Interview with Mrs. E & First Grade Student:
Mrs. E: Tell me about using Google Maps in class. Student: First, we created a map with directions on how to get from DuJardin School to home. I needed to know my address, but I won't share it with strangers. Mrs. E: Did you only create one map? Student: No, we made two maps. The first one was the walking route. The second one was the driving route. The walking one had blue dots. The driving one was blue lines. Then, we compared the walking and driving routes. The driving one was awesome and shorter. Mrs. E: What tech skills did you learn? Student: We took a screenshot, clicked on links and typed in our addresses. Mrs. E: Did you use Google Maps outside of the classroom? Student: YES! Mrs. E: You did? What did you do? Student: I told my mom I wanted to go to Target. So, I found my house on Google Maps and then followed the arrow to Target. Mrs. E: How do you feel about that? Student: Amazing! Mrs. E: You also used Google Earth, right? What's that? Student: It is a tool where it can take you to other places. Mrs. E: Like where? Student: Like Florida, Mexico, France, India and more. Mrs. E: Did you need to go an airplane? Student: No. All you need is your Chromebook. Mrs. E: What did you learn? Student: We got to see how places look like. It was really fun!
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We have hopes of shifting towards a student led conference model here at DuJardin School. We make student ownership and leadership a priority in the classroom, it only makes sense to have them lead their own conferences. The self reflection our kids engage in on a regular basis, in addition to the rich feedback Standards Based Grading and Reporting elicits, allows for students to really take over when it comes to talking about their progress. Of course, there's the necessary teacher input and instructional perspective, but why not allow the kids rock n' roll with this?
Right now, without the students physically there to facilitate their parent teacher conferences, a brilliant idea (shoutout to Miss Beckwith) arose! How about the kids record a little video, using one of our favorite video tools, Flipgrid, to dive deeper and give their own perspective on their learning? You wouldn't believe how honest and meaningful their reflections were. Some of our students even recorded messages in their native languages for their parents to watch. Oh- and if the parents couldn't attend the conference, they still got to see their sweet faces and hear their cute voices on video! Many of our teachers started their conference with what matters- THE STUDENTS. Not the data, but the videos of the kids articulating areas of strength, growth, and more. Parents cried and smiled in delight as their seven year olds shared about their school experience.
Check out the examples below :)
Guest post written by Third Grade Student. When I and a couple of students went to Mrs. Kurdziel’s class, we learned how to paraphrase. We were reading “The Tale of Androcles” and there was a question that asked to paraphrase the text. Paraphrasing means to put text in your own words. Today, I found text evidence for an essay on stars (the ones in the sky). Later on, my class will paraphrase the text evidence. We paraphrase because it is illegal to put writing that someone else (not you) wrote. The text evidence is in a red box and the paraphrased writing is in a green box. This helps us organize our thinking! Paraphrasing is really important.
Guest Blog Post- Written by Luke & Trinity Tricka
During 11/11, we do many things to celebrate. One of the things that we do when the veterans come is we have lunch with us. They get lunch from school and sit with us. We are allowed to ask appropriate questions about them being a veteran. Another thing that we do is a parade. A parade of them goes through the whole school. The kids are lined on the outside of the hallways. Then the veterans go down them. All the kids have little flags and wave them around. Then, after that, at least, one veteran comes into each room and teaches us. Like telling us stories, fun facts, and answering some of our questions. It is a blast! Then, we all go to the gym and have a veterans day chorus show. The 4th and 5th graders have a chorus show and sing many songs representative to veterans. Then, we say goodbye to the veterans, veterans day celebration is over.
Thank You Veterans! We also created a graphic to show about Veterans Day! Shout out to StoryboardThat :)
This week's TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD is dedicated to the beauty of learning from others. As educators, we often thrive off of new learning to enhance our work with students. Today, continued professional growth has taken on an entirely different meaning. Gathering new ideas and information from other educators is more than just talking things through with a colleague or bringing back something from a conference of sorts.
Social media is very much a part of our world today. True confession, I didn't have a Twitter account before I started here in Bloomingdale. However, as an Instructional Technology Coach (especially with a Superintendent who LOVES Twitter), I thought it'd be a great idea to hop on board. Now, I cannot imagine my professional life without it. Daily, I am inspired by other educators as I continue to learn and grow. Mrs. Fonk, Kindergarten Teacher Extraordinaire, messaged me with a tweet yesterday that I totally missed! Not only was she able to learn from another connected educator, but she also corralled me into the learning. Professional Learning Networks are P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L! Thanks Mrs. Fonk & Mr. Szajner for the new learning & inspiration! OH YEA, what was that new learning, you ask? Well, check out this FANTASTIC, very kid-friendly Virtual Manipulative site! Mathigon Polypad for the WIN!
