Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Alphabet Soup in Education
In the following weeks, I plan to come up with a word or
phrase for each letter of the alphabet to describe something in education. I’m
not sure what words I will come up with and I may have a hard time choosing one
over another but I think it will be fun. I think it would be a fun way to
challenge myself and I would like to challenge my readers to do the same thing.
If you do this and write a post, please link to it in the comments or post your
remarks in the comment section. I hope you take the time to join in.
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Monday, May 30, 2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 5/27/16
Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this
week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date
concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope
some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions.
Thank you for coming by and visiting!
Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and
subject area to make it easier to use.
Levels: E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G:
General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers
Subject
Areas: LA:
Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S:
Science; Health; SS:
Social Studies, Current Events; FA:
Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL:
Foreign Language; PE:
Physical Ed; C:
Career; A:
All
Hopscotch
– free app for iPhone or iPad; “Learning to code? You've come to the right place!
This award-winning app lets you make your own games and publish them instantly for anyone to play. Use our super easy-to-follow videos to make games like Angry Birds, create pixel art, or build something brand new.” (L:M,H; SA:A)
This award-winning app lets you make your own games and publish them instantly for anyone to play. Use our super easy-to-follow videos to make games like Angry Birds, create pixel art, or build something brand new.” (L:M,H; SA:A)
Geogebra-
a “dynamic mathematics software
for all levels of education that brings together geometry, algebra,
spreadsheets, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package.” (L:G; SA:M)
ReadWorks.org
Poems – Poems and
questions are given. (L:G; SA:LA)
Adobe Illustrator Draw – “Draw
puts your favorite vector drawing tools and features into a simple, modern
interface so it’s easy to turn any idea or inspiration into a gorgeous design.
You can even launch Adobe Capture CC from within the app, create a new shape
and have it immediately appear on your Draw canvas. And because Draw is part of
the Adobe Illustrator family, you can send your designs directly to Illustrator
to refine on your desktop.” (L:G; SA:A)
Original photo by Pat Hensley
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Thursday, May 26, 2016
Making Changes
“How are you adapting as an
educator and as a learner? What have you done to step out of your comfort zone?”
It is so
easy to fall into a comfort zone as both an educator and a learner.
As an
educator, your lessons go well so you use them over and over. They worked for
previous classes so why won’t they work for the new ones. But over time,
information changes and our student’s change. Some of the information may be
outdated or the presentation itself may be outdated. I may use a lesson twice
but after that, I try to take a close look at it and see if there is a way to
make adjustments in order to bring it up to date. Besides that, after two
times, I tend to get bored with it and feel that my delivery is kind of stale.
In the
same way, I try to constantly learn new things every day. It doesn’t have to be
something complicated but I think it is important to learn something daily. I
might learn more about another person or learn how to do something little. I
might learn that I don’t want to do something or don’t like something I’ve
eaten. I like to watch others do something that I don’t know how to do.
My
favorite way of learning is by reading. By reading, I can go at my own pace and
reread parts that I’m unsure of or I don’t understand. Growing up, I read all
the time and was considered a bookworm. As an adult, I still tend to read a lot.
But now
I have found videos online that help demonstrate some things that I’ve read. I’m
learning that seeing someone show how to do something is great to go along with
my reading.
I need
to do that more in my classes. I still think reading is important and it is
important to encourage my students to read. I feel that if they can read, they
learn about anything that interests them. Then I can enhance the lessons with
videos that demonstrate what they have read. I could also encourage my students
to make their own videos to demonstrate their understanding.
Not only
is it important to show students that learning is important but it is also
important to learn that there are many different ways to learn. Trying
different ways to learn can be enlightening. A person might even learn that
there are better ways of learning than the same usual way.
What do
you do differently to vary how you learn? Do you vary your lessons from year to
year? Please share.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2016
My Favorite Childhood Book
My
favorite book (and earliest book that I remember reading) is The
500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.
