Monday, July 19, 2010
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Great Article on Teaching Writing
From: Improving the writing performance of struggling writers in second grade. by Lienemann, Torri Ortiz;Graham, Steve;Leader-Janssen, Beth;Reid, Robert
Source: Journal of Special Education, June 22, 2006.
Via: 
COPYRIGHT 2006 Pro-Ed
Thursday, June 28, 2007
RSS Aggregators
I recently came across an aritcle that was really interesting to me called "RSS Ideas for Educators". The article is quite lengthy but has a great bookmark section so you can go straight to the part you want to read. The article gives an overview of what RSS is , what it does, and how to use it. It also talks about Bloglines and how to set up an account. The article gives some great ideas for getting started with your RSS feed for example RSS feeds to discussion boards for keeping track of student discussions, RSS feeds to blogs and online photo sharing.
The article discusses the community building that RSS provides for your students. Grabbing subject specific resources for student use as well as peer produced content. Professional development is also addressed and how RSS helps you keep track of the authors and subjects that are interesting to you via blogs, video, audio, and eportfolios. The article also discusses the productivity tools and Research tools of RSS. I think that this article would be beneficial for educators because it really expands on RSS and what it can do for us in our specific field.
D'Souza, Quentin. RSS Ideas for Educators.
http://www.teachinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/RSS%20Ideas%20for%20Educators111.pdf
The article discusses the community building that RSS provides for your students. Grabbing subject specific resources for student use as well as peer produced content. Professional development is also addressed and how RSS helps you keep track of the authors and subjects that are interesting to you via blogs, video, audio, and eportfolios. The article also discusses the productivity tools and Research tools of RSS. I think that this article would be beneficial for educators because it really expands on RSS and what it can do for us in our specific field.
D'Souza, Quentin. RSS Ideas for Educators.
http://www.teachinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/RSS%20Ideas%20for%20Educators111.pdf
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Cooperative Learning
I have recently been using cooperative learning techniques in my classroom and I learned several things about myself as a teacher and my students. I feel that cooperative learning groups is an excellent strategy for teaching. At first it was difficult to stand back and watch students interact with each other. The controlling teacher in me wanted to offer information to the students instead of allowing them to figure it out on their own. Once I realized how much more students internalize by working it out themselves it was easier to stand back and watch their brains work. Students were learning a tremendous amount of information from each other in groups. By actively involving students in cooperative learning groups I allowed conversation based student interaction to occur.
Can a second graders desire to talk be successfully turned into educational conversations with teacher assistance? I believe it can. In order to do this successfully the teacher must model exactly what the students are to do in their groups. The teacher should assign student jobs within their groups. By assigning jobs the teacher eliminates confrontations about who is to do what. The teacher must also state exactly what he/she expects the students to do, what behaviors the teacher expects to see, and what work will be looked at the end of the project.
Cooperative learning affected students learning process in several ways. The students helped one another acquire answers. Students depended on each other instead of depending solely on the teacher. Cooperative learning groups allowed the students to practice conversation skills. It also gave the students a chance to use each others schema.
Allowing students to work in cooperative learning groups helped eliminate the amount of conversations taking place “off” topic. On days I implemented cooperative learning groups in my classroom I noticed a significant change in the amount of talking taking place. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that cooperative learning groups not only eliminate “off” topic conversations but also promote a positive learning environment.
Can a second graders desire to talk be successfully turned into educational conversations with teacher assistance? I believe it can. In order to do this successfully the teacher must model exactly what the students are to do in their groups. The teacher should assign student jobs within their groups. By assigning jobs the teacher eliminates confrontations about who is to do what. The teacher must also state exactly what he/she expects the students to do, what behaviors the teacher expects to see, and what work will be looked at the end of the project.
Cooperative learning affected students learning process in several ways. The students helped one another acquire answers. Students depended on each other instead of depending solely on the teacher. Cooperative learning groups allowed the students to practice conversation skills. It also gave the students a chance to use each others schema.
