BP9_2009112_Flickr Lesson Plan

Flickr Lesson Plan

When I searched the Internet I found many lesson suggestions related to the traditions of Thanksgiving, however, in today’s intergraded society many families don’t share in the traditional American customs.   I decided to take some of the ideas I found and raised the bar to the next level.  My objective is to increase individual understanding and acceptance of each other, as well as, provide my students with the opportunity to learn to blog and photostream.

From September through January here come the holidays, full of traditions and customs from around the world, and what better time to teach respect and understanding of individual differences and cultures.  Students would be asked to share 3-5 photos showing a holiday custom celebrated within their family and post their first blog explaining the tradition.  For example at my house growing up I might share a picture of the Christmas tree, my father cooking breakfast, and our family opening gifts.  To explain the tradition I would explain that each Christmas morning we would hurry downstairs to look at the tree where we then gathered to open our gifts, finally my father would then cook us a holiday breakfast fit for a king.  A student from Puerto Rico might share a picture of the Christmas tree, a picture of their bed, and the nativity.  Their blog might include information about both Christmas and The Three Kings.  Each child provides a unique look into the customs, traditions and celebrations within their own culture and families.

           

To continue the lesson I would then have my student research the origin of their family customs.  For those of the Jewish faith they might share information on the lights of Hanukah, while I would research and share the history of the Christmas tree, and yet someone of the Muslin faith might share the custom Mehndi, a form of body art, a tradition used during their celebration of holidays.  With each custom and tradition shared the understanding of others would grow, as hopefully would our acceptance.

Sample Lesson Plan

BP8_2009112_Peer Review of Web 2.0 Tools

As I looked through the Web 2.0 tools and websites, I found myself drawn to two different websites. Both websites allowed the user to create a book. The first website, Tikatok allows the user to use illustrations created by the user (or in this case the user’s students) to illustrate a book. I found this website to have limitless possibilities. As a kindergarten teacher we spend time each day writing about our “small moments”. Moments in our lives that we have experienced. We use the small moments to teach the kids to write about what we know. It’s difficult enough to get them comfortable with writing, but to have them have to choose a topic is very frustrating for a beginning writer. Just last week, we created a class book on Halloween safety, using ideas we generated during a brainstorming session. Tikatok would be a fantastic tool to actually publish our class book. For a small fee, just $2.99 for a downloadable ebook, we could turn our writings into books to share with each other. It is possible to turn class writings into hard cover books as well. The second site I looked at, storybird.com was another site dedicated to creating books. However, this site provided illustrations. This would be a great activity to do with the class on the Promethean board (smart board). The pictures are a great starting place for a brainstorming session to create a short story to match the illustrations. During our reading lessons we always take a picture walk of the books we read together, but also as part of something else we do instead of centers, I teach my students to read the pictures of a book. For the students who can’t read yet, reading the pictures really empowers them. This would be something that every student would be able to contribute to.

BP7_2009112_Web 2.0 Tools

Zoeybot

Zoeybot is a free search engine and educational services recommended for kids ages 7-13.  The program is SafeSurf rated which makes it an A+ option for teachers and parents alike.  It provides the user with a variety of tools such as research articles, videos, and tutorials.  Students can even take notes on the material they are reading by simply clicking on the “Launch Editor.”  To top off its appeal to kids there is even the incentive of submitting your own work to be entered onto the site for possible pay.

While all those pluses certainly make the site appealing it also has a down side to things.  For example it’s kid friendly appearance is appealing to the younger audience, but somehow I can’t imagine my 13 year old being enthusiastic about it.

The music player which offers a small selection of genre is little more than loops, again appealing to the younger audience maybe, but definitely not to the MP3 generation.  On the reverse side of things as I started to explore the search engine itself I found some serious concerns.  The readability of material is way above most students younger than 10 years of age and a search for “tropical fish” resulted in articles on “tropical storms.”   On a final note of concern some of the tutorial videos, the coins through the hand mini magic show and others failed to play. 

Overall a great concept, but truly poorly carried out in my opinion.  The site design appeals to the younger end of its target audience while the resources are most definitely geared to the older end of the spectrum. 

BP6_2009112_Web 2.0 Tools

Sketchfu

Ever asked a Kindergarten student to tell you about a favorite activity, a pet, or anything specific?  Answers will range from telling your every specific detail, to telling you every detail about anything and everything in their life, to the deer in the headlight stare.  How then do you begin to introduce writing skills related to a specific prompt, yes we do that in Kindergarten now too.  One of the best ways I found was to draw with my students first.  The visual helps them to focus on a specific topic and it doesn’t hurt their fine motor skills either.  The problem with this is finding the time to squeeze it all in the school day, well maybe not anymore. 

The Web 2.0 tool I discovered offers the teacher an opportunity to create custom drawing lessons that kids can follow from the computer.  Students would need to practice with the teacher at first to build their confidence, but once they understand the concept of following the simple step-by-step directions it could easily become an independent pre-writing activity for centers.  The tool is called sketchfu and you can use it to draw simple step-by-step kid friendly drawings like the dog pictured below.  The speed of drawing is adjustable which makes it great for little ones to follow or the project can be stopped completely and restarted if necessary.  Couple this simple drawing with a thinking map containing some key words and you have two centers that work together to create a skill based lesson in writing that students can complete without you having to worry about where to squeeze it in and even better it's fun.

