Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 11/30/12

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

Picture Book Maker - Have students make their own picture books. (L:LA; SA: A)

English Attack! - “Learn with fun, fast-paced exercises based on video clips and photo albums. Practice what you learn with games. Make friends from around the world, and communicate with them in English.” (L:LA ; SA: A )

World of Tales - “Whether a student, a parent or a teacher, here you can take a magical journey, filled with adventure, or just remember what it feels like to be a kid again. There is a little something for everyone among these pages, starting with the classic fairy tale stories by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault, going on to the morally edifying fables of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, and ending with the wisdom, gathered by the people: the folktales from different parts of the world.” (L:LA ; SA: A)

Study SC - “a website that provides online content to support South Carolina-specific curriculum standards.  StudySC, created by the South Carolina State Library, makes available a student-friendly environment arranged by grade level and by subject area where students can find the information they need fast. This site is loaded with South Carolina-specific web resources for K-12 homework help, projects, and more. StudySC will also provide teachers with lesson plans and other content to support classroom activities. From artist biographies to Native American tribes and Civil War timelines, get it all at StudySC.” (L:G ; SA:A )

Infrared Zoo - “Infrared light shows us the heat radiated by the world around us. By viewing animals with a thermal infrared camera, we can actually "see" the differences between warm and cold-blooded animals. Infrared also allows us to study how well feathers, fur and blubber insulate animals. As you tour this "Infrared Zoo", see what new information you can gather about the animals here that you would not get from a visible light picture. If you would like to learn more about infrared light and the infrared universe visit Cool Cosmos. Enjoy your tour!”

Original Image: Tools by Pat Hensley

Fighting the Holiday Doldrums

I loved reading the book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster to my students. When we got to the section on The Doldrums, my students never heard of this word before. We discussed how the word meant a feeling of boredom or depression and many of my special education students shared that this is how they felt during holiday vacations. Many even confessed to having behavior problems because they were bored.

I began to think about how we can be advocates for these students and also help parents by giving parents suggestions for this time. Here is a list of things I suggest to parents:

1. Have a written schedule for each day even if it is your usual routine. Visual schedules help my students feel grounded.

2. Plan an activity each day for the student to look forward to.

3. Start new traditions during this time and share old memories of holidays

4. Give the students one or two choices to do something so they feel they have some control over their lives.

5. Discuss with the student ways to handle boredom, anger, etc. before it happens. Try to find a signal to let the student recognize that their behavior is escalating.

Some activities could be:

· Drawing paper, crayons or colored paper for art work.

· Use old CDs and make an animal. Check out these examples.

· Bake cookies.

· Bake something to give to the local police dept. or fire dept. to show appreciation.

· Watch a holiday movie together.

· Play a board game together.

· Visit a nursing home to cheer the elderly.

· Volunteer at a soup kitchen.

· Create a story book and illustrate it. Donate it to a children’s center.

· Create an animal using Styrofoam balls, yarn, pipe cleaners, glue, uncooked macaroni.

Do you have any fun activities parents could do with their children during the holidays? Please share.

Image: '2007_088_01'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65484951@N00/1420461308

Carnival Dream 11/17/12

Last week we went on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. Here is a journal of the week:


Day 1 - Embarkation
We spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. For $125, we got a night in the hotel (king bed with sofa), free breakfast, free shuttle to and from the port, and free parking. It is a wonderful deal! When I woke up, it was pouring down rain but by the time we finished breakfast, the sun was out and the temperature was wonderful so we walked on the beach. At 10:30, we met in the lobby for the shuttle. When we arrived at the port, we went right in to check in and boarded the ship. By 11am, we were eating lunch on the Lido deck. We walked around and had fun reminiscing about the last time we were on the ship. Our cabin was 7228. Finally we had a bucket of beer and watched people. I tried to switch our dinner time to early seating but the ship is full and the Maître’d couldn’t change us so we had dinner at 8:15 in the Scarlet dining room (upper level – table 679). We are at a table for 4 and met a wonderful couple from Louisville, KY. They are about our age and we had so much in common. I’m kind of glad we didn’t change our dinner time now. We laughed most of the dinner. After dinner we walked along the promenade deck and Don bought 4 bottles of Stolichnaya vodka for $40. I tried to talk him into the Grey Goose (in memory of Kay) but he didn’t buy it…yet. Looking forward to our time on this ship because we are already having fun!