I think
I felt it was my first story book that I ever read myself because it wasn’t
written in rhyme. I think at the time I felt that hats were magical. If you put
on a different hat, you can be someone else. I think I read it more than once
over time. For some reason, that book still stays with me some 50+ years later.
I found
this book and I read it to my children as they were growing up. I liked sharing
a part of my childhood with them. I even read it to my high school students
because I liked sharing a part of my childhood with them too. I liked talking
about why I liked it and asked my students to share their opinions too.
I think
this would be a great activity for students because not that many years have
gone by since they first started reading. I think it would be good as a way of
getting to know my students too and allowing them to share a part of their
childhood with me also.
I would
ask them the following questions:
·
What
is the first book you remember reading?
·
Why
did you like it?
·
Would
you read it to your children?
What
was your favorite childhood book? How would you answer the questions? What
other questions would you ask your students? Please share.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Don’t Wait To Change
“You don't need to wait until your decision makes
sense to other people. Decisions made on behalf of your own sanity and
happiness is reason enough. After all, it's you that actually
has to live your life every single day. So why not make it awesome?”
I am
always trying to justify changes to a specific time.
I’ll wait
until the first of the week to start dieting.
I’ll start
my running program on Monday.
I’ll make changes to my lessons next year.
I’ll do…
at the start of the school year.
I’ll throw
out unused clothing when school ends.
I’ll clean
out…at the beginning of summer.
Does any
of this sound familiar? I guess it is a form of procrastination and putting off
the undesired until a later time.
Now I’m
trying not to wait until I decide to do something. I’m trying to live in “today”
and not “tomorrow.”
If I’m
going to start watching what I eat, then I’m going to do it today. At that
time, I’ll also start exercising. Why wait until the beginning of the week or a
Monday if I’m ready to start now. There is more likelihood of me following
through if I don’t put it off.
I am
making changes in lessons as I think of them and not wait until another time
because I usually forget to change them then. Then when it is time to reuse the
lesson, I can’t always remember what I wanted to change.
I’m trying
to throw out or donate at least 5 items of clothing a week. That way I don’t
have to waste a chunk of time doing it all at once. This also ensure that I’m
moving forward in my actions.
I’m
learning that it is best for me not to wait to make changes that I want to
make. I’m more likely to do something when I think of it instead of postponing
it.
I think
this would be good to teach our students. Don’t wait until the next grading
period or the next year to start changing your study habits. Don’t wait until
the weekend to start on that major project. Instead, start planning your
strategies now. Don’t wait until the end of the week to organize your papers.
Don’t wait until next year to start doing better. Do it now.
What
changes do you want to make that you can start now? Please share.
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Monday, May 23, 2016
Back of the Book Blurb #15 Challenge
From Sioux's Page, Sioux offers this challenge.
She
posts a picture and you need to imagine it as a graphic for a book. You choose
the genre and book title, and then write a blurb that might appear on the back
of the book.
·
The blurb should be 150
words or less (not including the title).
·
The genre is wide-open.
·
Each blogger should
include their blurb on their own blog, and link back to this post.
·
Have fun with it. Go to
the other posts and comment on the other blurbs.
·
You can do fancy techy
things with the photo.
(Join in
if you dare...! It sounds like fun! I think this would be a lot of fun to do
with students especially since they would be expected to write 150 words or
less!)
Showdown
Everyone
gathered at the town meeting in order to vote on some charges being made to
their town. Marvin had always been in charge. Now that the young whippersnapper
has shown up in his fancy Corvette talking about what he was going to do to
improve the town. Marvin was getting angry about all these crazy ideas but
Martha was looking at this young guy as if he was wonderful. Marvin didn’t like
it and was going to take action. Marvin went up to the new guy and told him not
to plan on getting his way without Marvin’s approval. When the new guy asked
what made him the boss, Marvin pointed to his car. The tag read HCTM-01 which
stood for Here comes The Man #1! Read some more to find out how the new guy
reacted to this information! (141 words)
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