Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Look for pictures of my children's Web postings this weekend! We made webs with messages in them to Mr. Zucherman about how wonderful Wilbur really is! They then had to write why they chose the word or words and how they related to Wilbur. It is a great way to extend the text and to have a little fun between TAKS practice!!!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
My 2/3 bridge class is reading the novel Charlotte's Web. Here are some great sites that can help make the Charlotte's Web reading experience great!
http://www.charlotteswebmovie.com/site/index.php
My 2/3 bridge class is reading the novel Charlotte's Web. Here are some great sites that can help make the Charlotte's Web reading experience great!
http://www.charlotteswebmovie.com/site/index.php
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Using Technology as Centers
Here is a great idea to incorporate technology into your Language Arts block. Take the class to the computer lab and have center rotations there! Depending on number of students in your class set up 2 to 3 computers per center. I am going to use a six center example, but of course you can have more.
Designate a website for each center and have them rotate through each one for 15-20 minutes depending on your time. You could do a two day rotation as well and do three one day and three the next.
Here are some great websites to use and how to use them.
Rotation 1: http://www.atozreading.com/
This website has many different leveled readers. The students can choose books from their level to read. After they choose a book they can click on projectable books and they can turn the page using the mouse. They can also underline words with electronic highlighters or electronic pencils. The teacher can have students highlight or underline words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, color words, or anything the class might be working on.
Rotation 2: http://www.mrs.cannonscomputerlab.com/
This is a great website for teaching kids keyboarding skills. The kids just click on keyboarding and they have great games to help them learn how to keyboard and make using the word processing portion of the computer much faster.
Rotation 3: http://www.starfall.com/
Students can go on this website and play reading games and hear stories on their reading level.
Rotation 4: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm
There are many different types of math games at many different levels. Students will have a great time testing them all!
Rotation 5: http://www.coolmath-games.com/
This is a similiar site to sheppard sofware with a lot more graphics. Students will enjoy all of the different characters and games.
Rotation 6: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/
Click on Fun and Learning then click on Games and Interactives. There are interactive books and games for all ages. There book in Spanish! There are crafts and songs as well. There is also a webcam to watch live fish in action and videos help bring the ocean to life. Students can have a real ocean experience all online!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I have recently started a jewelry buisness to make extra money. It is going to be a little tough to juggle it all, but I wanted a little extra spending money. Then I started thinking about how much work I do compaired to how much I get paid.
I work at school and at home to get it all done and I still fall short many days. Grading papers at home, writing lesson plans at home, and doing research for projects at home takes up many hours that I am not getting paid. I don't think I have read a "regular" book in a year. All this work and I still worry about paying for clothes for my kids or extracurricular activities.
I began to research and found this article. The US falls a little short on the pay scale compared to other countries. Take a look!
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080402/
Take my quiz. How much do you think teachers should be paid?
I work at school and at home to get it all done and I still fall short many days. Grading papers at home, writing lesson plans at home, and doing research for projects at home takes up many hours that I am not getting paid. I don't think I have read a "regular" book in a year. All this work and I still worry about paying for clothes for my kids or extracurricular activities.
I began to research and found this article. The US falls a little short on the pay scale compared to other countries. Take a look!
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080402/
Take my quiz. How much do you think teachers should be paid?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Electronic Texts in the Classroom
- Learning with Hypertext and Hypermedia - Links - www.exploratorium.edu/
- Learning with Sofware programs - Break Through to Literacy, istation, enVisions, Lexia
- Learning with E - Books - Math Blaster
- Learning with Word Processors and Authoring Systems - Word, CoWriter, Hyperstudio, alphasmart
- Learning with Internet
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Rationale For Integrating Electronic Texts Into Curriculum
- Interactivity - Students are capable of manipulating texts, and text is responsive to student's interest, purposes, and need.
- Great Online Interactive Texts
- Communication - Telecommunication networks enhance electronic text intereaction with others throughout the world.
Kidmail
- Information search and retrieval - A wide range of information resources and search capabilities enhance student research and information gathering.
