Mr. McClung's World

Move Along....Nothing to See Here

2009-08-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

After nearly 200 post and nearly 10,000 visits at on BlogSpot....I will closing the doors on my Blogger account. However there is good news! Our class blog will be moving to EduBlogs for the 09-10 school year. You can find myself and my class at http://jkmcclung.edublogs.org

I will continue my regular posting and class streaming at this site. I would like to invite everyone to join us at our new website and drop us a line....see you there!

Preparing For The First Day

2009-08-03T22:03:00.007-05:00

With July in the rear view mirror and a brand new school year just ahead later this month, today I officially began getting my game face on to prepare for the upcoming year. Due to the fact that I have switched schools over the summer, that means I have to move into another new classroom for the third time in two years....oh joy.

Above is my new classroom at Woodland Junior High before I moved my stuff in. I have really been looking forward to this day for a couple of weeks now and I'm also looking forward to the challenge of a new year and school. This really got me thinking about the excitement that goes along with returning to school. This is an excitement that is shared with teachers and students alike.

My Twitter page is full of comments from teachers that talk about school supplies, preparing classrooms, attending workshops, and preparing curriculum on a daily basis. Seeing this type of positive reaction to school is really refreshing. To me it is really cool hear from professionals, that have basically had two months vacation, become very excited about returning to work....what other profession can boast such a claim?

As I continue to prepare my classroom, blog, and my NEW social network for the upcoming year I can't help but get excited about the all the possibilities that a new school year brings. There is something revitalizing about starting the year with a clean slate....sure it may be the same curriculum and many of the same lessons, but there is a certain excitement that teaching offers. Every year is a new beginning and that helps provide for an enjoyable working environment....so, what is YOUR favorite part about a new school year?

Mr. McClung

Clippers For Cancer

2009-07-14T22:00:00.002-05:00

Earlier this year, Mr. Lamshed and his students held a event called Clippers for Cancer. Clippers for Cancer is a fundraiser event in which students raised money for the Child Cancer Foundation of Australia. To say that this fundraiser was a success would be a understatement, his class raised nearly $2,000 for this worthy cause....and also walked away with bald heads for their troubles.

Mr. Lamshed has decided to reach out to all of his international friends and take Clippers for Cancer worldwide. I am very excited to announce that my class will be participating in the fundraiser in the Spring of 2010 with proceeds going towards the Susan G. Komen Foundation. This will be a fantastic opportunity for both of our students to once again bridge the international gap through technology and do so for some worthy causes. I would also like to invite anyone who is interested in participating to visit the Clippers for Cancer page and get involved.

Mr. McClung

Building a Democratic Society

2009-07-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

This past week I have been involved in several discussions about how to build a democratic society and what role education systems should play in this process. During these conversations I was introduced to the work of Deb Meier. Ms. Meier is often often considered the founder of the small school movement and is an advocate of reform in public schools. Above is a video of Deb Meier speaking on what it means to build a democratic society. I believe this is a very important issue that faces us in schools today and she does an outstanding job of addressing it. Please take a moment to watch her video and feel free to leave some feedback.

Mr. McClung

Constructive Summer

2009-07-02T10:42:00.000-05:00

A well known perk of being a teacher is of course the summer breaks. While I have been enjoying my break, and rubbing it in my non-teacher friend's face, I have actually been keeping quite busy. I thought I would take this opportunity to make a quick update of my summer happenings thus far.

Continuing My Education
While I received a break from my teaching duties, my graduate professors unfortunately did not. I am enrolled in two classes this summer term, ethics leadership and foundations of educational history. Both are very interesting courses that provide for very meaningful class discussions. In addition to graduate courses, I thought I would take another step towards better myself as a learner by doing some summer reading.

I HATE TO READ.

Now that I have that in the open, let me explain a few things. I have read a total of maybe two books ever that were not required reading for courses, but I do believe promoting literacy is a very important job for educators. So what I have done is I have taken a bit of initiative and I am now practicing what I preach. I am currently reading the classic 1984 by George Orwell (little behind, I know) and looking forward to reading The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. While this may seem like a very small task for someone to do during their summer, it is a giant leap for me. If I expect my student to achieve accelerated reader goals and enjoy reading, I need to be able to share in that activity as well. Being able to model good learning is often more important than lesson you try to deliver.

Professors
Throughout my educational career, I have been fortunate to have been taught by some wonderful teachers and professors. However, this semester I have been interacting with two professors that have really shown me that higher education is progressing nicely along side the digital age.

Dr. Pijanowski during our weekly Elluminate Sessions

Dr. John Pijanowski is an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Arkansas. I am currently enrolled in Dr. P's ethical leadership course, now there are a few things that are a bit "different" about his course. For starters it is an online course, but it's not quite like any online course I have ever taken. Dr. P is unique in the fact that he has found way to make technology work for him even in his graduate courses. In my undergraduate and graduate experience, this is a real rarity. Dr. P uses google pages as his main resource and also implements video updates everyday, discussion board discussions, whole class video conferencing, and a variety of resources that he hotlinks from his main page. Another tool that he has used in our class, that has greatly impacted our online class, is using Elluminate Sessions. Elluminate is a collaborative video conferencing tool that allows us to meet every week face to face....despite the fact that we are all in our homes. He has done something that I that was to be impossible, he has taken an online class and made it just as effective as an on-campus. Also, in the spring and fall semesters he still uses this model to a certain extent. He uses what he calls a "hybrid class", this allows us (his students) to attend class on campus every other week. The weeks that we are not on campus, we meet online. This is a wonderful idea that is truly one of a kind, and I know everyone in his classes appreciate the fact that he is cutting down our commute time.

Dr. Strange's Summer Blog

Dr. John Strange is a professor of professional studies at the University of South Alabama. I am not or ever been enrolled in one of Dr. Strange's courses. However, he has influenced me greatly through his work. Dr. Strange is unusually in the fact that he does not conduct his class in a manner that would be considered "traditional" by college standards. John is preparing his students for a career in education in a progressive way that prepares them to be able to incorporate technology in their classroom. He uses Blogger with his students as a reflection tool, a teaching resource, and a way to introduce new and effective tools for learning. While I am proud of the education I received in during my undergraduate program, I am jealous of Dr. Strange's students. Although I have never been in one of Dr. Strange's classes, I feel like I have from his blogging that he does with his education students. Also his students are buying into it. I receive e-mails and comments from his students each semester about how they are excited about the work that teachers like myself, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Lamshed are doing and that they are finding real value that they can take with them.....which is the key in all this. The fact that his students are learning how to network and collaborate with other educators by building their own personal learning network is truly awesome. Very seldom do you see professors in education departments implementing such technology with their students, and the fact that Dr. Strange is preparing his students to be apart of the a progressive technology movement is something that is very, very cool.

Both of these professors are people that educators can really learn from. Their adaptability to the growing technology world around them is something that is rare in itself. It's not the fact that they are able to use computers and technology, it's the fact that they are using them to serve as a positive purpose and resource in education.

Vacation
You may be thinking.....your a teacher, you've been on vacation for a month now! Now that I am officially finished with my school courses, I am looking forward to enjoying the month of July. Heading up north to Minnesota next week to enjoy the Twin Cities and watch a little baseball (Win Twins!). So in the meantime, have a fantastic & safe Fourth of July holiday everyone!

Mr. McClung

Blog Check: SMS Guys Read

2009-06-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

I am really excited to share with everyone a blog check that quite frankly.....should have been done a looooong time ago. SMS Guys Read is a blog that is composed by Mr. Hutchinson, "slightly unhinged teacher", and a group of middle school students. This group of students can easily be identified by their trucker like handles....such as, El Matador, Rowdy Roddy, The Undertaker, and my personal favorite Junkyard Dog.....I love wrestling names.

They met semi-weekly to discuss books that they find interesting. Their goal is to show the world that guys really do read and enjoy it! Their blog is full of great book reviews, humor, literary smackdowns, and writing as well.....check out their March 10th post on creating Zombie Haikus. High quality blog, I recommend everyone check out their blog from this previous school year and look out for them in the coming school year!

Mr. McClung

Iam An Optimist

2009-06-22T20:23:00.008-05:00

I've got a problem. In today's climate of education, it can be very easy to focus the short comings of teachers, and students. I feel like many of the educators I know in my life, have a grim outlook on the direction that education is heading. In conversations, I often find myself being the person that is defending the future of education, and thus I become labeled an "optimist". I feel like today's educational system, teachers, and students are not given enough credit. While it's easy to focus on the negatives, I still hold the view that there is a ton positives going on around us today.

Example
Today I heard an educator presenting a case to other teachers that we need to force our students to be more realistic about their future. This person continued to say "not everyone is going to be a doctor....we need to stop letting them think they will be." I really took offense to this statement.

I believe that we should not try to stifle our student's dreams, but rather encourage them to dream.

As educators, we like to believe we are an excellent at assessing talent and ability in our students, but why do we feel the need to tell students what is best for them? While I do believe that teachers serve as a valuable resource for students, I hate to hear teachers try to label how successful or non-successful they will be. Sometimes we see that those students we attach the non-successful labels to, sometimes they turn out to prove us wrong by breaking the mold.

I am one of those students.

Throughout my high school career I was very underachieving, and that's putting it nicely, I did not fit into the mold of the normal student. An appropriate label for me with have been amount to nothing. I come from a single parent house-hold, grew up in poverty, received free and reduced lunch from k-12, did not hold a high value on education, and did not believe in myself. I said that to say this, if I would have bought into the idea that I could only live up to a certain level of potential that was pre-determined by my environment, I would have never received the education that I have now and would not have the quality of life that I now have.

I believe that we tend to sell our students short on their ability. I am reminded of an old saying that was offered to me as advice when I was a department store salesmen in college.

Don't put a price limit on what the customer can buy.

Meaning, don't sale the customer something cheap because you think they can't afford it, always offer them a variety of options. I think this relates to the world of education very well, it is not our job to put a limit on what our students are capable of doing. It is our job to provide them with opportunities to obtain success.

So....what's the point? Not trying to be negative, nor am I looking for a platform to air my disapproval. As I have stated before, I am very much an optimist and I do believe there is a lot of positive progress that is happening all around me. I see college professors that are jumping on education + technology movement (see Dr. Pijanowski & Dr. Strange). I am also seeing that there are TONS of other teachers out there that are striving to become more than just a normal teacher. Lastly, I know that I cannot control the entire world of education but I can control my Sixth Grade World that I teach, and I will choose to stay positive.

Mr. McClung
mcclungsblog.blogspot.com

Mr. McClung's Top Ten

2009-06-14T14:53:00.003-05:00

....wait a minute, wrong top ten list....

