Snow Much Learning

School days have been a bit disjointed with unusual snow fall in central Virginia. In first grade we harnessed student excitement about snow with two winter themed lessons. Many students had the opportunity to take pictures of signs of winter and write about their photographs. We used the app PicCollage to create and then shared with Seesaw.

Students Help One Another Use PicCollage

Students Write about Their Photos

One class of first graders compared and contrasted fall and winter using the app Venn Diagram (and then shared via Seesaw). Students considered how weather, animal behavior, human behavior, plants, and more are impacted by the change in seasons. 

Students Create Their Venn Diagrams

After several days off due to the snow, a class of third graders used Seesaw to review alternative energy resources. Students were assigned an energy type, illustrated the energy, and then wrote several sentences sharing their knowledge. Once shared with the class via Seesaw, students viewed one another's work before learning new energy concepts.

An Student's Finished Alternative Energy Drawing and Writing

Teachers have been busy learning too! Over the last couple of weeks teachers at JGES and HCES have worked to improve their knowledge and use of educational technology by choosing to attend Seesaw and SMART Station Creation professional development sessions with me. Several teachers began putting their new learning to work the very next school day! Kudos to those teachers who demonstrate their commitment to learning and providing meaningful learning opportunities for their students. 

I personally used the time off to grow professionally (and of course spend time with my son!). In preparation for an exciting book trailer project at JGES I became SymbalooEdu Certified. Learn more about Symbaloo here. Through the certification process I learned how to create a webmix that will house student projects to be shared with the entire JGES community. Finding and evaluating educational technology can be a daunting process. Graphite has been an invaluable resource to me in this process and over the snow days I received notification that I have been accepted as a Graphite Certified Educator. Check out my profile, reviews, and lessons here.