Day 2 - Nassau
After breakfast in the dining room, we decided to walk around Nassau. We had thought about staying on the ship because we had been there so many times, but decided we needed the exercise. We met up with this young couple from another ship who had never been there before and they asked us what they should see. When I told them to go see the Queen’s Staircase, they ended up going with us (safety in numbers I guess) and we enjoyed talking to them along the way. I think we walked about 5-6 miles all day (just guessing). I think we left behind a couple in this port because they kept calling their names and we left 15 minutes later than usual. Before dinner we took a little nap and then had formal night. We really are enjoying our table mates, Lori and Al. Al is from Palestine/Jordan area and Lori is from Kansas. It was interesting to hear Al talk about his culture and religion (Muslim) and how it relates to the Chinese culture. It was about 10pm when we finished dinner so we called it a day.

Day 3 At Sea

When we weren’t sitting around relaxing, we were sleeping or eating! We did go to the cooking demonstration which I always enjoy. Then we went to the show before dinner and heard Jerome Dabney sing Motown. It was another delightful dinner talking and laughing with Al and Lori. I love learning about another culture and we learned about Muslim death and funerals. Also about how much responsibility the oldest male has if the father is dead. On the way out we met a couple from the UK (Sally and Graham) who lived in Greer but just moved to Tampa. After dinner we went to the comedy show and the comedian was John Wesley Austin who was good but I was up way past my bedtime and was quite tired.

Day 4 St. Thomas

At 11am, we arrived in St. Thomas. We did a shore excursion to St. John’s and Trunk Bay yesterday ($75 per person). Island time was 1 hr. ahead of ship’s time. This involved about a ½ mile walk to a boat and then a 40 min. boat ride to St. John’s. Then we got on a bus that took us to Trunk Bay. After a 15 minute orientation and rule talk, we had about 90 min. of snorkeling along the underwater trail. After about 30 min., Don had enough snorkeling so we bought a couple of beers and bags of chips. We left there about 3:30 and got back to the boat dock around 3:45 when it started to pour down rain. They made us wait until 4:45 before they left. We got back to St. Thomas about 5:30 (4:30 ship time) so we had 2 hours before we left but we were too tired to do anything else. Since we missed lunch, we were hungry and headed back to the ship. Dinner at night was a wonderful time and we laughed the whole time!

Day 5 St. Maarten

We spent yesterday at the beach and drank too much beer all day. We found the Caribbean Blend restaurant where we usually hang out. We rented 2 chairs, an umbrella, and 2 floats for $20. A bucket of 5 beers was $10. I didn’t realize that Corona had about an ounce more in the bottle than Carib. Heineken was sold in those small 7 oz. bottles so we avoided them. The water was rougher than usual so we didn’t spend too much time in the water. About 4pm, we were back on the ship. Dinner was another wonderful time and we laughed the entire time!

Day 6 At Sea-Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent most of the day being lazy and just hanging out. We did go to the Marriage game where 3 couples (newlyweds, a couple married 25 years, and a couple married 51 years) tried to answer questions and match each other. Most of the day was spent reading, knitting, and eating. They had turkey at Thanksgiving but Don said it wasn’t very good so I’m glad I ordered the filet mignon. After dinner we went to the show and right before the finale they had technical problems and lost power. It took a few minutes to reset everything and finish the show.

Day 7 At Sea

Most of the day was spent relaxing. I sat on the deck while Don went walking on the track. We went to the dining room around 10am for the Punchliner Brunch so we could use our free drink coupons. It was weird to drink margaritas at 10am (but it had to be 5:00 somewhere!).Don ordered the hen which he said was delicious and I ordered the filet mignon. I expected it to look like a breakfast steak but it was a huge thick piece of steak and it was delicious too! Later we went out to the deck again and enjoy the sun. I was able to finish the heels on my 2 socks and now working on the leg. In the afternoon we packed our suitcases and watched football on TV. We found one of our cabin stewards to ask him to take our luggage in the morning to the new cabin but he said he couldn’t because he was leaving the ship too in the morning. I asked about the other cabin steward and he told us that that guy left the ship in St. Thomas! Then he suggested we put our luggage outside the cabin so it can be taken off the ship and they would bring it back on but we knew that information was wrong. If the luggage was taken off the ship, we would probably never see them again! In the morning we will try to find the new cabin stewards for this cabin and see what we can work out. I finally decided to buy a new bracelet for $25. After dinner we checked to see if the liquor we bought arrived but it hadn’t so we had to track it down. Apparently they hold it until our cruise ends next week but they never told us. That was frustrating.

Debarkation
I was up about 5am and watched us pull into Port Canaveral about 5:30. It was cool to watch the front cam on the TV and the port webcam on the internet to see us pull in. We went for breakfast in the dining room at 7am and had to meet our escort at 9:30am. I was a little stressed out about our luggage though so we went to our new cabin and found the steward to ask if we could bring our suitcases to the cabin. He called his supervisor and said that would be fine so once we got the luggage situated, we were happier. Then we sat in the lobby until after 10am before they finally escorted us off the ship. They didn’t seem to know what they were doing. We ended up at the end of the line at customs (and last time, we went right through in front of everyone). Then they brought us back to the ship.

