Classroom Google Summit (Day 2) and Glenbrook Gobbler

Today we completed the second day of our 1st Annual Classroom Google Summit.  Today's focus was largely to do with using Google Docs and learning some new command keys, which simplify certain commands.  We tried to put a Thanksgiving twist on our activity, so write when students came today they had to log into their Google account, create a new document, and then begin producing a list of as many "things" they could think of, of which they are thankful for.  Many students surprised us with lists that were over a page long within just 10 minutes!  

After specials, we moved our class into our school's Library Media Center to use the mini laptops.  We did this, because the next activity involved printing.  Our students did not know that the end result would be a word cloud on Wordle, but were curious when we began asking them to copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) words that were most important to them.  We also taught our students how to undo (Ctrl+Z) mistakes, since they sometimes over copied or deleted when trying to paste.  We suggested that the most important items be copied and pasted 5 times, next 4 times, and so on.  Eventually, all of our 28 students created some great lists.  Another tip, we introduced our students to the tilde (~) key, which we renamed the "Squiggle Key," which is used in the place of a space bar when trying to keep two words together.  

Next, students selected all (Ctrl+A) of words, copied them, and then pasted them into a blank Wordle canvas: www.wordle.net/create.  We chose to go right to the create page, in order to avoid the gallery and other random clouds.  With the click of the Go button, students had a unique way to see what they were most thankful for.  Within a word cloud, the words that students typed in most often were very large.  The less times they typed in a word, the smaller it appeared. Students were able to print two copies, one for school and one for home.  Below a look at our hallway "Thankful" word clouds and the example I created for our students(to the left):

The starting line

This afternoon our phyiscal education teacher held our school's 1st Annual Glenbrook Gobbler.  It was a 1-mile run/walk, promoting health and wellness.  We had two waves.  The first wave consisted of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders who qualified with a mile time under 9 minutes in gym class this fall.  The second wave was for all other 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  It was an excellent way to send our students off for their Thanksgiving break.  Check out some of the action below:

Runners giving it their all

Mr. Slempkes racing towards the finish!

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Mr. Hendricks and Mrs. Olson