KM pilot project
 
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Reflections

 
Teacher Reflections:  Word Processing
The students started documents in Microsoft Word, then uploaded them to Google Docs.  After the students had made their own revisions, they added their partners and teachers as collaborators.  Their partners then added comments and footnotes to the piece.  The comments and footnotes replaced the suggestions they would have given each other during peer revision.  These are three examples of the collaboration during revision:
 
  

First Example

Dear Future 5th grader,


Fifth grade is the best grade in Elementry school. Mr. Khanlian is the best fifth

 

 grade teacher ever. Welcome to the best class ever. Mr. Khanlian has the best singing ever. If you saw Mr. Khanlian’s art work you will be amazed. Mr. Khanlian will make you laugh everyday

 

Everday is one word -5/21/09 10:47 AM. When you here his jokes you will know why I said you will lagh every day. Every day Mr.Khanlian has song of the day. After your special(s)

 

 maybe insted os special you can put special(s) because they might have two - 5/21/09 10:48 AMhe plays a song on his I-Pod. Trust me you won’t know any song. He has over 40,000 songs on his I-Pod.

     
    .Some mega,cool,amazing,thrilling,awesome things you will do are read cool books.1       You will read In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. Maniac Magee wich is a thrilling story.Mybe you can give Maniac Magee its own sentance because it sounds like Maniac MAgee is part of the other book - 5/21/09 10:50 AM.In the summer you read Shiloh. These books have wonderful adventures. 2      The Science Fair is awesome. In fifth grade you will participate in the Science Fair you can pick any project you want, but it has to be approved by Mr.Khanlian. This sentance is confusing to me  5/21/09 10:52 AM  3        One of the best things ever are auctions. If you do something good or answer a problem you get tickets. In the auction you can buy posters,books,rulurs,games etc. 4                                        
    The STRONG PICNIC sounds cool. It was the Dare Picnic.5      You get to have a barbacue and hang out with other kids from other fifth grades. ou guys will also have 5th grade fun day6       on fifth grade fun day you play fun games.
    The ask test is ok. The first 2 days are 2 hours long. It is boring. Math is pretty good. On the whole ask testing week you get to go out for extra recess and get snacks. Fifth grade has 4 days of testing. 7      You will have a new Princible next year. I'm sure he will be a nice princepal. 8       Mr.Khanlian/Arnold Jones is the best teacher. You will get Arnold Jones when you read Maniac Magee. You will have a blast in fifth grade. Fifth grade ROCKS!                  
 
                                                Sincerley, Kirby's Mill Graduate

  1. Indent because of the new paragrah
  2. Indent because of new topic and paragraph
  3. New topic new paragraph for auctions
  4. New topic new paragraph for strong picnic
     
  5. elaborate a little more on the strong picnic
  6. elaborate on 5th grade fun day
  7. elaborate and new paragraph for the new pricipal
  8. dont say anything about anornold jones because they wont get it and new paragraph and elaborate on Mr K
 
 

Second Example

Dear Future 5th Grader,


    1                   You are officially a student of Mr. Khanlian’s 5th grade class. He is the best teacher in the universe. In his amazingly amazing class you will have song of the day. Song of the day is where he plays one of his magnificent songs from his iPod. You get a booklet to write why or why not you like it.

He also has stumper of the week. It is when he puts a question up then have to try to find the answer to the question. If you get it right you get a ticket. The more tickets you have to spend at the auction Mr. Khanlian has.

 

  nice transition there- 5/21/09 10:57 AM

    He also has these hilarious jokes. (there not funny) But, you have to laugh so he thinks it was funny. We have the D.A.R.E. picnic. It
 is  YOU wrote called twice so i fixed that for you- 5/21/09 10:59 AM now called the S.T.R.O.N.G. picnic.
We also read novels together like, Shiloh, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.  We also read this awesome book Maniac Magee.  In Mr. Khanlian's class you don't sing Happy Birthday you sing Row Row Row Your Boat. 
    You also get a first grade buddy. In his auctions he puts these  amazingly puts these awsome 5/21/09 10:43 AM crazy stuff like a speedometer,2                        clickers, toys, books, and other sick nasty stuff.  i think you should change the expression sick nasty stuff to another phrase 5/26/09 12:00 PM He also puts posters, calenders, and even bobble heads into the auction. i made these changes to your writing by adding more of the things mr k puts in auctions  5/21/09 10:51 AM 
 
                           Kirby's Mill Graduate, 3                  
         

 


  1. i put in the indents for the paragraphs for you 
  2. add more what he puts in auction
  3. i think you should make capitals on the school name
 
 

Third Example

Dear Future 5th Grader,

 

nice story, great choice of words!  5/21/09 10:58 AM

    Hi future 5th grader! I see Mr.Khanlian is your teacher. You will like him so much. He is nice hilarious, and always lets you have fun. Mr.Khanlian is the best teacher you will ever meet and ever have. The bad thing about you guys becoming a 5th grader is that Dr.McAneny is retiring as a principal. You will get a new one though.


    The best thing about being in Mr.Khanlian’s class is Song Of The Day

 apitolize Song of the Day? 5/21/09 10:47 AM. Mr.Khanlian picks a song out of his iPod. He has over 40,000 songs on his iPod Nice I didn't think of putting that!  5/21/09 10:49 AM! Most of them are funny, some bad, some good, and some o.k. A bad thing about 5th grade is you still have the ASK test. But luckily it is shorter. You're probably excited that the ASK test is shorter. But it is later in the month of May. Mr.Khanlian always sings in all subjects. He’ll sing the directions in the math book sometimes. He’ll  also? 5/26/09 11:48 AMsing down the hallway.


       Some things that you will do out of school is the S.T.R.O.N.G. picnic. If you are wondering what the S.T.R.O.N.G. picnic is, it is the D.A.R.E. picnic. They changed the name which I don’t like. Also, you will participate in a fun science fair. There is so my science projects to choose from. Chris (My Partner)and I made a paperclip sink.1           Isn’t that awesome.   cool is boring change it to awesome  5/21/09 10:43 Have fun in fifth grade!!!!!
 
 
                          Sincerely,
                            

  1. The last two sentences were a little confusing. There ARE so MANY...I made a paperclip sink for the science fair project...maybe?
 
 Teacher Reflections:  Presentations
The partners created one presentation that showed their favorite memories from 5th grade.  First, the students saved photos from the school year to their H: drive.  In the Presentation tool, Google asks for the url of the picture or you can upload a photo from your computer.  The students only ran into a problem when they tried to upload photos from their home computer...they had saved the photos to their school H: drive.  For the majority of this project, the students worked collaboratively on the presentation at the same time.  They did not work on the same slide at the same time because of the delay in updating.  The students used the speaker's notes to communicate ideas for the presentation.  Overall, it was a sucessful project, however, several times during the hour long session, students' computers froze and they had to restart their computer.  Lack of adequate bandwidth may be the issue.
 
 

Click here to see examples in my blog post (coming soon)