Augmented reality is a  blending of virtual reality, like when we're in Quest Atlantis, with the reality of things in the real world. In this video we are crossing the line between what is real (our classroom)and what is created by the computer (animated colorful objects floating in the air). You can try this out yourself by going to http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/ .

We're always talking about how to be creative in our classroom and how to put our ideas together into even bigger ideas (synthesis). Well, just imagine if you were asked to help someone understand seat belt safety. And you were asked to make a meaningful family connection. What would you do? The following video is one way to do this. What would you do to get the same message across? What main ideas would you use? Would you do a video or a photo slideshow or a cartoon or an MP3? Or something totally different?

After the field trip to Clarksville, Missouri to learn about bald eagles from raptor experts, and watching the eagles swoop from the sky to snatch fish from the Mississippi River, we went online to do a Web Quest about Eagles. This was also great preparation for our upcoming mega-research project called Landmark 2010.

We have little pieces of Russia in the following Voicethread. Mrs. Tarasevich's class from Aban, Russia sent us a surprise package. Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), matreshka, and a valenok. We learned that in Russia, Father Frost brings presents to the children, especially if they recite a poem! Special thanks to Mrs. Black from Naches, Washington and her students Warren and Brian who have added so many voice comments to this Voicethread. Also on the last page we have two very nice comments from the students in Mrs. Tarasevich's class in Russia. This is how Voicethreads were meant to be used! 

After three days of design and construction time, our monster, named Psycho Maniac is comfortably on the wall at the top of the stairway on the 3rd floor of Eugene Field School. He is a friendly greeter to all who travel the long distance up three flights of stairs to get to the highest point in our building. All went well with the sketching and practicing, but building the skateboard proved to be a very hard problem. The wheels kept falling off. Being stubborn problem-solvers, our team sorted out the difficulty, changed the design slightly, and added four blue wheels using pipe cleaners. The passport was another problem, because no one in our class knew what a passport was! Again, the problem was soon solved by a clever team of girls! If you want to see more monsters, go to the Monsters 2009 project site.



We have Monster Movie MP3s on the Monster Project Site. Hear Billy and Davion's very scary Don't Answer the Phone! - and More!