EDU 629 Documents

EDU629: Here is what I have been up to in class!

• Bio Poem
• Lesson Cover Page (Clean Water)
• Lesson Outline (Clean Water)
• Graphic Organizer (Early Auto's)
• Rubric (Scientific Diagramming Expectations)
• Student Activity (What about Water? and What to do about Water? Pages on Blog) 

Dialogue Poem: The Raft

My Dialogue Poem with Michelle

Caught or Taught

Reading complex texts can be a challenge in this busy, distracting, technologically advanced world. Adults often marvel at all the multitasking that today's youths seem to be able to do. Complex reading requires focus and critical thought, while multitasking allows for constant interaction. These two skills seem on the opposite end of the spectrum, but in one way, I believe, they are very much alike.

It is our responsibility as educators and even as parents to educate and not assume children know. Not all students are able to just practice on their own and then be able to read complex texts. In a similar manner, while they may quickly learn to multitask, they do not necessarily know how to do it responsibly or efficiently. Both skills require some amount of instruction.

Thinking about my response tonight, one visual came to my mind, a commercial that I have seen several times, one that gets to me every time. A young girl is sitting in front of her room with a copy of a text message. All it says is the word "ya." She goes on to reveal that this was the text message her sister tried to view while driving, leading to a car crash and eventually her death. Sad, right? It seems common sense that we should not multitask while driving, yet even advertizements recognize that people are constantly making bad decisions and these decision need to be addressed.

Please don't misunderstand. I am not blaming educators for these events. I just wanted to point out that even skills that seem to come naturally need to be discussed and addressed. Just because a skill comes naturally doesn't mean we know how to use it properly and effectively. This is the job of teachers, to help children apply what they know in a manner that is beneficial to their future and if they are lacking a skill to teach them how to master it.

Useful Websites for Educators and Their Students

Museum of Science for Educators
Address: http://www.mos.org/educator
Category: Teachers Resource, Student Resource, Teacher Lesson Plans
Audience: Mainly Teachers
Grade Level:Any
Subject Area: Science

Description:
This website offers lesson plan options, which can be used in correspondence to a trip to the Museum itself or separately. In addition, there are options for professional development or book clubs to keep educators plugged into changes in Science and Technology.

The student resources come into play, through the virtual museum tours. These tours provide links, movies, and unique descriptions about popular exhibits within the museum ie: planetary science, visualizing electricity, technology, construction, oceans, or Leonardo Da Vinci. In addition, there is an option for joining live discussions and presentations, streaming them into your classroom.


The Science Spot

Address: http://sciencespot.net/
Category: Teacher Resources, Student Interactive Learning, Teacher Lesson Plans
Audience: Mainly Directed Toward Teachers
Grade Level: Middle School Grades
Subject Area: Science & Technology

Description:
This is a resource and a stepping stone to other, more kid friendly websites relating to Science. This website has a collection of “science starters” relating to a variety of subjects. The starters are presented through power point, with ready made question and answer slides. In addition, there are power points and pdf files for entire lesson plans and lesson presentations, as well as efficiently explained units. This site not only lists lessons/units, but describes how they can be best used within a classroom. There is a collection of advice and tips from experienced teachers who have found useful management techniques. I love the way this site is organized, manageable and provides a stepping stone to other beneficial websites.

If you look in the Science Spot Kidzone, there are some resources for students to explore, although I found several of the links to be outdated.


IXL.com

Address: http://www.ixl.com
Category: Teacher Resource
Audience: Teachers/Parents
Grade Level: All Grades and States (it doesn’t matter where, you teach in the United States, this site will meet your state standards)
Subject Area: Mathematics

Description:
Mainly for practice and assessment purposes, this site has limited access for nonmembers. Nonmembers may use this site, to quickly evaluate an individual student’s knowledge of a particular skill or to allow students to practice learned skills. Skills are organized according to state standards and grade levels, so that what you need will be easy to find. This site has multiple choice quizzes, that are timed and track a student’s success. It is worthy to note that the quizzes will automatically differentiate the questions according to a student’s previous response.

Members of this site may be parents or teachers. Membership allows the creation of reports, graphing individual student progress. In addition, it allows you to create a personalized interactive space for each child. Within this space, students are motivated by earning virtual prizes as they map their own progress and success.


Hartcourt E-Products

Address: http://www.hbschool.com/index.html

Category: Teacher Resources, Student Interactive Learning
Audience: Teachers & Students
Grade Level: Elementary/Middle School
Subject Area: All

Description:
This site allows teachers to locate interactive activities, allowing students to practice the skills they have learned in class. It is necessary for a teacher to navigate this site and find the resources that would be best for their student to use. Some examples include, measuring objects using a virtual ruler or simple, concise online readings about ecosystems. Be aware that while most of the resources are free, some are available only by purchase. In addition, several of the resources are meant to be a compliment to books published by Hartcourt. Once you find the activity you need this site provides uncomplicated way to add technology use into your lesson.


