Mystery Skype

This week I decided to stick with following Vicki’s blog again and one of the latest blog posts she wrote about was Mystery Skype. Now you’re probably wondering what exactly Mystery Skype is...I thought the same thing. Mystery Skype is an education game, invented by teachers, played by 2 classrooms on Skype. Mystery Skype is global. The overall aim of the game is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking other questions. Mystery Skype has transformed the way students learn about the world in school and not only does it engage the students but it also excites the teachers to teach a topic that hasn’t exactly been addressed a lot in school. Also another way to integrate technology into your classroom and Google Maps is the perfect tool for this.

My reaction to Mystery Skype is this is a great tool to use in your classroom with your students. You can connect with anyone in the world globally and have your students interact and learn at the same time. This is a great tool and a great way to get your students involved. Mystery Skype is suitable for all ages as well, which is great because some tools are usually used in the younger grades. Mystery Skype is the most engaging way to help students learn about geography and most importantly having your students be able to have fun while learning. Teachers who utilize Mystery Skype in their classrooms have found that once you start, you won’t be able to stop. Also they have found that their students absolutely love it and their question asking abilities have improved out of this world. Overall, Mystery Skype is an engaging way to inspire learning in your classroom and another great tool to integrate into your learning.

Here is a link talking about Mystery Skype!

A Tool to Simplify Text

This past week, Vicki has been tweeting some interesting articles. One that caught my eye was this tweet below.

Vicki tweeted about a reading comprehensive tool to simplify text. After reading this article, I was interested in this product. So this tool called Rewordify simplifies difficult English and teaches you words quickly and effectively. The student can paste in difficult sentences, paragraphs, or whole chapters full of hard words, then they click rewordify text and they will instantly see an easier version of the text for fast understanding.

Overall rewordify.com lets you read more, understand more, learn more words, and teach more effectively. It simplifies English, teaches vocabulary, creates learning materials, and lets you create documents to teach people all over the world. The best part is that it’s free!!!

I played around with this reading comprehensive tool and I found it helpful. It’s a great tool for teachers to utilize in their classroom for students who have difficulties reading text. This tool will help those students understand the text easier and most importantly understand what they are actually reading. This tool is also great for learning vocabulary words. I wish I knew about this tool sooner because it would have been helpful. Just another example yet again of using technology in your classroom and another tool for teachers to utilize.

Here is a link for a video tutorial about rewordify.

Why Tweet Children's Learning?

This week I decided to change it up and follow someone new on their blog. Since I follow Vicki Davis on twitter, I decided to follow her on her personal blog as well. She blogged about a post she found on Twitter, tweeted by @BryanMMathers.     

So why tweet children’s learning?

Well first, this tweet says it all. There are several ways as to why we should tweet children’s learning.

1. Provides a context and a purpose
2. Instant recognition of great work
3. It takes seconds to do
4. One sentence and a picture shows the learning process
5. Using a hashtag categorizes learning across school

Now I thought to myself about all these reasons and how interesting and actually true they are. I have never been a fan of twitter. I just never understood what the point of tweeting was and it just never grabbed my attention. But for purposes like this for example, Twitter is in fact a great tool. It’s a great tool for teachers to utilize and really take advantage of in their classrooms. Also, Twitter can serve as a great way for parents to be able to stay up to date on what their children are learning in the classroom. Twitter does have its pros and its cons, but overall, I believe Twitter is a great tool to use in a classroom setting.

"Write About"

This week I’m sticking with following Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) on Twitter. I find everything she tweets about relevant to teaching and also interesting. She tweeted an article about “Write About” and how this may be the education site of the year. I decided to take a look at it.

"Write About" is a new site co-founded by educator John Spencer and his co-founder is Brad Wilson. This site provides many images with writing prompts and students are able to write their response and do an audio recording of it. Teachers can also even create virtual classrooms and provide individual written feedback to student writing. Their student creations can be shared publicly or just with their classmates. Teachers have another option too where they can change prompts or upload their own photos.

“Write About” is a website for teachers to be able to sign up and participate in the community for free. Up to 4o free student accounts can be created with up to 3 posts each. This site is an excellent site for English Language Learners because it combines visual imagery, writing, speaking and listening.

I really enjoyed looking into this website because it’s just another way that technology can be used in the classroom. It’s a great tool, especially for younger kids to use and with schools now using iPads in classrooms, it can be used on that as an activity. This is an amazing resource to intrigue students as writers.

Here is a link for a video about “Write About.”

Flipping the Non-Flippable Classrooms

This week we were asked to blog about the person we are following on Twitter. Sadly who I am following on Twitter, does not tweet enough so I had to find someone new. I found @coolcatteacher. She tweets regularly and I found her interesting to follow. I came across this one tweet she posted about an article she found on Edutopia. It’s called “Flipped Learning Toolkit: Flipping the Non-Flippable Classes.” Vicki Davis who found this article asked if you think you could flip classes like PE, dance, and elementary education. This article from Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams shows you how.  

After reading this article I was intrigued. You can flip any classroom in any subject. Whether it’s math, PE, science, like the article states it’s a resounding yes. Teachers need to ask this question, What is the best use of my face-to-face time with students? Before reading this article, I thought that Physical Education, Woodworking, dance education, and elementary education were all non-flippable courses. But it turns out that they can be flipped! Which after reading this article I completely agree with that! The subject I found most interesting that you could flip was Physical Education. I would have never thought that you could flip a gym class, but like the video states, the teacher could post a video about how to serve a volleyball the correct way, then the next day in class you can just go right into the lesson and skip over that part, unless one student needs help then you can give your attention to them. I thought this was clever. An example they used in the article was a gym teacher and how he loves using the flipped classroom. He was frustrated with spending too much of his time telling kids how to move their bodies, and now with the flipped classroom his students now spend more time moving their bodies. He is also an athletic coach and he has taken the flipped class into this job as well. His teams benefits from additional time to practice because less practice time is devoted to instruction. Now even coaches are using flip class which is crazy!   

Overall, any course can be flipped even if you don’t believe it can be. This is a great tool to utilize in a classroom! I enjoyed coming across this article and I’m excited to see what other articles @coolcatteacher will post!  

Connecticut Educator: The Common Core Standards Are Gobbledy Gook

So I decided to switch it up this week, and follow a new blogger. The two women I have been following blog frequently, I just haven’t found anything interesting that they are blogging about. So I picked to follow Diane Ravitch. Students in my class follow her, so I decided to give it a look. Here personal blog is found here at http://dianeravitch.net/.

Diane Ravitch blogs about the latest news on education. For example, opinions about education issues, and also on the common core. She posts very frequently throughout the day. The blog post that caught my attention was titled “Connecticut Educator: The Common Core Standards Are Gobbledy Gook.” I felt this one was a great post to read since as a teacher you will be basing your lesson plans off of this and how you teach your students. Also, I felt it described how most people feel about Common Core. So in summary, the entire post is quoted directly from Ann Policelli Cronin. She explains why she thinks the Common Core is a complete waste of everyone’s time. She states, “they were never tested on real students in real classroom, and no one can honestly say that they will prepare students for college or careers.” I honestly don’t think I could say it any better than how she did. Now this quote that I am posting below is a quote that Ravitch includes from Cronin, and I one hundred percent agree with Cronin.

Overall, I found this post intriguing and a definite must read, especially for those in the education field. From reading this post I was a little confused though as to if people in the education field are complaining and posting negative things about the Common Core, then why is no one going to try and fix this problem. We are teaching the future generation and should do something about this if so many people out there have opinions on how the Common Core is not good!

Weekend Warriors: Saddle Up for Second Grade

So I went back and looked at Saddle Up for Second Grade blog. Marcy has posted some interesting posts lately. One that caught my eye was Weekend Warriors: iPod Listening Center Organization. Over the summer Marcy was fortunate enough to have three iPods donated to her classroom through DonorsChoose.

I was unsure of what exactly DonorsChoose was, so I did a little research on it. What I found out about it was that it is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers post classroom project requests on their site and you can give any amount to the project that most inspires you. So when a project reaches its funding goal, DonorsChoose ships the materials to the school. What really caught my attention about this website is that Donors Choose website is completely free for teachers to use! Which is great.

