In Class Portfolio

Bio Poem

Context Clues Graphic Organizer

Making Connections Graphic Organizer

Making Connections Lesson Plan

Making Connections Lesson Plan Cover Page

Making Connections Rubric

Making Connections Power Point (Sample)

Dialogue Poem

My Dialogue Poem with Ed

Too Dumb for Complex Text?

I believe that single tasking in order to completely focus on a long book or article is something that requires skill. It is important for students to be able to sit with a novel and read for a period of time in order to comprehend, make connections, and question. I am afraid this is skill that less and less students are able to successfully do anymore. I think its important for teachers to still incorporate longer texts, especially at the high school level to ensure that students are prepared for college.

Multitasking comes easier. It is very easy to search the Internet and within minutes read several different articles and go to many different websites. This is easy because the Internet makes it easy through hyperlinks, advertisements, and pop up notifications. While I was reading this article I found myself wondering about one of its points and before I knew it I was opening another tab and researching another topic. Multitasking is easy to do but I don't think it has the same benefits as reading an entire piece without interruptions. By the time I got back to this article I had already forgotten the part I was reading and had to go back and reread an entire section. So I was able to learn some new information by googling another topic but I was distracted from the article and may not have comprehended it as well as I could have. So....what is better?

Annotated Website List

Discovery Education

• Teacher Resource & Student Interactive Learning Site
• Audience: Students
• Subject: All Subjects
• Grade Level: All Grades 

Discovery Education provides wonderful digital media for students of all ages. The video's on this site provide wonderful visuals and enrich learning experiences for students. There are some free resources on Discovery Education, but most of the site does require a username and password. I really love this site because it is easy to use and the videos really engage my students. I also love that this site gives you the option of watching clips of videos because there is not always enough class time to watch the entire thing.

Reading A-Z

• Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Teachers
• Subject: Reading
• Grade Level: K-5

Reading A-Z is a great site for leveled reading books with accompanying vocabulary words, lesson plans, and discussion questions. It is a great tool for guided reading because it levels the books with DRA levels. I use this site a lot because I do not have a guided reading curriculum so I print a lot of the books and save them to reuse the next year. This website does require a username and password and charges a fee to use, but well worth it!

Super Teacher Worksheets

• Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Teachers
• Subject: All Subjects
• Grade Levels: K-4

I LOVE this site! Super Teacher is fantastic for printing worksheets and activities for students. This site has worksheets for math, reading, writing, phonics, grammar, spelling, science,and social studies. I also really like that this site puts up fun worksheets and activities for holidays and seasons. I often use this site to make fun packs for my class to use during different times of the year. Super Teacher just started charging a $20 yearly fee but there are still some resources that are available for free.

Skills Tutor

• Student Interactive Learning & Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Students
• Subject: All Subjects
• Grade Levels: K-Adult

Skills Tutor is a differentiated digital curriculum in which schools can buy into. This site is available in many different grade levels and subject areas. My school uses Skills Tutor for third grade math. Our IT teacher creates a two week Skills Tutor competition every year in which students compete by playing the math games on the site. During this competition the students are allowed to use both their computer lab time in school as well as their computers at home. The program is differentiated to allow all students to participate. I really like this program and would love to use it with other subjects as well as math.

Lexia Learning

• Student Interactive Learning
• Audience: Students
• Subject: Reading
• Grade Levels: K-12

Lexia Reading is a technology-based differentiated reading program. On Lexia each student logs into their own personal account so that each student can work as his/her own pace. The programs are designed to enhance the students reading ability and allows them to move up with more difficult games and activities as their reading skills get stronger. This is a program that my school pays for and assigns certain computer labs as Lexia Labs for classes working on Lexia activities.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

• Student Interactive Learning 
• Audience: Students
• Subject: Math
• Grade Levels: PreK-12

This is a great site for teachers to use on a smart board but could also be used on computer. This site provides online manipuatives for students to use to solve math problems online. These manipulatives align directly with the math standards. There is a fee to use this site.


Smart Exchange

• Student Interactive Learning & Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Students
• Subject: All Subjects
• Grade Levels: K-12

This site is a must have for teachers with smart boards. Smart exchange is free and easy to use. You can search for lessons by grade level and topic. Smart exchange is a collection of wonderful smart board lessons created by other teachers. You can also upload your own creative smart board lessons for other teachers to enjoy. I use this site all the time and I almost always find exactly what I am looking for. GREAT resource!

