Website Review: Professor Garfield

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Mr. Opseth

This week’s website review is Infinity Learning Lab.org. Presented by the Virginia Department of Education, it is a free website that allows teacher, parents, and students to learn about Internet safety in a fun and engaging way. Continue reading →

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Internet Safety for Young Students

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Mr. Opseth

The Internet has become a very, very large place. WorldWideWebSize.com estimates that there are over 13.52 billion web pages on the Internet. Yes, that is approximately 13,520,000,000 web pages! Continue reading →

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Winter Wonderland Update!

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

This newsletter was sent home with all elementary students on Friday, December 3, 2010. A copy of the newsletter is available below. If the newsletter does not display on your computer you can click on this link to download a copy directly to your computer.

Grade 4-6 students in Group Special A must attend the musical performance. Participation for students in Grade 4-6 Group A is optional.

Note: This newsletter pertains to elementary students only. Middle and high school students are not addressed in this newsletter.

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An Inspirational Hero: Terry Fox

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

One of the things that I have struggled with during this project has been what to cover and why to cover it. Ironically, it’s the “what” that is hard, when usually it’s a formative question, “What is hard?”

Many of the things that I’ve tried to cover over the past six weeks have been aimed at helping students understand that Americans and Canadians share unique differences and similarities. In the United States, the Susan G. Komen Foundation supports breast cancer research. As one of the largest cancer foundations in the country its pink ribbons are synonymous with breast cancer awareness and support for the cause.

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Tutorial: Narrating into Garageband and Making an MP3.

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

This blog highlights one of the projects that I’d like to get started early this year. Many of our younger students struggle to read books, even if they are grade level. While they have mastered sight word lists, common words, and easy-to-memorize words, they struggle to comprehend the books they are reading. I’d like to try and make the process of learning to read a simpler process for our students.

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The Internet. And a watch.

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

Last week I talked in depth with my students about where the Internet once was, and where it is going. Our discussions specifically surrounded web browsers and how they relate (or fail to relate) to the complete user experience. We watched the Aurora concept video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3056125609648080484#), produced for the Mozilla Foundation. I remember the first few times I logged onto the Internet (back in 1995 or so). It was a really boring experience. Few people were online, social networking sites didn’t exist, and the concept of downloading music to listen was still science fiction.

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How Can You Pack a Safe School Lunch?

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Mr. Opseth
While cruising the Internet earlier this week I came across an article about school lunch safety. Parents pack school lunches for their children with good intentions, but sometimes simple mistakes can lead to serious health consequences (both short, and long term). It is important that school lunches contain more than just the appropriate levels of nutrients. School lunches also need to be packed correctly to prevent spoilage or contamination with other foods or outside sources. The article is pasted verbatim from USDA.gov. A link to the original column is at the bottom of the page. Continue reading →
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XKCD #781: Ahead Stop

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

They actually started the reversed-text practice in 1977 -- not for ease-of-reading reasons, but because too many people were driving backward down the highway blasting the Star Wars opening theme.

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Robots! Lots of robots!

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

This past week we discussed robots. Many of the students thought that robots existed only in movies. I showed them three videos of different kinds of robots. The goal of this lesson was to show them that many of the robots we currently use in our society are for industrial use or pleasure. At this current point in time, few robots exist for home use. I did mention Roomba, though, a robotic vacuum cleaner that requires little human input for its operation.

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Where are my STAR Results?

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Mr. Opseth

Your STAR Reading and Math scores are stored on the Renaissance Learning website. Here’s how to get them.

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