Sherry Espeland

The Oral History Project: by Cummins

2008-04-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

Guess what activity Sherry is going to do next fall in her World History class? This article was so practical to me. I was immediately engaged in the reading from the first paragraph. How does a teacher make history relevant?
The teacher makes a concerted effort to bring history to life for his students. He continues to work diligently to make it relevant, but also rigorous at the same time. He wants them to relate what happened hundreds of years ago, to today’s events. Many of us work with students who read below grade level, yet it did not get in his way of making the learning relevant and meaningful to his students.
I have tried “mini” activities such as the Oral History project, but definitely not of the magnitude this teacher did. I appreciate his thinking how he wants his students to be well rounded citizens. This too is my goal for my students.
I liked how this would develop a relationship with parents through the many questions and interviews. This would be a strong school-home relationship. I was intrigued by the terminology of “historical inquiry skills”. These skills include constructing historical questions, comprehending and working with information from primary and secondary sources, reconciling accounts, and constructing explanation s and accounts. I agree, these are the most interesting, but also the most challenging. And he had 7th graders complete this project……. I definitely can get quality work from sophomores! There is so much history my students can uncover. We have many who have lived in Douglas there whole life, and others who have lived in 5-10 different towns/cities. It is intriguing and exciting to engage my students in this activity.
I really liked his two broad research questions: What kind of history can we find in our families? Where do we come from? These two questions can go many directions and what fun it would be for students to engage themselves in.
The use of the Internet is today’s genealogy research is unbelievable. I appreciate the listing of the websites that he proposed to the students. These I will “steal” from him!
What a wonderful way for students to begin to understand history. I agree with the teacher when he says that to get at history, one needs to go beyond yes/no factual questions and learn to probe-to think like a historian. As mentioned in the article, that students came to understand that all kinds of interesting things happened historically that never make it into the history books. Maybe my students will find out they are related to a 16th century King of England, or a professional baseball player, maybe that their grandfather was a war veteran. These stories may never be learned if these students don’t do a little questioning and a lot of probing.
Great article and thanks for sharing it with us. I am excited for next year’s students!

Chapter 11: Including All Students on the Internet By Leu

2008-04-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

I have a mentally handicapped nephew that is in his 30's. As I read this chapter, I kept reflecting on the fact that how richer his education would have been had he been educated during this decade instead of the 1980's/1990's. This chapter brought to light so many opportunities that special education students are now given not just using the Internet, but with other technologies.
Side note: Douglas High School has recently purchase the Wii game systems for the lower IQ students. These students are working on their hand eye coordination skills, learning to understand the use of the remotes, and many other aspects. Of all the games, they enjoy boxing and bowling the most. They have the most success. These type of technologies would have proven so "fun" and successful for my nephew and his classmates.
I was just amazed and thrilled to see the many websites available in understanding learning disabilities and brain functioning. Many years ago I had a student who was sight impaired. I kept thinking how many of these websites, and how the computer in itself would have so beneficial to his education.
I also liked the section on readability. I am always looking for websites that will assist me in materials that I am sharing with my students. I found the reading level calculator to be valuable.
Wasn't it cool how there are websites that use sign language. What a way to enrich the deaf impaired students/individuals.
I definitely will be using Doug Flutie's website when I teach autism next year. Our school has 3 autistic students, and I always find it very important for my Psychology students to understand this neurological disorder.
New literacies provide new opportunities for learning. I believe that each student should have the opportunity to reach a level and potential that will provide them with a rich learning environment. It is through these many new literacies that ALL students are given these opportunities.

Website Review #5: Brain Connection

2008-04-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Website Review #5 brainconnection.com

My first unit in Psychology is based on the brain, so when I saw this website in chapter 10, I knew I had check this website out, and am I ever tickled about what I found.

This website has unlimited opportunities for me as a teacher and for my students.

I first was interested in the following brain facts. These little snippets provide just enough to interest my students. This little bit of information could challenge them to learn more:

Abused Children Have Smaller Brains
Parts of the brain of a severely abused and neglected child can be substantially smaller than that of a healthy child.

Babies Lose Half their Neurons at Birth
It is estimated that a baby loses about half their neurons before they are born. This process is sometimes referred to as pruning and may eliminate neurons that do not receive sufficient input from other neurons.

Baby Talk Increases Vocabulary
A study showed that when mothers frequently spoke to their infants, their children learned about 300 more words by age two than did children whose mothers rarely spoke to them.

"Brain Attacks"
Strokes or "brain attacks" are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States. A stroke occurs when the blood flow to the brain is disrupted. Disruption takes place either when a brain artery is blocked or when an artery explodes. Recently, exciting medical breakthroughs have been announced with respect to treating stroke.

