15 Second Elevator Pitch

Public speaking...pitching an idea...confidence....

This week we started thinking about our upcoming Ted Talks.  Each student will be writing and giving a Ted Talk based on something they want to share about their current event topic.  This is part of their final project for our website/blog endeavor.

We have been thinking a lot about what makes a good Ted Talk.  What we are realizing is that we need to have a clear point, defend or support this point and entertain our audience.

In order to get us started, I had students write for 20 minutes.  They were answering two questions:  What does it all mean?  Why does it matter or why is it important?

Along with these questions, I asked them to complete these two sentences:  This makes me realize... and What I am really trying to say is....

This writing exercise helped students begin to come to a big idea, a focus, a point or thesis.

The next step was to web this idea.  Our 140 character Twitter headline went in the middle of a circle and branching out from that was the ways we would support this idea.

Finally, students prepared to present this web to their classmates in a 15 second pitch.

As we went around the room and shared, I was so proud of each and every one of them.

We will keep working on these Ted Talks and also our public speaking skills.  It is amazing how fired up some of them are getting about their point.

Collaboration

Now that our website project is off and running, I am finding myself really impressed by the collaboration that is happening organically in the classroom.

Students are collaborating in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes.

There is collaboration through blogs.  Students are starting to catch on to the idea that we can share ideas and resources through blogging.  Students with similar topics are stopping by their peers' sites to check out what they are thinking about.  Certain blogs have become mentor texts for the class, and I am seeing students borrow ideas from their peers.    

There is collaboration face to face.  Just this morning I overheard one student ask another student if she could share the document they created because they had the same topic as a peer.  This sense of leaning on each other has been really awesome to watch.  Students know that it isn't just me who can help with questions; they are going to each other for help.

Certain students are becoming experts in certain areas.  Navigating Weebly has been a little challenge for some and leaders have quickly emerged.  I consider them "tech helpers" and when a student has a technical questions about website construction, we call on these helpers.  They honestly know more than I do about the functions of the site.

Websites are "LIVE"

Students have been working hard on creating websites.  We are using these websites to document our journeys as we immerse ourselves in a current event topic of choice.  Students are learning to post and reply to blogs, to find and evaluate news sources, to document notes and their thoughts and then to post their thoughts and feelings to elicit feedback and comments.

This has been a very engaging and exciting project so far.  The kids are excited to be able to visit each other's websites starting today!

Author Share

Max would like to share his essay on why kids should be able to wear hats:

The School Hat essay

In Cedar Rapids Iowa there is a school district called the college community school district. And at the college community school district (C.C.S.D.) there is a rule that prevents their students from wearing hats in their schools. I admit some hats are just to crazy and should only be worn on crazy hat day but there are also some hats that help express people's personality. A good hat can also disguise a bad hair day or just be used to switch up your look a bit. Over all I hope that you will agree with me that kids should wear some hats in school.

One of the reasons that some teachers don’t allow kids to wear hats in school is because they are afraid that kids will sneak weapons into school in their hats. Now why let kids have pockets, backpacks, computers, notebooks, hair, etc. if teachers were really that worried about kids sneaking weapons into school. It wouldn’t make that much of a difference to add one more possibility for hiding weapons to the list.

Another reason that teachers don’t allow kids to wear hats in school is because they think it is a sign of disrespect. It's not my business to go around changing customs so I’d say the teachers should should make that their choice. It just depends on if the teacher finds it disrespectful to wear hats in school.

The most common reason that teachers don’t want kids to wear hats in school though is because they want to see their students eyes. They feel it is important to know that the students eyes are on them and not at anything distracting and I totally agree with them. Students eyes should be seen because if they aren’t the student could be rolling his/her eyes, sleeping, or even worse copying another student's test and the teacher would never know. So in this case the teacher could allow only short brimmed hats.

Teachers should be allowed to make the choice and give their class a chance to wear hats. Just please give hat’s a chance to prove that they aren’t as bad as bad as some people think.

New Happenings

Thematic Book Clubs are off and running

20% projects in action - One group is creating "warm fuzzies" for other students in school

Answering questions about migration and immigration using claim, evidence and reasoning

Author Share

About the Author: I am Landen and I am in 6th grade.  I enjoy playing video games and playing with my friends.  

