In-Class Portfolio

Here is my In-Class Portfolio. If you knew me before this class, you wouldn't believe that I did all of this and posted it to my blog!  It's been a lot to take in, but I simply can't believe all that I learned...thanks for giving me some truly amazing tools!

I really enjoyed making my Bio Poem and can't wait to do this with my students and own children.
Bio Poem

This is a graphic organizer I designed to go along with a Farm Unit I do in the fall.  It compares 2 read-alouds that I use in my classroom, I Went Walking and Mrs. Wishy-Washy.
Graphic Organizer

I hope you enjoy my In-Class Lesson Plan.  It is part of a first grade unit on the Ocean and integrates technology in an effective, age-appropriate and FUN way!
Lesson Cover Page
Lesson Plan

For assessment I used a rubric.  I created one that I could use as a teacher and one that is more student-friendly.
Rubric

Here is an example of my integrated technology activity and other materials needed for my lesson plan.
Wordle Sample
Web Template
Lesson Plan Word Sort

My Dialogue Poem with Paula

Dialogue Poem with Paula

• Great Websites For Teachers

Reading Rockets

• Teacher/Parent Resource Site
• Audience: Teachers, Parents, Other Education Professionals
• Grade Level: Early Childhood-High School
• Subject Area: Reading

Reading Rockets is a great resource for for anyone who is helping a child learn to read.  It contains very useful information for parents and teachers of struggling readers and presents current research in a user-friendly and simple way.  Reading Rockets contains many research-based articles that could be used as handouts for parents or others.  There are many ideas for student activities and lessons that are easy to locate and use, as well as many videos  and podcasts.


Teachers Pay Teachers

• Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Teachers
• Grade Level: All (Elementary-Adult Education)
• Subject Area: All

Teachers Pay Teachers is an open marketplace for teachers.  Teachers are able to buy, sell or share original lesson plans.  Lessons are grouped by grade level, subject, type and price.  There are almost 40,000 free lessons available at this time and the majority of lessons you can purchase are under $3.00.  There is also a section where members post blogs with good resources, app recommendations, etc.


TumbleBooks

• Teacher Resource and Student Interactive Site
• Audience: Students
• Grade Level: K-3; 3-6 has limited resources
• Subject Area: Reading

Tumblebooks is an e-library for kids.  Kids can listen to or read-along with these animated books.  The books are sorted by genre as well as grade/reading level.  If your school has purchased TumbleBooks there are activities and book reports that teachers can use to go along with the books in the TumbleBook Library.



Kahn Academy

• Educational Resource Site for All
• Audience: Teachers, Students, Parents
• Grade Level: All
• Subject Area: Primarily Math & Science

Khan Academy is an educational resource containing over 3300 free videos in its library.  It is primarily a resource for math and science and strives to make quality instruction accessible to everyone.  It allows students to set the pace of their learning, practice skills and track their progress.  Teachers and parents are also able to see the progress of each student/child.

Play Kids Games

• Student Resource Site
• Audience: Student Interactive Site
• Grade Level: pre-K through middle school
• Subject Area: Math, Alphabet, Vocabulary, Memory, Geography, Arts & Music, and Puzzles & Games

PlayKidsGames is a site for young children to learn and practice basic skills.  It is a place to learn computer, math, reading, and problem solving skills through fun games.  

Scholastic Weekly Reader

• Resource Site for Students
• Audience: Students
• Grade Level: K-6
• Subject Area: All: In the context of the News

If you subscribe to Scholastic Weekly Reader for your class, your students will be able to access the website which is pretty cool.  All of the magazines (including back issues) are on the website and you can change even lower the reading level for struggling readers.  There are extensions and additional resources that supplement the magazine publication.



Scholastic Book Wizard

• Resource Site for Teachers and Parents
• Audience: Teachers and Parents
• Grade Level: All
• Subject Area: Reading

Scholastic Book Wizard is an easy-to-use resource for teachers and students who want to find “just right” books for their students and children.  It has tons of children’s books leveled and is easy to use and search.  It also allows the user to put in what leveling system they are familiar with (DRA, Guided Reading, etc.) and gives levels based on that system.

