Five for Friday

This Friday we are linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their Five for Friday linky party. 

So I am teaching three different fourth grade classes their science for the year. This is the first full unit I've designed from start to end on Habitats. It has been going great so far. The students have been really engaged and they have loved the fact that a lot of the work has been their choice as to what animals and habitats they can investigate. They become the experts and then bring the knowledge back and share it with everyone else. Next week we are going on a field trip exploring the forest area behind the school to investigate as many different habitats or evidence of habitats that we can find and take pictures of them to create a field journal. Should be fun.

Another part of my role this school year is the role of Special Education. However, my role isn't your typical special education type role. Rather, it's focused on the use of technology for students with needs but also for students to expand upon their learning. One programs our school board has adopted this year is the use of Google Drive it's been a big learning curve not just for me but for the other teachers within the school. This picture here is actually taken by one of our Kindergarten teachers. I had her take the picture and then learn how to share it with other staff members through Google Drive. It seems like a small thing but for this particular teacher it became a HUGE confidence builder with the program and also proved to her how easy this can be. Now we can't get her off the thing. 

This year I really wanted to focus on creating centre based activities that my students could be engaged with while I get a chance to conference with others students about their writing. This week we started the centres. The included everything from poetry, parts of speech, creating a recount of a local news story, and creating a story out of pictures and no words. They are already asking when they can go back to their centre. Might have stumbled onto something with this group :) 

Believe it or not but this was actually the highlight of her day. Searching up as many words as possible and then finding the synonym for those words. I loved that she did it old school with an actual dictionary and not an iPad. Great skill to learn.  

Are week is going to end off with our Terry Fox Run. It's also Superhero day. I saw this comic and thought it sort of put things into perspective of who the real heroes are sometimes. They don't always change colours and wear fancy costumes.