Marvelous Marvel

This site is so rich! I could spend all day just looking to see what is available. Today I added new things to my folder. Primary Search is where I had the best luck finding lexile articles. I found great articles on immigrants that will fit nicely with my first READ 180 unit on immigration. I am ready to go----still just waiting for new licenses!

I think Marvel is a very good resource. There is so much there that sometimes I spend so much time just browsing.

End of September and a new family member!

Wonderful news! My niece had her baby yesterday. Little Ellie Kate is finally here and we are all very excited. Oh yes, I won the pool. My date was right! I won the right not to do dishes for the next family get together! Hmmmm.........

I am determined I am going to follow through with my Wiki Page on the novel, Rickshaw Girl. Next week, my students will write chapter summaries that I will put on the Wiki. Later, I will include our interview (by Skype) with the author. Now, I just have to find the time to do all this.

Wiki Wiki Teaching

I just read the blog entry on Wiki Wiki Teaching. I've explored several educational wiki sites and landed on an interesting 5th grade class that collaborated on a Wiki using a shared classroom novel.

I think I could possibly build a Wiki Page with my 6th grade students. We are currently reading,
Rickshaw Girl, by Mitali Perkins. We will also be SKYPING with Mitali Perkins! I am very excited about this. Would it be a good idea to build a wiki page with my class and then invite Mitali Perkins to collaborate with us? Hmm......I think I can do this! Connie and Steve, can you help me?

I'm thinking my students could each add a chapter summary, we could have a Bangladesh dictionary of words in the book, we could add information about the characters, and the plot. Maybe we could post a map of Bangladesh and add something about the area and culture of the people. We just read about Internation Mother Language Day in Bangladesh today. Perhaps we could do some research around that and add that to our wiki.

RSS and Delicious

I think the idea of RSS is awesome and now I know what it is when I see that little symbol. I even taught my daughter about RSS. But, I have to say I haven't really checked it since I set it up in class. I just don't think to do it. I tend to use my portaportal, but I am experimenting with Delicious.

Curriculum activites and Google sites

I really like the curriculum activities site. I recognized a lot of different sites that I use and I know some other teachers use. This site is like a portaportal site. I guess there are many different ways to do the same thing using technology.

I think I have to go back and reread the tutor page for google sites. I tried to make a page and put a "word of the day" on it, but had too much trouble and it took a lot of time. I finally just got too frustrated to work on it any longer and had to take a break. I will go back and look over the information again, but at this point I think I would probably just use homeworknow.

I was thinking that when I decide what tools I will use from this class with my students, I want to make sure that it is about the learning and not just the jazzy tech stuff. I am thinking right now I might go with voicethread this year and do blogging again. Right now I feel like these two tools with allow me to get at the meat of the learning by using twenty first century tech tools.

However, we are not done with class yet! Still more great things to come I am sure.

Old Bones

How did we get to the middle of September? I find now that I am in school all day I do not have the time to play around on my computer. Maybe I will find some time this weekend.

My 7th grade READ 180 students are so excited about getting their laptops tomorrow. I am going to try to do a blog with them in a few weeks. This should be interesting as it is a group of 9 boys! I'm going to be doing a lot of reading this year about sports, race cars, and I'm guessing gross stuff. Some one brought in possum bones today to show me and they didn't even clean them. The "yucky" bones did not smell very good. I asked them how they knew they were possum bones and they loudly exclaimed, "Mrs. Gott, we checked it out on the internet! I should have know!

Voicing my enthusiasm!

Wow! I like this voicethread thing. I saw a great site with 6th graders reading poetry and talking about what devices the poet used to appeal to the reader. I was very impressed. I spent a lot of time commenting on their work.

I will certainly be using this at some point this year. My students record themselves reading with the READ 180 program so this will be natural for them. I can see so many possibilities with this tool. I'm going to spend more time exploring this site for sure.

Connie and Steve, once again I want to say how much I like the way this class is structured. I was able to move through the voicethread tool at my own pace and try things when I was ready. I didn't have to worry that I was falling behind or I missed something.

ok, what's next? Bring it on!!!

We're Back............

The test will be this---can I concentrate after working all day as opposed to being on summer vacation? I think I can.

I've been blogging and even tried a few new tricks. I am ready to learn more! Bring it on!

Why can't I remember these things?

Today, I spent some time relearning how to use my grade book on Infinite Campus. Good Grief, I used it all last year without a lot of problems and this year I couldn't even remember how to set up my headings! I finally did it, but when I looked at it; the headings only show up on the quarter 1, quarter 2, quarter 3 and quarter 4 listings! Aren't they suppose to show up under quarter progress for each quarter too? Guess I will have to find some help.

I really got a sense of what some of our students must feel like when they are trying hard to do something and it just isn't working for them. At one point during the morning, I just wanted to yell out something, anything--just to let off some frustration. Instead, I just chewed some gum!