Education Place

• Resource Site for Parents and Teachers
• Audience: Students, Parents and Teachers
• Grade Level: pre-K - 6
• Subject Area: All

EduPlace is a resource for teachers, students and families to support instruction in the classroom and at home.  You can search by state to locate appropriately materials to supplement curriculum in all subject areas.

Fun Brain

• Interactive Resource Site for Students
• Audience: Students
• Grade Level: K-8
• Subject Area: Math, Reading, Reasoning and Spelling

FunBrain is a website of engaging games and activities that kids can play.  These interactive games give kids practice in math, reading, spelling and reasoning.

Florida Center for Reading Research

• Resource Site for Teachers/Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Teachers
• Grade Level: K-5
• Subject Area: Reading

The Florida Center for Reading Research is a research organization committed to literacy.  It contains tons of information about what research says and the 5 components of reading.  It also provides reviews of programs and an enormous student center activity section.  All of the student activities are free and can easily be printed for use with your students.

Yahoo Kids

• Resource Site for All, especially Kids
• Audience: Students
• Grade Level: All
• Subject Area: All

Yahoo kids is a searchable directory of websites just for kids.  It is a great research tool and is kid-friendly and easy to navigate.

National Geographic Kids

• Resource Site for Students (some interactive components)
• Audience: Students
• Grade Level: Pre-K to 8
• Subject Area: Science and Social Studies

National Geographic for Kids and Little Kids contains age appropriate multimedia learning materials, games, activities, videos, photo galleries, maps and much more to make learning fun and engaging.  There are great pictures and information about animals, countries, and other high interest topics.

Single-tasking & Multitasking: Caught or Taught?

"Complex texts require single-tasking, an unbroken and unbothered focus.  Digital activities foster multitasking and constant interaction."  Are these two different approaches "caught" or "taught?"

Like so many things we are considering in this class, as well as in the greater educational arena, I find my response to this question gravitating toward the middle.  I believe that we teach our students in school to critically think, to work with difficult texts, and to express themselves in writing.  Often times school provides opportunities for students to single-task and engage fully with a book or topic, topic or activity.  Likewise, as technology is integrated into our schools and classrooms, we are teaching our students how to manage multiple things at once.  How to research using search engines and incorporating interactive technological tools into what we are teaching does "teach" them how to multi-task.

I also believe that these two skills are "caught" as a matter of living in our culture.  In homes where parents keep their children unplugged or are careful to monitor screen-time and access to media, I think there is a greater opportunity for children to learn single-tasking and maintaining focus.  It is all so important for parents to realize the impact of what they actually do is on their children.  If a parent is trying to encourage their child to maintain critical focus, yet is never off of one of their own screens and is constantly multi-tasking the message is blurred.  Children take in all that is around them and will model what they see.  It is important for children to see their parents engaged in single-tasking activities such as reading, writing, or completing some project.

All in all, balance, the word we keep coming back to in discussion is the key.  Of course our kids are going to multi-task and be part of our digital world, we just need to be careful that we balance this with opportunities to develop their critical attention and ability to focus and single-task.

Wordle Bio Poem

Wikipedia: Friend or Foe?

      I must say that I expected to be writing this blog as a foe of Wikipedia..  How shocked I am to have converted to the other side!  After reading Crovitz and Smoot's article I have had a change of mind and heart.  The unreliability of Wikipedia and the fact that anyone, yes anyone!, can add to or subtract from the facts and resources listed made me a critic from the get go, but these authors have convinced me that there is much to be gleaned from and expanded upon.  Before reading this article, I truly didn't understand what Wikipedia was really all about.  I steered clear of it because I had been told that it was unreliable and that people could even post falsehoods.  I now have a new appreciation of it as a living, breathing document.  I can look to it and teach my students and own children to navigate it for what it is.  Wikipedia has value but must be evaluated with a critical eye that is worth developing for all reading pursuits.