A few weeks ago, I asked for suggestions on what were the blog post highlights from the 08'-09' school year. I posted this question on my blog and also on my sixth grade social network that several of my students still use over the summer. I received some great feedback, took it into consideration (along with my own basis), and I now have my top ten list from this past school year. Here we go....

10. Mythbusters - Double Dip.....putting the double dip myth to the test
9. The Pure Unadulterated Joy of Paper.....probably the best visual of the year
8. Get Up and Get Moving.....the start of Throwdown Thursday
7. Australian Rules Footy.....my students explain the Aussie Rules
6. Reading Buddies w/ Mrs. Polzer.....my class teaming up with 3rd graders during reading time
5. Tie Tuesday Instructional Video.....Fidel and I explaining how to tie a half windsor knot
4. Bacteria Conclusions....a.k.a. my festy mouth germs.....
3. Skype Conversation with Mr. Lamshed.....our Skype call with Mr. Lamshed of Australia
2. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.....role playing with the Dr. Seuss' book, The Sneetches
1. What I've Learned This Year.....a reflection back on my first year of teaching

Thanks again to everyone that shared their feedback, and here's to looking forward to another great year of blogging!

Mr. McClung

Teaching 21st Century Life Skills?

2009-06-14T14:19:00.004-05:00

Way back in May, during our last two weeks of school, I had a particular student that missed about a weeks worth of school due to the fact that her mother was about to have a baby boy. While this student was gone, I figured that she was probably taking it easy with her mother and new brother. To my surprise, when she returned to school she informed me that while she was gone she had created a Google docs slide show of pictures of her baby brother. I was not surprised that she wanted to share the excitement that she experienced, I was surprised that she took an application that we have used numerous times in the classroom and used it for a real life situation outside of the classroom. Below is the slide show she created.

This got me thinking.....

.....what activities and exercises that we use in our classrooms have a real world value attached with them?

When I taught Macy and her classmates how to use Google docs, I could have easily complete whatever the assignment was on paper, but because I didn't she learned how to use a new tool.

The fact of the matter is, in today's communication age it is important to understand how technology works. It is important to learn how to use web based applications, social networking, and how to conduct research using the internet. Technology is a powerful tool, but only if you know how to use it appropriately.

Mr. McClung

National Science Teachers Association Feature

2009-06-07T23:43:00.003-05:00

Last night I stumbled across some hits coming to my blog from an unfamiliar website. Naturally, being a FEEDJIT junkie, I followed the traffic and found the National Science Teachers Association Website. The fine folks behind this wonderful teacher resource tool decided to feature out classblog on their website. Here is what was said:

Missouri teacher Joe McClung’s blog includes his science lessons and labs, descriptions and examples of student work, and links to additional resources and online networking.

I am so thrilled that they thought enough of our work to included us on their website. So, to the people behind NSTA I would like to say Thank You, and to other teachers out there I would like to invite you to visit this wonderful website, it really is a wonderful resource for science teachers.

Mr. McClung

A Little Help From My Friends....

2009-05-29T16:40:00.003-05:00

I am currently working on a top ten blog post list from this previous school year. For me, I have a hard time only picking out ten because I am bit partial to the author ;)
So I thought I would ask my friends and guest, if you have a previous blog post that you particularly enjoyed, please just drop me a comment about which blog post you enjoyed the most. Thank you everyone!

Mr. McClung

Summer Time

2009-05-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

As of May 22nd, Noel Elementary has dismissed for summer break. Due to summer break, there will be no regular blog post and no video streaming, who wants to watch an empty classroom....honestly. We will return to school in mid August, have a great summer everyone, and I'll see you in the fall!

Mr. McClung

What I've Learned This Year

2009-05-27T22:30:00.001-05:00

When I arrived in Noel, Missouri last fall I was entering my first year of being a teacher. Being young and inexperienced, I did not fully know what to expect from being an elementary school teacher. Since last August I have grown and matured as a person and a teacher, and in the process I have learned a TON. So, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share with you what it is that I have learned in my first year of teaching.

How to Read the Crowd
Throughout my college education and teaching internship, I developed a mindset that it was all about me the teacher. Meaning that I was so worried about how I was being assessed by my superiors, that I lost touch with my audience when I delivered a lesson. A common theme that I have seen in a lot of teachers is the fact that they do not make their lessons student centered. They become so concerned with the delivery of the content that they are missing the most important aspect of teaching, and that is checking for student comprehension.

I fell like that this year I have developed immensely in regards to this aspect of teaching. In order to be effective you have to be able to let your audience drive your instruction.

Be Flexible
I have a way I want things done.....sound familiar? While we as instructors like to plan "perfect" lessons, we have to remember that we are performing in front of a crowd the struggles remembering what they brought for lunch that day.

NO LESSON IS EVER PERFECT. THE LESSON YOU TEACH AND THE ONE YOU PLAN ARE ALWAYS DIFFERENT.

At the beginning of the school year I felt like I was trying to control things way too much, and I would beat myself up over lessons and activities that did not go well. I had to get over this. While I always plan to have that elusive perfect lesson, I don't let it get to me and I do not kill myself over my mistakes any more. When things go wrong, simply work with it and try to better the situation.....and make sure you do it with a smile on your face!

Communicate
Communication is the best medicine....I know no one has ever experienced workplace drama, but just in case you know someone who knows a friend that does.....they need to talk it out. Communicating is the best way to resolve any issue in the workplace.

In addition, communication is the pathway to building that much desired rapport with fellow teachers. I know that sounds obvious, but communication is one of the hardest skills to develop, so practice all you can and build those strong relationships with teachers and students.

Be Reasonable
As teachers we hold very high expectations for our students....sometimes they live up to those expectations, and sometimes they don't. Often we build our expectations too high for students, and become upset when they do not meet the expectation.

DON'T.

Teachers can sometimes really loose touch and forget that we are dealing with children. They are not perfect and neither are we. While its fine to have lofty goals for our students, we set our students up for disappointment when a goal is not met and we scold them for not coming through. Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again.

Don't be Afraid of Technology
Grown adults everywhere are afraid of computers like it's a bad horror film and computers are trying to take over the world. Technology is our friend and is essential to living in our microwave society of today. We should not become overwhelmed by technology and simply give up before we start. We cannot expect to master computer skills the first time we attempt them, so jump in head first....the water feels fine :)

Listen to Your Students
You may be the only person that does. Below is an example of a answer that one of my students listed on their end of the year survey that really spoke to me:

I know my teacher cares about me as a person when he.
- Listens to what I say

While this may seem like a standard issue answer to such a question, it spoke volumes to me. I truly believe that teachers do not know enough about the students they are teaching. In order to build the respect that we all seek in a student teacher relationship, it is important to take interest their the lives of our students. It's that important.

Lastly....Never Stop Learning
It's never too late to change your way of thinking, learning, or style. We do everything short of beg students to learn on a daily basis, but sadly some of us refuse to learn and grow as professional educators. We work in a learning environment, so why not soak up as much as you can? We owe it to our students.

In closing I would like to thank everyone that has made my first year of teaching something truly magical. Teachers, parents, bloggers, and of course students....thank you to everyone.

Mr. McClung

Talent Show

2009-05-27T08:54:00.000-05:00

We held our annual talent show of the last day of school. Our talent show consists of students grades 3-8 and features singing, dancing, and much more. Below are some of the videos from last Friday's action.

The Dead Fish performing their "synchronized swimming" act

Fifth grader Devin and his version of the robot.

Fifth grader Mark and his dance performance.

Sixth grader Arota performing a Native Samoan dance, second place winner.

....and of course our first place winner in the 6-8 division, Jeff singing and playing Simple Man.

Last but not least, the Valencia Brothers stop by the school to perform a dance routine.

Part 2 of their performance.

A job well done by everyone, and what an excellent way to close out the year on such a high note.

Mr. McClung

Last Day of School

2009-05-24T12:54:00.001-05:00

Friday, May 22nd marked the end of our 08-09 school year. Below are a view pictures from last Friday.

Fidel and Ryan cleaning out their lockers in preparation for the summer break.

My homeroom students writing goodbye messages on my white board.

Students enjoying their last Throwdown of the year.

Class photo of students that were present on the last day.

I could not have asked for a better situation for my first year of teaching. I have been surrounded by outstanding colleagues, abundance of resources and technology, and of course an excellent group of students. I will truly miss each and everyone of my students from this year and I wish them luck in junior high.

Mr. McClunghttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7548467820736419534&postID=6421131248760141935#

Field Day '09

2009-05-22T21:56:00.001-05:00

Last Wednesday we held our annual track and field day at school. Field Day consist of several different activities and competitions in which students compete against fellow classmates. Activities for this event consist of the following:

50-Yard Dash
Sack Race
Three-legged Race
Basketball Shoot-out
Tug-of-war
Team Relay Race

Below are some of the highlights from last week's events.

Omar winning the 50 yard dash

Anahi crossing the finish line in the sack race

Valerie and Naomi finishing first, while everyone else stumbles in the three-legged race

My class getting dominated in the tug-of-war

After the the outside activities were over, my class spent sometime practicing our Speed Stacks

Mr. McClung

Jane Hamm

2009-05-21T13:37:00.003-05:00

Jane Hamm is a fellow sixth grade teacher here at Noel Elementary, and has been apart of this school since 1983. Earlier this school year, Jane announced that she would be retiring at school's end. With this being the last week of school, much of this week we have been celebrating Jane's career in a multitude of ways, and I wanted to make my two cents heard as well.

At the beginning of this school year, I was very fortunate to have Jane appointed as my first year teacher mentor. Coming into this year I had very average expectations about what my first year of teaching would hold. However, through her guidance and support she helped prepare me for the challenge ahead and she absolutely blew me away. Jane is not your typical teacher, in fact she is the type of teacher that can really bring out the best in a person. Even though I have doubted myself many times this year, her confidence in me has never faltered one bit. Not only has she taken me and helped me become a good teacher, she also makes you want to better yourself as a person.

I truly feel that genuine people in this world are very hard to come by, and when you do find that type of person you better hold on tight and absorb as much from time from that person. Jane is one of those genuine one in a million type of people that can, and do make impacts others lives. She cannot be replaced, and her leadership and companionship will be greatly missed in Noel Elementary. Here's to a happy retirement, and I wish you all the best.

Thanks.

Mr. McClung

Honor Roll

2009-05-20T21:56:00.008-05:00

As we begin to wrap up our school to prepare for summer break, Tuesday we held our Honor Roll assembly to recognize academic excellence. Below are all the awards for sixth grade.

All A's for second semester: Courtney, Cendy, Carlos, Yolanda, and Wade

All A's for both semesters....and perfect attendance, Yolanda

All A's & B's for second semester: Francisco, Ben, Kirestin, Trystan, Ashley, Yessy, Kiley, Cheyenne, Kyle Tanner, Dillion, Shelby, Ricky, Jeff, and Ryan

All A's & B's both semesters: Ben, Kirestin, Trystan, Ashley, Yessy, Tanner, dillion, Ricky, and Jeff

Congratulations to everyone!