Some public schools are in lower income areas, so it’s hard for teachers to acquire all of the tools that they need. This website is great for those areas because teachers are helping out teachers again, as well as individual people.

Another thing I would like to bring up that I found on Marcy’s blog was her Weekend Warriors Pinterest Board. Pinterest is a great website to get ideas from for your classroom. What Marcy did was create her own board that offers tips, tricks, and great ideas that she uses in her classroom.

Overall, from this blog I found two great websites that can be used later down the road when it is time for me to teach. I really like Pinterest because there are so many different boards out there for teachers to get ideas from. Just another example of teachers helping teachers!

Twitter: @EdKatelnspire

Following up on the woman I’m following on Twitter, she tweeted something about DonorsChoose. Now I thought this was great since I just found out what it was through Saddle Up for Second Grade blog. I never realized how many teachers actually use DonorsChoose. But anyway, Kate tweeted Thank you @NEAFoundation for matching my @DonorsChoose grant today! Because of your support, my grant has now been fully funded!!! So what she did to make this happen was she posted on DonorsChoose website about her students, then the project, and the materials she needed. Below I posted a picture of the layout of this. 

Thankfully she had 9 donors and she was able to buy the materials for her classroom. Once again I really love this website. It really is a great tool, as we see first hand with this teacher using it and getting her materials for her students. It’s interesting to look and see what teachers need in their classrooms. I really enjoy looking on this website and being able to see how people help out others in need. Even if it’s just a $5 donation, that’s still $5 closer than before. Overall, I believe that this is a great website to utilize if you need materials in your classroom that your school is unable to afford.   

Reflection Blog on Social Media in Higher Ed

I really enjoyed reading the article "Connected Learning" by Steven Mintz. I liked how he started off the article by quoting other articles that seem to think social media is not good for our society. Steven makes many great points to why social media is a positive move though. For example, Mintz states in the article "that interaction need not be face-to-face to be authentic and meaningful." I really liked the paragraph he wrote underneath this point which says, "Although it is sometimes said that social media undermines interpersonal social skills, discouraging prolonged, in-depth, intimate conversations in favor of all-too-brief interactions, in actuality social media increases the frequency of communication, complements face-to-face relationships, and enables long-distance interaction. It's number one causality: Social media sharply reduces time spent watching television passively and alone. Social media, in short, not only increases opportunities to connect, but ways that individuals can communicate." I thought this point was very true. Social media shouldn't be utilized everywhere, there is definitely a time and place for it. For example, social media shouldn't be used for everything like interviews, I find it better to do them in person. But social media is great for promoting yourself and also having connections. Lastly, technology is becoming bigger and bigger each and every day. We are now using a lot more technology in classrooms than we did in the past. So with that being said social media can be used in classrooms to further educate students. It's a great tool for teachers and students to utilize and learn from, but in my opinion should not be used everyday.

Twitter

I stated following a Twitter page @EduKatelnspire. The woman Kate, is a 2nd grade teacher, professional counselor, and school counselor intern. She teaches in Ohio and also has a blog as well. Well looking at her Twitter feed she tweeted something that really caught my eye.

I've never heard of GoNoodle before, but it's a great website to use to keep your students focused and motivated. All you need is a computer and a screen the whole class can see. You just log in, click play, and give your students a break. This helps your students release endorphins and get the blood flowing. It's scientifically proven to improve mood and cognition. I think this is a great website to use in elementary school classrooms. I never realized how helpful Twitter could be, especially for teachers. This shows another way that teachers can help out teachers. I'm happy I found this Twitter account and website because I will definitely be using this in my classroom and recommend to other teachers as well.      