Brain Uses 20 Percent of Blood
Approximately 20% of the blood flowing from the heart is pumped to the brain. The brain needs constant blood flow in order to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of the neurons. Brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) rely on this relationship between neural activity and blood flow to produce images of deduced brain activity.

Brain Uses 20% of Oxygen Breathed
Although the brain accounts for only 2% of the whole body's mass, it uses 20% of all the oxygen we breathe. A continuous supply of oxygen is necessary for survival. A loss of oxygen for 10 minutes can result in significant neural damage.

Child Brain Development
Measures of brain activity show that during the second half of a child's first year, the prefrontal cortex, the seat of forethought and logic, forms synapses at such a rate that it consumes twice as much energy as an adult brain. That furious pace continues for the child's first decade of life.

Dividing the Hemispheres
Commisurotomy, the transection of the corpus callosum, is one possible treatment for patients with severe epilepsy. This procedure causes a complete split between the two hemispheres of the brain. As a result of this split, words presented to the patient's far left visual field cannot be read (alexia), and hidden objects placed into the left hand cannot be named (anomia). This is significant evidence for hemispheric specialization.

Miles and Miles of Neurons
There are one hundred billion neurons in the brain. A stack of one hundred billion pieces of paper would be about 5000 miles high, the distance from San Francisco to London.

No Pain in Brain
There is no sense of pain within the brain itself. This fact allows neurosurgeons to probe areas of the brain while the patient is awake. Feedback from the patient during these probes is useful for identifying important regions, such as those for speech, that are spared if possible.
effectively.

Working Memory Stores Seven Digits
It's no accident that telephone numbers in the United States are seven digits long. Our working memory, a very short-term form of memory which stores ideas just long enough for us to understand them, can hold on average a maximum of seven digits. This allows you to look up a phone number and remember it just long enough to dial.

I did not provide all the facts from the website, but a few select ones that I would concentrate on in my class.

This website has many options for a teachers k-12. There is link for reading, bilingual ed, child development, language, learning, stress, motivation, and more. All these links take the teacher to articles and information to best work with students of any grade level. I was particularly interested in mood disorders as I am about to teach my unit on Mental Illness. The link takes the reader to many choices of articles. I have chosen a couple to use in my Psych class.

The website also is interactive for students. Students can be engaged in memory games, brain’s processing speed, and reaction time, and illusion identification.
There are also many brain teasers for the primary grades. Topics such as memory attention, and sound discrimination, provide fun and engaging educational material.

I really liked the image gallery that shows the many facets of the brain. These images can be downloaded as a power point, and are explicitly detailed. I am excited to use these next year, and show them on my smart board.

This is just an outstanding website with many opportunities for teachers and students alike. It is a good one!

Manyak: Lessons from a Mexican Immigrant Family's Storybook Reading

2008-04-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

Dr. Manyak mentions at the beginning of the article that story book reading can play a important role in children's early literacy development. There is also research to show that children that participate in family book reading will be successful in school literacy activities.
This is so true with my two children. Since their tenure in school my daughter, and my son, both have experienced success in their academic activities, especially in the area of literacy. They both continue to score in the advanced categories in reading on many of the standardized tests. I relate this all to the story book reading that existed from the time they were infants. My husband and I both read to our children. Many times a night, my husband would read 2 or more books to one child while I was doing the same with the other. Then the children would ask if we could switch. Before we knew it, the children were reading the books to us!
As with Maria's family, our children were involved in the adult-directed exchange. We also were involved in the collaborative interpretation, and cultural transmission. Our children were able to fall back on their knowledge of the ranching community that I grew up in.
These transcripts were interesting in the sense that I could visualize every statement and activity that Maria and her children were involved in. It was enlightening to witness on paper, Maria and her children having rich conversations during the process of reading a story book. All were engaged!
I am sure that you, Dr. Manyak will always treasure the experience you had with this family. How delightful to witness the resourcefulness, and powerful traditions that were transcended during your tenure with this family.