Mr. McClung

Last Tie Tuesday

2009-05-20T10:30:00.002-05:00

Pictured above is our resident tie instructor Fidel showing Elio how to tie a half windsor.

All good things must come to an end....and just like that we have had our last Tie Tuesday of '08-'09. Although this was my first go around with Tie Tuesday, it has been a huge success at Noel Elementary. With help for Mr. C and his 'rent-a-tie' campaign, we have had great turn out every Tuesday. Next year I am looking to improve as always, and perhaps our friends from New Zealand and Australia can join in on the activities next school year.

Mr. McClung

Opposing Points of View

2009-05-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

The past two weeks of school we have been spending time reading the book The Outsiders. In the story there are two different social groups, The Greasers and The Socs. The Greasers are characterized by their greasy hair and their lack of social status. The Greasers are also known for having all the bad luck and never catching breaks. The Socs come from wealthy families and affect a haughty and proud demeanor, especially around the greasers who they seek to mock.

The Assignment
We divided our class into Greasers and Socs, The Greasers were asked to post their point of view on a discussion board. It was then the job of the Socs to go behind them and post a counterpoint to their point of view. Each student will be asked to start an argument with a opposing student in our class about the murder that took place in our book. You can view our greaser vs. social argument by clicking here.

Today we will begin to wrap up our discussion of The Outsiders, as we finish our study books and prepare to watch the movie.

Mr. McClung

Razorbacks Invade Australia

2009-05-18T11:31:00.003-05:00

Their calling the hogs in Australia! Well maybe not, but we can work on it....

Recently our class received a care package from Mr. Lamshed that included an Aussie Rules Footy and some swag from his favorite team the Adelaide Crows. I decided to return the favor sending some Arkansas Razorback gifts to Mr. Lamshed and his class.

The next step? Possibly a Skype lesson with Mr. Lamshed and his class on how to call the hogs.....maybe we can even get Mr. Lamshed on video performing the hog call! Here's to wishing....

Mr. McClung

Periodic Table Project

2009-05-14T11:15:00.002-05:00

For our final project for the year, students will be investigating the periodic table. Students will be studying the periodic table by focusing on finding the following information about each element:

Periodic Table information
Number of protons, neutrons, and electrons
Discovery information (person and date
Important uses
Pictures that illustrate one or more uses for the element (on the back)

Each student will place these elements onto a trading card, just like the one pictured above. The idea is to create a card, just like a baseball card, that has a picture on one side and stats about the element on the other. After all our research is done, students will swap cards to retrieve information from one another to fill in their black periodic table that I have given them.

Mr. McClung

Tie Tuesday Instructional Video

2009-05-12T09:48:00.004-05:00

Sometime last month, Mr. C began renting ties to students for a quarter so that they could participate in Tie Tuesday. However, a problem started to arise. We had students in fifth and sixth grade running around with ties that were not tied at all or tied incorrectly. So with the help of Fidel from Mrs. Drake's Class, we created a short instructional video on how to tie a simple half windsor knot.

Tie Tuesday, promoting professionalism one tie at a time!

Mr. McClung

The Outsiders

2009-05-11T20:58:00.006-05:00

For the remainder of the school year (two weeks), my homeroom class will be focusing on the novel The Outsiders. The book is written by S. E. Hinton, and was published when Hinton was only sixteen. The book is a coming of age tale of two rival groups, the Greasers and the Socs (short for socials). The story follows a 14 year old Greaser named Ponyboy Curtis, his brothers, and everyone in their gang. However, throughout the book Ponyboy and his friends face a constant conflict with the Socs. Throughout the next two weeks, my class will be preparing blog post, reflections (using Vocaroo), and create a novel study book.

Mr. McClung

Calculating Air Density

2009-05-11T15:29:00.005-05:00

Today in science class, we continued our discussion of density by calculating the density of air. Students were given a list of procedures and a set of materials. Among those materials included a bottle filled to the brim with water, a rubber valve, a rubber washer, and a hand pump to pull air out of the bottle.

Students were asked to remove the water from the bottle by using a graduated cylinder to measure the volume of the bottle. Once the bottle was emptied, students were asked to find the mass of the bottle, valve, and washer combined.

Once mass was measured, students then used the pump to pull as much air out of the bottle as possible, once majority of the air was removed from the bottle, students reweighed the bottle and calculated the mass of the air.

Lastly, we pulled all of our information together and calculated the density of air. As you can see from our table below, the density of air ranged from .0003 to .0012 centimeters squared.

On Tuesday we will finished our discussion about density, and begin to move forward and focus on heat.

Mr. McClung

Density Lab

2009-05-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

In science class this past week, we have been practicing finding the volume and density of blocks, irregular objects, and liquids.. In order to find volume and density we have practiced learning two formulas, below is a short video of how we have been learning the formulas for density and volume.

Volume = Length x Width x Height & Density = Mass / Volume

Among the different activities, students learned how to find the density of wax blocks, plastic blocks, metal screws, copper cylinders, and plastic spacers. Students calculated the density of each object and then compared their densities to water by dropping them in water containers to see if they would sink or float.

In addition, we also created density columns using different types of liquids. Below is a picture of a density column that I created using (from top to bottom) oil, water, and corn syrup. Students were asked to calculate the density of each liquid and then check to see if their calculations were correct by creating a density column.

On Monday, we will revisit our lesson on density as we move forward in our discussions of properties of matter.

Mr. McClung

Sixth Grade Field Trip

2009-05-10T13:24:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday our sixth grade took a field trip to the Bluff Dwellers Cavern located here in Noel, Missouri. The cave was first discovered in 1925, the entrances to this cave had been hidden from man for more than 3000 years by a landslide. During excavations after it's discovery, artifacts were discovered that turned out to be substantial. Arrowheads, grinding stones, tools made of bone and skeletal remains that date back to as early as 5000 B.C.

In addition to our tour of this cavern, students spent the remainder of the day eating lunch and playing games. Below is a slideshow from Thursday's trip.

Mr. McClung

Pinata Bash

2009-05-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Due to the rain postponing our Cinco de Mayo celebration on Tuesday, we busted open our class pinatas on Wednesday. The pinata is a staple of celebrations and parties in the Mexican culture. For our pinata bash students were first blind folded, spun around several times, then given a stick to swing at the pinata while anther student lowers and raises the pinata to make it more difficult. Once the pinata is hit, candy falls everywhere and kids go crazy. Below are some highlights from our pinata bash.

Mr. McClung

Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-05T12:55:00.001-05:00

Tuesday marks the day of the Mexican Holiday Cinco de Mayo. The "fifth of May" is a regional holiday that is celebrated primaryly in the state of Puebla. The holiday mmemorates the Mexican army's unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza.

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico. The date is perhaps best recognized in the United States as a date to celebrate the culture and experiences of Americans of Mexican ancestry, much as St. Patrick's Day.

Our sixth grade held a celebration for Cinco de Mayo, however it did rain on our parade. We had planned to do a variety of outside activities, but the nasty weather kept us inside....but that did not stop us. below are some videos and pictures from today's action.

The spread of food that was donated by businesses, parents, and staff members.

Showing off my borrowed poncho.

Cendy and Carmen showing off their dance moves.

My homeroom class performing the limbo.

Although we were not able to participate in all the schedule activities, we still had a great time. Tomorrow we plan on capping off our Cinco de Mayo celebration when we tear into our pinatas (weather permitting), there will be video present!

Mr. McClung

Reading Buddies w/ Mrs. Polzer's Class

2009-05-03T15:16:00.002-05:00

On Friday sixth grade students paired up with third grade students from Mrs. Polzer's class during their reading classes. Third graders were asked to read their selected book while the big kids listened and provided correction when appropriate.

This proved to be a fantastic exercise. Not only did the third grade students get the opportunity to practice their reading skills, but this was also beneficial for my students to practice skills they have previously learned and teach it to other children of varying ability.

Did you hear that? That little bit of buzz that is going on throughout the classroom....I absolutely love that sound. That is what great learning and interaction sounds like, and it music to my ears!

I am so proud of the positive attitudes my students displayed throughout this session, and I am ecstatic about their excitement to do it again. We will continue this practice for the remainder of the school year, and I look forward to posting more updates.

Mr. McClung

Care Package From Mr. Lamshed

2009-05-01T14:45:00.003-05:00

At last! We received our package we have been expecting from Mr. Lamshed of Australia. After a conversation with Mr. Lamshed last month, our class begin research of the popular sport of Australian Rules Football. Pleased with our efforts, Mr. Lamshed prepared a care package containing team photos, stickers, lanyards, and our own official Aussie Footy

My students were geeked to receive these goodies that Mr. Lamshed was kind enough to send us. Thanks once again to Mr. Lamshed, we look forward to returning the favor!

Mr. McClung

Jersey Friday

2009-05-01T13:43:00.003-05:00

No matter if you are 7 or 70, everyone has a "team". You know that team that you have followed since you were a kid, or maybe a team that you remember watching your with your parents on TV growing up. It could be local high school team, the team of your former college, or even a pro team on the other side of the country, we all love being able to cheer for "our team".

With that in mind, earlier this semester with the help of Mr. C, we implemented Jersey Friday on casual Fridays with our fifth and sixth grade classes. Even since this bi-weekly event has really picked up steam, below are a few of the notable jerseys around our school today:

Ariana supporting Club Chivas

Mrs. Angeles supporting her favorite soccer team

Mrs. Greer showing her New Jersey roots by supporting Rutgers Football.

Ms. Owens supporting the orange crush of the Denver Broncos

By far the highlight of the day, Mr. Sovereign going old school with the Dick Butkus #51 of the Chicago Bears

It feels good to experience the highs and lows that come along with following a sports team, and it is a great emotion that everyone can experience. So.....next Friday, why not start Jersey Friday at your school/work?

Mr. McClung

McDonald County Spelling Bee

2009-04-30T22:10:00.000-05:00

Yolanda from Mrs. Drake's Class

Yesterday McDonald County held it's district wide spelling bee. Grades 1-8 participated in this spelling bee, below is a list of notable winners from Noel Schools:

1st Grade - Aidan, fifth place
3rd Grade - Kayla, fourth place
4th Grade - Hannah, third place
5th Grade - Parker, fouth place
6th Grade -Yolanda, second place
7th Grade - Nathan, second place
8th Grade - David, third place

Overall, Noel students had a terrific showing at the spelling bee, outstanding performance by all those to participated.

