Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Using Online Learning Communities
My response to the NSTAblog.com post: Experience being outdoors in nature? How much do we need?
http://nstacommunities.org/blog/2010/09/25/experience-being-outdoors-in-nature-how-much-do-we-need/comment-page-1/#comment-882
As a child, I have the most vivid memories of nature. I was constantly paddling around in the pond across the street catching frogs, salamanders and just having a good time getting dirty. I remember my science teachers always taking us for nature walks in a nature trail behind the school and my fourth grade teacher who took us to explore tide pools at a popular beach in our town. Why is it that this is what I remember most about my Elementary experiences? I believe it is because I was engaged in doing something I truly cared about, caught my interest, and allowed me to investigate my surroundings.
Young children are more in tuned to their environment and their surroundings than we think they are. They are natural inquirers who are always trying to find out more about their world. This week I have been working on the elementary divisional standards and curriculum trying to keep it more inquiry based and real science. I find that most units that teachers are teaching are 85% surrounding Living Things and their Environment. Why is this I wonder? Is it because this is easier to find things to teach about or is it easier for us to connect to because of our own childhood experiences? We have our work cut out for us as we try to bring in more of the physical and Earth sciences into our PreK-Grade 5 curriculum in order to better prepare students for Middle School.
http://nstacommunities.org/blog/2010/09/25/experience-being-outdoors-in-nature-how-much-do-we-need/comment-page-1/#comment-882
As a child, I have the most vivid memories of nature. I was constantly paddling around in the pond across the street catching frogs, salamanders and just having a good time getting dirty. I remember my science teachers always taking us for nature walks in a nature trail behind the school and my fourth grade teacher who took us to explore tide pools at a popular beach in our town. Why is it that this is what I remember most about my Elementary experiences? I believe it is because I was engaged in doing something I truly cared about, caught my interest, and allowed me to investigate my surroundings.
Young children are more in tuned to their environment and their surroundings than we think they are. They are natural inquirers who are always trying to find out more about their world. This week I have been working on the elementary divisional standards and curriculum trying to keep it more inquiry based and real science. I find that most units that teachers are teaching are 85% surrounding Living Things and their Environment. Why is this I wonder? Is it because this is easier to find things to teach about or is it easier for us to connect to because of our own childhood experiences? We have our work cut out for us as we try to bring in more of the physical and Earth sciences into our PreK-Grade 5 curriculum in order to better prepare students for Middle School.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Survival Tips for Grade 7
Monday, August 16, 2010
Module 12
How will you continue to learn new ways of doing new things?
I will continue doing what I have been doing and that is trying new things, searching for new ways of doing things through blogs, twitter, professional development, even from my students, my colleagues, and especially from our IT department here at ISB. The best way that I learn how to do new things is to explore and try them out all by myself. I am a tactile/kinesthetic learner who does things by doing.
What challenges do you predict for the 1:1 program?
I predict that we will have challenges in the first year with students leaving computers at home, forgetting passwords, breaking computers, not charging them, or forgetting them somewhere, they may even get them mixed up with classmates the same way they do with textbooks. Maybe an overload of printing. Too many accessing the net all at once. I predict that perhaps parents may cause problems with their children using the computers at home because of limited filters on the laptops. Classroom management will need to be very much the same throughout the whole Middle School and procedures need to be consistent. That's pretty much it except if the server fails, internet doesn't work. All I can say is be prepared with an alternative plan...ALWAYS! Anyway, it will be an experience to say the least.
I will continue doing what I have been doing and that is trying new things, searching for new ways of doing things through blogs, twitter, professional development, even from my students, my colleagues, and especially from our IT department here at ISB. The best way that I learn how to do new things is to explore and try them out all by myself. I am a tactile/kinesthetic learner who does things by doing.
What challenges do you predict for the 1:1 program?
I predict that we will have challenges in the first year with students leaving computers at home, forgetting passwords, breaking computers, not charging them, or forgetting them somewhere, they may even get them mixed up with classmates the same way they do with textbooks. Maybe an overload of printing. Too many accessing the net all at once. I predict that perhaps parents may cause problems with their children using the computers at home because of limited filters on the laptops. Classroom management will need to be very much the same throughout the whole Middle School and procedures need to be consistent. That's pretty much it except if the server fails, internet doesn't work. All I can say is be prepared with an alternative plan...ALWAYS! Anyway, it will be an experience to say the least.
Module 11
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." After watching the two videos over and over again about the use of Open Data and Pivot zooming program I have realized that the web really isn't just a source of information, but a birthplace of information. There are so many things that we don't even know about our world, this includes the resources and possibilities which could make our teaching more powerful and meaningful for our students. How will I encourage the development of the information literacy skills my students will need for their futures? That's a tough question to answer, but I have already begun my journey to discovering what information literacy skills I have and need right now and what my students will need at the moment in order to succeed this year. Information keeps changing and advancing, especially on the web. New information and technologies are being born every moment. How will our students keep up? Well, the answer is...through us...their teachers. We need to first educate ourselves and be aware of our own literacy skills and ability to locate and interpret information on the web, know which programs to use, know how to navigate the web efficiently, safely, and effectively to broaden our own knowledge. This is how I will help my students really. I will guide them through their research, key words, web safety, help them to check validity and reliability of the information they have collected from the web, as well as teach them how to locate specific information, data, and programs they can use in the science classroom.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Module 10
Wallwisher is a great site for using in science class or really any class you wish to get feedback from your students on. I think I may use it for nighttime homework: EXIT SLIPS are an excellent way to see any misconceptions, further inquiries students have, their understandings, thoughts, etc...
Click on Module 10 above to see my wall. :)
How can we make student self-organization more appealing? Pageflakes, googlesites and Moodlic are all fantastic ways that students can become more self-monitored both in organization and their own learning. Pageflakes is a great home page for students so that they can have their facebook, gmail, de.lici.ous bookmarks, calendar, translator, dictionary, universal video, news from various popular sites all on one page. Everything they would need is right there on one site with many more gadgets they can put on there. iGoogle is similar except you can place your Google Reader feeds right into your iGoogle page and your entire work platform is in one place. Students may like this more for those who like having their documents, google talk, email, calendar, reader and googlesites all in one place. With Moodlic they can upload their assignments and keep track of when assignments are due for each course at the middle school. Moodlic is more course oriented and could be helpful for students once a routine is set up for them to follow. I believe that self-organization has never been more appealing for students. Instead of just a plain old agenda and fallen out pages or forgetting assignments, they are also more accountable for getting their assignments in on time. No excuses for not doing so.
Click on Module 10 above to see my wall. :)
How can we make student self-organization more appealing? Pageflakes, googlesites and Moodlic are all fantastic ways that students can become more self-monitored both in organization and their own learning. Pageflakes is a great home page for students so that they can have their facebook, gmail, de.lici.ous bookmarks, calendar, translator, dictionary, universal video, news from various popular sites all on one page. Everything they would need is right there on one site with many more gadgets they can put on there. iGoogle is similar except you can place your Google Reader feeds right into your iGoogle page and your entire work platform is in one place. Students may like this more for those who like having their documents, google talk, email, calendar, reader and googlesites all in one place. With Moodlic they can upload their assignments and keep track of when assignments are due for each course at the middle school. Moodlic is more course oriented and could be helpful for students once a routine is set up for them to follow. I believe that self-organization has never been more appealing for students. Instead of just a plain old agenda and fallen out pages or forgetting assignments, they are also more accountable for getting their assignments in on time. No excuses for not doing so.
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