Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Teacher Tools in Learning Village
Where is the first place you go to look for ideas for a lesson on a certain topic? We all have our favorite places to go. Some of your commonly used resources may be listed in the image above. Did you (as a WSFCS teacher) know that you can go to one place and be able to access all of the sites listed? These Teacher Tools for you to search in are all linked to the front page of the WSFCS Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse. I was impressed to be able to find them all in one place, but what even caught my attention more was that if you search for your grade or subject in Learning Village, there are links to specific things in most of these resources. That means you won't have to take time to search for the pieces that fit with your curriculum area and Standard Course of Study. You might also be able to find some lesson and project ideas within Learning Village depending on your curriculum.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Lost Colony
When I searched for information about The Lost Colony to share in my 4th grade Social Studies class, I remember struggling to find good information online that was useful for 4th grade. I have been looking at the NC History Digital Textbook on LearnNC, and I think I have found a solution to my problem. Information about The Lost Colony is located in the Pre-Colonial (to 1600) section. Although this digital textbook is geared more form secondary students, portions of the information can be used with elementary students.
I think that good background knowledge can be presented using information from The Lost Colony: A silent "cittie" (this section is towards the bottom of the page). Since the reading level is higher than elementary, this would not be a good section to assign for student independent reading. I see lots of places to stop and ask questions to check for understanding and to provide clues on strategies to use to read nonfiction and informational text. The words that are linked to definitions could also provide good practice for students in using context clues to determine unknown words.
Located near the top of that webpage in is an illustration which could be used at the beginning of the class or lesson to possibly get students predicting what the lesson could be about. Another idea is to use it more towards the end of the lesson for students to use the information learned to create a conversation the two figures could be having.
The next part of the story, The Search for the Lost Colony is one that students particularly enjoy since it is a mystery. The first paragraph on this page provides a great introduction to learning about the various theories about what happened to these colonists. After reading that paragraph to students, I can see having a good discussion about the information we get from different sources. The three ideas presented here (The Lumbee, A Yound Mayde in the Chesapeake, and Two Factions) could be good for a class discussion or project.
The information and links in the Learn More section in the sidebar could be used as things for groups of students to look at and report back to the class. Those areas could also be used for differentiation or for "early finishers" to look at. The related topics that are also listed in the sidebar could be good research or project topics for this lesson. This lesson could be connected with writing by encouraging the students to write about what they think happened to the lost colonists, or another LearnNC idea could be used to encourage the writing of a mystery.
NC SCOS Objectives that could be covered with this lesson:
Social Studies 3.03
Language Arts 2.01, 2.03. 20.5. 2.06
I think that good background knowledge can be presented using information from The Lost Colony: A silent "cittie" (this section is towards the bottom of the page). Since the reading level is higher than elementary, this would not be a good section to assign for student independent reading. I see lots of places to stop and ask questions to check for understanding and to provide clues on strategies to use to read nonfiction and informational text. The words that are linked to definitions could also provide good practice for students in using context clues to determine unknown words.
Located near the top of that webpage in is an illustration which could be used at the beginning of the class or lesson to possibly get students predicting what the lesson could be about. Another idea is to use it more towards the end of the lesson for students to use the information learned to create a conversation the two figures could be having.
The next part of the story, The Search for the Lost Colony is one that students particularly enjoy since it is a mystery. The first paragraph on this page provides a great introduction to learning about the various theories about what happened to these colonists. After reading that paragraph to students, I can see having a good discussion about the information we get from different sources. The three ideas presented here (The Lumbee, A Yound Mayde in the Chesapeake, and Two Factions) could be good for a class discussion or project.
The information and links in the Learn More section in the sidebar could be used as things for groups of students to look at and report back to the class. Those areas could also be used for differentiation or for "early finishers" to look at. The related topics that are also listed in the sidebar could be good research or project topics for this lesson. This lesson could be connected with writing by encouraging the students to write about what they think happened to the lost colonists, or another LearnNC idea could be used to encourage the writing of a mystery.
NC SCOS Objectives that could be covered with this lesson:
Social Studies 3.03
Language Arts 2.01, 2.03. 20.5. 2.06
Friday, January 29, 2010
New Job!!
Hmm. . ..I think I have written another post with this title within the last year. Last year at this a time, I wasn't even thinking about a technology (well maybe not too much). I was finishing up my classes for Gifted Education licensure. Now I have gone from teaching 4th grade, to teaching gifted education and enrichment classes, to being a K-5 tech facilitator (focusing on tech integration), and in less than a month to joining the WSFCS Instructional Technology team as a District Instructional Technologist. It is a little overwhelming but really exciting.
Monday, January 18, 2010
PBL and Technology
Putting the Nerdy Teacher Back in the Classroom
Wow! This is a great example of PBL in a classroom integrated with technology. In this blog post she talks about the steps she took to develop questions and higher-level thinking activities for her 21st Century Classroom.
If I go back into a classroom, this is the kind of thing I want to be able to do with my students. Shis managing the technology in her classroom as a tool for learning. I read this blog some in the past when he mostly gave technology integration ideas. I can't wait to see what she blogs about in the future now that she has moved from a technology integration specialist to a classroom teacher.
Wow! This is a great example of PBL in a classroom integrated with technology. In this blog post she talks about the steps she took to develop questions and higher-level thinking activities for her 21st Century Classroom.
If I go back into a classroom, this is the kind of thing I want to be able to do with my students. Shis managing the technology in her classroom as a tool for learning. I read this blog some in the past when he mostly gave technology integration ideas. I can't wait to see what she blogs about in the future now that she has moved from a technology integration specialist to a classroom teacher.
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