Mr. McClung

Terrific Tiger - April

2009-04-30T13:00:00.003-05:00

Today we honored our Terrific Tigers for the month of April. Each one of these student from sixth grade has performed extremely well in both academics and as a citizenship. Each student has proven to be excellent examples of what hard work and determination look like, job well done by everyone!

Devin from Mrs. Drake's Class, Ashely from Mrs. Hamm's Class, and Colby from my homeroom.

Mr. McClung

Throwdown Thursday

2009-04-29T17:30:00.004-05:00

Ahhhh....yes! Another week, another throwdown!

For those not familiar with what with Throwdown Thursday, it is a weekly event that my students and I have developed. Students partner up with a classmate and label themselves as number ones and two. Number one student will then perform a dance or movement and the number two student must replicate the same movement. This will continue on for about ten minutes while students take turns. The whole concept is built about coming to school, hearing some good music, dancing a little bit, and breaking a sweat in the process. Not a bad deal, huh?

So....as I prepare my playlist for another Throwdown Thursday, I can't help but to think about some of the great dances in history....let's take a look.

"....more like a full body dry heave set to music...." - Oh yeah, the famous Elaine dance. Characterized by it's "little kicks" and "thumbs". May be best to NOT do this one in public.

Nobody gets down like the Fresh Prince. Carlton and Will show us the importance team work.

Who could forget this internet juggernaut, definitely wins the award for best dance using props.

The great thing about dancing is that you do not have to great at it to have fun, thank goodness....So, no matter if you are a professional, or if you have to depend on "little kicks" to get yourself on the dance floor, add a little rhythm to your day and enjoy yourself on this Throwdown Thursday.

Mythbusters - Double Dip

2009-04-29T13:46:00.005-05:00

Earlier this week we put a nice bow on our diversity of life unit. We concluded by watching our favorite science show, Mythbusters. Seeing that we just finished our lesson over bacteria, we decided to watch an episode that dealt with a classic germiphobe myth.....the double dip.

In episode of Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie take on this myth (among others) by using very similar materials that we have used in our previous lessons. The task was to take agar petri dishes and swab them with samples from the two dips, cream based (sour cream) and liquid based (salsa). After the samples were collected, they then took samples after double dipping and a sample from spitting dip back into the bowl.

So is double dipping really as bad as putting your whole mouth in the bowl? After a long process Adam and Jamie came to the conclusion that there are far more germs already living in the dips themselves and that double dipping did not produce enough bacteria to make enough of a difference.

So naturally myself and my students decided to test this experiment ourselves. We set up a experiment in which we took samples of my mouth, chips, salsa, and of course my double dip. After letting our petri dishes sit for the weekend, here are our results.

Mouth - Despite the fact that I own the dirtiest water bottle in town, the sample from my mouth did not produce any sufficient colonies of bacteria.

Chip - The sample from the chip did produce several colonies, the most noticeable the one located at the top of the petri dish.

Salsa - As you can see, this dish produced the most bacteria colonies in our experiment, there are about ten colonies that can seen in this photo.

Double Dip - Finally the double dip produced the about the same about of colonies as the regular salsa did, proving that I did not transmit a sufficient amount of bacteria into the salsa.

Conclusion
Just the same as Adam and Jamie, my students and I called this one busted. As you can see from the pictures, a germiphobe should be more concerned about the salsa they are eating instead of the double dip.....so tell the germiphobe in your life to just relax.

Mr. McClung

Bacteria Conclusions

2009-04-26T15:41:00.000-05:00

On Friday we wrapped up our bacteria investigation. For five days we allowed our bacteria samples to grow on our agar petri dishes that we created a week ago. Below are some pictures of the final results.

Let's start off with our lunch room, front office, and computer lab.
1. Water fountain
2. Key board from sixth grade computer lab
3. Phone from the office (student use)
4. Lunch room key pad (student use)

Next, revisit to the office and lunch room with stops in the sixth grade lab and restroom.
1. Front office phone (student use)
2. Computer mouse from sixth grade computer lab
3. Lunch room key pad (student use)
4. Toilet seat (girls restroom)

Lastly, school library, toilet seat, and our own door handle.
1. Toilet seat (boys restroom)
2. My classroom door handle
3. Library book marks
4. Library counter top

Overall we found that we live in a pretty disgusting world. There is no escaping germs and bacteria no matter where we go. Some students found bacteria in unlikely places, such as the library and bookmarks. There was also sampled locations that we expected lots of bacteria, but not to the extent we found, like our classroom pet the roaches. As we move forward we will be switching our focus from diversity of life to properties of matter as we come down the final stretch of the school year.

Mr. McClung

Peer Review Practice

2009-04-24T15:31:00.003-05:00

Students this week have been preparing short stories using a specific outline method in order to build the appropriate parts of a story, rising action, climax, falling action, etc. So in order to prepare for our upcoming collaboration piece with Mr. Lamshed's class, we practiced our peer review skills today.

Practice
Students were asked to present their rough draft outlines for peer review to me. These outlines were taped to various places in the classroom (with no names) and students took two minutes at each paper to review a fellow classmate's work. Students were asked to review their ideas and provide 'constructive' comments to help make the paper stronger.

The Result
Awesome. My students really took off with this and took it very seriously. Everyone had a honest approach to help their friends write their papers. I really think this is a value exercise in teaching students how to proof read and review a paper and is an exercise I look forward to doing again in the future.

Mr. McClung

Holocaust ID Cards

2009-04-24T09:13:00.006-05:00

Inspired by my visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum back in December, I decided to assign my students an assignments using the identification cards given out at the museum. For those not familiar, when you enter the museum you are given an ID card with the identity of a Jewish person that experienced the Holocaust.

The ID card is very similar in looks to a passport and inside contain a wealth of knowledge about that particular person, including: name, birth day, place of birth, basic background of their family, a summary of their life during 1933-39 & 1940-44, and of course whether they survived the Holocaust. Below is a basic example of the basic layout of the ID cards

ABRAHAM BERGMAN
Born Krasnik, Poland
June 15, 1924

Abraham was born to a Jewish family in Krasnik, a town in the Lublin district of Poland. The town had a large Jewish population. Abraham's father was a tailor. When Abraham was 2, his mother died and he was raised by his grandmother. At the age of 7, Abraham started public school.

1933-39: I liked school but it was difficult. The Christian children often yelled at the Jews, "You killed our God." One year, on the day before Christmas break, some kids brought ropes tied to iron weights to school. They waited until after school, so no one could tell the teacher, and then beat up the Jewish kids. Many went home covered in blood. In 1938 I finished public school. The invading Germans reached Krasnik in September 1939.

1940-45: In 1942 I was deported to the Budzyn, Majdanek and Auschwitz camps in Poland, and then Oranienburg and Flossenbürg in Germany. By spring 1945 I was in a group of 500 taken to a farm area in Bavaria. Only 3 SS guards policed 30 of us. When one guard went to the kitchen and the other took men to look for food, I seized my chance. Pushing through the farmhouse gates, I ran into the woods. Shots were fired; I threw myself down. Two escapees fell next to me. We got to the village of Gern just as a U.S. tank appeared.

After the war Abraham lived in Bavaria for three years. He emigrated to Canada in 1949 and then moved to the United States in 1959.

The Assignment

Students were assigned a ID of a person that is the same gender.
Students were asked to keep the background information, beginning, and ending of the ID cards exactly the same (italicized portions of the story).
Students were asked to recall their studies of WWII and the Holocaust to rewrite the sections labeled 1933-39 & 1940-1944.
Students were asked to use real locations and events to help build their rewrite of history and word process the entire identification as a Google Doc.

My students really enjoyed this project, and it has really helped put prospective into their current lessons (WWII) in social studies. You can view an excellent example of this project from one of my students by clicking here.

Mr. McClung

Bacteria, Day 2

2009-04-22T16:05:00.003-05:00

I know what your thinking.....the highlight of my day, looking at Mr. McClung's funky mouth germs.....YES!

Below is a picture of the agar from my water bottle sample, which by far has been the grossest result we have had to this point.

Below is a fairly new discovery from last hour science class today. One of our students swabbed the buttons on the ice cream machine and this is what came back. As you can see the bacteria in the third section of the petri dish has spread to all four sections.....so far this location has produced the most bacteria from our testing.

We will continue this experiment until Friday when I hope to post our final observations for this project, in the meantime.......make sure to wash your hands!

Mr. McClung

Observing Earth Day

2009-04-22T15:24:00.004-05:00

Today we took some time out of our normal class schedule to observe Earth Day. First part of the day students prepared Earth Day slideshows using Google Docs. Below is one of the many slideshows that was prepared by my students.

In addition to today's events, Mr. C's students brought us 6 frogs, and we decided to create a habitat for our frogs. Students were asked to conduct research about a frog's habitat and living habits in order to prepare an appropriate living environment for them.

The next job was to go scouting for food for our new found friends. Students were asked to collect bugs for our frogs.

So what did we accomplish for Earth Day? Nothing ground breaking, we really didn't do anything to save the environment or stop pollution, but we did have fun with nature. I feel like my students were able to acquire some excellent information about Earth Day during our slideshows research and they were able to have a little fun in the great outdoors today by looking for frogs and food.....I think that should count for something.

Mr. McClung

Bacteria Observations, Day 1

2009-04-21T13:29:00.000-05:00

Today we continued with our bacteria discussion in science class. After all that swabbing yesterday, we decided to take a look at our results.

As stated in the previous post, we swabbed everything from toilets to cell phones. Above is a picture of a petri dish from a swabbing of one of our beloved cockroaches. Students were able to spot that there indeed had been some change over the night and bacteria was quickly growing. The type of bacteria that we found growing from the roaches and their environment is called filamentous.

Above is a very disturbing petri dish, because section one is from a sample that I took from the mouth of my water bottle. This was by far the best piece of visual evidence we had yesterday. The type of bacteria found here is called puntiform.

Students were very surprised by the results from day one, many were expecting large growth on samples that were taken in the restroom and lunch room, but the roaches and my water bottle (gross) produced the largest colonies. Tomorrow we will continue with our discussion and observations as we prepare to discuss colony growth.

Mr. McClung

Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame

2009-04-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

Don't call it a come back....

....with school starting to wind down, many students have lost their passion for this weekly celebration that we like to call Tie Tuesday ®; but, don't tell that to Mr. C's fifth grade class.

With the a little help from Mr. C, his entire class is decked out in ties on this glorious Tuesday. I was stunned. With all this madness circulating around Tie Tuesday I had no choice but to induct the entire class into The Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame (TTHF) for being the first class to have every student sporting a tie. Here's to a very sharp dressed class!

"Tie Tuesday, promoting professionalism one tie at a time..."

