Leawood Middle School blogs

Educational blogs from Leawood Middle School

Leawood Middle School blogs

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Let’s travel to Arizona this week.

Posted by  on Tuesday, November 15th 2011     

We are about to start our second week of Quadblogging and everyone seems to be having a blast.  Last week everyone came to our page and left us comments…boy we were busy answering everyone.

This week we’re off to meet the class from Arizona.  Mrs. Martinez’s Class Blog .  They are starting us off with a wonderful train experience….when was the last time you saw a train go from this close?  It was a special occasion and this was a steam locomotive helping to celebrate Arizona’s centinennal.  Does that raise lots of questions in your mind?

Why don’t trains run on steam now?  What’s a centennial?  Why is this train so big? Are just a few of the questions you can ask Mrs. Martinez’s class to help you learn about.

Use your very best commenting skills. Here are the guidelines for a high quality comment if you’ve forgotten.

  1. Be sure to address your comment to someone if at all possible…sort of like in a letter
  2. Have your first sentences respond to something that was said on their post.  Pay them a compliment if possible about what you liked on their blog.  It helps to establish and maintain a positive tone to communications.
  3. Ask a question or give your opinion about something….always assuming the best of intentions.
  4. Be sure to leave your name (ONLY your first name) and our class hour so they can respond back to you.  If they don’t know who left the post for them it’s tough for anyone to answer your question.
  5. Keep checking back to see if someone has replied and keep the conversation going.

category: Blogging, quadblogging
tags: 

Leawood isn’t much like Phnom Penh

Posted by  on Friday, April 1st 2011     

Leawood

Leawood

Phnom PenhHello my name is Alex. Last year I went on a trip to Cambodia because I was born there.  I lived there until I was 2.   I was adopted from a foster home in Phnom Penh and my mom decided she wanted to add a boy to our family.

When I was there it was 89 degrees, so it was flaming hot there. When I was there our friend Rodh’s parent came to pick me and my mom up. Rodh’s parent said that we are family to them.

In Cambodia it is different because first of all, it’s unusual that people eat bugs. Did you know that bugs are healthy? If you said, yes then you’re correct. Also did you know rice can make you fat if you eat too much. But back to life in cambodia.

If you go to school, they will teach you English like we speak.

Also for the cool part about kids that kids can drive a car or a modercycle if the can reach the peddle. And they also have a mostly the same thing we have like they have bowling and they have computer, and they are right now there trying to make the wii system,that’s what may friend Rodh told me.

The last thing is Cambodia is a great place to live but you have to be careful.  When you eat things, some can get you very sick.  The water can get you sick…even when you are swimming.  If you are rich, you swim in a pool but if you are poor you swim in the river…and it’s the river water that can get you sick.

The best part of Cambodia was riding the elephants in the park.  You go to the park by riding a motocycle there and you climb up a ladder to get on top.  At the end, you get to feed the elephant sodas and bananas.

category: alexb, assignments, Blogging

Oh the places you’ll go and the things you’ll see!!!! Week 4 Challenge

Posted by  on Thursday, March 31st 2011     

This week’s challenge for class bloggers is all about travel. Traveling to places near to home and, maybe, far away. All the stories of far away places still fill my mind from last week’s challenge…and students are still adding their stories.

Navigation can be about many things. You might be finding your way around your room finding some lost item of clothing in the bottom of your closet. Or it could be telling someone how to find our community. Or it could be using a map to find a new place that you’ve always wanted to visit. Imagine what John Brown’s key must be feeling about now trying to find it’s way to our school!!!!

Class bloggers are picking from two activities this week while individual bloggers are exploring how to use tags and categories.

category: Blogging

Life in Beijing

Posted by  on Thursday, March 31st 2011     

Hello, my name is David. I ‘m from China, Beijing. China is an Asian country, as big as the United States. I lived in China for 11 years, until I moved here.  I moved here because my dad wanted to learn something new and he came to study at a college.  He’s studying how to become a teacher.  My whole family had to move….all three of us came.

The climate in Beijing is very hot in the summer, and very cold in the winter. I live in the city, and Roast Duck is my favorite food, and we eat it by using chop sticks.  The weather is almost the same here as in Beijing.  But I don’t get to eat much roasted duck.  My new favorite food is eating at the Olive Garden where I order pasta with chicken.

The school that I went to was called Beijing First Experimental Elementary. The difference between my school in China and LMS, in Beijing we don’t switch classroom. School in Beijing starts at 7:30 which is the same as here.  Each class was 40 minutes and we have a ten minute breaks sort of like recess. But our school is over at 5:00 p.m.   When I get home from school I have to my homework…and it takes me about 1-2 hours to finish.  Now my homework takes a half hour.  So American students spend much less time on homework than I used to spend. The food is about the same type of in the LMS.

Classes changed by the day of the week.  We learned Chinese—we were studying how to write Chinese. In English we learned grammar, vocabulary words and read stories.  In mathematics, we were studying circles, percents, and pie graphs.  In science, we were studying minerals just like we are here.  It was easier than here because I was learning it in Chinese not in English.

Beijing is the capital of China it’s a big city, the 29th Summer Olympics were held there. And it’s a famous place for tourists. The Great Wall is the longest wall in the world that we know. Summer Palace is famous park in Beijing it used be the king’s park, but we only can see a part of it.

category: assignments, Blogging

From Kuwait to Russia to Kansas

Posted by  on Sunday, March 27th 2011     
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ku.html

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ku.html

My father Abraham was born in the northern part of Kuwait.  He graduated high school 1990. Then he went to a Russian university. After he finished his master degree in mechanical engineering he moved to the United States in 1996.

