Until now I hadn't posted a vignette because I wasn't sure if what we've done was really that special. My grant was written with the purpose of introducing, encouraging, and demonstrating the use of Wonderopolis. I used this funded opportunity to entice and draw ideas from others on how we could systematically use such a great resource. Wonderopolis is a secret treasure waiting to be discovered, especially by educators! My grant project was primarily used during family reading nights, however, my anticipated family/parent involvement was rather disappointing, but typical for our area. Many opportunities, changes, and surprises were identified as the project progressed. Now, reflecting on the process as a whole I do have a special observation to report, however, after a fresh reading of the original posting of this vignette I decided it was in the best interest of the girls to eliminate a few details.

Two young ladies from the same fourth grade homeroom crossed paths during our after school meetings. The culminating activity was to make a quilt inspired by one of the Wonders. Cindy with her bold, energetic personality and Crystal's timidness made for a great match. As students talked about careers you could tell Cindy hadn't given much thought to the idea, but made a great choice of beautician: she comes in with her long black hair up in pins, bows, bands, and ponytail holders. Crystal seemed set on becoming a great basketball player, though she doesn't actually play. Watching Cindy's influence on Crystal was quite amusing. She constantly tried to nurture her, along with everyone else in the group, but Crystal pretty much remained the loner type. As we worked on the quilt, group members enjoyed talking about the various things they deemed important sprinkled with a lot of laughter. Gradually, conversations seem to take on a new purpose. Out of the blue Cindy announces her mom had died about two years ago and offered some details about the whole experience. She and her two brothers are now living with their elderly grandmother. Crystal didn't have much to contribute during the meetings, until about a week ago. She too shared that her mom had died and she and two of her sisters were now living with THEIR elderly grandmother. These comments were the beginning of therapy for these girls, though I think others benefited as well. Working together on the career quilt in a "non-academic" setting encouraged the girls to interact and discover commonalities, which led to a special friendship. Sara's (a volunteer) wisdom and compassion guided us through each unique conversation. Though Cindy and Crystal's interactions has carried over into other aspects of the school day, the strength of that relationship was and is being built during the quilting bee. Like most of the students in the group, they don't have a computer at home so they spend a portion of their free-time searching the Wonderopolis site for other projects we should do. "I can do Wonderopolis real good and I can show other kids how to use it," Cindy told the principal. When Crystal was asked how she liked it she replied, "I don't know I like it all."

My viewers should understand that I am a reading resource teacher. I am limited to the number, grades, and time that I serve students during the day so I am rather isolated from the typical "non-academic" student involvement. I am sure many other children are in similar circumstances and are perhaps like Crystal and Cindy where they could benefit from other students in like situations. In preparation for this vignette I called the two grandmothers and explained why and how I wanted to use this information and to request permission to post their photos. These families are enduring things they just shouldn't have to. I'm not a counselor, but I feel the girls, the grandmothers and myself alike have gained comfort and understanding throughout this whole event. Plus, we were informed that our Century 21 staff is applying for five sewing machines to be purchased for after school events such as this because the girls had asked to learn how to make clothes. There's no way of measuring the impact that little things like this can have.

I realize this could have happened at a different place, time or event...but it happened here at Pleasant View...now...during the months of February-May...and during a funded opportunity from Wonderopolis!

We returned from our Spring break a little over a week ago, and our Wonderopolis Literacy Center was right where we left it.  The kids were so excited to tell me about the wonders they learned about while on vacation.  It's nice to see that Wonderopolis can have an impact at home - "bridging the gap", so to speak.

For the time being I've introduced a couple of digital storytelling apps for the kids to experiment with while at the literacy center.  I'll be giving my feedback about those in the next post. For now I wanted to share a little video I found on the iPad.  One of the tasks at the center was to use the iPad's video recorder to share (briefly) what they learned. I encourage exploring, singing, dancing, laughing & silliness  - and in fact, if I don't see enough of it, I''ve been known to incite some silliness myself. I'm so glad I found them - being themselves. 

I've watched this many, many times - just to hear that contagious little giggle. It melts my heart. So here it is - a big Wonderopolis smile...just for you!

We never have enough time in the day so Wonderopolis is doubling up in the evenings! My after school group is meeting twice a week for a little while to get our quilt started. We watched the quilt wonder again and our lead community volunteer, Ms. Sarah, demonstrated the beginning stages of quilting. We decided on the size, measured and cut the fabric and decided on the theme of careers. After brainstorming the students sketched their future occupation on paper. With a little help from volunteers their pictures were very nice and we traced them onto the fabric squares. We started painting them and got several other things out of the way. Our first group of students were all girls, next week's will be all boys! I am anxious to see how that turns out, but several volunteered for it. I can't wait until we start sewing it together. I think, so far, they viewed it as a "coloring" activity, but they'll be impressed when it's finished.

Sarah, talked about quilting, but also about her experience as being a teacher. Apparently, during World War I they offered people the job of teaching, because there was a severe shortage. If they went to college for one summer and one semester they were certified to teach and Sarah did just that. However, once in the field she only made $65 a month and $30 of that was taken for room and board. She had to walk five miles to the school or ride a horse. I found that so fasinating. So then she started working in Oak Ridge on the Atomic Bomb. She shared many things that were considered "secrets" during that time. The students listened and were very kind, but they seemed to have no appreciation for such stories (sad, sad) Anyway, I am still very appreciative of the Wonderopolis grant and I want those who awarded it to know that it has created many opportunities for us as a school and we do love the site. I hope through these blogs, photos and articles they feel their money was well invested! We'll never know the true impact these activites  have had or what memories will be cherished!