Mr. McClung

Microorganisms

2009-04-20T12:33:00.000-05:00

Today in science class we started our discussion about microorganisms by thinking a little bit about bacteria and fungus. I posed a question to my class, "what in our school has the largest amount of bacteria present?" As one would expect, this got pretty gross in a hurry. First let's discuss our setup. Above is a bottle of agar, this is a sterile gelatin that is made of soy. We used substance in a petri dish to serve as our canvas for our bacteria portrait with a cotton swab as our brush.

With agar and swab in hand, it was time to go to work. I deployed students all over the school to gather bacteria from various places, and this is where we went....

Bathroom floors, toilet seats, toilet handles, and sinks.

Cellphones, keyboards, mice, and desk.

Office phones, lunch room key pads, floors, and tables.

Finally we used our swab to inoculate the agar.

Throughout the next four days we will be observing our agar dishes to see what location in our school produces the most bacteria colonies. Stay tuned for more on bacteria as well as tomorrow when we begin our investigations with fungi.

Mr. McClung

Australian Rules Football

2009-04-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

For the past couple of days my students have been preparing slideshow presentations about Australian Rules Football. This was inspired by our conversation with Mr. Lamshed the other day. After talking to Mr. Lamshed many of my students were confused by what Australian Football was, so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to integrate a variety technology strategies in order to better understand the sport. In order to complete the slideshows we used Google Docs as our canvas for this project.

In our project I used an application called Jing, this valuable tool allows users to create screencast with voice over instructions that is both very handy and user friendly.

Since creating a presentation was new to my students I created my own screencast. This allowed me to not only give written instructions, but also add a nice visual and recorded voice instructions via a screencast. This was very beneficial to students and myself, because eliminated the need to repeat instructions over and over again.

We also used our Ning chat as a tool in this project. We were able to use chat as a means to answer simple Q & A discussions. If my students for got a step or needed help finding a source, I could scaffold by using chat and share links and other types of information.

Then the final product. Students used various site for information, including Google, Wikipedia, and The Australian Football League website. Below are a couple of presentations my students prepared.

Overall this was such a worth while project to do in conjunction with our Skype call with Mr. Lamshed. My students really enjoyed conducting their research and learning about this outstanding sport.

Mr. McClung

Madagascar Cockroach Discussion

2009-04-17T13:56:00.001-05:00

After yesterday excitement cockroach lab, we the opportunity today to reflect on yesterday's discoveries. Today in class we reviewed some key points from yesterday's lab including, walking, eating, antennas, and stimuli. Below is a video of our discussion from today.

After our discussion was over, we took sometime to practice our Cornell Note-Taking. We used a reading from the book that highlighted habitats of various insects.

We will wrap up our discussion of insects on Monday as we prepare to enter our final unit of diversity of life, kingdoms of life.

Mr. McClung

La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha....

2009-04-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

The day my students have been waiting for since the first day of school.....cockroach lab. Today we continued our discussion about insects by taking a further look at Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

Students took a closer look at these little critters by analyzing characteristics of the roaches. Students were asked to pay particular attention to eating habits, walking manner, use of antennas, reaction to stimuli, gender of their roach, and overall structure of this insect. Today was more of an exploration day to become accustom to the insect's behavior, below are a few highlights from today's lessons.

Students 'carefully' picking out their lab buddy

Cockroach reacting to food

Students returning the cockroaches

Tomorrow we will continue with an in-dept discussion of findings from today's lesson, we will closer examine all of the characteristics listed before to better understand adaptations and habitat of the cockroaches.

Mr. McClung

Skype Conversation with Mr. Lamshed - Do Overs

2009-04-16T10:13:00.000-05:00

After Mr. Lamshed was able to upload our full conversation, I thought i would be appropriate to update my post and re-post it with all the extra 'goodies'.

Today marks a very special day in our classroom. We had our first Skype conversation with Mr. Lamshed of Australia. Mr. Lamshed was kind enough to join our discussion despite being on holiday break and the extreme time difference. Above is a picture of my class huddled around a computer monitor during our conversation.

Mr. Lamshed, myself, and my students were able to have a discussion about some cultural differences between our two countries and schools, as well as further develop plans for a future collaboration of a written assignment between our two classes. The talk went very well, despite some technical issues on my end, my students were thrilled about talking to someone from another country.

Below is our full conversation in four part segments, enjoy.

Mr. McClung

At the Teacher's Desk

2009-04-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

Recently I was approached by my friend and fellow teacher Mr. Lamshed about participating in a collaberation project. Of course I jumped on board and was eager to begin (despite my late post).

This project is a blog that myself, Mr. Lamshed, Mr. C, and several others are all contributors of. Often when it comes to blogging I focus on my students (as I should), but Mr. Lamshed has provided us with a professional forum for which we can discuss educational topics that interest us, and this works beautifully. This is such a great chance for educators from all around the world to come together and share thougths and ideas. You can check out our project by clicking here.

Mr. McClung

Insects, Day 2

2009-04-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

Today we continued our discussion about insects in preparation for our lab with cockroaches later this week. Students were able to identify insects from non-insects by looking at their characteristics. An insect consists of a head, thorax, abdomen, and six legs. Students were also able to identify different adaptations of insects. The picture above is of Omar using a a FOSS application that was shared with me by one of our New Zealand visitors.

On Thursday, we will continue our discussion about insects as we begin our exploration of cockroaches.....don't worry there will be plenty of video.

Mr. McClung

Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame

2009-04-14T15:54:00.000-05:00

We have a Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame first! Today we are inducing our first female student to the TTHF! Macy is in my homeroom and is always excited when Tie Tuesday rolls around. Macy called claims on her dad's best tie at the beginning of the semester, and has been wearing it every Tuesday since. So here's to you Macy! May you enjoy this great honor and all the fame that comes with it!

Mr. McClung

Introduction to Insects - Live and Loud

2009-04-14T13:35:00.001-05:00

Today we began our introduction to insects. We studied the began by studying the basic overview of the make up of an insect. We learned that there are three basic parts that make up all insects

Head (the control center of the insect)
Thorax (in control of movement)
Abdomen (where the guts are stored)

In addition, we learned that different insects require different adaptations. Example, a female mosquito, everything about their piercing mouthparts is adapted for tapping blood. Also, the mosquito's saliva contains chemicals that keep blood from clotting and is also equipped with pain killers, this is why you usually do not feel anything until a few minutes after the mosquito has left. This is just one example of an adaptation.

Below is a video lesson of our discussion about insects today, enjoy.

Mr. McClung

Peer Writing Review

2009-04-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Slow week last week of blogging last week, but back at it again this week.

The past two weeks we have been working up a couple of rough drafts in my communication arts class, one of these is a story using Scholastic Story Starters. Story Starters is a application that give students a topic and a description for which to base the context of the story around. Above is a picture of my students using the SMARTboard to interact with Story Starters.

Today my students will begin processing their short stories on Google Docs, in this process students will be preparing their papers for peer review with their classmates using the collaborate feature. This is a great practice to use for preparing papers/writing assignments for final submission. Looking forward to posting some of these short stories that will be produced by this lesson along with updates of our progress.

Mr. McClung

Scientific Method Resource

2009-04-13T08:59:00.000-05:00

This morning a colleague shared with me a wonderful link to a very valuable resource for teaching the scientific method. The website is simply titled 'Scientific Method Web Page', the website was developed by Mr. Dan Tripp, an eMINTS teacher at Hoech Middle School located in St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Tripp has developed a wonderful classroom tool that provides in dept knowledge of the scientific method by being able to hear it, see it, read it, and watch it. In addition to the video, audio, and text; Mr. Tripp has provided an online quiz for assessing the scientific method and web quest to further develop understanding. This is an excellent tool and can really add value to any teacher's lesson when discussing the scientific method, you can view this page by clicking here.

Mr. McClung

Super Size Me

2009-04-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

After MAP testing today, I decided to take time to watch the movie Super Size Me as a class. This movie is a documentary about a man named Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock is a normal healthy person until he decides to test the effects of eating McDonald's for 30 straight days (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Needless to say his health quickly declines after starting this "diet".

This documentary points out some painfully true points about the condition of health in America. Did you know, that 60% of Americans get absolutely no form of physical activity in the course of the day? The movie went to great lengths to explain how strategic McDonald's is in their advertisements (towards children) and how this 'fast food' becomes a comfort food for many because they grow up eating it at such a young age. Thus explaining the addiction to 'fatty' food for many people in America

The effects of a high fat diet, such as McDonald's, are very clear after watching the movie. Due to Spurlock's diet he became more susceptible/suffered from fatigue, breathing problems, obesity, adult on-set diabetes, heart disease, mood swings, headache, high cholesterol, depression, liver disease, etc....

Having a studied health and physical education in undergraduate and having been a person that survived obesity (lost 100 lbs.), you can imagine that this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. In the climate that we live in here in America, physical education and school food choices should be a priority at every school. Did you know, that majority of the "lunch service provider" meals at school can reach 1,000+ calories for per meal??? While education plays an important role in the physical condition of a child, this topic also goes far beyond school. Did you know, the Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of physical activity everyday? Unfortunately some children do not get 30 minutes in a week.

I am not trying to start a reform for health in regards to education (although it needs to be done), and to be honest I wouldn't know the first step. What I am just trying do is give a few observations that might grab the attention of others, similar to what it did for me. This movie is a definite must see, and who knows, it could save your life!

Mr. McClung

Teachable Moment with Roaches

2009-04-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

As a part of our diversity of life unit in science, one of our objectives is to introduce the concept of adaptation by pointing out the structure and behaviors of an insect and how it relates to those adaptations. The insects we are using are Madagascar Hissing Roaches, and as you might guess classroom has also become housing for these little hissing critters. Today my students and I were able observe the molting process with our roaches. Because the this insect is encased in its rigid exoskeleton, which cannot expand, the only way an insect can grow is to get out of the exoskeleton. This is the process is called molting. Below is a video of a couple of our roaches shedding their exoskeleton.

Mr. McClung

Cornell Note-Taking - Live and Loud

2009-04-03T15:34:00.000-05:00

Today we continued our discussion about The Cornell Note-Taking System. We used our discussion about the pollination of a flower to help use better understand the system. This lesson was a little bit different than any in my class before, today we went full audio and full video for a 45 minute lesson. This is very exciting for me and my class, because this means everything taught in my room is now available where ever they go. Today was only a test run at this practice, but we are working towards making all of our lessons available through a provider such as Ning or Ustream. Above is the full video from my lesson with Mrs. Drake's Class today, enjoy.

Mr. McClung

Cornell Note-Taking

2009-04-02T15:04:00.000-05:00

"The best ideas are always stolen"

After reading Mr. C's post about note-taking, I was inspired to spread to the good word of note-taking to my students today. We took time out of our science schedule today to study The Cornell Note-taking System. Forty years ago, Walter Pauk (1989) developed what is known as the Cornell note-taking technique to help Cornell University students better organize their notes. Today, Pauk's note-taking technique is probably the most widely used system throughout the United States.

