The Weather Hat Parade

Today at our host elementary school I got to be a part of the weather hat parade. The students got to design their own hats pertaining to one weather topic. There were so many different hats. There were spring, summer, fall, winter, wind, rain and tornado hats. They were amazing. The students were very creative designing their hats. We all got to march down the halls while music was playing. All of the classes in the school sat in the halls watching us and waving as we walked by. We made our way to the cafeteria where the students’ parents were waiting for us. Then the students marched to the stage in front of the cafeteria and sang a song about the weather for their parents. It was really fun, and the students enjoyed it. I know the students will remember all the weather systems just by having a little bit of fun mixed into their lesson.

My First Elementary School Visit

This week I had my first visit to our host elementary school. I can honestly say the kids were excited. I do not know if it was because of me or not, but they were definitely full of energy. This one boy sat down with me and was showing me everything about his IPad. They use them every day and have many apps to accompany their school work. They all seemed very advanced in their understanding of their IPads. Everyone took great care of their devices and knew how to operate it. Our teacher let the students who were well behaved have a few minutes of free IPad time after recess. This kept most of the students in line while walking through the halls. I know many people only want the IPads to be used in an educational capacity, but I see real benefits in using it as a reward to correct behavior. Most students want to play on the IPad and you can definitely win by not losing the time you would need to correct students misbehaving and distracting their classmates during your lesson. The only way to get my nephew to participate in his class is to give him computer time. In my view if it helps the student and their classmates learn than you are only hurting yourself and your class by not using it. We should teach by whatever methods work for our students, so I think you need to use everything you have at your disposal be it angry birds or another app.