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!