Chapter 10: Using the Internet to Increase Multcultural UnderstandingI

2008-04-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

We are not existing in a country of many languages and cultures. Even thought we expect all to speak English, it doesn't always exist. This chapter brings to light the need for multicultural education.
It is nice to see how the book invites teachers to take advantage of the many languages spoke in the classroom, not to see them as a liability. That by empowering those who speak two or more languages we are build a community of learners.
As mentioned in the chapter, the Internet allows students to explore issues of social justice. Exploring thees issues is essential to preparing children for citizenship in a diverse society in which equal access and opportunities are fundamental to our collective well being. In many parts of Wyoming we don't experience many issues of multiculturalism. So our students are at a deficit when traveling outside of the state. It is my hope that within classrooms, teachers are providing opportunities for students to experience these issues.
There were many websites that would help enhance multiculturalism. Here are the ones that looked interesting (didn't get to look at them):
*www.humatities-interactice.org (art and info of many countries)
*www.loc.gov/rr/international.portals (countries of the world)
*www.isoplucla.edu (Asia on the web) I do believe this site has been around for some time)
*www.sas.upen.edu/African_Studies/A.S. (Africa)
*www.imiagiware.com/mancala (When I taught Geography, 2 students at a time were able to play) Now many can play! (Africa)
*www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/apr99/calendar/index.html Chinese Zodiac Calendar....this would be fun!

Also mentioned in the text, that Internet Project is perhaps the best method for developing multiculturalism. When your students communicate with other cultures it is like no other experience!
New literacies permit new understanding. The Internet has provided and will continue to provide wonderful opportunities for teachers and students!

Toward a Social-Contextual Approach to Family Literacy by Elsa Auerbach

2008-04-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

This article brings to light the importance of family literacy. I always knew as a teacher and parent how important it was for my children to be active readers. From pregnancy on, my husband and I read to our children. And as they began to engage more in the reading, we would let them read to us. Our children are middle/high school students and still read 20 minutes or more a night (longer if it is a good book :). We were true believers in the power of reading and this was influenced greatly with there teachers. And as we look at the second language learner engages in literacy, something other issues are involved. So the questions is: is it the home or the classroom teacher stimulate the learning?
The article stresses the powerful influence of parental involvement. Parental involvement in an advocacy role is important because it shapes teacher's perceptions, which in turn influence student achievement. The parents are powerful influences in second or first language learners.
The article suggests that we must draw on parents' knowledge and experience to inform instruction. It is key to involve parents in the literacy of the children, by incorporating community cultural norms and social issues into the content of the literacy activities. It is with parent, teacher, and child that the family literacy becomes whole.
Family literacy is:
*Parents working independently on reading and writing
*Using literacy to address family and community problems
*parents addressing child-rearing concerns through family literacy class
*Supporting the development of the home language and culture
*Interacting with the school system

It is through these that family interactions on language and literacy will flourish.

Chapter 9: Using the Internet in the Primary Grades

2008-04-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have said this before, and will continue to say this: what opportunities children and adult of all ages have in the Internet. This chapter especially opens up many opportunities for teachers of primary school age.
How exciting it is for parents too, to know of the many talking storybooks, electronic coloring books, web-based microscopes, guided White House tours, and a number of other resources that are available to teachers and students alike.
I even found a website that I believe could be useful for high school students. It was the alphabet book in Swahili. When teaching Geography, I love to have students experience and practice some of the language from that country/cultures. It had primary students say the word. My students could practice the same way.
It is once again amazing how technology can teach and enhance a student's learning and practicing. The new coloring and alphabet books are just awesome and provide the opportunity for the students to be engaged and enhance their learning. So many cool Social Studies sites are offered for Primary grades. I checked out the Find It! China Quiz. It would be a great pre-test on China to use with high school students. It was an alphabet quiz. Here is the first question:
1. This word starts with an "A." It is the name of the continent in which China is located. What is it called? _______________ How did you do?
The scavenger hunts are also great ways and ideas to have students become engaged!Today Hooray also looked like a great website for jokes and questions of the day. Engagement!
Even weekly reader is online. The best resource ever is now online. What great opportunities for young children.
I also was given an "Ah ha" during the reading. The sharing of name and information is a NO NO on the Internet. I have students sometimes try to download ring tones and music while in my class, just one more situation we at the high school level deal with. It is a risk for them to share there name and personal information. I need to again stress to them NOT TO do that! Also I appreciate that fact that this chapter reminded us of the .com sites and to be careful when suing them. And to remind students of all the commercials that are found on the Internet and to ignore them. Our school district provides for us software for pop ups, so students aren't bombarded with all the pop ups and commercials that are out there. I am thankful for that, because I remember years ago, how long it took to navigate the Internet.
In closing, again great opportunities for students to become engaged! What a great text we have had the opportunity to use extensively. The corners are torn, there are many post it notes and stars.....but a text well worth writing on!

