Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 08/21/2020

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

Flashcard Factory – “Flashcard Factory was designed to transform the way students engage with vocabulary. When you play Flashcard Factory students pair up and work together to create dynamic and engaging flashcards. Students collaborate to illustrate and define terms, making learning vocab an active and social experience! Flashcard Factory is free to use and works with Google Apps for Education. “ (L:T;SA:A)

Kami – “Kami is a leading digital classroom app built to transform any existing document into an interactive learning experience. Join millions of educators using Kami to improve engagement and collaboration while teaching in the classroom, or online.” (L:T;SA:A)

Goosechase – scavenger hunt; “Each GooseChase game has a list of missions for participants to complete. You can create your mission list using our bank of 100+ tested missions or by designing your own from scratch. Missions have a name, description, point value and an optional link or photo to provide extra information. For text & gps missions, the answer and target destination must also be provided.” (L:T;SA:A)

Why should you read "Hamlet"? – “Explore William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, “Hamlet,” a play about conspiracy, deception and the tragic consequences of indecision. -- “Who’s there?” Whispered in the dark, this question begins a tale of conspiracy, deception and moral ambiguity. And in a play where everyone has something to hide, its answer is far from simple. Written by William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” depicts its titular character haunted by the past, but immobilized by the future. Iseult Gillespie digs into the humanity and tragedy of Hamlet.” (L:H;SA:LA)

A Brief History of Yellowstone National Park - National Geographic; “Yellowstone National Park is epic, beautiful, and iconic. Find out how it became America's first national park.” (L:G;SA:SS, S)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Would You Rather? Answers

Yesterday I gave suggestions for Would You Rather Questions and here are how I would answer them. 

· Win the lottery and take the money in a lump sum or in yearly payments? Lump Sum

· Go around the world on a cruise ship or plane? Cruise because I’d already have a hotel room to sleep every night.

· Eat a vegetable you hate or a meat that you hate? A Vegetable

· Stand in front of a group and give a speech or give your speech on a video? Video

· Have your leg or arm cut off? arm

· Lose your sight or your hearing? hearing

· Lose your sight or your speech? speech

· Live where it is freezing cold all the time or over 100 degrees all the time? Freezing because I could always add clothes on.

· Live in a cave or a treehouse? Cave because it couldn’t rot and fall apart

· Be poor and happy or rich and unhappy? Poor and happy

· Live a long life and never achieve your goals or have a short life but achieved all your goals? Live a long life and work towards my goals

· Work 4 days a week for 10 hours a day or 5 days a week for 8 hours a day? 4 days a week

· Write an 1000 word essay by hand or type a 4000 word essay on the computer? 1000 words

· Weed the garden or wash the car? Weed the garden

How would you answer these questions? Please share.

Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash

Would You Rather? Questions

I love playing this game. When we are hiking and I’m tired and feeling discouraged. It helps keep my mind off of things. My husband also knows when I start this, he knows I’m feeling miserable. He jumps right in and then we might have a lengthy discussion trying to choose the best answer.

I think students would enjoy this game also. It can be used as an icebreaker or a class discussion if it involves dilemmas.

Here are some examples of Would You Rather:

· Win the lottery and take the money in a lump sum or in yearly payments?

· Go around the world on a cruise ship or plane?

· Eat a vegetable you hate or a meat that you hate?

· Stand in front of a group and give a speech or give your speech on a video?

· Have your leg or arm cut off?

· Lose your sight or your hearing?

· Lose your sight or your speech?

· Live where it is freezing cold all the time or over 100 degrees all the time?

· Live in a cave or a treehouse?

· Be poor and happy or rich and unhappy?

· Live a long life and never achieve your goals or have a short life but achieved all your goals?

· Work 4 days a week for 10 hours a day or 5 days a week for 8 hours a day?

· Write an 1000 word essay by hand or type a 4000 word essay on the computer?

· Weed the garden or wash the car?

Come back tomorrow to see how I would answer them.

What other questions would you ask? Please share.

Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash

Teaching Your Own Children

I recently was contacted by several friends who plan on homeschooling their children. I have never homeschooled my own children so I couldn’t recommend any curriculum. I have had some friends who successfully homeschooled their children for all twelve years. Here are the curriculums they recommended:

Sonlight

Saxon Math

Memoria Press

Raising Little Shoots

In my special education self-contained classroom, I taught multiple grades in multiple subjects. I felt like I was homeschooling in a public school.

Most of the time I had to structure my own curriculum to fit everyone’s needs.

The best way I found to do that was what I always called “The One-Room Schoolhouse” approach and now is called Project-Based Learning (PBL).

I would create a project that dealt with current state or local issues and plan my lessons around that central theme. First, I figured out what my goal was and what I wanted the students to learn.

Then I figured out how I would be able to know if they learned the skills that I planned for them. Once I had that framework, I could build the lessons.

Using the state standards, I worked to see what instructional levels in reading and math my students were working on. This takes a few days, but it is essential to know these levels before beginning lessons. I didn’t want the students frustrated by making the lessons too hard, but I wanted to challenge them so that they weren’t bored.

After deciding on the instructional level, I could plan lessons based on the central project theme. I could incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies around the main project and it would all tie together. By doing this, it will help the student learn the relevance of the skills being taught. It will make learning meaningful.

I like that the students could work at whatever level they were on to accomplish a goal. There may be several students on different levels so I would just adjust their lesson and assignment to meet their needs.

By doing this, I was able to keep students engaged and had very little discipline problems.

I reviewed a book called “Project-Based Learning Made Simple” in a previous blog post. You might find it interesting.

Do you use Project-Based Learning (PBL) and in what way? Please share.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Learn from Lessons

In Don’t waste the lesson from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin states,

“If we find the lesson and learn from it, it might be even more valuable than if we’d simply gotten lucky.”

Right now, my passion is knitting. I’m not a great knitter. In fact, I’m not even a good knitter but I enjoy it. I like seeing the end product. Sometimes it doesn’t come out like I wanted it to but I’m usually happy with the end result. I might make a garment that is too big or too small but it looks like the picture in the pattern.

Recently I’m trying something new. I’m working on a colorwork sock and this technique is something that I’ve never done before. I finished one sock and I learned something valuable. I learned that I should have made a larger size for my foot. Even though the first sock looks great, it is really hard to get on my foot. It would probably look great on a smaller foot and luckily, my daughter has a smaller foot. When I finish the second sock, I will have her try it on and see if it fits her. If it does, I will give it to her as a gift. But I learned something important in this lesson about the size.

Since March, I have learned so many things about myself and my habits! I have learned to be a better shopper so that I don’t have to go to the grocery store as often as we used to do. I’ve learned to attend online workshops and focus more when I’m in these workshops. I’ve learned to organize my home better. I’ve learned how nice my yard and gardens look when I regularly work in them.

During this summer, I ran an online education program and I hope my teachers learned some valuable lessons that they can use in the classroom this fall. I learned what I liked and what I didn’t like so that next summer if we have to hold it online, I can make the program even better.

I hope students who have been stuck at home since March have learned to value in-person learning. I hope they learned to appreciate their teachers, their peers, their friends, and even their families.

What lessons have you learned recently? Please share.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash