Monday, April 25, 2011

Student Blogs

My fourth graders blog each week.  Two - five students pose questions or topics each week, and others are invited to share their responses.  Recently one of my students sent me a video of his wonderful talent as a piano player, and that prompted me to ask students to blog about their talents and passions.  I've copied their responses, but deleted names, icons, and pictures to protect their privacy.  This is a typical fourth grade blog response thread in my classroom.  Our blogs are posted on our private NING social network which students sign on to with parents and/or guardians.



Comment by teacher
Hi,  I just read your comment.  Thanks for sharing your talents and passions.  When I was young I used to play "Olympics" in the backyard.  My friends and I would create gymnastics' routines and perform for each other.  We had lots of fun.  Thanks again for posting. - Ms. Devlin   ________________________________ Comment by student
Hi !   I LOVED your piano playing.   I want to play the piano someday, too.   Do you love it?   How many songs do you play?
I love to play the trombone.  The fast slides are really fun!  
I also love doing gymnastics!  You get to learn new moves and keep doing them faster.   The more you practice, the faster you get better!   At first, I did back bends on a hill.   Then I tried kicking over with some help.  After lots of practice, I could do it myself.  
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Comment  by student
I LOVE to write and learn and talk about sharks. I also like to draw sharks too! I have tons and tons of books and pages of shark facts that I have written. I get the facts on the internet and from books. I have pictures of sharks, books about sharks, and a million facts. I could just study sharks all day long! When I'm older, I want to be a scientist that only studys sharks! I think my talents are being good  with animals and being creative. Because I think that I draw really good and I don't know why, but every animal I see, seems to like me!
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Comment by teacher
I am so lucky to teach such a passionate class.  Thanks for sharing. ________________________________________

Comment  by student
I have so many. I play viola and piano, I do soccer and swimming, I love gymnastics, and I like reading and writing fiction stories. I also like baseball and playing with my sisters and cousins. I also love technology. I use computers and phones and everything else. I love figuring out new things on computers! ___________________________________

Comment by student
all I really do is play the bass and do ti-kwon-do
Teacher Response:
You are wonderfully creative too,  I love the way you visualize a big project, then get right to work completing it step-by-step.  You're super at technology too.  I'm sure you have many more wonderful talents and passions.  One exciting part of life is that you're always discovering new things about yourself, that's why people often refer to life as a journey.  Thanks for joining the conversation. - Ms. Devlin ___________________________________

Comment by teacher
Thanks for sharing.  One person can't have all talents and interests, but we can learn from each other and enjoy each others' talents. I hope more students will post to this thread. _____________________________________________

Comment by student
I canoe a lot. I can unicycle. I just reached the limit-8 ft. I also have helped teach ____ in Mr. M's class and ____ from the same class. The unicycle training goes Trixie the Trainer, Mountain Unicycles, 5 feet, 8 feet, and in between  all that the Talent Show. Currently I am the only one out of me ___ and ____ who 8 foots, but there are lots more tricks that I can learn.

Comment by student
Did you know that I am a numismatist? that means coin collector, I have a wide collection of Quarters,dollar coins and pennies. I have just finished my 50 state quarter collection. Every year starting in 1999 the US mint came out with four different states on the quarters until 2008. It ran in the order the states came into the United States so they started with Delaware and ended with Hawaii. Each state quarter has something famous about that state on it. Like Arkansas has the countries only diamond mine, it is called the Crater of Diamonds, it is also the only diamond mine in the world that is open to the public. You can take any diamonds you find. The Arkansas quarter has a diamond on it to represent it
The one below is from my collection.