Kids.Gov

Address: http://kids.usa.gov/
Category: Student Interactive Learning, Teacher Resource/Lesson Plans
Audience: Students and Teachers
Grade Level: Kindergarten through eighth grade
Subject Area: All

Description:
This site is advertised as “a safe place for kids to learn and play”. I would completely agree! While on this site, I experienced almost no interference from pop-up windows or advertisements. It is easy for children to search through, as everything is organized, not only with a label, but also a picture. Students can search using the provided search box, can browse through a specific subject, or seek out the type of activity they are looking for (homework help, videos, information, or games). I was impressed by some of the games, as they make sure to model the instructions and provide background knowledge to the student.

Teachers and parents have their own link on the site, where they will find additional resources, like lesson plans and worksheets.


Ed Heads

Address: www.edheads.org
Category: Student Interactive Learning
Audience: Student
Grade Level: Middle School and Upper elementary
Subject Area: Science (Investigation, Human Body, Weather)

Description:
This site does not appear to be student centered right away. You will see a welcoming picture, but reading the tabs you will mostly see links to science news updates and teacher resources (another reason to visit the site yourself). However, at the top right of the page, there is a drop-down box for choosing an activity. All the activities are jam packed with information and very interactive. The surgeries are particularly interesting. The boys will love cutting open a knee and seeing the blood spurt out and everyone sits in awe when the skin is pulled back to show the patella. After completing the virtual surgeries, don’t forget to check out the real life photographs and x-rays!


Read Kiddo, Read!

Address: http://www.readkiddoread.com/
Category: Parent and Teacher Resource
Audience: Parents and Teachers
Grade Level: All
Subject Area: Reading/Literature

Description:
This is a site endorsed by the author James Patterson. It is designed to point parents and teachers toward books that their children and students may enjoy. The books are organized by grade-level and genre. There are reviews for each book by both a parent and an educator. Many of these books are meant to reach the interests of your students. Choosing some of these books for your classroom library, may encourage students to read more for fun.


Gary Paulsen (Author Page)

Address: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/
Category: Student Resource/Teacher Resource
Audience: Students and their teachers
Grade Level: 5-6
Subject Area: Reading/Adventure Genre

Description:
Randomhouse.com features articles for many different authors, but I especially like the page for Gary Paulsen. On this page, Gary answer questions students have written to him. He also has posted several journal entries from his personal adventures, including a long term sea voyage and the iditarod. He offers survival tips, gives background about his books, and has links to pages that allow you to get a preview into his newest writings.


PBS: Design Squad Nation

Address: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/
Category: Student Interactive Learning
Audience: Students
Grade Level: Middle School and Upper Elementary
Subject Area: The Science of Investigation and Invention

Description:
Design squad is a PBS reality TV show, where kids are given design challenges and have to work as a team to create a final product. This site, allows students to watch episodes of the actual program, but also provides projects they can do at home, games, challenges, and the ability to comment about the results of their projects, as well as reading about what other kids their age have done. If students choose, they can register for free and play games with a goal of earning stickers for their page. Each sticker is worth a certain amount of points.


Smithsonian Natural History Museum (Virtual Tour)

Address: http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/
Category: Student Resource
Audience:Student
Grade Level: Upper Elementary/Middle School
Subject Area: Science and History

Description:
There is so much useful information and interactive learning compacted into the website for the smithsonian museum for natural history. The link that is provided above, sends students into a virtual tour of the museum. In the tour, students can navigate using a map or simply walk from room to room with a click of their mouse. They can zoom in on models, read signs, and search every nook and cranny of the museum, almost as if they were actually there.

Wordle BioPoem

Wikipedia: No longer a Stumbling Block

Wikipedia has often been viewed as a nemesis to the educational system. Teachers cringe when it appears as a primary source in the citations of a research paper, as they should. However, this reaction most likely will continue, unless we decide to do more than just forbid the use of Wikipedia. Maybe it is time we use Wikipedia to our advantage. When life gives you lemons, make lemon-aid, right?

I did not come to this conclusion right away. My opinion of Wikipedia changed after reading, *Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe (*by Darren Crovitz and W. Scott Smoot).

Instead of forbidding Wikipedia, lets be educators and teach students about its pros and cons. When teaching about primary resources in research, Wikipedia can provide students with a point of comparison. In actual research, it can be used as a stepping-stone, leading to higher order questioning and ideas for future areas of research. In addition, it can be used to teach students about publishing their work, as they themselves have the opportunity and ability to publish work on Wikipedia, just like the rest of the world! 