Reflection to viewing of video “Reading Film-The Story of Movies”

My reflection after viewing this video was great! I think this is a great way to incorporate multi media in the classroom. This helps students create critical thinking skills. Filmmaker Martin S. created this program when he came to the realization that kids needed tools to interpret the visual imagery their immersed in everyday. Think about it...in this generation everything is more technology based. Students no longer really figure things out on their own. They have the technology right in front of their face where if they have a question they can just type it right into google and have an answer like that. Students get their information from the television or movies. So this program is a plus because it will help them realize that not everything they see on television is one hundred percent true. The goal for teachers and students is the have the students look at film through three different lens, 1.) film as a language, 2.) historical cultural document, and 3.) work of art. As it said in the video, your training they eye and the heart of the student to look at the film in a different way and ask questions. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. When you look at something you need to be able to draw questions and observations from it. This program is doing that by helping students achieve and strengthen their skills in critical thinking. Wait there’s even a better plus to this program. IT’S FREE! That’s right! The Story of Movies curriculum package which includes lesson plans and dvds is available free of charge to teachers around the country. I really like that because it’s nothing extra that you need to pay for, for your students. Overall, I really enjoyed watching this video and this would be great for a middle school art teacher to do with their students.        

Reflection to “Life of the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education”

My reflection to “Life of the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education” is one hundred percent agreed! What first struck out to me was when the author stated, “the way we are educating is based on nineteenth-century ideas and methods. Here we are, entering the twenty-first century, and you look at our schools and ask, ‘Why are we doing things in this ancient way?’ Our system of education is locked in a time capsule.” I couldn’t agree more with this. Everything in today’s generation deals with technology. Everything is becoming touch screen. Schools are slowly adapting to having their textbooks as ebooks. It’s crazy when you really think about it. The biggest thing is to teach communication in all forms. Yes, today you see people texting all day with their phone in their hands and very few actually know how to communicate well. So with that being said, it’s important to teach communication. In a classroom, your students could communicate through any subject really whether it’s music, through the rhythm of the song or in english, through the writing of their story. As I kept reading this article I became more and more intrigued with it. The last section, “Do you think the education field will get your attention” really caught my eye. The author was telling us that the problem is that people don’t get the bigger picture, which is very true. People don’t seem to understand how important education actually is. A country as a whole survives on its education system. Without education, how would the president be running our country as a whole. I liked this line, “The society that has a great educational system becomes the prominent society because that’s the way the human race survives.” As I said before, without the education system, then our country would NOT survive!  

Response to “Why some schools are Selling their iPads”

After reading this article I agree with the iPad not being the best interactive device for learning. This article had me thinking again about technology in classrooms. Laptop tablets are a great substitute to iPads. Now I have both an iPad and also a Google Chromebook. I never touch my iPad because I get so frustrated eveytime I go and use it because it never allows me to do what I want to do. I have a difficult time opening some programs and typing on it. Now my Chromebook I absolutely love. It’s great because it’s super light and everything is right on your Google drive, which saves automatically so you don’t have to worry about losing any of your information. The ipad is great for apps which the Chromebook does lack, so I will give the iPad that point there. Chromebooks are also a lot cheaper than iPads. an iPad is usually around $500 where I bought my Chromebook for about $230, which as you can see is a huge price difference. I really liked the quote in this article, “Students saw the iPad as a ‘fun’ gaming environment, while the Chromebook was perceived as a place to ‘get to work’.” This statement in my opinion is 100 percent correct because on the iPad students could get distracted with all the apps and very overwhelmed and have a difficult time focusing. I know I do when I go on my iPad, even my iPhone. Whereas on the Chromebook it is perceived as place to work because there are no apps on it for the students to mess around with. Overall, my reaction to this article is that I agree that there are better devices out there to be used in classrooms than the iPad.         

Response to “What will it take for iPads to Upend Teaching and Learning”

While reading this article I thought to myself it valued many great points. I thought to myself that yes technology and education could mix together. We have to start understanding that times are changing and technology is becoming bigger and bigger each and every day in in the classrooms. For example, textbooks are now available online and mostly every child today has either an iPad or and iPhone or some type of touch screen item. The world is changing and each generation is becoming more technologically advanced.

So my reaction to this article was surprising. I found it very interesting that some schools are now depending on only iPads for teaching their students. No more pen and paper. Everything they do is on the iPad. Now to me, I would not like that because to be honest I’m not the biggest fan of technology. I need to be able to have it right in front of my face on writing, not on a screen and same goes with writing also.