A Recipe for Blogging

Teaching Exceptional Children is published by Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and comes out 6 times a year. It is an excellent magazine with great ideas and strategies to use in the classroom. You must be a member of CEC to get this magazine but it is worth the cost of the membership to get such quality publications. If you are not a member, you might ask someone in your special education department if they are a member and see if you can borrow this magazine or you might check with the local library or local university library.

In the November/December 2012 issue, there is an article on “Digital Access - Using Blogs to Support Adolescent Writers with Learning Disabilities” by Sarah R. Jones.

I really liked this article because it was written by a teacher for other teachers. This is a strategy that she has used in the classroom and it was successful. Why reinvent the wheel? If there are teachers out there sharing ideas with others, why not use it! Of course I would tweak this to fit the needs of my classroom but the concepts would definitely work.

Here are some notes that I’ve taken from this article.
1. The author explains blogs and why to use them in the classroom for teachers who don’t understand the concept.
2. The author gives a procedure to follow; a step by step recipe for success.
3. This article is well written and easy to understand.
4. The author doesn’t just stop at the end of the writing process. She explains how commenting is an essential part of blogging.
5. There is also the factor of maintaining a blog.
If you are considering having your class start blogging, this is an excellent article to start with.

From a Teacher's Point of View: Life Lessons One Can Learn from Teaching

(Today’s post is written by Aileen Pablo. She is part of the team behind Open Colleges and InformED, one of Australia’s leading providers of Open Learning and distance education. When not working, Aileen blogs about education and career. She is often invited as a speaker in Personality Development Seminars in the Philippines. If you are interested in featuring her works in your blog, you can find her on Google+. )

“Why in the world would you want to be a teacher?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten questions like that, from friends, family, and strangers alike. Usually they’re not quite as direct and flabbergasted as I’m making them seem in that quote (they have to at least try to be polite), but that’s what they mean when they ask. My answer is always the same: I like learning.

Most people interpret that as my way of saying that I like helping my students to learn things. While that’s certainly true, it isn’t what I mean at all. In teaching, I’ve discovered a profession where I feel like I learn new things about myself and how the world works on an almost daily basis, and that kind of learning is an addiction I just don’t know how I could give up.

Normally I don’t talk a lot about these lessons I’ve learned with people asking that question, because I feel like asking it in the first place makes it unlikely that they’ll really understand what I’m saying. But I always enjoy talking with other teachers about it because they immediately get what I mean. Here are just a few things I’ve learned – and re-learned – about life over the years from teaching.

Parents and culture are oh-so-important. You always hear how parents have to be more involved in their children’s education and so on and so forth, but it doesn’t really hit home until you have a 16-year-old pregnant student ask what’s wrong with you that you don’t already have a baby. After all, her 33-year-old mother is already a grandma because her older sister had her first baby last year and the whole family was so excited. Aren’t babies just the best?

Naturally, my explanation that I’ve been busy with college and a career and finding the right guy didn’t seem to make sense to her. Why would I choose that over having a baby? Clearly, this is something she’s heard quite a bit growing up, but instead of feeling sad for her – she’s quite happy, at least for the moment – I silently thank my own parents for the way they raised me.

I am not nearly as strong as I think I am. When I first got into teaching, I was quite proud of my educational accomplishments. Coming from a poor family, I graduated near the top of my high school class and was the first person to go to college. Then, I graduated early even though I had to work the entire time I was in school.

My first year, I taught a student who was brilliant, but who I often caught sleeping in class. Despite this, he always aced every test and turned in his work on time, but it bothered me so much that I often hounded him because I felt like he was skating by due to his intelligence and not really trying.

One day, I found him in a panic after school and asked what was wrong. After a bit of prodding, he said that his ride bailed on him and he had to get to work, so I offered to take him. When we pulled up to his workplace, I asked if he was going to be able to get a ride home and he said he couldn’t think that far ahead – he was still hoping to get a ride to his next job.

Naturally I was floored. Here was this kid at the top of my class working part time jobs until 2 in the morning and then somehow managing to sit through English Lit and Pre-Calculus. And I had been harassing him.

Worse, I learned over the next few months that he was pretty much doing it all without the help of his parents, who didn’t even seem to know that he was still going to school, much less that he was doing well enough to graduate and have his pick of colleges. All they cared about was that he was working enough to bring in money for the family.

It was at that point that I realized I would never be able to do what he was doing. If I had been forced to essentially work a full-time job at 17, it would have been the end of my school career, because I would have made the “adult” decision to choose my survival over my education. Thankfully, that was never something I had to deal with, but it really opened my eyes to the fact that every kid has a unique story, and you can’t just try to fit them into a box.

Image: 'Student and Teacher'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71401718@N00/37531816