Pauk outlines six steps in the Cornell note-taking system:
Record
Reduce (or question)
Recite
Reflect
Review
Summary

Today we used this technique today to help us study plant reproduction, and we will continue using this system again tomorrow.

Mr. McClung

Transpiration

2009-04-01T11:02:00.000-05:00

Where does the water go? that is the question that I asked my students Monday when we started our lesson about transpiration. We water, water, and water plants all the time, but what happens to the water? We decided to answer this question by using celery.

Day 1 - Weight the celery
Students were able to figure out that the plant itself uses the water, but how do we know for sure? The only way to figure this out would be do leave the celery in water for 24 hours and do before and after weights of the celery. Students filled two vials with 20 ml of water and place celery in one vial and nothing in the other, to test evaporation.

Day 2 - Results and further investigation
On day 2 we found that our celery had increased in weight considerable and the water levels have gone down by half in most celery vials. As for the water vials, there was little to no change, ruling out evaporation. Next step? Next we want how the water is being disturbed inside the plant, we already know about water channels but where exactly do they go? To find out we added red dye to our water and waited another 24 hours.

Day 3 - Finding water channels and understanding transpiration
We found a surprise with our celery. Many of the leafs have turned a reddish color and we are starting to see red lines in our celery. We have discovered that these water channels feed water to all parts of the plant including the leafs, we know this by the the red lines that are visible in the celery (just like the one on your left). Next question, what is the next step in the water process? The answer, transpiration. Students learned that transpiration is the evaporation of water from the aerial parts of plants, especially leaves but also stems, flowers and roots. So if this is correct we should be able to visually see this process by placing a plastic bag over a tree or shrub branch, students came up with the hypothesis that water will collect on the inside of the bag.

Day 4 - Results and finally conclusions
On day four we discovered that our hypothesis was correct! We found that there was all kinds of moisture on the inside of the bag. Turns out that the water is released from the plant in a gas form through little pores in the leaf called stomates. Let's recap for a moment, the process of transpiration goes like this:

Water is first absorbed by the roots, passes through the plant through channels, and then is released as a gas through the plant's leaf surface. Next step for us is flower reproduction.

Mr. McClung

My Two Cents on Twitter....

2009-04-01T08:38:00.000-05:00

....everyone else is doing it!

In my graduate classes the topic of technology in the classroom has presented itself numerous times in the past two weeks. The classes I am taking are educational research and educational psychology courses. Both of these classes are offered as a "hybrid class", meaning that one week we meet online and the next we meet in person. On weeks that we meet online, we depend heavily on discussion boards, Google groups, and Google docs to help guide our classroom.

The technology we use in class is put to great use, but a question was raised last night, "what technology is a added value to the classroom and what is not?" This really got me thinking about what I do in my own classroom. How much of what I use is added value, and how much of what I use is of little to no value and is being added just because? Being tapped into a streamline of people that always have suggestions about new technologies that are available for the classroom, it is very easy to become carried away and go into overkill mode with what you use with your students.

A perfect example of this is Twitter. Let me first say that I use Twitter on a daily basis and lately there has been a large boom of educators promoting Twitter in the classroom. Which is great, I love to see inspired teachers, but...

I have yet to find a valuable use for Twitter in my own classroom.

I believe Twitter can be a valuable tool for communication and Q & A sessions, especially for non classroom time, but I do not think it would be value added to my classroom. I know this will not be popular view among some teachers, but I do not see the need to add an extra step in a classroom discussion. I personally will stick to my normal classroom discussions and chat room discussions in my classes.

I believe there is a point where teachers can give too much to the students too fast, and it becomes hard to focus on what the concept being taught actually is. I think technology should be used as a tool and not the focus of the lesson. I am very cautious of what I introduce to my students and the value it holds.

To sum it up, I love using technology in my classroom and I believe that it compliments my teaching well, but I want to make sure what I am doing is meaningful and not just another toy that causes unnecessary steps. I believe that teachers should continue to explore new technologies and find their 'nitch' for what they use and don't use. Please share your thoughts and insight, I really would love to hear some ideas about this topic especially if you are pro Twitter in school I would LOVE to hear some rationale on this topic.

Mr. McClung

Faculty Follies

2009-03-30T20:02:00.000-05:00

Ah....yes, our Faculty Follies, what you all have been waiting for. This is an event in which teachers get the "opportunity" to show how shameless they can be in order to motivate/entertain our students. The large 'woman' above is a perfect example of this. That is me as Cher...what? Can't see it? Nevertheless, below are some highlights from the follies including my best Cher impressionation. Enjoy.

The Chicken Dance by multiple teachers

Cha Cha Slide by Mrs. Fisher, Mrs. Brisco, Mrs. Messley, Mrs. Morris, and Mrs. Hilderbrand

The Twist, by fourth grade teachers and friends

The grand finale....I Got You Babe by Mrs. Messley and I

Mr. McClung

Rock the MAP

2009-03-30T18:37:00.000-05:00

As apart of our celebration for our annual MAP testing, we held assemblies all day Friday for our "Rock the MAP Day". This included performances from students from our high school and from our primary building. Below are a few highlight from Friday's action.

Performance by students from the high school

Performance by students from the high school

Performance by students from the high school

Freestyle by Frisco, a high school student and a former football player of mine

Perfomance by our second grade students

Mr. McClung

Blowing off Some Steam

2009-03-30T09:01:00.000-05:00

Friday was a busy day.....after all the assemblies we decided to blow off a little steam using Diet Coke, Mentos, and a Steve Spangler Geyser Tube....and now, your moment of Zen....

Mr. McClung

Benjamin Del Shreve

2009-03-30T08:38:00.001-05:00

On Friday we hosted a concert to celebrate the beginning of MAP testing. Our performing guest was Benjamin Del Shreve from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Below are some highlights from Friday's concert. Please excuse my sound quality.

What a way to prepare for the MAP, the students absolutely loved the performance and from talking to the band they enjoyed it just as much. BIG thanks to Nicki Angeles for setting it up and thanks once again to the Benjamin and the boys in the band for performing for our school.

Mr. McClung

Propaganda Posters

2009-03-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

On Friday we concluded our propaganda unit in communication arts. For the past two weeks we have been reading the book Number the Stars, and studying how propaganda was used to deceive a nation and turn the Jewish population into the enemy of Germany. As a part of this unit, students were asked to reproduce a propaganda poster from this time period (1936-1945), write a small abstract about the intent of the poster, and use a translation website to write the title in German. Below is a slide show of their results. Enjoy.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Mr. McClung

Throw Down Thursday

2009-03-26T21:05:00.000-05:00

That's right, Throw Down Thursday! After presenting my students with the get up and get moving lesson yesterday....by the way, thank you everyone for your insight on this post...I decided to take the classroom dancing one step further. Today I introduced Throw down Thursday to my students. This is very similar to want we did yesterday, but students get to challenge another classmate to a 'dance off'. One student has to follow the other's every movement....no matter how silly the move is. Everyone else was asked to vote on the best dancer from the the 'throw down'.

*Disclaimer*
We do not spend our entire day dancing....just the first 10 minutes of the day

In our championship throw down today we had Macy pitted against Ismael, and after a hard fought battle Ismael was voted the winner by his peers.

Mr. McClung

Terrific Tiger Awards - March

2009-03-26T16:14:00.000-05:00

Today we honored our Terrific Tigers for the month of March. Terrific Tiger is an award that is given out by homeroom teachers to a student they feel as excelled in the school setting; this can be for academics, behavior, effort, or just for being a caring individual.

Sixth grade Terrific Tiger Awards went to Ryan from my homeroom, Dustin from Mrs. Hamm's homeroom, and Anyely from Mrs. Drake's homeroom. Each individual is absolutely excellent students and very deserving of such an honor. It is a pleasure to have them in class. Congratulations to all!

Mr. McClung

Propaganda Poster Progress

2009-03-25T17:04:00.001-05:00

The past two days we have continued work on our propaganda posters. Students have been using a two resources to help complete this project; the USHMM Website and a translation site (for German to English) have been used for our projects. Above is a picture of Ben tracing his picture of Hitler for his propaganda poster. Progress has been great this week and we are hoping to finish these projects and have them posted for viewing by Monday.

Mr. McClung

Number the Stars Book Review

2009-03-25T13:58:00.000-05:00

As we start to wrap up our class reading of Number the Stars, I have asked my students to record three book reviews over different sections of our reading. Below are recordings by three different individuals from my homeroom.

Colby's review, chapters 1-5

Courtney's review, chapters 6-11

Macy's review, chapters 12-17

Mr. McClung

Get Up and Get Moving

2009-03-25T08:51:00.000-05:00

Teachers can really be sticklers about keeping students in their seats at all time. From the time the time they arrive to the time they leave, we are asking them to stay seated and be quite. As we all know this can be very hard for a middle school child to do. Students come to school every day with high energy, and that energy is often discourage in classrooms. For me, I love the energy and encourage it....but this energy needs to be channeled. Our solution? Dancing....why not?

In class I demonstrated to my students the mirror dance. This dance involves two students and some good music. Student number one will be asked to repeat all of the dance moves performed by student number two. This goes on for about a minute then we switch. Below are a couple of videos of this practice in action.

In addition to this exercise we also add stretching and jumping to our science lessons to get our blood flowing and get our brains working before we start learning. As for the students, they love it. It gives them an opportunity to get out of their seat and they are much more alert afterward.

Mr. McClung

Using Acrositics

2009-03-24T15:22:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday we used acrostics to help us better understand our spelling words for the week. A acrostic is when you write a word, or in our case spelling words, vertically and then you associate a term horizontally next to each letter in the word that describes the whole word. Below is an example of a acrostic:

F ans
A pplause
M uch-admired
O utstanding
U nequaled
S tar

For our spelling lesson today, I allowed the students to use their spelling words and make acrostics that were more humorous than descriptive. Below are some highlights from today's lesson:

O ld people
B uy
V iolins and hide them
I n
O ur
U n-used
S nuggies
- Ben

P eople
R emark
E very time
V illians
I nfamously
O pen
U p
S torage rooms
- Courtney

O ctopus
B abies
V iolently
I nk
O ther
U nderwater creatures
S hamelessly
- Colby

You can create your own acrositic by clicking here.

Mr. McClung

Academic Accolades...

2009-03-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

...go to...
Tyler from Mrs. Drake's Class

Kyle from Mrs. Hamm's Class

Colby from my class

Mr. McClung

Tie Tuesday - Executive Style

2009-03-24T14:41:00.000-05:00

The picture above is my man Louis from the fourth grade. Louis obviously listens to a lot of ZZ Top on Tuesdays, because this young man has made it a habit to wear a suit every week to school....I need to step my game up. As you can see, this week he is sporting a stylish suit as usual....nice.

