Well we made it to the last day. Four students came through the program with perfect attendance! Hopefully everyone picked up some good strategies to help them with the MCAS this year and had some fun doing the different projects and incorporating some new technology. We will make tostadas today at the end of the program. I wonder how many ingredient combinations there will be?

Maybe some of you will even keep using your blogs a an online journal. I will be taking the links from the Library Web Page down so you will have to log on through edublogs to access your blog after today. I will pass back your passwords just in case you’d like to keep going with your blog

Have a great sumer!!!

Today we started our restaurant project. Figuring out the combinations does get a bit confusing. I found the chart helped me and I noticed that making a list helped some people. I like the visual part of making the “tostada models”, I think it makes it easier to see when you have a duplicate combination. Tuesday we will finish the combination chart and start working on the pricing. Plus, it is Ms. Hallet’s birthday!

Yes, that’s the word for how all of the powerpoints turned out. I was really happy to see such a wide variety of photos used and some great special effects. Next week we will start on a project that involves planning a restaurant: deciding on the menu, pricing the food and planning the layout of the space. The students will work individually instead of in groups. At the end of the week we will prepare some of the food on the menu and have a “End of the Program Party”. It should be a fun activity to see how math is used in real-life situations.

It seems like everyone is really doing well with their slide shows. Don’t forget to try some fun animations or interesting colors. Your sentences on the slides don’t have to be too long because you will be able to add more when you present them to the group. We will continue to work on the slide shows tomorrow and then present them on Wednesday. On Thursday there will be longer lessons in math and language arts and we will start a new project on Monday. A few students will be rejoining us then.

Hopefully everyone has settled in and knows what to expect each day. Please remember to ask questions if you are confused we all really want to help you get the most out of the program.

Today we introduced the Geometry Project and added some MCAS math review and language arts practice. I am excited to see the projects that everyone creates. I hope they will try to be really creative and take some interesting pictures.

Students should try to blog a few lines every day just so we can see how you feel about what we do that day. Don’t forget to check your comments everyday and approve them so that they are visible on your blog. Once you have finished writing a post click the publish button so that it appears online in your blog, otherwise no one else can read it.

Don’t forget to click on the comments tab on your dashboard to view comments others have sent so that you can approve them or delete them. Once you approve them they will be available to view on your blog.

I really liked the jumping activity we did today. I enjoyed being able to go outside and get to know all of you better. I hope the math and language arts lessons we have planned help all of you!

Some students were really grumbling yesterday about having to blog. When we decided to add this activity to the program it was meant to be a fun activity and not a punishment. Hopefully as we use it more and get more familiar with it everyone will start to have fun. Today we will explore using the blogs more and navigating within the Edublog site.

This site may help you find really nice photos to add to your blogs:

http://www.morguefile.com/

Today we will be working more on our blogs and adding some pictures and finalizing designs. We will start commenting to other students blogs once everyone has one set up.

The next few weeks will be busy! We have designed this summer program to offer students the opportunity to try new things and integrate technology into many of the lessons.

One way we are integrating technology is to have students use blogs to write about what they hope to learn and the daily classes. Students are also asked to respond to at least two blogs that other students in the program have written. All blogs for students and teachers are linked to from this starter page.

Students should feel free to create a special look for your blog and use it to communicate with fellow students and teachers. The blogs are a safe, closed Internet environment and should not be used as social networking sites during the summer program.