In doing work to complement the New York State Social Studies framework, I've recently discovered this series: hilarious and approved of by my history colleague. It's hard to believe someone could make the Donner Party funny, but it's a must read! I recommend checking out the Correction Baby and the youtube videos!! (If you like this, also check out the Horrible Histories!)
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Weebly for easy web site creation
My colleagues have introduced me to Weebly: what a great platform for creating a web site! In the old days, we used to give participants a paper copy of a list of web resources. Then we moved to listing them on a power point. At a recent workshop, I tried giving out my diigo link of fluency resources, but some of the participants were a bit overwhelmed when they saw all of my tags. Some people still want paper copies or binders, but I really want to move away from that. With Weebly, we've been creating simple web site with lists of resources for a specific workshop. It takes no time to set up and there are lots of attractive options for backgrounds, buttons, etc. (much better graphics than what many school web sites have to offer.) A colleague of mine who is working with a group of students used it as a central place for students to go to for a project they were working on. Here's an example of one we used for a technology tools workshop.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Thinglink!
I'm experimenting with Thinglink for a workshop on technology tools. Kind of like Glogster or Voicethread, but a cleaner look and a bit simpler to use. I easily created this one with a picture from my photos.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
S.M.A.R.T. Reading Goals in Middle School, Part One
I've been working with a group of seventh and eighth grade co-teachers in ELA and reading teachers on student goal setting for reading. We started with having students write in journals about personal experiences with goal setting: either a goal they met or a goal they didn't succeed in meeting. There was such an array of goals from improving in parcours to becoming a chef to quitting nail biting. We created an anchor chart about what helps us meet our goals. We connected that conversation to goal setting in reading, teaching students categories they could use to select reading goals from the CAFE menu. (I'm such a fan of the Daily Cafe web site!!)
After students selected a goal area for themselves, we taught a lesson about growth mindset and referred back to our anchor chart on what helps us meet our goals.We used clips from Eduardo Briceno's TED talk and this brief video from the University of California to introduce the idea of mindset, but I haven't found a video that I love for growth mindset yet. (Someone needs to make one!)
The next step was to teach a mini-lesson on writing SMART goals. I introduced the idea with this Edutopia video clip to a teacher for her own knowledge. I was a bit surprised when she suggested showing it to the students, but it ended up being a short way to introduce what each letter in the acronymn stands for. Since it shows a fifth grade class, I made sure to emphasize to the seventh and eighth grade students before showing the video that we see SMART goal setting in college and in the working world. More on what happened to come!
After students selected a goal area for themselves, we taught a lesson about growth mindset and referred back to our anchor chart on what helps us meet our goals.We used clips from Eduardo Briceno's TED talk and this brief video from the University of California to introduce the idea of mindset, but I haven't found a video that I love for growth mindset yet. (Someone needs to make one!)
The next step was to teach a mini-lesson on writing SMART goals. I introduced the idea with this Edutopia video clip to a teacher for her own knowledge. I was a bit surprised when she suggested showing it to the students, but it ended up being a short way to introduce what each letter in the acronymn stands for. Since it shows a fifth grade class, I made sure to emphasize to the seventh and eighth grade students before showing the video that we see SMART goal setting in college and in the working world. More on what happened to come!
Friday, April 17, 2015
Scratch and coding!
Solana is teaching me Scratch! She's been creating and collaborating on Scratch this year, and it keeps coming up as a recommended site for students to start learn coding. I had told myself I was going to follow Cornelius Minor's advice to sit with a student for at least a few minutes a week and ask that student to teach you something new. (Yes, I'm part of the Cornelius Minor fan club!)
Of course that was back at the TCRWP Reunion in October...somehow my once a week goal didn't get off the ground for a while. More on SMART goals to come! Here's my project: once you get started, it's hard to stop. Now I understand why I have to drag her off of it! I know it's not that artistically impressive (!), but can't you see the great potential for creating with students while also addressing learning to code?
Of course that was back at the TCRWP Reunion in October...somehow my once a week goal didn't get off the ground for a while. More on SMART goals to come! Here's my project: once you get started, it's hard to stop. Now I understand why I have to drag her off of it! I know it's not that artistically impressive (!), but can't you see the great potential for creating with students while also addressing learning to code?
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
I love the way Expeditionary Learning distinguishes fieldwork from field trips. "Branching out" is one of my favorite videos highlighting an "expedition." This is what authentic learning looks like!
Fieldwork and Experts: The Branching Out Expedition at King Middle School from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo.