He opened his first import and export company called American Global. The American Global was the first company who shipped heavy construction equipment to the Arabian Gulf. After his success in his first company he decided to a branch in Kuwait called Central Trucks inc.

Later on in his life both of his companies were growing forward they were the only company that sells international trucks in the Gulf.

category: Blogging
tags: 

Adding images….Where’s your Badge?

Posted by  on Sunday, March 20th 2011     

There are lots of things for you to do this week.  Please add a badge to your blog.  Cole, Jacob D and/or Anna S—one of you will have to pick the badge to add to our class blog.  If you don’t know how to add a badge, you can use the directions from the Student Challenge blog written by Mrs. W or by Teegan.  Please remember that Mrs. W’s blog won’t open at school…it contains YouTube tutorials on how to do things and Blue Valley blocks YouTube.  But you’ll be able to see this at home.

Lots of you have mentioned and picked adding images as one of your top learning priorities for the upcoming quarter and this will be a great way to learn how to add an image because the badge is nothing more than an image!!!!

In addition to this activity you’ll need to pick one activity from the Week 3 of the Student Challenge.  If you are blogging with the class, you’ll need to pick one of the activities from the class section and if you’re blogging as an individual, you’ll pick one of the activities from that section.  These will be due by Friday, March 25th.  Whatever you chose to do, come back here and leave a comment telling us what you did and how it went…we need to know all about it.  If you found something that sounds especially exciting…share it with the rest of us, so that we can see it too.

category: Blogging
tags: 

Inquiring Minds Want to Know How to……

Posted by  on Wednesday, March 16th 2011     
http://www.tagxedo.com

http://www.tagxedo.com

The results are in from our self-survey...you were asked…what do you most want to learn about blogging in the upcoming quarter.  I’ve tabulated all the answers and

The class #1 priority is to learn more about images…how to edit them, how to find them and how to put them into posts.

The class #2 priority is to learn more about how to add onto what they know about blogrolls…specifically how to re-arrange them, how to add onto them and how to use them

The class #3 priority is to do more brainstorming about how to grab people’s attention when they read posts and how to be creative in thanking people for reading what you’ve written.

To me, this seems like a very manageable list.  Actually you’re all very good at the basics in these areas and I think it will be finding a partner/mentor to buddy up with, setting some goals for that work and then make a list of things that are specific enough to cover what you want to learn.

The #1 thing most of you feel like you can share with someone else is how to make the basic blogroll and how to use a ClusterMap widget.

Sort of the neat overlap here is that many students wanted to learn more about widgets…where are they, what are they, where are the “good” ones and so on.  One student wrote that they’d like to have a page on the blog where everyone could post their best widgets ideas so if you were looking for ideas, you could go there and see what other people had to offer as suggestions.  I think that will be a terrific way for us to get started.

Action Plan

Over the spring break, I will create the shell for this page and then we’ll elect two editors for the page….one from each hour.  From your experience, we’ll start to collect widgets that are good prospects, have you write a review and then your class editor will post that information onto the Widget Gallery Page.

I will talk with all the people who volunteered to be mentors/teachers on anything related to images and get a list posted of things people are offering to teach.  As soon as the Student Blogging Challenge is over, we’ll work on getting buddy assignments and writing learning plans.

Lastly you will be responsible for following the Student Blogging Challenge each week and completing at least two of the learning activities offered there.  More details will follow on that each week on SchoolCenter.

category: Blogging, Student Challenge
tags: 

Let’s talk Shang

Posted by  on Thursday, February 24th 2011     

www.

artsmia.org

What religious beliefs and practices did the Shang tombs reveal?

How was Shang government organized?

What achievements did the Shang create that made a difference in the world either at that time or now?

category: assignments, Blogging, China
tags: 

How does geography influence the settlement of ancient China?

Posted by  on Monday, February 14th 2011     

Using your notes and the China poster worksheet, explain how the geography influenced how people settled in China and how the civilization grew.  Be sure to include lots of examples and remember to show that you are working on your writing goals.

category: assignments, Blogging, writing process

How do you match up? What can you learn?

Posted by  on Tuesday, February 8th 2011     
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkunz/5429448651/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkunz/5429448651/sizes/l/

I was reading Miss W’s blog and she offered these student blogs as good examples from which we can all learn lots about effective posts.  I thought I would offer these to all of you and see what you thought.  Pick at least four of these 7 kinds of posts.  Look at the student blogs she recommends and then think about what you can learn from looking at these examples.  What did they do that you might want to do OR not want to do?  You will find the worksheet matrix you need to fill out on the school classpage.

Which post did you enjoy the most and why?

Olivia and Teegan did an audit of their blogs which was the 10th challenge.

Abbey and Eileen used a new tool on their blogs.

Megan and Jacqueline appreciate visitors to their blogs.

Emily,  Tate, Ashley and Simone wrote about their digital footprints.

Alexandra and Indy played the count out three game and visited other student blogs.

Theresa, Becky and Lochy chose images and wrote about them.

Jesse, Katya and Nicole recommend places to visit.

Let’s hear what you think and why….I’m looking forward to the discussion so that we can become better bloggers.

category: Blogging, Student Challenge
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