Being Thankful

There are many pluses about working at a small school. We are one big family; the staff and the students together. I know many of the students' names and they know my name. The staff works together closely...which brings me to the reason why I am writing this post. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my grade level partner and I coordinated my school's second School-Wide Thanksgiving Feast. The amount of work we put into it was large, but in the end, it was very worth it.

Although I was completely overwhelmed on the day of, I was able to look around and see the MANY parent volunteers. They served all of the food and made sure the kids were happy. The feast wouldn't have be possible without them. I was humbled.

Anyway, as my school's webmaster, I take pictures at school events. This year, I decided to create an I-Movie showcasing a beautiful morning at a beautiful little school.

Native American Homes

Well, the 3rd graders worked for 3 days on 6 different types of Native American homes. I was so impressed with how well they worked together, for the most part. I am very satisfied with the outcome. The houses the kids made were: Teepee (Plains), Longhouse (Northeast), Hogan (Southeast), Igloo (Arctic) and Round/Rectangle home of the Cherokee Native Americans.

Next up is the journey to a new land mini unit where the students will be directing their own learning. The kids will be broken into three groups to complete three different technology enriched projects. At the end, they will be able to discuss what the pilgrims' journey was like and the role that the Native Americans played.

Benefits of this Blog

After blogging for several weeks, I have decided to continue posting my thoughts and ideas about technology integration, curriculum and teaching. I think we all have a lot of offer each other so I am hoping my blog posts will offer other educators resources and/or ideas.

In the meantime, I am very excited about a new project we (my grade level partner and I) are doing with our third grade classes. We are currently working on our Native American Unit. Yesterday, we watched short video clips about the various Native American houses and brainstormed materials we could use to make model houses. Then, we split the students into groups, and using this hotlist, they came up with more materials. Next week, they will be planning and creating one of the houses. I am so excited to see how this turns out, and I know the kids are too!

Podcasts and Vodcasts!

It's so important for teachers to reach all students--visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. When I was in school, most learning was done through the teacher talking and the students listening. Boy, things are SO different now. (Thank goodness!)

Vodcasts (video + audio) are wonderful because it engages the visual and auditory learners. Here are some sites I use:
Discovery Streaming
Game Quarium/Sqool Tube
Math: links learning
Neo K-12

Here are some vodcasts that I was shown that middle and high school teachers could use:
Telling Their Stories
This I Believe

What I think is amazing is how well 3rd graders can create their own movies/vodcasts. Just last Friday, my students finished I-Movies demonstrating their understanding of a vocabulary word. They will share it with each other, staff, and parents through Voicethread, another awesome collaborative tool.

Wikis Wikis!

Wikis are a great educational tool for digital collaboration, digital portfolios, curriculum writing and much more. So far, I have used or use wikis for teacher collaboration and student portfolios. Most recently, I started transferring the social studies curriculum that I am writing to a wiki. This is allowing me to compile each lesson with resources in one spot. I think this will make it user friendly for teachers.

Dianne Krause, my school district's technology integration specialist, has a few wikis that help me on a daily/weekly basis. Here is one on web 2.0. Another one is the e-toolbox. Here is another wiki developed by a teacher who teaches in the Philadelphia School District. He developed a project where a stuffed turtle named Morpheus Fortuna travels to different schools throughout the state (and maybe farther...not sure) and the classes journal his stay. He visited my school last year!

Wow! Look at this Interactive Math Site!!

I decided that if I follow other educators' blogs/bookmarks, I will learn more about what is out there on the web. Today, I found this site. All you have to do is register and install Silverlight 3.0 (you'll be prompted) and you get access to a multitude of interactive math lessons/games for a variety of age levels! I can see myself using this as an activator of a lesson or as review/remediation for a flex group.

This might make my life easier.

I love when that happens.

Let me know what you think!

Video Resources!

Do you ever feel lost inside your computer? Yes, I currently feel this way! On a search for educational blogs to subscribe to, for my Web 2.o class, I have come across more sites than I could have imagined. It's amazing how much is out there to help us teachers create engaging lessons.

Anyway, enough chatter. Look at this website! I have found videos for every subject area imaginable. Videos for lesson activators, videos for review, videos for fun, videos for reinforcement, videos for grades K-8. I couldn't possibly list them all. Visit the site and find out for your self! I have bookmarked many of them on Delicious but there is so much more to see.

Let me know if you find something especially interesting!

Introduction and RIBIT

Hello! This is my first time using a blog for my own purposes. Usually I have my students blog but I have not yet tried it myself!

I plan to post helpful instructional tools and methods for educators here.

Here is a site that I have used a couple of times with my students: RIBIT

RIBIT is an inquiry-based website that fosters constructivism in the classroom. The students are given an open-ended, higher-level question and resources to help find an answer. So far, I have only used this in Science, but I'm sure I will soon use this in Social Studies.