Beth Newingham's Third Grade

• Teacher Resource
• Audience: Teachers
• Subject: All Subjects
• Grade Levels: K-3

Beth Newingham is a third grade teacher that created an amazing class website. Although she is a third grade teacher I think that other elementary level teachers could benefit from the resources on her website. She posts wonderful ideas, pictures, and printable pages. I use a lot of these resources in my own third grade class.

Awesome Library

• Student Resource
• Audience: Students
• Subject: ELA
• Grade Levels: K-12

This site useful for student research. It provides a search bar for students to type in what they are researching. There are different sections of this site designated for certain age groups. The students can also search by subjects. This is a free site.

Writing A-Z

• Teacher Lesson Plan Site
• Audience: Teachers
• Subject: Writing
• Grade Levels: K-6

This site is a great writing resource that provides writing lessons for many genres such as narrative, expository, persuasive, procedural, and transactional. Each one of these genres has stages of writing that gears toward different grade levels. I use this site a lot because it provides great graphic organizers, rubrics, and writing samples. There is a fee to use this site.

Wordle

Is Wikipedia a friend or foe to teachers?

Before reading the Wikipedia article my immediate answer would have been foe. It is a known fact that the information on Wikipedia is formed from people contributing to the site and is not necessarily supported with evidence. For this reason I would not allow students to use Wikipedia as a source in a research paper. 

After reading this article I have shifted my thinking on how Wikipedia can be beneficial to students. Although I still would not want it used as a resource in a research project I can definitely see its benefits for students in learning to authenticate information and contribute to a website. I think the most important thing is for teachers to thoroughly teach students about exactly how Wikipedia is run so they can understand the proper ways it is to be used. In order to do this teachers must know how to navigate Wikipedia and do some research on the site before brining it into the classroom. The article indicates sections of the site that could be beneficial for teachers such as "Wikipedia: About", "Wikipedia: Tutorial", and "Wikipedia: School". I would definitely read through these before using the site in my classroom.

I use Wikipedia on a regular basis to quickly look up information because the site is easy to navigate, gets straight to the point, and I don’t necessarily care how accurate the information is or I would use another site. I believe Wikipedia can be a helpful tool if used correctly.

Technology Autobiography

Technology in the Early Years: As a child I remember technology in my house consisting of TV's,  VCRS, camcorders, radios with tape decks, and house phones. We had multiple TV's in our house that were located in the living room, my parents bedroom, and the basement. I was never allowed a TV in my room growing up because my mother had one as a child and as a result was not able to sleep without a TV on, a habit that she refused to allow my brother and I to form (to this day I cannot sleep with a TV on). I also remember having VCRS connected to our TV's to watch movies and record shows. My dad had a camcorder (the huge ones that rest on the shoulder) which he recorded all of our home videos. We still have a VCR at my house because my parents have not gotten around to converting these movies to DVD and we still watch them together and laugh that my dad is still making the same jokes 24 years later. My family has always been into music and I remember listening to the radio and tapes in both the house and the car. There were no cell phones when I was a child but my mother did have a portable car phone that she stored under her seat and plugged into the cigarette lighter in case of an emergency. We also had wall mounted and wireless house phones. Wow, this is all quite the blast from the past!

Technology Advances: The Middle School Years: From fifth to eighth grade I remember a huge shift in technology in my household. When I was in Middle School my parents got their first cell phones. They would not buy me my own phone so I had to share my moms with her, it was "mine" at night and on the weekends so that my parents could get in touch with me. My friends would often call my phone and get my mother. We also got our first computer with email accounts and dial up internet on a site called Earthlink. I remember fighting with my parents to use the internet because they wanted to make a phone call. The biggest part for me with getting a computer was that I was finally able to have aol instant messenger! I had the screen name Talkaholic143 (Yes its VERY embarrassing). I was addicted to aol because I could talk to multiple friends as once, put up away messages, create a buddy list, and put tons of personal jokes in my profile. I LOVED aol instant messenger! My parents made sure to leave the computer smack dab in the middle of the living room to monitor my new obsession because the computer was something they did not fully understand. During this time my writing began to shift from traditional writing to "aol" slang. I began to use abbreviations such as lol, brb, ttyl, etc. I do not remember ever bringing this writing into my schoolwork but I do remember that it was essential to understand to successfully get through these years.

High School and Beyond: In the beginning years of high school my parents finally moved to digital internet and allowed me to get my own cell phone (although it was FAR from a smartphone). It was not until I graduated high school that I got my first digital camera and laptop computer as gifts for heading off to college. I now look around my apartment at my boyfriends laptop, my new MacBook Pro, our two flat screen TV's, BlueRay Player, surround sound speakers, XBox, Wii, Wireless Internet, and iPhones and think to myself, well haven't we come a LONG way!