For his efforts the past several weeks, this joven es guapo is being inducted into The Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame. His credentials? Forget the fact that he belongs simply for being the best dressed male in the entire Noel School Building, but anyone that wears a blazer faithfully when it's not required, deserves recognition. Here's to you Louis!

Mr. McClung

Using Google Docs

2009-03-24T11:34:00.000-05:00

Last week my students were given two assignments in communication arts. One was a short story called a "Potato Plot" and the other was a poem called "What If?" Students were asked to perform this task by using Google Docs. Google Docs is a free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allows for users to share and collaborate online.Students were asked to compose their assignments online using Google Docs and invite me as a collaborator. By adding the teacher as a collaborator, it allows the teacher to add corrections or comments to a student's paper.

Google Docs is an amazing tool for teachers. There is a little bit of work involved in the beginning. In order for this to work, students are required to set up a e-mail account g-mail is preferred, less problems. Also it will take about a week or so to train your students on how to correctly sign-in and operate the program. It is well worth it. There are several benefits to using this program, first off there is no more carrying papers around from school and home and you can access the papers from anywhere. Second, giving immediate feedback is made simply through the collaborator process. Also I actually had a student turn in a paper on a SATURDAY....I was shocked to. Lastly, who doesn't want to save a tree or two?

I would highly recommend that everyone at least check out this program and consider ways this could be tied into your instruction, this is a very powerful tool.

Mr. McClung

MMSA Highlights: Power Teacher

2009-03-21T10:18:00.000-05:00

There is nothing quite like feeling of having your fire re-lit from time to time. Ever have those days where you just feel like your passion for your job just isn't there? I have been feeling this way for the past few weeks and looking for something help me find that passion again in teaching. This is when I to start all"geeked up". Geeked up for me is when I get really excited about something, it becomes all I think about, and ideas start flowing out.

Well, I just left an outstanding workshop about a exciting teaching strategy that has geeked me up in all kinds of ways. It is called Power Teaching. Power Teaching is a teaching system that is founded on two key principles: the system could be fun and free. I like that. This started with three teachers, Chris Biffle (college), Jay Vanderfin (kindergarten) and Chris Rekstad (4th grade) in Southern California.

The whole concept of Power Teaching is based around five simple rules:

1. Follow directions quickly
2. Raise your had for permission to speak
3. Raise your had for permission to leave your seat
4. Make smart choices
5. Keep your dear teacher happy (nice catch all)

I know this all sounds standard issue, but there is a difference. Each rule has a hand gesture that is assigned with it. Example, for rule one a teacher would say, 'Class, rule one' the class would then repeat the rule while performing the hand gesture. This action is performed every time a rule is broken. This helps with reinforcement of classroom rules and consistency.

"Teach, Okay" is another key practice in this system. For this practice, a teacher will address the class and give a "Micro Lecture". This is when the teacher presents a short lecture (about 1 minute) about the day's lesson. The teacher will go through their lecture and associate hand gestures with everything they are describing. While the teacher is presenting, the students are mirroring their gestures and behavior. At the end of the end of the lecture, students are told 'Teach!' to which they reply by saying 'OK!' Students will then turn and teach to a classmate while performing the same hand gestures the teacher had taught. When the teacher needs the classes' attention they would say 'class' to which everyone would reply 'yes'.

Class-yes is a strategy that serves as an excellent management tool. To get the attention of the class the teacher would simply say 'Class!' and then they reply 'Yes!'. Next is the catch, the hook that makes this fun, and gets them invested in it in a way that has them looking at me and grinning rather than continuing their conversations. When the teacher says 'Class!' and they say 'Yes!' they have to say it the way their teacher said it. If the teacher says 'Classity-class-class!' they have to say 'Yessity-yes-yes!'. If it is said it loudly, they have to respond loudly. If it is said with a whisper, they respond in a whisper. They have to match the tone and intensity of the instructor.

Above is a video of a professor teaching Power Teaching Basics with his college class

This is a video of a 11 year old teaching a Communication Arts lesson using Power Teaching

These are just a few of the practices used in this system and there are so many worth while practices used in this system. I realize that my little blog post doesn't come close to doing the system justice, but it something that has me all "geeked up" and what better forum to express it?

Power Teaching fits great with teachers who have high energy and more importantly it keeps students engaged through practices that can be fun. That's what it is all about, it doesn't matter how fun/silly your message is, as long as that message is being heard. I would like to invite everyone to check out their website and "steal" some ideas.

Mr. McClung

Understanding Propaganda

2009-03-20T20:46:00.000-05:00

As we continue our reading in the book, Number the Stars, it has become very clear that propaganda played an important role in WWII. In order for us to better understand the context of what was going on during this time period, we will be spending the next week studying propaganda. Students will be using the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Website. The museum is located in Washington, D.C. and provides an excellent teaching tool with it's incredible website.

The Assignment
Students will use the website to study the different themes used in propaganda

- Making a Leader
- Rallying a Nation
- Indoctrinating the Youth
- Defining the Enemy
- Writing the News
- Assessing Guilt
- Deceiving the Public

Students will be asked to reproduce a "Propaganda Poster" from this time period and write an abstract about that particular piece; including: what was the intent, how was it used, why was this important to the Nazi campaign, and who did it target.

The power of Nazi Propaganda goes far beyond just simple posters. Propaganda reveals how the Nazi Party used modern techniques as well as new technologies and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany. Students began this assignment the other day by simply exploring the website and the different categories. We will begin selecting posters on Monday of the next week, and our goal is to have them ready to publish by the end of the week.

Mr. McClung

Early Exit...

2009-03-20T07:03:00.000-05:00

I am making an early exit this week to head to Osage Beach, Missouri. Myself and two other teachers are heading up today to attend the Missouri Middle School Assication Conference. This conference will be running from Friday to Sunday. I really love attending educational conferences because there are always so many great ideas out there and these conferences always prove to be a great forum for "stealing" great ideas from each other. Updates will be forth coming as I plan on spending my nights grading papers, blogging, and watching basketball in my room. Have a good weekend everyone.

Mr. McClung

¡Holy Frijoles!

2009-03-19T13:42:00.000-05:00

As a part of our diversity of life unit, today we began our lesson on plant life. To start this lesson off we used lima beans in class today. We took the beans and compared wet vs. dry to see what effects water has on beans.

We found that once water is added to a lima beans each one began to shed its coat and detach it's embryo. This is apart of a process called germination. Which means it is changing from an organism that is dormant, to an organism that is alive. We were also able to correctly identify the different parts of the bean: embryo, seed coat, and cotyledon.

Mr. McClung

Number the Stars

2009-03-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

In our reading classes this week, we have started a series of books that highlight World War II events. For my reading class we are starting off with a book called Number the Stars by Lois Lowery. This book chronicles the story of ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her family. This story takes place in 1943 in Denmark where the Nazis are "relocating" the Jews.

Over the next two weeks, we will be reading this book and using it to better understand the German occupation during this time.

Mr. McClung

St. Jude Fundraiser

2009-03-18T11:41:00.000-05:00

Last night marked our St. Jude Fundraiser. St. Jude is a children's research hospital that specializes in finding cures and saving children from pediatric cancer and other diseases. For our fundraiser this year consisted of basketball game matching up our 5th and 6th grade boys vs. girls. After several weeks of trash talking it all came together last night. Below are some videos from last night's action....

Below is a video of last night's halftime entertainment. When each student entered the ballgame last night, they were asked to donate money for a chance to challenge a teacher to a "shoot-out". For some reason I became a big target for this contest, maybe it had something to do with my height...nevertheless, I was challenged by an 8th grader and....as you will see he did not fair so well!

Tough break Fendley....

At the end of a hard fought game, our boys did win the context by a narrow margin of two points (or about 50 points worth of bragging rights). The most important thing is that we were able to raise a lot of money for a worthy cause with the help of some special people. Mrs. Messley did an excellent job pulling it all together, and all of the teachers evolved did an excellent job as well.

Mr. McClung

Understanding Japanese Culture

2009-03-17T17:04:00.000-05:00

As our students move forward in Social Studies, they have started their unit on World War II. To better understand events that led to the cause of WWII, Mrs. Hamm has began training our students on how to use chopsticks. Each student has been asked to use these chopsticks at lunch to eat "finger foods". Students will do this for an entire month. Mrs. Hamm explains....

"To better understand the events that took place in the Pacific region during World War 2, it is important for our students to understand the Japanese Culture"

For the next week our students will be studying events that led to WW2 and who were the major players. As you would guess, this is a very LOADED unit. Meaning that there is so much great information and history (potential blogging), I will be working with Mrs. Hamm and will be trying my best to chronicle their studies in her class....I am a bit of nerd when it comes to this period of history.

Mr. McClung

Eliminating Down Time

2009-03-17T11:41:00.005-05:00

Today we continued our use of the Foss application that be began yesterday. As with any assignment, you have students that finish their lesson way before others. In an effort to eliminate down time and the question "Mister, what do I do now???" today I put my kids to work. After each student finished their work for the day, they were asked to visit our blogroll and comment on three other class blogs. This worked out wonderfully.

This led to some great imaginative thinking as well. Pictured above is Courtney and Ben visiting the Scholastic Story Starter. This quickly became of interest to all my students and has inspired me to create a communication arts lesson using this application. This is just one example of how class blogs and having an audience can benefit your classroom and a teacher's instruction. We were able to find this application at Room 8's Class Blog.

Mr. McClung

Tie Tuesday: St. Patrick's Day Edition

2009-03-17T11:41:00.001-05:00

Hey how about that! Tie Tuesday fell on St. Patty's Day (SPD) this year. If there is one thing to learn about ties and SPD, its that it is very hard to find SPD ties in department stores. I spent two hours looking for a shamrock, leprechaun, or any type of insignia that resembled SPD.....nothing. Nevertheless....we move forward!

This week I inducted a new member to our Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame (TTHF). This week this tremendous honor goes to a fifth grader....unheard of I know. Parker Owens is a student from Mr. C's class.

Parker has worn a tie to school for the past six weeks....so he says. For his diligence and faithfulness (despite the fact its a clip-on!) to Tie Tuesday, it's with great pleasure I welcome Parker to the TTHF. Congratulations!

Mr. McClung

Foss - "Ribbons of Life"

2009-03-16T15:00:00.000-05:00

Today in class we were able to utilize two different types of technology in our classroom. One being the note application provided by Ning. The second is a interactive multimedia application from Foss. Foss is a site for the inquiry-based FOSS science curriculum which we use in our class.

We used this application to help explore "The Ribbon of Life", this refers to all organisms from the simplest life form, to complex multi-cellular organisms and everything that makes up these organisms. You can click here to view the instructions that my students followed today. This is day one of a two day exploration of this application, updates coming again tomorrow.

