Bringing Yellowstone to Wisconsin Virtually

Today students in fifth grade at Roosevelt Elementary had the opportunity to talk with a park ranger from the Yellowstone National Park.  The park ranger spoke about Yellowstone National Park and tied it into their environmental studies unit.  The ranger will introduce Yellowstone as the world's first national park, and discuss geology, wildlife, and the National Park Service mission of preservation and stewardship.  The ranger talked about the ecosystem and the wildlife you might find in these different areas.

The park ranger shared pictures of some of the animals that inhabit the national park such as wolves, bison, bears, and coyote.  He showed the differences in some of the animals skull shapes and why that makes them better predators than others.

Students were able to ask questions about the geysers, pouching, wildlife, and other interesting pieces.  One question that was asked was if there were redwood trees in the park.  The ranger explained that there were redwoods but none that were alive.  This is because they are petrified redwood.  He showed them a piece of petrified wood that was dated to be about 55 million years old.

The students were very impressed with his knowledge of the park and the ecosystem.  It was a great experience for the kids.  The park ranger encouraged the kids to check out Wisconsin's national parks!

Learning about the Amazon Rainforest Virtually

Kindergarten students at Roosevelt Elementary got to speak virtually with Dave Freeman, from Wilderness Classroom. The Freemans have canoed over 4,000 miles through some of the most remote corners of Peru, Columbia and Brazil to study and document the plants, animals and people of the Amazon Rainforest. 

He answered questions like, why is the Amazon Rainforest so biodiverse? What do kids in the Amazon do for fun? Why are rainforests so important? What is it like to swim with Pink River Dolphins? Who lives in the Amazon, what do they eat, and how do they live? How do you shoot a poison blow-dart gun? How many students does it take to equal the length and weight of the largest snake in the Amazon? Why are rainforests around the world disappearing?

Dave spoke with our Kindergarteners and shared photos, and stories from their expeditions to bring the rainforest to life in a whole new way. Students were able to ask questions of Dave about the Amazon and his explorations. It was a great experience!

Edmodo Learning Meetup - Chicago, IL

 

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend an Edmodo Learning Meetup in Chicago, IL.  What a great night of information, sharing, and networking.  Grace Ting and Liz Keleher facilitated the meet up along with three area educators.  This event took place on the 80th floor of the Aon Building.

I sat in on the Administrator session and met technology integrators, principals, and superintendents looking to promote Edmodo throughout their district.  Many districts were unaware of the Edmodo subdomain piece, my District currently has this in place.  This feature automatically connects our staff to a district PLC, as well as a building PLC, and provides analytics for the district on Edmodo's use.

Why Should we enable School or District Network Features?

The feature about Edmodo that I am most excited about is SnapShot.  They are launching this feature in the coming months and what a wonderful resource it will be.  SnapShot is "a free tools that lets you mold Common Core to your standards."  It will be geared towards grades 3-12 and have assessments for Math and ELA.  SnapShot is going to make the assessments of standards that your students meet, or fall below.  The data that is given back to the teacher will be extremely beneficial and allow for interventions to be given right from Edmodo.

Edmodo has some great changes coming our way.  I'm excited to see the updates that will help make its use even more beneficial and simple.