr. Berry made last year:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoZVdex49RA&list=PLn7RvEY3TVTvb3Ut864-4UJB54Z403t0S  (You can also always find this link under the "Helpful Links" to your right on my blog!)

Learn More About Casey Neistat--And More About Why We Vlog: