Happy New Year!

A new year can mean many things for many people.  In the academic world it usually means the second half of the year is here with an opportunity to build on successes or learn from failures of the first half of the school year.  Even though our classroom is full of fourth graders, this holds true for elementary teachers and students too.  I hope your winter break was full of fun family time as well as restful moments of relaxation.  Below is a picture from the ice skating field trip we took prior to winter break.  Happy New Year!

(Thanks to a class parent for the photo!)

Already a few days into the new year, students are back into the swing of things and the learning process has continued.  We will be putting in a significant amount of time and effort into developing a website with our Global Virtual Classmates (GVC).  We will also continue communicating with them in a variety of ways to learn more about students in other parts of the United States and world.  The next project we are hoping to share with them is an interactive post-it type board with pictures and writings about experiences our fourth graders had over winter break.  For this, children were asked to bring in one picture that captures their best winter break experience.  We will be using a web 2.0 tool called Stixy for creation. Check back for more information and a link to the final project.