Party Animal House at the Heidelberg Project

Party Animal House at the Heidelberg Project
Originally uploaded by Derek Farr ( DetroitDerek )

pictures are a great way to help students understand the world of figurative language vs. literal langauge.

Do you feel like a failure?

I think that this teacher is exactly right about the way she helped her student teacher. Some times learning form our mistakes is the best way to really learn something. I feel that way with my students sometimes. They need to make mistakes and then be able to ask for help and work through their frustrations so that they will really own their work. This is true also for my 20 month old Daughter. She is so eager to do things on her own and determined to be independent. When it is appropriate to let her try something alone and she fails she always turns around to look for mommy and daddy to help her. By letting her realize her limits on her own terms we have less fight and more understanding of limits.



When Failure is the Best Option

Need some pep in your step?

Here is a web site that I found to be a fast way to et my ideas flowing for new things to update my centers. There are many ideas and links that revolve around the calender, holidays and themes to go with each month.

Kindercritters

What moves U?

MathMovesU


This is a fun site that would be a great way to have our students practice math facts. I will not be able to use this with my students because they are too young but if you have students or children who are in 6th grade or above it is worth a try. There are games and polls and there is a variety of topics that will be of interest to all types of students. I liked the Rock and Roll studio and of course the traveling page. Each page offers a choice of topics: games, polls, quizzes, flashcards and facts. Plus you get to choose a character who will explore the pages with you.

Use your imagination and your students may too

Nik Peachey describes two games that he finds very intriguing. The images are composed from photographs with cartoon characters imprinted. I love how he has taken these games which will be exciting for students to play and incorporated retelling and other stratiies to get students to use English language and literacy skills. I think that the activity about doing a news broadcast and video tapping it is very cool.

Incorporating games in your language and literacy lessons

This is so cool. I can only imagine students reactions when they get to create a character not only through the words they write on paper but then be able to really bring the character to life Visually. I think that this link is one of the coolest I have found so far and hope that I can try to create something for my students. We are getting ready to write animal research reports so maybe i can find a way to bring their words to life. I will post if I am successful.

Audio-visual Monologues


I am again amazed that I have been in the dark for so long. I can't believe how much good stuff there is on the web that can be used to benifit my classroom. This seems to be another way to capture the interest of students and have them be able to create movies from their writing. I also see this as a nice tool for teachers when trying to teach dialog an other writing techniques.

If you can type you can make a movie

Sing baby Sing

I think that my kids are too young for this site but I think that it is a fun site. I created a profile and tonight I am going to record a song if I can figure out how to do it. My screen name is Fetty in case anyone wants to hear my "wonderful" singing voice.

Karaoke Sims Style

Romance is in the Air

This site gives a good explanation about Valentines Day. I like the pictures and the hints that it gives for what to do on Valentines day. My Husband and I like to go out to a fancy dinner and enjoy each others company. We put all other things out of our mind and get to rekindle the romantic relationship that we once had before life and responsibility took over.

Valentines Day

Building words

This site is a great resource for spelling practice. I like that the student is able to build the word and here it used in a sentence. This is especially good for those teachers who use Houghton Mifflin materials because it is organized by theme. Great new spelling homework option.

Word Builder

Wonderful world of wikis

I am glad to have been introduced to the wiki idea. I can see how useful it can be in organizing and informing. The link below is to a wiki that was created as a how-to guide. I like the idea that you can add your experience to that of others. The one called "Toilet train your cat" made me laugh.


The How-to Manual

Web 2.0

The first part of this site is informational and I gained a better understanding of terms that before were foreign to me. The rest of this site was not helpful to me but may be for someone who wants to gain knowledge and practice in Blogging.

The basics of Web 2.0 for beginners

You are not alone

It was nice to read that others have been skeptical and had a slow start to their Blogging experience. One thing that I am liking about Blogs is that they lead you to many related things and so you may end up finding out something that you never gave a second thought to and probably would not have if not for the Link.


Thinking about Teaching Blogging to your Kids?


Blogging vs. Writing?

Super Tool

This site is very inspirational. It is great to hear that using blogs in education has created new found excitement for old school skills. I really loved the comment about opening up new thoughts that students would not have originally thought about and then being able to expand on them to create these global conversations. I also like that Blogs provide an authentic audience. i think that makes students think about what they are writing because they know the teacher will not be the only one to read it.

20 reasons why students should Blog

Shift Happens

This video is an eye opener.
I am learning that I have to be willing to give technology a chance. It has much to offer and if I keep fighting it I will be left in the dark.

Video

Reaching new places and people

I found a blog that was an interactive site for a teddy bear who traveled and wrote in the blog each time he visited a new place and friend. The title of the blog is Interactive Chatting Teddies www.talkingteds.blogspot.com. The teacher taught the students how to do many things on the computer and the idea reminds me of a "Flat Stanley" that you send over the net instead of through snail mail. The main objective was to encourage students to communicate using technology. I am very interested in coming up with my own Interactive Chatterbox. I think that I will use a bald eagle stuffed animal (very USA) and see the different places that I can send him. I have a lot to learn and organize but I think that once I introduce Baldy to the world maybe he will just soar and so will my students imaginations and vocabulary.

computer accessability

At my school I feel that we have a good amount of access to computers. I have four student computers in my classroom plus my school issued laptop which makes 5. We have a computer lab that has at least 30 computers. When it is not being used by the Media specialist, teachers can sign up to use the lab for whole classroom instruction. I am in a newly built school so we are still receiving equipment and the architects and engineers are still working on completing the school. I think that we will have a mobile lab at some point if it is not already in the building. In the past I enjoyed working with the laptops in my classroom and my students really loved when I would sign us up to use the laptops. My students have access to the computers in our classroom through out the day during our centers time (about two hours a day). They mainly use the Internet games on two main sites: starfall.com and PBSkids.com. I intend on working with them to practice finding letters on the keyboard and typing the alphabet and their names. Right now they have mastered being able to navigate using the mouse and enjoy exploring the websites to find stories to listen to, games to play and pictures to color or draw.