- Multimedia environments - Images, sound, and text are highly engaging exgtend students' understanding.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/
- Social mediated learning - Students collaboratively construct meaning as part of literacy learning.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Are Standardized Tests Hurting America?
It has been an interesting year for me in my current teaching position. I have been given a second and third grade bridge class. When I first heard of the news I did not feel like it would be such a challenge. I thought I would do what I always do in any classroom. I would differentiate and meet the students needs where they were. I would bring up the lower ones and I would challenge the higher ones. I had the highest TAKS scores in the school the previous year and I thought my teaching methods were successful.
As the year progressed my third graders did not do well on the new Criteria Based Assessments. These are tests that were made by teachers and are quite a bit more difficult than the acutal TAKS test or the benchmarks we have taken previously. During one of the meetings with pricipals I was told that I could no longer teach using the methods I used last year. I was more than upset. I was told I could only use the Fort Worth ISD curriculum frameworks and no outside curriculum.
It was then that I truely realized how much these standardized tests were killing our school systems. I was the teacher. I was the one in the classroom with these kids every day. I was the one that knew where they were and what they needed yet I was now being told how to teach them. What has happened in the schools reminds me of a police state. Teachers are being treated like the children we teach. We are being micromanaged and told to teach to a test that is not well rounded. These tests do not teach our children HOW to think on their own. These tests do not help them use their creativity. We are going to lose our creative edge in the world if we don't start teaching our children in a different way.
In an article entitled "Standardized Testing Hurting U.S. Education" by Andy Henion helps make my point. He states, “Most importantly, we need to instill confidence – restore confidence – in our teachers and in our schools, because right now the accountability rhetoric in essence is telling us we don’t trust our educators – that they are not good enough, they are lazy, and that’s not the case.”
He also states, “Right now we seem to be stuck with the idea of standards as the panacea to fix all of America’s education problems,” said Zhao, University Distinguished Professor of education. “I don’t deny that the U.S. education system has problems, but I don’t feel the problems can be solved by standards and high-stakes testing. Rather, standards and high-stakes testing run the risk of ruining the advantages and great tradition of the system.”
I could not agree with him more! Keep reading my blog to learn new ways to teach without using the standardized testing system.
Article site: www.news.msu.edu/story/6755
As the year progressed my third graders did not do well on the new Criteria Based Assessments. These are tests that were made by teachers and are quite a bit more difficult than the acutal TAKS test or the benchmarks we have taken previously. During one of the meetings with pricipals I was told that I could no longer teach using the methods I used last year. I was more than upset. I was told I could only use the Fort Worth ISD curriculum frameworks and no outside curriculum.
It was then that I truely realized how much these standardized tests were killing our school systems. I was the teacher. I was the one in the classroom with these kids every day. I was the one that knew where they were and what they needed yet I was now being told how to teach them. What has happened in the schools reminds me of a police state. Teachers are being treated like the children we teach. We are being micromanaged and told to teach to a test that is not well rounded. These tests do not teach our children HOW to think on their own. These tests do not help them use their creativity. We are going to lose our creative edge in the world if we don't start teaching our children in a different way.
In an article entitled "Standardized Testing Hurting U.S. Education" by Andy Henion helps make my point. He states, “Most importantly, we need to instill confidence – restore confidence – in our teachers and in our schools, because right now the accountability rhetoric in essence is telling us we don’t trust our educators – that they are not good enough, they are lazy, and that’s not the case.”
He also states, “Right now we seem to be stuck with the idea of standards as the panacea to fix all of America’s education problems,” said Zhao, University Distinguished Professor of education. “I don’t deny that the U.S. education system has problems, but I don’t feel the problems can be solved by standards and high-stakes testing. Rather, standards and high-stakes testing run the risk of ruining the advantages and great tradition of the system.”
I could not agree with him more! Keep reading my blog to learn new ways to teach without using the standardized testing system.
Article site: www.news.msu.edu/story/6755
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