Hello Everyone! It’s me, a 4th grader at DuJardin Elementary School. A lot of people in school already know me, ‘cause I like to make a lot of friends across grades! But let's get right to what I want to say. Late October, in the week of 10/24/19, my teacher (Mrs. McGrane) introduced something she likes featured in non-fiction writing. It’s called a bibliography (biblio-graphy: “Biblio” means “book” an “graph” means “to write” it is most commonly used as a suffix, AKA “graphy”) ! You basically state the sources that helped you put valid and interesting information into your essay. Just saying, you always have to state your sources while writing. Otherwise, it’s basically stealing from the person that discovered that very thing! It’s claiming that you did something that someone else did. Long story short, It’s illegal. This is the link to the website my class used to create our bibliographies. We entered the source information and then the website did some formatting for the bibliography. https://www.citefast.com/?s=APA#_Webpage In case you’re curious, here is my bibliography: (As you can probably tell after reading my bibliography, my essay was about Archimedes.) If you’re in any grade lower than fourth, you can look forward to informational writing later on! If you don’t think bibliographies are cool, then well… Or if you don’t like informational writing… O-or maybe you d-don’t even like w-writing… Then, I can’t really tell you what to look forward to in Fourth Grade. You’ll figure it out yourself. :)
Oh and if you’re not a student, I bet you wish you had learned this as a fourth grader. Think about how much easier writing formal papers would have been as you got older! Well, this is the end of my entry, I hope you are excited for bibliographies, and if not… But anyway, please enjoy all the other blog entries, there are a lot of good things going on at DuJardin School.
As, Mr. Couros writes, sometimes we think of technology and innovation as synonymous. However, read about the assembly turned student service project as a meaningful example of NEW & BETTER!
Guest Post by Charla Treanor, DuJardin School Social Worker.
DuJardin participated in a whole school wide community service project in honor of this year's nationwide Character Counts! week. A speaker from the local Ronald McDonald House in Winfield came and spoke to our school about how the house helps families with a sick child at Central DuPage Hospital. As a way to support the Ronald McDonald House, all kindergarten through 3rd graders made welcome bags that will be given to families as they arrive at the house. The welcome bags contained games, puzzles, notepads, crayons, and a snack for the family to give either their child in the hospital or to a sibling of a child who is in the hospital. The bags also had note attached with a heart that said "Handmade with Love by DuJardin Elementary School". The 4th and 5th graders tied 49 fleece blankets that will be given to the child or sibling as well. DuJardin teachers were also a part of this project, as they spent one morning before school, preparing the blankets to be tied. This project gave DuJardin students a hands on way to show empathy and compassion for others. They were asked to imagine how it would feel to be in the hospital or to have a sibling staying in the hospital and what it would feel like to receive a surprise such as a welcome bag or a warm blanket in a cold hospital room. TALK ABOUT NEW & BETTER!
This week's "Tell Me Something Good" is the newest segment that has been added to the DuJardin Weekly News: Classroom Spotlight.
In the past, we've included features like "Holiday Spotlight" or "Culture Spotlight" where different information is shared about special traditions, customs, and celebrations. It's a wonderful way to allow staff and students to teach others about their lives. These are usually scripted by the student news anchors and are filmed in an interview type of format. Check out a few previous "spotlights" here.
This year, each classroom will have the autonomy to create their own "Classroom Spotlight" segment. Every classroom will be featured throughout the year. The hope is that it is a fun classroom bonding experience to create the segment and that the kids are excited to see themselves and share about their class on the school news.
Thanks to Mrs. Guido for the idea!
Check out the first segment, created by Mrs. Harsila's 3rd Grade Class! They share all about their STUDENT CREATED NEWSLETTER! Love it!
Want to know more about our DJ Weekly News?
Read this blog post (includes templates, a podcast about production, and more)!
There are so many "TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD" types of happenings in the classrooms and hallways of DuJardin School!
Checkout the #tmsgdj thread below to see more about the rockstar learning! It's one of the ways we are curating the positivity at DJ! |
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