Mr. McClung

Welcome to the Norse!

2009-03-15T19:49:00.000-05:00

Strike up the horns!

Our sixth graders recently concluded their social studies unit on medieval studies. To help put a nice bow on this unit, our own Mrs. Hamm contacted some Norsemen reenactors from St. Louis, MO and Oklahoma City, OK to speak perform a demonstration for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students.

Norsemen is a term meaning "people from the North" and was applied primarily to Nordic people originating from southern and central Scandinavia. Notice the map about that illustrates the different settlements of the Norsemen from the 8th to 11th centuries.

Despite how friendly our visitors were, the Norsemen were not pleasant folk. Well put by one of our visits "they found it was easier to steal than to make". This was referring to pillaging that they were well known for. They frequently would raid churches and villages for goods such as gold, sliver, clothes, food, furniture, and women. Yes women, they were typically taken back to Viking settlements while the men and children were killed.

We are also reminder by our reenactors that the Noresmen were not unintelligent either. This was a group of people that were great skills men. The Norsemen crafted many tools, weapons, and clothing. Among the most famous of their work were their longboats.

Not only did our reenactors bring lots of historical information, but also brought many replica pieces from this time period and also performed several demonstration for us. Below is a small dose of what they shared with us.

Demonstration of siege engines

Who wants to be a Viking?

Who wants to be a Viking...part duex

This was an outstanding experience for all of our children and gave them a perspective on what it was like during this time period that no text book could ever come close to. The students were not the only ones that were excited about this exhibit; I noticed myself and other teachers (Mr. C and Mrs. Hamm) giggling like nerds over some of the different types of replicas that were present. There is much more media available from this event, as I just have a small amount. If you would like to see more, Mr. C will have a post up (including full video) within the next few days.

Mr. McClung

Debating....Freestyle

2009-03-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

After our debate Wednesday, I held a very impromptu and informal debate in our classroom without an audience. I knew my students had become a little nervous from speaking in front of a crowd, so I allowed them to have another chance to argue with each other. For this debate, I selected a random topic for my students (bringing ipod/mp3's to school) and allowed them to go one on one with another classmate, here are some of the highlights.

Overall my students have really enjoyed this project, and have taken it to a whole another level. Everyday in my class I have frequent debates (not to be confused with arguments) break out over everyday topics. As an instructor, I feel like this has really opened up my student's way of thinking, and has caused them to be more vocal and engaged in the classroom. Not only are they learning to look at both sides of a story, but it has also peaked their interest in classroom discussions. Its not every day that students get a voice of say in their class, and in some ways that's a shame.

Mr. McClung

Cheek Cells

2009-03-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday in science, we shifted gears as we move away from aquatic life forms and begin to look at the cell. To start this unit off, we took a look at our own cells. When we first started this investigation, students were not told we were looking for cells, just that we were looking for "cheek tissue".

Each group was asked to take a toothpick and gently scrap the inside of their cheek.

Next students were asked to take the toothpick and swirl it around in a drop of blue dye that will stain the tissue and better enable us to view them.

Notice the darker sections in the field of view, this is what we were looking for.

After investigating and comparing with classmates, students were able to find their own cells. As we continued in this investigation, many students started to make the connection that we were actually looking at cells. We will continue with this lesson next week, as this is a short week for us here at Noel.

Mr. McClung

The Great Debate

2009-03-11T10:42:00.001-05:00

Finally the day has come! Today marked our first semi-formal classroom debate. My homeroom students were given a topic of school uniforms. We did have a audience for this debate, we invited Mrs. Polzer's class (3rd grade) to listen in on our debate.

I will say that we did not react well to the "live audience" factor of debating very well. The students were very prepared for this event but tended to become a little bit nervous when speaking in front of a group of people. Overall I was pleased with their performance, of course there things that work, but not a bad showing a first time debate. We did take video, but I am having problems compressing it (help Mr. C!), I am hoping to post it to Ning in the coming week.

Mr. McClung

Great Debate Eve

2009-03-10T15:41:00.000-05:00

As we prepare for our debate (that has been moved to tomorrow morning), today we begin to finalize our thoughts about our arguments. In preparation today, students were asked to practice their arguments for tomorrow, below are a couple of short videos from my students. This will give you a little bit of a taste until tomorrow.

Tomorrow our debate will be recorded in front of a live audience. Mrs. Polzer's class was kind enough to offer their listening services to us. Post and video will be on their way tomorrow, have a great Tie Tuesday everyone!

Mr. McClung

Microscope Mania: Mini-pods Explored

2009-03-10T12:52:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago we set the stage for today's lesson. Today we will be looking at our mini-pods that we created all the way back in January. The students were given their mini-pods and asked to go on a "safari" to see what different types of organisms were alive in their pods.

Students were given the following instructions: Prepare a wet mount from various areas in your mini-pod, use the key in your book to identify the different types of organisms under the microscope. Students were given a key that consisted of about 40 pictures of different types of aquatic organisms, below are three pictures of the most reoccurring that we witnessed today.

Paramecium
Euglena
Nematode

Below is a video that I took of one pair of student's slide, in this video you can see all three of these organisms in the field of view. My students were able to organize them accordingly, but can you spot the three different types of organisms?

Mr. McClung

Poll Update

2009-03-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone that took part in my little impromptu poll questions about our class debate. One poll question was a success and the other question prompted no sufficient results. First off, "Do you think it is a good idea to have a school dress code", we had 46 people vote in this poll question. The results were 72% said that this was a bad idea, 26% said this was a good idea, and 1% were undecided.

This was about what I expected from this poll. While school uniforms or stricter dress codes have their positives such as school pride, less closet hassle, and decrease in discipline issues, there are still some very valid arguments against them. In some districts cost my be an issue and the major complaint you will hear is that this takes the individually away from a student.

On this blog we have at some outstanding input from visitors on our ongoing debate. Over the next two days my class will begin to refine their debate skills and their topics as we prepare for class debate Thursday. I am very excited and I am hoping that my students echo some of the same arguments (and present new fresh ideas) that you all have had on the comment boards. Stay tuned for up-dates and I will be back in school on Tuesday.

Mr. McClung

Be Heard!

2009-03-06T11:38:00.000-06:00

Realizing that the topic of a school dress code or school uniforms is such a hot topic, I decided that I would post a couple of quick and dirty poll questions. Below are a couple of polls involving school dress codes in school, take a minute and let your voice be heard....by me at least.

Mr. McClung

Lets Start an Argument.....

2009-03-04T22:21:00.000-06:00

As we continue forth with our persuasive unit in communication arts, yesterday we prepared to read a short story called "Dressed for Success". This is a article from Time for Kids Magazine and in this story it poses an argument for school uniforms. Almost immediately the room was divided when it came to pros and cons of school uniforms. I knew right away I had to seize this teachable moment. We started a discussion about what are the differences between debates and arguments, also we discussed what makes a great debate. We decided as a class that we would continue this topic and work our way to a class debate over school uniforms. We took the first step yesterday and divided our class room into "for it" and "against it" teams.

Yesterday to get in the mood of debating and I allowed my students 10 seconds to "state" their arguments to the opposing team about school uniforms all at once....it made for great video.

Today, to get ourselves thinking about what makes a great debate, we will be watching a video from the famous British TV series Monty Python. We will use this video to discuss arguments and how they can be used to persuade another person.

Mr. McClung

Rock the Vote '09: TV Commercials

2009-03-04T14:34:00.000-06:00

Students and visitors place feel free to vote!

Cherry Bombs

Snap, Crackle, BOOM!

10-Up Juice

Boost Juice

Mr. McClung

Rock the Vote '09: Radio Commercial

2009-03-04T14:09:00.001-06:00

Below are the radio commercials, please vote by posting a comment with the groups name of who you think did the best job. Good luck everyone!

Boost Juice

Cherry Bombs

Snap, Crackle, BOOM!

10-Up Juice

Mr. McClung

Commercial Mania!

2009-03-04T11:44:00.000-06:00

Right this way! Come one, Come all....

Cheesy I know....for the past two weeks our sixth graders have been developing their own products and working on how to sell them. This whole thing started with our studies of emotional appeal. We have been studying how commercials use different types of emotional appeal (better of well being, better self-image, etc...) to sell their products.

Each group of students completed a radio advertisement (recorded by Vocaroo) and recorded a TV commercial. Each group of students were asked to consider each of the following areas when creating these commercials.

Creativity
Originality
Know your audience
Types of appeal
Product design

Over the next two days I will post these advertisements and allow my readers to vote on which radio and TV commercial are their favorites. Enjoy!

Mr. McClung

Parents Night: Medieval Era

2009-03-04T09:50:00.000-06:00

Last night marked the end of our sixth graders Medieval unit in social studies. To help culminate this event we held a sixth grade parent's night. Students displayed their Medieval projects and also displayed their poster boards from science fair. Also there was a small award ceremony to recognize the 6th grade science fair participates.

Find more videos like this on Mr. McClung's Class
Above is a short video of the students singing the Ballad of Barbra Allen. Ballads have been a large part of their studies this semester and I was trilled to see them perform so well.

Unfortunately I do not have video yet from last night because I had to attend my graduate class in Fayetteville. I would like to thank Mrs. Drake for filling in for me last night and also Mrs. Hamm for putting the whole thing together. Well done.

Mr. McClung

Tie Tuesday

2009-03-03T14:27:00.000-06:00

Its been a while, but we are back with another Tie Tuesday post! I wanted to recognize a student as a new member to the Tie Tuesday Hall of Fame (TTHF).

Courtney has been a Tie Tuesday regular since last semester. Not only has she displayed her professionalism on a regular basis, but has also talked her sister into strolling to school with a tie, and she has even managed to put a tie on her pets as well. Also she has done an excellent of promoting this event on her personal blog. Well done Courtney! Enjoy all the perks that go along with the TTHF.
"Promoting Professionalism One Tie at a Time"

Mr. McClung

Morning Discussions

2009-03-02T15:00:00.000-06:00

Last week I made a post about how my class is taking a different approach to morning bell work. We call this "Morning Discussions". In these morning discussions I pose questions to students about topics ranging from classroom assignments to news that effects them. Take a minute and check out our discussion board hosted by Ning.

Morning Discussions

Mr. McClung

Microscope Mania

2009-03-02T11:28:00.000-06:00

Below are a few videos that I was able to take using my microscope and my camera. Please excuse my shaking hand.

Find more videos like this on Mr. McClung's Class
Paramecium video, notice the large oval shaped paramecium that float across the middle of the screen.

Find more videos like this on Mr. McClung's Class
This is a video of large group of paramecium.

As we move forward in our studies, we will attempt to feed the paramecium with yeast that has been stained red.

Mr. McClung