The website for the fun tool is http://sketchfu.com  and while you’re there check out my fun puppy http://sketchfu.com/drawing/421704-dog

BP5_2009112_Web 2.0 Tools

Create a Graph

For the past three years my school has been in the process of learning to implement Response to Intervention (RtI), a systematic approach of matching classroom instruction with the instructional needs of the child.  The goal is to meet the instructional needs of most children in the general education classroom.  Teachers match a student’s instructional needs to a research intervention based program and collect weekly progress monitoring data.   While the teachers, for the most part, have been great providing the interventions and collecting the data, they are terrible at transferring the data collected into the required graph format.  This year bound and determine to not sit at my desk for hours on end transferring their data for them I set out in search of a great Web 2.0 that would be easy enough to use and satisfy even the most rigid of school psychologist.  My discovery Create a Graph, http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/  The website is actually intended to teach students about graphing, but it works well for adults lacking in the skill as well. Users simply go in and follow the tabs presented to set up a their criteria, once they have set up the basic information and saved it all they have to do is enter the date they progress monitored and the score a student earns each week.  Another click of the mouse onto the preview tab and like magic there is their graph.  Last they simply press the save and print tab and their job is done.  For those more challenged, there is even a tutorial that walks them through step by step how to set up and enter their data.  My teachers will be using the Create a Graph tool to create a line graph, but the tool is even more powerful than that because it offers the user the opportunity to create line, bar, pie, XY, and area graphs.

BP2_2009111_RSS Feeds

I have selected the following 5 RSS news feeds for my iGoogle Reader

• PBIS News Feed - Selected because it directly links to my Action Research project

• RtI Action Network - School Wide Positive Behavior Support - Selected for two reason, first it again ties directly into my Action Research project and secondly because it directly impacts my job. As a Staffing Specialist it is my responsibility to make sure that all step s and procedures are documented prior to gaining consent to evaluate students for Special Education programs. RtI has been used at my school for the past three years with regards to academics, but requirements regarding behavior are new this year. I am hoping this feed will help me to stay current with new expectations and best practices related to what is now being referred to as RtI-B.

• Positive Behavior Support - Positive Behavior Support Schools - Hoping to gain insight into the practices of our PBS schools to help in implementing those ideas within my school and to make my Action Research project stronger.

• YouTube Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support - Systematic Supervision - Again directly related to my action research, but more importantly a means to bring supporting research and best practices back to my teachers.

• Orlando Sentinel - I have selected this last one for more of a personal reason than educational. Since starting Full Sail I have not watched TV in the past 3 months and feel a bit out of contact with current events at times as a result. I have selected this feed to assist me with keeping abreast of current events and of course will closely monitor any happening related to local schools.

A general comment regarding the RSS feeds - until now I had never really understood how RSS feed work nor had I used them. I am excited with the potential of this technology and the time it will hopefully save me as I work through my Action Research project and professional goals.

BP3_2009111_Educational Blogging

Blogging as an educational tool?  As an elementary teacher, I have to admit when I first read the assignment I had difficulties thinking of ways that I might help teachers to incorporate blogging into a useful learning tool for students.  After a brief pause and a few clicks of the mouse I had my "aahh" moments and realized that blogging works for all ages like everything else you just need to open your eyes and be willing to look at something in a new way.

Ideas that I looked at that would benefit my elementary age students/parents is to use blogging as a communication tool.  For the older students using a blogger as a means of developing writing and communication skills makes it a useful tool.

It is usually difficult to get parents to come into school and experience all of the wonderful things their child is doing and learning so maybe another idea for younger students is to post their work allowing parents to see and learn what their child is doing from the comfort of their own homes.

Another use for blogging might include posting homework assignments, providing students and parents a place to ask for homework assistance or clarification.  This would work well for the students who are absent or for those parents who need to follow up on the "I don't have any homework" child.  My only concern for this type of communication would be the parent who uses the blogging site to share too much personal information about their student or to vent about another student/classroom situation.

Beyond the basics, I thought of the ESOL and ESE students within my school who might benefit from a blog designed to introduce/pre-teach upcoming lessons.  If the lesson or a overview were made available for students they could look up terms or information related to the topic to prepare themselves for an upcoming lesson.

Another use might be for students to present information on the blog site, making them the teacher.  It is often stated that we learn by teaching.

Last year at my school our busy schedules did not afford us the time to meet weekly and discuss the great resource books we were using in a book study, so we turned to blogging.  The group was required to post a minimum of 1 blog each week in response to a prompt left by the group leader.  Members were welcome to post more frequently and to respond to each others blog responses.  Then the teams met once every four weeks to review blogging comments, what they were learning, how they had implemented ideas into their classroom and most importantly to celebrate learning.  It was my first experience leading a book study and using blogging and I have to say it worked well for the most part.

References

Support Blogging (2009).  Educational Blogging.  Retrieved November 3, 2009, from

     http://supportblogging.com/Educational + Blogging