Allowing students to work in cooperative learning groups helped eliminate the amount of conversations taking place “off” topic. On days I implemented cooperative learning groups in my classroom I noticed a significant change in the amount of talking taking place. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that cooperative learning groups not only eliminate “off” topic conversations but also promote a positive learning environment.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Teaching Vocabulary through Music
My experience with children has taught me that one of the greatest obstacles in learning to read is vocabulary. Children have to not only be taught the vocabulary but experience it in order to really understand what it means. I have researched teaching vocabulary through music and have found it to be very successful. The following powerpoint describes to you my findings and some ideas for teaching vocabulary through music.
Blogging in Education
I recently read an article on blogging called “Educational Blogging” By: Steven Downes. It was a great article. It wasn’t too long or way over my head in technical terms. I love the quote that is at the beginning of the article, “I think it’s (blogging) the most beautiful tool of the world and it allows us the most magic thing…” – Florence Dassylva-Simard, fifth-grade student. This quote made me wonder “what’s the magic thing?” The article gives examples of how blogging is used in 5th and 6th grade classrooms and what the children and teachers have to say about its use. The comments made by the children are very intriguing. When I read this article it made me want to go and set up my classroom blog.
The article also went into specific types of blogs and how to set up a blog account. The most impressing thing about the article is the power behind what is said by students and teachers. One teacher said, “blogging has great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking skills, writing skills and information literacy among other things. Blogging offers students a chance to reflect on what they are writing and thinking as they write and think it, carry on writing about a topic over a sustained period of time, and engage readers and audience in a sustained conversation that then leads to further writing and thinking.” I really enjoyed reading this article and would encourage anyone to read it. If you are wondering if blogging is truly working for the education of children then this article is for you. I found the article online at: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1.
EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14–26.
I also found these three educational blogs that I would subscribe to and read on a regular basis. They are:
http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-teachers-quit.html
This is a blog created by an educator and has several interesting postings on hot topics in education like teachers quitting and school vouchers. This blog attracted my attention because the topics seemed interesting to me.
http://www.edspresso.com/2007/06/education_news_for_monday_june_7.htm
I really liked this blog because it has daily news in the field of education. It seemed more like a news report than someone’s opinion on the latest scandal in education.
http://eceducation.blogspot.com/
This blog was one of my favorites because it was very laid back. It was created by an educator with his masters in early childhood education. It has several postings about things that he is just thinking about and observing in education and through his personal life (he has 6 grandchildren all under 11 years old). I found the blog very helpful with everyday type things such as developmental milestones in the first three years of life.
The article also went into specific types of blogs and how to set up a blog account. The most impressing thing about the article is the power behind what is said by students and teachers. One teacher said, “blogging has great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking skills, writing skills and information literacy among other things. Blogging offers students a chance to reflect on what they are writing and thinking as they write and think it, carry on writing about a topic over a sustained period of time, and engage readers and audience in a sustained conversation that then leads to further writing and thinking.” I really enjoyed reading this article and would encourage anyone to read it. If you are wondering if blogging is truly working for the education of children then this article is for you. I found the article online at: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1.
EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14–26.
I also found these three educational blogs that I would subscribe to and read on a regular basis. They are:
http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-teachers-quit.html
This is a blog created by an educator and has several interesting postings on hot topics in education like teachers quitting and school vouchers. This blog attracted my attention because the topics seemed interesting to me.
http://www.edspresso.com/2007/06/education_news_for_monday_june_7.htm
I really liked this blog because it has daily news in the field of education. It seemed more like a news report than someone’s opinion on the latest scandal in education.
http://eceducation.blogspot.com/
This blog was one of my favorites because it was very laid back. It was created by an educator with his masters in early childhood education. It has several postings about things that he is just thinking about and observing in education and through his personal life (he has 6 grandchildren all under 11 years old). I found the blog very helpful with everyday type things such as developmental milestones in the first three years of life.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
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