Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Committed Sardine

My teacher is a committed sardine which means she is changing things up like we are doing BYOD. They call it committed sardines because if 15% of a school of sardines turn the other way then the rest of the school turns too. So if more teachers start to do things unique then we can get schools and then counties and more on board to try something new. But it starts with one teacher!

Friday, December 11, 2015

WAQ

You are probably wondering what WAQ stands for. WAQ stands for where, about, and questions. WAQ is how Mrs.Vinson's class gets their homework done. Here is how it works: you log onto Mrs.Vinsons blog, and there will be a link to the video that Mrs.Vinson created, then, you watch the video and fill out your WAQ.The first letter, the W is for where, and you are to write where you  watched the video in your home. The second letter is an A, for this one, you write what the video was about. The last letter is Q, or questions, and you write your questions about the video. I think that it is much more convenient to do homework like this because most teachers would just stand at the board and explain it, but when you watch a video, it has already been explained. Another reason is that you can't replay a teacher, but you can replay a video. You can watch the video as many times as you want. Then, when class time comes, you already know the concepts of the lesson. Here is an example:
W- on my couch with my computer.
A-this video was about dividing decimals, the problem shown was 1.35/.15 =9
Q-in how many ways can you divide decimals?

Bring Your Own Device

Byod stands for being your own device.  We can bring laptops, tablets , ,iPod etc. I feel happy that I can bring my own device  because I don't have to get a laptop from school. I bring a tablet. We use our devices in math, science, and genius hour. In math we use it for Frontrowed. Frontrowed helps us with our math. In science we use it to search up information for parts of the body like the brain and the nervous system and other parts of the body. We also use it in genius hour. we use it to search for information of our topic.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Band & Strings

Finding band and strings in a elementary school  is extremely rare. But in Underwood Elementary  it is possible for 3rd,4th,and 5th graders to find their talent in music. The instruments that you are offered to play are violin, voila, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, trumpet, and alto saxophone. I am a current 5th grader that plays clairnet and flute. I feel that I found my talent with music.Thank you Mr.Richardson for teaching me how to play the clarinet and flute. Mrs.Shirling teaches strings and I bet that her students are just as thankful as I am for having an amazing teacher.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Our schools electives

At our school, Underwood Elementary, we unlike many schools have electives. Each student has 2 electives and we get different ones for each quarter of the year. We have so many some of our electives are dance varieties, band and strings, which are both year round.  We also have art, music,  musical theatre and acting. But not all electives are arts.  Some are robotics, computer coding, library learning, history, math, and reading and writing.  I think that having electives is very important to the environment of the school and helping students really find out what they love and like. It helps them to know what their gifts and talents are. When students come in for kindergarten they don't know what their gifts and talents are. They know the things they want to do and the things they like but It's not until they try things out before they know what they love, which is usually different than what they have done in the past. And when they try electives it gives them an easier path to target what they love.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Front rowed the best internet classroom ever! By Claire

OMG you should totally set up an account for your class  on frontrowed.com.


Frontrowed.com is an internet classroom with two subjects, math and reading. We are doing math and every question you get right you get one coin . When you get enough coins and stars you can go to the piggy store to buy clothes for your piggy. The reason frontrowed is a good website is your students can compete and see who is on the leader boards and if you are not that motivates you to work harder. So teachers make sure to get a class account on frontrowed.com!