Inspiration for this video:  

I was inspired to make the video because I am bullied at home in my neighborhood and I kind of give up sometimes, but not any more.

Author Share

               The Destiny of The Angel's

                                By Gavyn

I don’t know why I left, I just did but something tells me that it’s good that I left. Because now I’m free. I’m a Fallen angel.  I past the sea of nightmare a loud voice said “you have left heaven you have committed the worst sin you shall never return”. My wings turned black as a night sky with no moon or stars. My halo had disappeared; my white robe turned black. And I was gone. He kicked me out of Heaven. He said one day I could come back but I don’t know if I want to, for some reason it feels like it’s good that I left. I’m free. I’m a Descended angel. I past the sea of nightmare.  My wings turned even darker than a night sky with no moon or stars. My halo had disappeared. My white robe turned black.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  CHAPTER 1                                                                                                        

    Meka Angel                         

Once I landed it happened. I found out why I had to go a Meka Angel, I had to go but a Descend angel hit the ground and was unconscious. I grabbed him and ran. I was running faster than I ever had before, sweat was dripping down my face. It didn't help that I was carrying someone else, I didn’t know if I could make. Once we got into an alleyway I flew to a place where we could talk.                  

    

Once  the Descended Angel woke up he needed an explanation so I explained what happened.  “A Meka Angel.” I responded                                 “Whats a Meka Angel,” The Descended Angel interrupted. So I explained that a Meka Angel  is a dead Fallen  Angel that is turned into a robot. Basically they extract   the  the Angel’s  DNA  and  use it to make a working brane and program it to destroy Angels on earth.

“How do you know about that?” asked the Descended Angel.

“I read about it in a legend.” The Fallen Angel said. “What did the legend say” The Descended Angel asked.       

    So I expanded that it said, that one day that a Fallen Angel will die from his fall to earth scientists would find him and decide that Angel’s should not live on earth so they will take the Fallen Angel and end turn him into a Meka Angel to kill Angel’s on earth but they made a mistake to not get rid of the Angel’s memories because of this the Angel could not be fully controlled the Meka Angel had a mind of it own it killed it’s creators and stuck to it job of killing Angel’s on earth but since it could not be controlled it also had no problem with killing humans how get in his way of killing Angel’s.           

“What happens to an Angel when it dies on earth?” asked the Descended Angel  

“They go to hell.”sadly replied the Fallen Angel.  

“why?” asked the Descended Angel                                                                                                       “Because it’s considered a sin to leave heaven.”sadly replied the Fallen Angel                                                                                                                           

After he the Fallen Angel explained to me what a Meka Angel was he said we need to find a place where we will be safe.So we went to the store and got some new close an ran.After we left the store we ran into her.She had dark brown hair with skin that shines in the sunlight her face was covered with freckles and clothes as bright as the sun with the fairest skin I’ve ever seen.  She could see our wings I could see it in her eyes I never thought the legend to be true a person who could see Angel wings.She was just about to say something before we grabbed her and flew away.

CHAPTER 2

                      THE GIRL

                                                                                                                                                     

  Once we landed she needed an explanation so I said,                                                   “My name is Zach and I’m A Fallen Rogue  Angel and his name is Paul and he is a  Descended Warrior Angel.” Zach explained.                                   “Whats a Fallen Rogue  Angel  and Descended  Warrior Angel,” she interrupted.                   I thought for a second if I should tell her, and then it came to me,                        “How about this you give us a safe place to live and then i’ll tell you.” So she took us to her  house.It was a grubby old apartment with dark yellow walls that were tareing one bedroom, one kitchen.it smelld like wet dog there was mold all over the wall there was a disturbance in the house I couldn't tell what it was.  

So I said that “every ten years they pick seventy two different angels to protect Heaven's gate from Fallen angels and demons from trying to get into Heaven each Angel is assigned a different class, the different classes are Rogue, Warrior, and healer.”

  

“But my question is how are you able to see our wings?” Asked Zach

“What’s your name?” Asked Zach.

“Rachel, and I don’t know am I not supposed to be able to see angel wings?” Rachel said.                          

 “And my question to you is, Why do you need a safe place to live?” asked Rachel.

“Ok well how do I explain this. Well a Meka Angel…”

“What’s a Meka Angel?” Rachel interrupted.

