Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 08/14/2020

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

Digital Design Challenge – “To help educators across the globe cope with the changing and uncertain scenario, this two-week course is made available on the YouTube playlist above. Videos will be updated and added regularly. For easier access and detailed updates, make sure to register below!” (L:G;SA:A)

Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!) – “Welcome to the Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs List! I’m Kate Messner, the children’s author and educator who maintains this site. I started it because I’ve found that virtual author visits are a great way to connect authors and readers, and I realize that many schools facing budget troubles don’t have the option of paid author visits. With that in mind, this is a list of authors who offer free 15-20-minute Q and A sessions with classes and book clubs that have finished reading one of their books. As an author, I offer Skype chats for all of my titles – check out the “Books” tab above for a list!” (L:T;SA:A)

X-Stream Sundays - Welcome to STREAM Central! This document will bring you a different STREAM lesson each Sunday. The table below will link you to FlipGrids for each lesson. Remember to come back each week for a new activity! (L:E;SA:A)

Night Zookeeper – “Night Zookeeper is an amazing writing intervention that will boost attainment levels of even the most reluctant writers.:” (L:E,M;SA:LA)

Biblionasium – “Part kids social network, part parent’s guide, part educator's tool, Biblionasium blends technology with personal connection to create a supportive, engaging space for reading success. We use the metaphor of a gymnasium because we believe in and foster through our website, the importance of Discipline, Practice, Goal Setting, and Rewards in achieving success. Experts agree that community and consistency can be powerful in helping children become better, more passionate readers. Our mission is to instill good reading habits at a young age; to promote reading as a social activity, and to connect kids, parents and teachers to create a virtual “reading village.” We invite you to explore the site. And hope you’ll join us in a great book.” (L:E;SA:LA)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Keowee-Toxaway State Park

Keowee-Toxaway State Park is located in Pickens County, South Carolina, along Lake Keowee. The lands used to be owned by Duke Power. There is a 3-bedroom cabin for 10 people with a private dock that you can rent. There are also 24 campsites: 10 for RVs or tents, and 14 for tents only. Five picnic shelters are available for group gatherings and there are a couple of hiking trails. The Raven Rock trail is 3.1 miles and the Natural Bridge trail is 1.4 miles. There used to be a trail with four interpretive kiosks that highlight the Cherokees. Once they closed the trail, they moved the artifacts to the Cherokee Museum in Walhalla. There is a short half-mile trail to Lake Keowee, and you can fish there. At the lake, you will find boating access.

The Jocassee Gorges Visitor Center is located here and is the gateway to the Jocassee Gorges.

The words Keowee and Toxaway are Cherokee words meaning “place of the mulberry” and “place of thunder.” Before this area was settled by European Americans, the Cherokees hunted the area and built their towns along the river. Keowee Villages was the capital of the Lower Cherokee Towns in 1539. It was a large settlement that went about 10 miles along the river.

As more and more European Americans arrived and settled in the area, the Cherokee left the area by 1785. The area developed into farms and eventually developed into an area for the textile industry.

The area is rich in plant and animal species. Along with numerous species of fish in the lake and rivers, there are turkey, deer, and black bear.

Picture: https://internetbrothers.org/2017/12/09/natural-bridge-and-raven-rock-trails-keowee-toxaway-state-park-south-carolina/

Unusual Time for Teaching

In It’s okay to throw stuff out. Now’s a good time to rethink a lot of what we’re doing.

History Tech, glennw shares,

“Simply put, what we’ve always done in the past probably isn’t going to work today.”

With the unusual start of school where some people are going in person and others are virtual or part time virtual, it is time to do some unusual teaching.

We can’t go back to the “old way” of teaching. Gone are the lectures and the push information type learning.

Now is a good time to try all the new things you wanted to but was afraid to get away from the traditional way of teaching.

Now more than ever would be the perfect time for Project Based Learning. Within Project Based Learning, you can implement Universal Design for Learning.

If you are an elementary school teacher and you teach a variety of subjects, creating a project that would incorporate all of the subjects will make learning more fun and teaching easier. Students will be more engaged when they are going back and forth from virtual to face to face instruction. This project will be the constant that can tie all of the learning together. The teacher may have to do more work on the front end of the project but during the project, the teacher becomes more of the facilitator and helps to guide the learning. Teachers of the same grade levels can meet to share ideas and./or collaborate on projects.

In upper grades, teams of teachers can get together to create the project together and incorporate their different areas of study into the assignments. With a team, it will be easier to bounce off ideas and share the workload. The final assessment can include a finished project or presentation that incorporates all areas of study.

By doing a project that is relevant to the students, they will be more engaged and excited about learning. All of the negativity and the fear factor from the media has to weigh heavily on the teachers and the students. Something like a project can pull everyone together and help them less focused on the media.