The part of this article I found interesting to me was the math class section. I thought it was neat how Doroquez uploads the day’s notes onto the education social networking site and then he’ll explain or review a skill by projecting the worksheet onto the whiteboard and then break students into groups to practice. His students can work out problems by being able to draw them out on their iPads and then they can turn their work into Doroquez through an app, which is called Notability. It’s just crazy to think how much you can really do with technology.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this article. It definitely opened up my mind to what is happening in classrooms with technology. Also, it’s crazy to think that by the time I become a teacher, technology in the classrooms will be changing once again.

Weekly Linky Party

So I decided to just stay with the new blog I found this week. On Saddle Up for Second Grade, Marcy posted Five for Friday weekly linky party. Marcy shared on her blog five things her class did this past week. She found five for Friday on Doodle Bugs Teaching Blog. Five for Friday is a weekly teacher linky party where you post five random things from today or this past week on your blog. Then you come back and link your blog post up at the bottom of this post in the linky tool.Grab the button above and link back to this post on your blog. 

While looking at Marcy's Five for Friday I came across one of them which I found very interesting. Marcy received a set of iPods from Donors Choose and her students were so excited about using them. She introduced Listen to Reading to them and it was a huge hit! Below I posted a picture.

 

It was just crazy to me that students are using iPods in class now. Technology in the classrooms is changing every single day. Next week I will be checking back with Saddle Up for Second Grade and also Step Into Second Grade.  

Saddle Up for Second Grade

So this week I am taking a break from Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons blog and I decided to find other 2nd grade blogs. There are so many out there. I came across a blog that really caught my attention. It's called Saddle up for Second Grade. Marcy is a second grade teacher in Texas. On her blog she lists her lessons plans for the week, which I find that very helpful for teachers. It gives you some ideas on what to do in your classroom. Also on her blog, she even has Instagram photos that she takes of her classroom and what activities they do that day. So this week I’m going to talk about her lesson plans. Marcy explains how she plans her week. First she meets up with her partner teacher on Tuesdays to talk about the upcoming week. They both teach the same concepts so they brainstorm ideas off of one another. Then on Wednesdays she plans everything out, which sometimes it may roll into Thursday or Friday. Marcy plans out her full week in five subjects (math, reading, ELA, writing, and science). All of her lesson plans she posts on her blog you can click on the picture and download it to your computer. Here is an example of her math lesson plan for the week.

Here is an example of her writing lesson plan for the week.

Her lesson plans are very helpful for teachers. Especially if you're ever stuck and need some ideas to teach your students. Overall, I really enjoyed reading her blog and I'm going to check back in a couple of days to see if she adds any new posts.

Word Problems

This week Mrs. Lemons taught her students word problems. Now I can not stand word problems! I never understood them in school. I feel like a lot of students just think too much into them. Mrs. Lemons feels the same exact way about them also! She usually does not spend a lot of time with her students on word problems because she doesn't enjoy teaching them. But to make them more fun, she created a word problem packet. She is selling this packet on the website  teacherspayteachers.com. So what Mrs. Lemons does with her word problem packet is that she prints them out for her students and then they pick which one they would like to solve, cut it out, and glue it into their notebook. Mrs. Lemons also prints out worksheets with clue words on them to help her students understand what "key" words they should be looking for in word problems to tell the difference between an addition problem and a subtraction problem. For example, on the addition worksheet she has the words...together, in all, total, increase, altogether, both, sum, plus, combine, add, and join. On the subtraction worksheet she has the words...fewer than, less than, left, remain, minus, take away, how many more, how much more, difference, and decrease. She also has worksheets with reminders on them for her students. For example a worksheet explaining to them to read carefully and what the question is asking them. Also, a reminder to show all work in their notebooks, using either pictures or numbers.
An example of a word problem Mrs. Lemons made up was, "Jackie has twice as many crayons as Henry. Henry has 7 crayons in his box. How many crayons does Jackie have?" So first the student cut out the word problem and glued it into their notebook. Next the student highlighted the words twice, 7 crayons, and how many crayons since that is what the word problem is asking. After the student figured out the word problem was addition, they wrote underneath the word problem in their notebook Henry's name and Jackie's name. Next to Henry's name they drew 7 vertical lines. Then next to Jackie's name the student added 7 more lines than next to Henry's name. So altogether Henry should have 14 vertical lines. Next, the student added 7+7 to receive an answer of Jackie having 14 crayons.
Mrs. Lemons explained how doing this helped her students understand the material better and also kept her motivated to teach word problems. By doing what she did it keeps the lesson interesting and also the students get to draw while they are also doing work. The feedback on Mrs. Lemons blog under this activity from other teachers was all positive and everyone really seemed to enjoy teaching word problems to their students this way.        

