Learning about Veterans Day in Mr. Colvin's Classroom

Mr. Paul Colvin teaches 5th grade at Lewis Elementary School. Each year around Veterans Day, he shares with his students letters that his father, a World War II veteran, wrote to his family while serving in Europe during the war. Many times we approach holidays and give them only a superficial mention and discussion. Mr. Colvin's sharing of his father's letters is an example of how to use primary sources as a catalyst for learning and to bring history alive. 

His students wrote responses to the letters and Mr. Colvin plans to share those with his father this weekend.

You can follow Mr. Colvin, and the work of his students on Twitter. @mrcolvinteacher

Today at Lewis on Twitter

This year I have been happy to see several of our teachers embrace Twitter as a tool to communicate the work taking place in their classrooms. Below are a few examples of how Lewis teachers are using Twitter to share the story of their classrooms.

DocAppender: Google Forms Add On...

Sample form...

DocAppender is a Google Forms add on, or extension, that allows for the collection of information via a web form and then appending that information to an existing Google document. It was created by Andrew Stillman and the great folks at New Visions Cloud Lab.

The DocAppender web page outlines many possible uses, including using the form to add to a running record of classroom visitations. One way I would like to see teachers and students utilize it  as a way to capture their weekly and daily journal entries using their Chromebooks. A nice way to capture all of their entries in one document.


Teacher Twitter Pages

At Lewis we have several teachers utilizing Twitter as a way to share the work of their students. Below are three recent examples.

Rain Garden Fence at Lewis

Last year Depave helped us create a rain garden on our school playground. This provides a place to capture rain water, rather then having it go down the sewer, and also provides us with a green space and wildlife habitat in a space that was formerly just pavement.

Once constructed it became apparent that the rain garden was also a magnet for 4 square balls from the 4 space courts. With the help of Depave and the work of their volunteer, Jason Tuenge, we now have a fence that keeps the balls out of the rain garden. Jason worked on weekends for the past month to design and build the fence. We thank Jason for his work and his service to our school.

Rain Garden Fence at Lewis

Last year we were fortunate to be involved with Depave on a project that removed a good section of our playground which allowed us to plant a rain garden. One thing we noticed right away was that the rain garden was a magnet for playground balls from the four square area. We installed a temporary fence and that worked in the short term, but a more long term solution was called for. Our good friends at Depave offered up funds to construct a fence around the section where the balls most frequently rolled. One of their volunteers, Jason Tuenge, came up with a design, and Depave came up with the funding for materials and Jason started work in August. He, along with a few other volunteers, have been volunteering their time on weekends to work on the project, and I am happy to report that he is just about finished. One more weekend and he should be done. 

We thank Jason and the Depave volunteers for their support.