How do you feel about Project Based Learning? Please share.

Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

Caesar’s Head State Park

Caesar’s Head State Park is in Greenville County, South Carolina, and is well known for the granitic gneiss outcropping above sea level. that is 3208 ft. which gives the park its name. You can see all the way to North Carolina and Georgia if the atmosphere is just right. Caesar’s Head is part of the Mountain Bridge Wilderness and connects to Jones Gap State Park. There are 13,000 acres at Caesar’s Head State Park.

This park was one of the first places my boyfriend (who is now my husband) took me on a date in the early 1980s. The view is outstanding and when we have visitors from other places, we like to take them there.

As early as 1825, a state engineer referred to Caesar’s Head as a mass of granite. In 1848, Benjamin Hagood, a former state senator bought 2400 acres around Caesar’s Head and built a cottage and a hotel. The hotel closed in 1862. When Hagood died, the property went to his daughter Eliza and her husband. During the Civil War, many Confederate Army deserters stayed in the area. In 1876, Eliza Miles and her husband ran a health resort on the mountain.

In 1880, the hotel was sold, and the inn and cottages were enlarged but the owner was unable to pay off the mortgage. In 1885, the property went back to the Miles. In 1897, the Miles gave the property to Furman University in exchange for annuity and room and board for the rest of their lives. Furman sold the property in 1924 to a company interested in building summer homes. The hotel was still in business, but the land developer hit hard times during the Great Depression. Pet and Tom Marchant bought the property in 1946 and added tennis courts and a pool. In 1954, the hotel, cottage, servant quarters, and the original Hagood house all burned down. South Carolina’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism got the land from various owners between 1976 and 1986.

Image: https://rvpoints.com/media/reviews/photos/original/27/5f/fc/Caesars-Head-State-Park-photo-by-Perry-Baker-7-1397225718.jpg

Camping in the Smokies

For more pictures, click here.

We spent last week camping in the Smokies. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is our favorite national park and we spend a lot of time there.

We got to Smokemont Campground on a Monday afternoon. It was so easy to set up our campsite (Site D38). This is our favorite campsite. It is across from the group campsite which was closed. The bathrooms were right across the road and this building has outlets. Since I get up so early, I can plug in my iPad and charge it up if needed. I can get it all charged up before most people are even awake.

We like to go to the Oconoluftee River Trail which is about a 3.2-mile roundtrip hike that starts at the Visitor Center and goes to the town of Cherokee. Every day, we came across elk under the shade trees. On one day, there were several people who were extremely close to the elk to take photos and the male elk gave a bugle warning a couple of times, but the people didn’t move. We went an alternate way off the trail to avoid the elk and the people. For lunch each day, we ate at Subway. They did a great job of wearing masks and gloves as they fixed our sub sandwiches. On one day, we got in the river and played in the water. The water was just like bathwater! (Well, bath water in the dead of winter if you have no heat and no hot water.)

After a few days, we headed to Cades Cove Campground. We had a nice ride over Newfound Gap and stopped to see the views and take photos. We stopped in Townsend for gas and supplies (ice was $2 at the IGA) and lunch at Subway. We camped at site B37 which was a nice site. It was further away from the bathrooms and I had to use our external batteries to charge our electronics. After we set up camp, we went to the camp store and got soft serve ice cream (which we have gotten there for about 30 years when we visit!). I was surprised how much the price has increased (about $5 for a cake cone.) On the first afternoon, it poured down rain pretty heavily. I was so glad we had our Clam screen room and had the optional walls up to keep out the rain. I also had my Little Red Campfire going which made the room toasty warm while it rained. One man called it a “frog strangler” kind of rain.

Most of the trailheads were packed with cars and heavy crowds so we drove to Sevierville and went to the Tanger Outlet Stores. We both needed new tennis shoes and got some from the New Balance outlet store. Then we had a nice drive and lunch in Townsend. We found out our camper refrigerator wasn’t working so we had to put everything back into the cooler and buy ice from the camp store ($4.50). In the evening we walked around the campground and talked with other campers. When we went to bed, it was really hot, humid and miserable. We decided that we would leave in the morning and head for home.

The next morning, Don got up around 7:30 am and by 8:30 am we were packed up and heading home.

Things I Learned:

1. I really like Smokemont Campground D Loop (pull through sites).
2. Smokemont D38 is my favorite site.
3. I like playing in the river even if the water is cold.
4. It is good to have water shoes on in the river.
5. The Oconoluftee River Trail is a wonderful trail.
6. It is more crowded in the campground in the summer months.
7. People don’t wear masks even when asked that they should.
8. It is nice when people respect quiet hours in a campground.
9. There are a lot of mushrooms on the trails in August.
10. Thundershowers are expected in the afternoon during summer.

Original photo by Pat Hensley