Fieldwork and Experts: The Branching Out Expedition at King Middle School from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Learning about migration
We recently visited the Liberty Science Center and saw "Flight of the Butterflies" in the center's amazing dome theater. The film dramatizes the story of how the path of the Monarch butterflies was discovered, capturing both the excitement of scientific discovery as well as giving the audience a close look at the incredible journey of the Monarch. At home, we had been noticing the Canadian geese heading north. It was a perfect time to order "Winged Migration" from Netflix. We enjoyed both the humorous as well as gorgeous images of the migration of birds all over the world. Solana says, "Sometimes the birds, especially the storks, look like they're dancing. They jut their necks out like pigeons." A great accompaniment to this film is the award-winning picture book North: the Amazing Story of Arctic Migration with its gorgeous illustrations of "the greatest journey on earth."
The Talking Unicorn
Hi, my name is Solana and I just made a voki that I really like that I want to share with other people like you, because you're on this site, obviously, if you're reading this. My voki is a talking unicorn whose name is (what else?) The Talking Unicorn. I hope you enjoy The Talking Unicorn!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Reading Like a Historian
I used to be the one researching picture books for Solana, but on the last Scholastic books order that came in, Solana circled some great books that I hadn't read yet. In the content areas, we're always talking about ways of getting students to read like a scientist or a historian. Those Rebels, John and Tom is one of the books Solana found that is a great way to introduce students to reading like a historian. While contrasting the lives and ideas of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the author uses quotations from primary sources which are listed along with an author's note at the end of the book. The illustrations really bring the historical concepts alive. I'm always excited when I can relate children's books to books in the adult world, and I pointed out to Solana that this book is very similar to a book that I just finished reading called American Sphinx: the Character of Thomas Jefferson.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Digital text sets for argumentative writing
I really like what the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is
doing around argumentative writing, particularly the work collecting both digital and print resources at different grade levels to help students research and take a stance on a high interest topic such as whether competitive sports in schools are beneficial or harmful.
Two of my favorites are videos that Mary Ehrenworth highlighted at the October Saturday Reunion giving two sides of the issue of chocolate milk being served in schools, the first showing truckloads of sugar being dumped on a school bus as a vivid illustration of the way serving chocolate milk in schools is an unhealthy decision and the second featuring a smiling representative of the Midwest Dairy Council explaining all the benefits of drinking chocolate milk. (I just saw Forks Over Knives. Can you tell which side I'm on?)
Teachers are always asking for resources: for persuasive writing topics, it's important that they be recent. TC is constantly collecting and organizing these resources as well as quality samples of student work that can be used as mentor texts. I recently showed this link to teachers in an after school class around close reading and they were really enthusiastic: one of them recommended the set in the 2012-13 collection on cyberbullying.
Some teachers are worried that students will come home telling parents that a teacher has taught them a controversial topic with a bias towards one side. These text sets allow students to weigh both sides of a topic and come to their own conclusion.
Two of my favorites are videos that Mary Ehrenworth highlighted at the October Saturday Reunion giving two sides of the issue of chocolate milk being served in schools, the first showing truckloads of sugar being dumped on a school bus as a vivid illustration of the way serving chocolate milk in schools is an unhealthy decision and the second featuring a smiling representative of the Midwest Dairy Council explaining all the benefits of drinking chocolate milk. (I just saw Forks Over Knives. Can you tell which side I'm on?)
Teachers are always asking for resources: for persuasive writing topics, it's important that they be recent. TC is constantly collecting and organizing these resources as well as quality samples of student work that can be used as mentor texts. I recently showed this link to teachers in an after school class around close reading and they were really enthusiastic: one of them recommended the set in the 2012-13 collection on cyberbullying.
Some teachers are worried that students will come home telling parents that a teacher has taught them a controversial topic with a bias towards one side. These text sets allow students to weigh both sides of a topic and come to their own conclusion.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Experiential/digital learning at Chicago museums
At the Children's Museum "Skyline" experience, we used provided materials and worked in a space in front of an automatic camera as a team to create our own skyscraper. Afterward, we narrated the steps of our process and our reflections to go along with images that were snapped of us working. Then, when we got home, we could view the digital story on the museum's web site. Both were fun, fairly brief learning experiences that instantly incorporated digital sharing as well as narration and reflection in the second experience-- something to think about for the school year.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Great nonfiction picture books by Robert Wells and others!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Math and literacy ideas
I was lucky this summer to have the opportunity to work with math educators in a co-teaching workshop I led as well as at a conference I attended on the common core standards. One of the secondary teachers in the co-teaching workshop was looking for chapter books and picture books to supplement the curriculum. She came across this link of math and literacy book recommendations on the California Department of Ed web site: it says it was last updated in 2007, so won't have the most recent authors, but still has great ideas listed by genre and grade level. Unfortunately, most of my middle school and high school math classes involved rote plugging of numbers in formulas from text books to find the right answer. I wish I had had more access to books on math ideas when I was a student-- it would have helped me with math concepts as well as improved my attitude towards math and increased my enjoyment of the subject.