“A Meka Angel is a machine angel meant to destroy Angels on earth!” Paul and Zach said at the same time.”

I was getting annoyed with all the questions so was Paul I could tell.

                                     CHAPTER 3

HIGHSCHOOL!!!         

“Ok so you guys need a safe place to go during the day to stay away from the Meka angel,” Rachel said.

“Right,” Paul and Zach responded at the same time.                                                                  “High School” Rachel blurted.                   “Whats High school”Paul and Zach responded.                               “A place where you can fit in and stay safe.”             “Could you please explain,” they said.                                            “Well High school is a place you go to learn”.Rachel said                   “Hay sort of remember that,” said Zach.     “How  you're supposed to lose all your memories when you die,” asked Paul                                “Well maybe you got them back when you leave heaven,” answer Zach             ”Hey I remember it too” said Paul.

                         “Ok were ready lets go to High school,“

they both said at the same time.  After a long drive we got there but when we got there what we saw was unexpected,  we know we were the only ones how cloud see what he really was. His wings were long and bright green with wires all around them we could tell he wasn't living anymore. He was being controlled by someone else he no longer had any control over himself he was lost our friend from heaven was dead he became a Meka Angel.      

I could tell we both felt like running away but something unexpected happened. instead of trying to kill us he did something more friendly. He put out his hand said “Hello my name is Will what’s yours.”                                                                                                   I was puzzled so was Zach. After shaking our hands he let us in he showed us around the school. He took us to the principal’s office to get us sing in, the principal asked us where we came from so we said we moved out of the prairie district . But after we left the office, Will whispered something in my ear I went and told Zach that Will said. Don’t think I don’t know what you are I will get you so watch your back or yell be gone for good.

                                  CHAPTER 4

       NEW LIFE, NEW SCHOOL

   It was our first day at school since we got to earth so of course we did not know what was going on.Of course we did not want to ask Will for help of fear of him killing us.  On the way to are first class or math we bumped into a teacher named Mason.He asked if we were lost. Of course we said

“yes.”  He asked what classroom we had to go to so we told him we needed to go to Mr.Newton’s class.  He showed us the way unfortunately will was in the same classes as us.  Like Math, Social Studies, and science.  

    ***

The next day was a little bit better. We know are way around now. But still had troubles finding the right classroom. Because there was one thousand different classrooms.

Final the day was over and we could go back home.  Rachel was there to walk home with she lightened the mood. Half way home we could hear loud footsteps following us  we kept walking we heard the footsteps again.  We jumped back a little bit because Will jumped out of the bushes.  

“Lets end this here and now!” Will shouted.

                                                    CHAPTER 6

THE FINAL BATTLE

Before we could run Will conjured a spear out of thin air it five feet long and as sharp as a knife the sun was shining off of the silver handle.  He threw  it as hard as he could at Zach who was standing next to me.   Rachel jumped.  The spear hit her, Rachel fell on her back. Before she died she said something that made me cry

“You came back my brother you died in a car crash so l...l...long ago.” Rachel said with her last breath.  

“You monster You killed her!” Me and Paul yelled.

She was covered in blood. Her body  was entirely red.

Anger took  control. I couldn't  control my auction.

Paul went in and started to attack him but I stayed back and fire, water, and lightning at him but he was dodging all of our attacks. But suddenly I felt a surge of power and then I remembered a legend. Two angel’s one a Fallen Rogue  Angel and the other a Descended Warrior Angel will unlock the powers of purity and defeat the strong enemy.

   

    

 One of my wing’s trend red as blood, same as Paul.  I notice Paul’s sword turn pure red, the color of power it was the ballad of purity.  I used a speed spell on Paul, he was raising one hundred miles an hour at will, Paul zoomed past will and greatly injured him, But will grabbed the blade of purity. It turned black. He turned it into the blade of destruction and in one swing killed Paul. Paul was in hell my brother was gone forever.suddenly out of no war I summoned a red and black orb. I summoned the blast of harmony said to be able to wipe out any evil, I shot it at will once it hit he disappeared. But little did I know it let out everyone will had killed Paul and Rachel came back to me and Rachel was an Angel and we went home and . But little did I know that that blast didn’t just let Paul and Rachel out it let out every Angel there was. That’s when the real threat came.