Classroom Decorating

I explored Mrs. Lemons blog a lot this past week. She has a tab that says my classroom. It gave me some great ideas for when I become a teacher and when it's time to decorate my classroom. Her walls are very colorful and all the wall surfaces are covered, which is great! Classrooms that are plain and boring, the students aren't going to want to come to your class. The first thing that popped out at me that Mrs. Lemons did was she had the English alphabet on the top of her wall above her bulletin boards. She had the students create pictures/word to go with each letter, which made for a great activity. She also provided links to cutouts she used and where she got the fabric from, to decorate her classroom with, which I found very helpful for teachers. She keeps her classroom very organized and labels everything which is important in being a teacher. Another interesting idea I got from her was how she uses table caddies. Her students share everything in their classroom. So in the middle of the tables she has caddies that have crayons, glue, scissors, and pencils, instead of putting everything in the students desk. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures she posted of what her classroom looks like because it gave me visual images in my head on how to decorate my classroom when it's time. Next I'm going to explore some of her lessons she teaches to her students.

Step Into Second Grade Blog

As a future second grade elementary school teacher, I've been looking for a blog to follow. While searching, I came across the perfect blog! It's called Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons! As soon as I found this blog I immediately fell in love. The blog itself is very colorful and updated every single day! Mrs. Lemons draws you in with her personality and her extreme love for her job. Amy Lemons has been teaching second grade for four years know, but overall has been teaching for eight years in total. Amy also has a personal blog on her website under the About Me tab that you can also follow, which I found interesting. I'm excited to start reading about her lesson plans and activities she does with her students. She is a very creative teacher and I hope to learn from her so that when it comes time for myself to teach, I will give my students the absolute best learning experience they deserve. Below you will see the link for Mrs. Lemons Blog.

http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/

Horizon Report

The Horizon Report was interesting to talk about in class. It brought to my attention on how much technology is being used in today's classrooms. I had no idea about the "bring your own device to school." I remember when I was in school, we were lucky enough if we even received computer time in the computer lab. Teacher's used the blackboard and over-head projectors to teach us, versus now teachers are using smart-boards and also using flipped classrooms. I like the idea of "bring your own device." Each new generation is getting more technologically enhanced, so our schools need to change also. Before reading the Horizon Report, I had no idea what cloud commuting was. Until this past year, my classes really started using cloud commuting. I was lost at first, but after using it more, I learned to really enjoy it. It's a lot easier for teachers as well as students. Teachers are now putting homework assignments, quizzes, discussions, and even their lectures online now for their students to look at. Everything is just right in front of you!
One more topic of discussion I really found interesting in the Horizon Report was games and gamification. Teachers are promoting letting their students play games to go along with their lesson. It is said that gaming is supposed to improve hand-eye coordination, short term memory, attention span, and problem solving and critical thinking skills. Some teachers use the game Minecraft to teach their students math. This would be a good game for teaching geometry with. Overall, reading the Horizon Report definitely brought some attention to my eyes. I'm looking forward to becoming a teacher and being able to use these in my classroom. As I said earlier, technology is changing every day, so it is our job to change with it and promote it to our students.  

 

Welcome!

Hi my name is Alexandra (Alex) Bailey. I transferred from Burlington County College. I've been at Stockton College for a year now. I am considered a junior here credit wise. My major is Liberal Studies with a concentration in Elementary Education. I would like to teach second or third graders. I would also like to get specialized to teach middle school Language Arts. After I receive my teaching certificate, I would also like to get specialized for Special Education. I am a current member of Delta Delta Delta where I also hold a position for my chapter as Panhellenic Officer. I look forward to taking this class and freshening up on my technology skills.