C4K Summary for September

C4K #1

The first blog that I was assigned to comment on was the blog of a student named Juanchi. He goes to Chesnut Tree Elementary School, and he is in Ms. Greta Sandler's class. Their school is located in Buenos Aires. On their class page, it states that the class is "5th Chesnut", so I believe that Juanchi is in the 5th grade.

Before I commented on his blog, I looked at their class blog and the teacher's blog. While reading Ms. Sandler's blog, I found that she and I have a lot in common. She is an ESL teacher who teaches English as a second language. I found this interesting because I am currently learning Spanish as a minor.

The lastest blog entry that Juanchi had shared was a YouTube video from a major soccer game. He posted this video because he believed it to be the greatest attempt to score a goal in the history of soccer. He called it "the best missed goal."For those of you who do not know, the Latin American countries are really into soccer. Soccer in Latin America is like football in America.

Here is the comment I wrote for Juanchi:

Juanchi,

Hi, my name is Amy Archer. I am a student at The University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. I am studying Elementary Education in order to be a teacher. I am also studying Spanish. I see that your class is from Buenos Aires, so I know that you really enjoy watching football. Football is called "soccer" in America. Football is used to describe "el fútbol de americano" in America. I really enjoyed your video. I am glad you decided to share it. Are you on a football team? Do you play football for fun with your friends? If you had been in the football game in the video, do you think you would have made the goal?

Amy Archer

C4K #2

My second assignment was to post on the fifth post down of Mr. Capps' Classroom Blog. Mr. Capps is a former student of The University of South Alabama. He is currently teaching 3rd grade at Gulf Shores Elementary School in Room 302. His blog is very welcoming and literate. If you have not checked out his blog yet, I highly encourage you to.

The post that I commented on was about a game that his students had played to learn how to count by 10's. The game was very creative because it also included counting money. The children had two dices labeled up to 6. Each time they rolled the two die, the number that they rolled was the number of pennies they received. Now, the object of the game was to have the fewest amount of coins. Every time a student got 10 pennies, they would trade it in for a dime. When the student had 10 dimes, they traded their dimes in for a dollar bill. Each student continued to play until they had received two dollars.

Here is the comment I left on Mr. Capps' Post:

Mr. Capps,

Hi, my name is Amy Archer. I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I loved the money game that you shared in your blog! It is a very creative way to teach students how to count by tens and add multiples of ten. I was also impressed that you incorporated the use of pennies, dimes, and dollars because this allowed the students to see the true value of money. I believe it is important for children to learn at a young age that money is not bad or stressful. After all, the use of money and saving is how we survive in this world.

Another idea that stood out to me was that you had students in the classroom helping other students who did not understand a concept completely. Peer tutoring is a great idea for any classroom because the children who give help are reinforcing in their brain what they already know, and the children who are receiving help are encouraged by their classmate.

I love how you included pictures because they are a wonderful insight to your classroom. You are doing great things with your students! Keep up the hard work Mr. Capps!

Amy Archer