Oh, and by the way, I want to thank whoever suggested to me to use our badges in a game. We document the Wonder each child has explored and if they bring in evidence they get to make a photo badge of it. Every other week all the badges are mixed together and they are shared by the classrooms that participate. The students get to look at all of them and alot of discussion are generated from sharing them.

Until Next Time My Friends!

So after discussing data bases with all of the students grades 1 - 5, it was time to actually start using Wonderopolis.  I had asked the kids to think about what they had been learning in science during the year and each grade brainstormed a list of topics as a starting point.  I was a bit surprised at how much overlap there was and at how all classes seemed to hit on one area of study.  It took some prodding from me to get them to branch out beyond that last unit they had covered.

I demonstrated how to search Wonderopolis on my big board and we soon discovered that the more specific we were the better our search results tended to be.  The older students really caught on to the fact that using the vocabulary they had learned as a part of their unit worked best.  Classes were divided up, and with 4 iPads the groups were about 5 or 6 to each iPad.  I gave each group a note card and asked them to jot down the number and Wonder question of the day if they found something to match their science studies.

Here's what we discovered:

• You couldn't go but the main Wonder question.  The Wonder had to be opened and the 3 questions inside the Wonder had to be used.
• We weren't able to find something for everything.
• Sharing a cool tool like an iPad is difficult.
• First graders have a hard time focusing on the task when they see other cool apps available.
• Always have plenty of electronic disinfectant wipes on hand, those screens get pretty gross after 500 or so sets of hands touch them.

What I was left with after 4 days of searching was a set of note cards for each grade with Wonder ideas and connections written on it.  The next step is to process those notes, cross checking them with common core science standards to create a Wonderopolis data base to be used in the classrooms.

The last two weeks my boys have been diving into Wonderopolis. They began creating their own wonders!! They have brainstormed and came up with some very interesting and researchable questions. Here are a few:

What is the fastest animal in the world?

Why does Daylight Savings Time occur twice a year?

Why to people throw up? (they are boys!!!)

What breed of dog is the smartest?

How high can airplanes fly?

They started their research last week using the web, encyclopedias, books, and periodicals. They are having so much fun working together and finding the information they need to create their own Wonderopolis article.We have used the Nooks we purchased with the grant for informational text support. The boys are extremely excited about using the flip cameras to video tape, they will create a video about their findings once their article is complete.

Here are a few pics of my boys at work... Researching!!!

At McNabb Elementary, our African American unit is almost complete.  For the past six weeks, students have chosen a famous Black American to research in a school-wide study.  I have chosen a wonder each week connected to African American leaders or culture in some way and announce that to the school.  I've shown students how to look up a specific wonder, and supplied a book list of my mini-grant books and books from our library and resource room to go with each wonder, and many of the students and teachers have chosen to include Wonderopolis in their research.  Students and teachers from Kindergarten to 5th are asking me to announce the next wonder of the week and to borrow books purchased with our mini-grant money.  It is so great to see students excited about research and asking to borrow more literature to read!  Happy reading and research!  :-)

We ventured into the second stage of learning at our Literacy Center and my kindergarteners simply can't get enough of Wonderopolis. The Literacy Center has become the most popular corner of the classroom for learning. I only open up the center in the morning, and once again in the afternoon. In the meantime I play border patrol, attempting to keep the kids from inching their way to Wonderopolis - not because I don't want them to, but mainly because I'd have a mob of kids in an area that comfortably fits only about 3 students. I wish my room was bigger.

So, phase 2 of the literacy center called for the kids to use the device to find the "Wonderful Word" using a quick response code - also known as a QRcode.  After they find the word - they use it in an I wonder, or I know  statement and write it in their journal. This is a simple way to blend using a technology tool to enhance a learning activity. It gets them away from the typical "watching" and "playing" of the device and actually using an app to gain access to something they need to complete the learning activity.  I was randomly choosing working vocabulary words until I figured out that the kids could easily use a word that was discussed when we visited the Wonder of the Day on Wonderopolis. You'll see in the video and some of the pictures I documented below how the kids did using the QRcode and journaling their learning. As expected, I modeled using the app to scan the QRcode and finding the Wonderful Word only once, and the kids pretty much said "Okay, we got it Mr. Fines...see ya!". 

Here are the steps I used to complete this Phase of Learning with our iPad:

• I created a google document that is the home for the Wonderful word. It takes less than a minute to change the Wonderful Word each day.
• I took the URL of the google document and created a QRcode using this QRcode generator.
• I created a QR code book for  storing the codes we've generated - from popular wonders to favorite websites.
• I downloaded this free scanner app to scan the Wonderful Word QRcode.

The kids were having so much fun I left this QRcode activity up for an extra week - and boy did I get an earful if I ever forgot to change the word of the day (and I did that a couple of times). The best part, as always, is engaging with the kids. I can see them growing their confidence of using  technology for learning as well as communicating their learning in the journals, or on video with me. They treat their Wonderopolis Journals like gold and have been producing some incredible work. I am so proud of them.

We've already transitioned into the next steps. For the next couple of weeks the kids will be using the iPad's camera and video to document different things in their learning environment.  Unless there is a change in direction, I'll keep you posted here on our progress in the coming weeks.  It's all shaping up to be an awful-lot of fun!  And to think...the fun has only just begun.

Thank you again - NCFL, Wonderopolis, and Better World Books - for this Wonderopolis opportunity!