Easter Earthquake Student Narratives Wordle

Today, all of my students wrote narrative paragraphs about their experiences during the Easter earthquake. At the end of the day, I created this Wordle by copying all of their writing.  My students' paragraphs are posted on their blogs. 

Easter Earthquake

Yesterday afternoon, my family came over to my house to celebrate Easter.  At around 3:45pm, my parents were getting ready to leave when I heard a low rumbling.  For a second, I thought the neighbor kids were banging on the wall.  Then, I realized it was an earthquake as I noticed the house beginning to slowly rock and sway.  I grabbed my dogs by their collars and headed out the back door.  I meet a friend and my parents outside.  We all stood in the street until it stopped.  As my parents were walking outside, I noticed that my neighbor had still not come out.  She was stuck inside of her gate and jiggling the handle.  I joking yelled, "Lisa, get out here, or you'll be a goner!"  Then, she flung the gate open.  I saw that she was shaking and completely terrified.  My mom ran over and gave her a hug.  When we went back into the house, I tried to turn on the news, but I didn't see anything.  I opened my laptop and tried to open a San Diego news site, but it wouldn't load.  Instead, I opened Facebook and instantly saw earthquake-related posts from my friends all over Southern California.  A few minutes later, I was able to view a map of the earthquake, located near Mexicali, Mexico.  Throughout the evening, I felt many aftershocks.  I became a little obsessed with checking the Mappity Quakes app on my iPhone, which shows recent earthquakes. Before I went to bed, I opened my medicine cabinet, and all of my little containers fell out--I guess they had shifted in the shake.  Otherwise, there was not any damage at my house.  However, I am worried about the people in Mexicali and Calexico who experienced a lot of damage.  
       


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Jose is a Rockstar

I just found this on Jose G.'s Blog.  I was already amazed by his outstanding layout, then I found this.  I honestly cried a little and posted in on my Facebook for my friends to see.  I am so proud of my techy kids.

Lake Morena Dam Hike

I was raised right outside of Lake Morena Village, which is located in East San Diego County.  When I was in high school, my friends and I loved hiking or riding our bikes out to the Lake Morena Dam.  It is along hike on a dusty road, but whenever I hike along the shore I am filled with memories of my childhood.  I am thankful that I was grew-up in the mountains.  
 

Cricket Amphitheater

One of my favorite destinations in San Diego is Cricket Amphitheater.  I enjoying tailgating before concerts with my friends and enjoying warm, summer nights listening to my favorite country artists.  I even enjoy sitting on the lawn in the cheap seats, where there is plenty of room for dancing.  Recently, I've learned that it is better to also post-tailgate instead of waiting in line to leave the parking lot.  I wonder how many of my students have been there.

I made this using http://picsorlinks.com/.  If you click on the image, you will see that is linked to a website.  Yay!

Spring Break Blues

Every morning, I wake up excited to share one of the new Web2.0 tools I learned at CUE with my students!  I make a smoothie, pour myself a cup of coffee, and sit down with my laptop. I search through the hundreds of links I have gathered in my Delicious account, until I find just the right one.  Then, I make a sample to post to my blog and add it to the Google form assignment.  I even tweet when it is finished.  However, only four of my students have taken advantage of this fun extra credit.  Kudos to Jennifer, Candy, Jose, & Shaurice!

I wonder...

Are the SPA computers out of order again?
Are my kids having too much fun?
Are my kids procrastinating?
Are the tasks too hard?
Do my kids hate computers?
Did my kids just forget?

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