One of the evenings of the conference I played Quiddler with colleagues: I'm not usually one for games, but I really enjoyed this one and loved the math and literacy connection. It can be played with and modified for children as young as five or six and reinforces both word play and number automaticity. One of my colleagues uses it frequently along with math modifications for games like "War" and "Go Fish" for students she tutors as well as in the classroom (great center ideas!).
One of the evenings of the conference I played Quiddler with colleagues: I'm not usually one for games, but I really enjoyed this one and loved the math and literacy connection. It can be played with and modified for children as young as five or six and reinforces both word play and number automaticity. One of my colleagues uses it frequently along with math modifications for games like "War" and "Go Fish" for students she tutors as well as in the classroom (great center ideas!).
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Diigo bookmark (weekly)
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Educational resources
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Essay planning tool from readwritethink
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49 Cool Summer Sites for Kids and Teachers
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Blog with suggestions for mentor texts.
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Free Youtube Tools for Teachers
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Nonfiction Reading Part Two: Text Structure
In the fall, I read so many books about sharks with my student, who asked me for more shark books every time I saw her. This spring, we created our own book about sharks organized by topics such as habitat, diet and physical characteristics. Many nonfiction texts are organized this way: creating a KWL organized by topics can help students anticipate this type of text structure before they read. I saw a great guided reading lesson at a workshop with Irene Fountas where she demonstrated that a picture book may have both an overlying structure such as a narrative and an underlying structure, such as describing the life cycle of an animal.
I’ve also been encountering many books such as Surprising Sharks that have a persuasive message, in this case that sharks aren’t as aggressive towards humans as we might have been led to believe. (A colleague calls this structure “exploding the myth.”) These books often have an environmental message as well. Suprising sharks concludes that sharks should be more afraid of humans than we are of sharks. There are many books like this about other animals; for example, Bats by Gail Gibbons and Seymour Simon’s Wolves.
As an avid reader of fiction from childhood, I’m used to reading for plot and don’t always pay close attention to text structure. I need to plan to be explicit about text structure for nonfiction as my student and I continue to explore books on high interest nonfiction topics.
I’ve also been encountering many books such as Surprising Sharks that have a persuasive message, in this case that sharks aren’t as aggressive towards humans as we might have been led to believe. (A colleague calls this structure “exploding the myth.”) These books often have an environmental message as well. Suprising sharks concludes that sharks should be more afraid of humans than we are of sharks. There are many books like this about other animals; for example, Bats by Gail Gibbons and Seymour Simon’s Wolves.
As an avid reader of fiction from childhood, I’m used to reading for plot and don’t always pay close attention to text structure. I need to plan to be explicit about text structure for nonfiction as my student and I continue to explore books on high interest nonfiction topics.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Nonfiction reading part one: the impact of experiential learning
When we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo last summer, we were highly amused by the friendly beaver and stood for a long time as he swam back and forth in front of us. I marveled at his long orange teeth and flat tail and how he held his front paws in front of him, seeming to coyly show off in front of the crowd of visitors. Solana spent quite a bit of time filming these antics on my phone. (As an aside, how cool is it that the Lincoln Park Zoo is free?) I can’t say that I was ever interested in beavers before, but when we came home and I saw some books on beavers at our local library, I wanted to read more about them. I was so much more engaged having had the hands on experience of seeing one up close. It really made me experience as a reader the impact of experiential learning and background knowledge on motivation: ideally something to replicate in the classroom either through virtual learning or hands on science centers.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Diigo bookmark (weekly)
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Categorized lists of "wonderings" with images, video, written information and links to resources.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Diigo bookmark (weekly)
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Top stories with lessons for ESL students.
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The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits
Great online reinforcement for an electricity and magnetic kit/unit.
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Recommended by the Two Sisters.
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How Financial Literacy Yields Success | Edutopia
Importance of financial literacy, example of a successful school in Chicago, links to videos and classroom resources
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Flipping the Classroom Requires more than Video
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