     What an interesting and perhaps untapped resource for the research process Wikipedia provides to students and teachers alike.  The examples in the article about how to incorporate critical reading, writing and inquiry skills are limitless.  How engaging to offer your students the opportunity to participate in such an authentic task.  They must be explicitly taught and given practice verifying resources, cross-checking facts and following the criteria for adding to or creating a new entry.  In my opinion the student buy-in you would be able to get could be amazing!

If nothing else reading this article, "Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe," has made me want to delve deeper into the world of Wikipedia and learn more about how to use it as an additional research tool for learning instead of simply banning it from my classroom and home.

My 40 Year Technological Journey

C'mon Mom...You can do it!

            I can still remember the excitement and anticipation my brother and I had the day our dad came home with a VCR.  This magical machine could play movies that we could watch in the comfort of our own home while munching on a big bowl of popcorn.  Amazing!  I was born in 1971 and at the time of my birth, my home had one small television set and one rotary phone that sat on a telephone table.  I remember my mom’s younger sister getting a phone with push buttons that attached to the wall and thinking that it was the coolest thing ever.   And don't even get me started about our first cordless phone.  How many times did my brother and I test just how far we could roam from the base?  Too many to count!

     My dad has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and worked for Bell Labs at the time.  We were actually considered early-adopters, if you can believe that.  Many of my father’s friends and colleagues helped design the first computers and cell phones, and because of this, we had access to the knowledge that these devices were even available.  My uncle, my dad’s brother, called our home in NJ from the George Washington Bridge one afternoon on one of the first cell phones.  We couldn’t

believe it, to us it was as far out as the Jetsons.  When we got one of the really early Apples, you know the ones with the big floppy disk drives that make a ton of noise and take up a ton of space, our friends came over to stare at it.  I remember lively discussions among the adults as they asserted that computers would never make it into their homes, at least not in their lifetime.  I would bet money that today, each and every one of them has multiple technological devices on their desk, in their cars and in their pockets/purses.

Fast-forward 10 years to 1981, my sister was born and the world was a different place.  More and more of our friends had joined us in getting a home computer and there were several in my sister’s kindergarten classroom.  Her generation would embrace technology in a new way.  They would not be afraid of this mysterious machine but would touch it, play with it and not fear they would break it.  Today, my sister is 30 years old and the most computer savvy person in my circle.  She can run rings around my older relatives with advanced engineering and computer science degrees.  She is not intimidated, and in my eyes, can figure anything out about a computer in a matter of minutes.  It is very natural to watch her work with technologies she is familiar with, as well as to get up to speed with new devices and programs.

As for me, I am definitely intrigued and eager learn a little more each day about the different technologies available and how I can best use them for myself personally, with my students and with my own kids.  I use my computer, my smart phone and my iPad almost daily, but I know that I am not close to understanding the potential of their use.  Even still I can’t wait to justify purchasing a MacBook and an iPhone…my sister tells me that I’ll just love them both!

      I know that I need to embrace, understand and be able to use new technologies effectively in order to parent my tech-savvy kids (and know what they’re up to!) and to stay current and competent as a teacher.  Still, I cannot tell a lie, it causes me more than a little anxiety.  When I went away to college, only one girl in my dorm had her own computer.  I travelled to the computer lab to type my papers and didn’t speak to my best friend for a year when she travelled to Spain because email really didn’t exist for the masses yet.  My parents even sent me off with a jar of change in case I needed to use a pay phone.   In an age of smart phones and email, of Facebook and Twitter, this seems hard to imagine.

I am truly excited to devote the time to becoming more technologically savvy.  I want to learn what is out there and how to embrace it.  This class and those willing to patiently help me along the way are crucial to my success.  I need the reassurance of someone sitting next to me, showing me what to do in order to succeed.  I hope one day to be able to help someone in a similar technological position take the leap too!