One of the common goals for my school in the upcoming year is to increase extra-curricular activities and parental involvement within our school. Currently the Wikipedia page for the Arlington Middle School lacks accurate information and detail. Honestly, it looks rather sad compared to some other school pages I have seen. I would love to see our Wikipedia page improved, by some of our very own students, building in them a sense of ownership and pride in their school community.

Middle school kids hate hearing "no" and "because I said so." Lets be educators and lead our students into discovering why Wikipedia is not a primary source, it may even create an opportunity for them to learn a few writing skills along the way.

A Computer for Christmas

An active child, winter's were spent sledding, building families of snow men, making snow forts, and having snow ball fights with my younger brother. Rosy cheeks, runny noses, and numb fingers, never thwarted our fun, but always made a tasty cup of hot chocolate and a cozy place in front of the fire appreciated and welcomed. Yet, in the winter of 1993, my interests took a sudden and unexpected turn.

As usual that Christmas, my mom made sure the presents beneath the tree were piled high and wide; she loves to spoil us on Christmas. I opened more gifts than I could have ever imagined wanting and today there is only one I can remember clearly. Earlier that year, my mom, a high school teacher, had signed up to attend a conference on bringing the technology of computers into the classroom. Through her experience, her enthusiasm for technology grew, inspiring her to buy a computer for our home and surprising us with the new Apple computer on Christmas Day.

I remember how, she and Papa (my grandfather and fellow technology enthusiast), spent hours that Christmas day, organizing wires and programming, getting the computer up and running. Soon, my brother, my sister and I, wide eyed and eager, were pushing and shoving each-other to catch a glimpse of what was happening on the small grayish screen of the large monitor.

We spent hours exploring all the fun to be had on KidPix, marveling at how we could draw a picture and then blow it up or how we could put together a puzzle without ever worrying about losing a piece. We didn't even seem to mind waiting and watching that small circular beach ball spinning on our screen to let us know the computer was thinking about our request.

The very small grayish screen of the Apple computer was soon to be replaced. The much larger and more colorful screen of a Dell filled its place in our kitchen. Now we could buy games on CD, to use on the computer, two of my favorites being "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" and “Clue.” As it grew in importance in school, I found my-self having to type out my homework and becoming especially fond of that little animated paper clip that would sit in the corner of the page, just in case I was in need of help.

"Remember me? I'm Clippy"

Soon my sister was off to college with a brand new shiny Dell laptop and I was taking electives in high school, to learn programs like Excel and Power Point. In fact, this is where I was on 9-11, when the first plane hit the twin towers. Our school had gone from using TV’s on Carts and without cable access, to using mounted TVs in each classroom. Ms. Warner, my technology teacher, had turned on the CNN, for us to watch, as we struggled tediously through correctly in-putting formula’s into our excel spreadsheets, only to stop shocked at what we just saw on the news feed. Soon we were all searching the Internet, looking for the most immediate and current updates.

Eventually I purchased my own Dell laptop for college, depending on my computer for research, completing online homework assignments (All you Gordon Science Majors, remember those Chemistry assignments?), presentations, and communication with my family and friends, who now seemed so far away. Rediscovering the convenience of Mac’s, as I worked in one of the offices on Campus, I soon graduated, replacing my Dell with my very own Mac Book, the same one I am using today, to write this blog!

Computers have not been the only piece of technology that has changed as each Christmas came and went. I can still remember opening my first Walkman and the pile of cassettes my mom got me to start my music collection.  Then there was the Christmas I gave up my cassettes, for a portable CD player and the year that we all watched the ball drop on New Years Eve, anxiously waiting to see if all of our precious technology would fail, as the clocked changed from 1999 to the year 2000. I remember my first I Pod, with a little engraving on the back that said, “You are the apple of my eye, love mom.”

My Sister in New Canaan CT, My Mom in Thomaston CT, and Me in Salem, MA using Skype to catch up.

This past Christmas, I received a brand new, sleek and slender I Phone 4S. I am using it to check my emails, keep a calendar, listen to music and stay connected to my friends and family. I can have a three-way phone conversation with my mom and my sister or better yet, face-time my mom and sister, who I don’t get to see as often as I would like. I can text with my brother, as he is a hard one to get on the phone, and play Words with Friends with my 86-year old grandmother, who has her own I Pad to help keep her connected with her 19 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

My Memere enjoying her new I Pad

Changing technology has been at the forefront of my childhood memories. I am so glad that I had a mother who welcomed and embraced technology rather than shrinking back at the thought of change. She has truly been and inspiration and a driving force for how I view and use technology today.