Sorry

I want to apologize for not being in class on the last day (today).  On my way out to the car, I forgot to bring my phone with me.  Since I have an old car, I like to have her warm up a bit, so I started the car and closed the door, not realizing I had not unlocked my doors...  Anyways my car ended up running until AAA came to save my poor car.  I am glad I was able to present all of my work last class.

Also, I would like to thank Jim for teaching me new ways to incorporate technology in the classroom.  I look forward to trying new things and using technology to enhance my lessons.  I hope that you have a great rest of the summer and I will probably be seeing you at the Arlington Career Center for car classes next summer, as it is quite apparent that I need lots of help.

Making Science Fun

I am always looking for ways to make science more interesting and accessible for students.  Science for Kids is a great website that explores a variety of different areas of science. It provides experiment ideas, diagrams, lessons, videos, quizzes and more. It is geared towards a variety of grades and students.

Worksheet, Games, and Handwriting Creator

Sometimes I can never find exactly what I am looking for and want to make my own activity or worksheet.  Trying to make them on a word document, especially if it is game oriented, can be difficult and time consuming.  Tools for Educators allows you to create custom dice, board games, hardwriting sheets, mazes, vocabulary sheets, and more.  The best part of the website that I found is that it allows you to create listening worksheets.  These worksheets can be saved in a different location, accessed by a student, and have parts of the worksheet or test read to the student.  This would be excellent for beginner readers and ESOL students who have difficulty reading directions or questions.

Florida Center for Reading Research

Florida Center for Reading Research is one of the best resources I have used in my teaching career.  It is great for teaching almost every aspect of reading and phonics instruction.  It provides resources for K-5 only, but the ideas and concepts could be revised for an older group of students.  Each grade category includes at least fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary activities that can be used in group work or as center activities.  They are aligned with common core and can be used with the Virginia SOLs as well.  Under each category, there are activities and games that work on a specific skill.  It includes student friendly directions.  With a printer, some crayons, and a laminator you can create a wide variety of center activities for your classroom.

Helping Children with Autism

With all of the Developing technologies, there have been specific iPad apps that are designed for helping children with autism. Autism has increased in identification and there are many children who are on the autism spectrum. The first app that I found is called AutismTrack. This isn't for the children. This is actually for adults who are caring or are teaching a child with autism. It allows you to track progress of behaviors, interventions, and symptoms. The second app is for the child. The app I chose is called Choiceworks. The reason I choose this app over the others is because it is very intuitive. It offers schedules for morning, day, and night. It offers choices for good behavior, bad behavior, and free time. It is customizable and only $14.99.
ChoiceWorks

Read Write Think

As I stated last class, I discovered a website that offers free online graphic organizers. I am always looking to creat organizers and this site is perfect to show students how to make their own concept map, venn diagram, and more. I like this site because it is easy to use and fun to create. However, it does not allow material to be saved. If you want your work to show others, it needs to be printed. I have decided that this would be a great site for students to use during my integrated lesson plan.

Grading in the Classroom

Grading should take the form of feedback.  I like to know how I am doing in a class and grades allow me that opportunity.  Grades, with the proper comments and feedback, offer students the reasoning behind the teachers marks and how they can improve on the next assignment.  I also believe that grades should be flexible.  Individuals think differently and should be given an opportunity to explain their reasoning behind whatever is being turned in.  As we have been learning in all of our class, students have different strengths.  Grading should be based on student abilities and if that means creating different rubrics for different ways of presenting knowledge, then it should be done.  In conclusion, grading should be used as a form of dialogue between the student and teacher regarding the areas of strength, weaknesses, and areas where improvement has been made.  Graded assignments should inform the teacher of how a student is progressing and should inform the student of areas where they need to work harder.