Website #4: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzle

2008-03-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

After reading the chapter on mathematics, and knowing that problem solving is one of our school improvement goals, I decided to look at a websites from this chapter. This website is "dizzying". There are, I'm not sure, but a million links! I decided to look at a link within the million categories and look at one link for each category.
Here are the main categories found:
*sites for teachers and parents *Algebra
*Arithmetic *Geometry
*Math games and puzzles *Logic
*Fractals and chaos *Visual Illusions
*Probability *Eye Opener Series
*Social Science *and Much much more
First, as I looked at a link from each category, I kept saying to myself, this is good "stuff", and will be so engaging as a class (especially on a smartboard), or individually. As a class, I have had students look at illusions. Believe me, looking at an illusion on a smartboard is magnificent. Secondly, I could see myself turning the students loose on the website and they individually look at the illusions, or I specify a certain for them to "experience".
As a math teacher, this is like the "candy in the candy store" situation. What fun it would be to be a high school math teacher and get to use this website. (I plan to share this site with my colleagues).
Here is a brief synopsis of a few links:
Visual Illusion: Heaver a Visual Illusion gives the history of the illusion, what professor created it, and the how these certain shapes are optical illusions. It is very hands on. I can hear students say "cool" to this one.
Math Games and Puzzles: Toads and Frogs Puzzle. What a great problem solving activity. I have had students show this one to me before. Move the frogs to the right and the toads to the left with hop skip or jump. What a great one for high school students!
Algebra: It has tutorial/lecture information on areas in algebra. I immediately thought how effective this would be with a substitute and teaching the information to the students. It also has a component for students to do online practice, anything from word problems to geometry. I tried this word problem:

"Another time," Said Scheherazade, "ten thieves stole into Abdul's shop. Some of them were armed and some were unarmed. The armed ones were those of senior rank. Anyway, they stole a bag of fifty six pearls. When it came to dividing them up, each senior robber took six pearls, and each junior robber got five. How many of the robbers were senior?
What was your answer? i am still trying to figure it out.......:)
All in all this is a great website. This would be a site that if I was a math teacher, I'd have it on my wiki space. As a Psychology, this would be a great site for students to do some "extra credit problem solving".
The only downfall I have noticed, is that it takes some of the links a little bit of time to upload. Students may become impatient if it doesn't load in 1.6 seconds :)

Chap 8: Math: Thinking Mathematically on the Internet

2008-03-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

This book continues to amaze me. Even though they prefaced that there isn't "that much" on the Internet for math, they still found many awesome sites to share.
I immediately recognized the Math Counts site. When I taught at Twin Spruce, it was just the beginning of the Internet, and the math teachers "coached" students in a math counts competition. I now see that the organization has branched out to the Internet. I do recall that when my daughter was in 7th grade math, her teacher gave her a problem of the week. The problems of the week were very challenging.
It came to mind how an interdisciplinary unit could be put together with math/language arts or social studies, using the Notable women of mathematics. What an awesome historical, mathematical unit we could come up with.
This chapter along with the other continues to stress that the learning needs to be meaningful. It also stresses how the emphasis is on mathematical insight, reasoning, and problem solving. These three continue to be constants for math teachers. I do believe these are topics/themes on the PAWS test.
I do agree not just mathematically, but intra/interdisciplinary the Internet provides opportunities for students to communicate their developing insights and to compare them with those of other students, in their classes, and around the world. As stated, this puts them in regular touch with the new literacies the Internet requires. Also mentioned, math lessons ask students to communicate their insights.....the Internet provides these opportunities.
Some of the websites that I plan to check out and possibly use in my Social Studies classrooms are;
*Japanese Math Challenge
*Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Math and Science
*Interactive Mathematics Miscellany
*Global Grocery List
*Mega mathematics
*Robertniles.com (finding data on the Internet)

In closing, I'd like to share a program that our school has purchased to help students improve their math skills. It is an on-line program called SAM learning. If you'd like to preview it.....go to homesamlearning.com Our math facilitator has written a reference letter discussing the successes of the program. I am one of the facilitators of this intervention, and have seen the success of the program. The goal is to help students become proficient in their math skills...... PAWS will tell us if it has.

2008-03-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

After building my wiki space, this chapter, pretty my "get up and go" more into gear :). This chapter has given me the challenge. The challenge to provide for my students and parents a meaningful tool to help us keep in contact. The challenge to project an image as a professional. The challenge to develop a curriculum that is immediately available to many. And I like this challenge.
So I decided to follow the idea to look on the internet and look for teacher home pages. I found many American Government pages. But one I really found useful and full of ideas. Even though the website has "best teacher website of 2001, she is constantly working to create a web page that is student and parent friendly.
Here are some of the many ideas that I will "steal", just like all teachers do!
*Question of the week..... but the must email her the answer, so they only way they know the extra credit question, is to access her web page. The students have one full week to answer the extra credit question. (sneaky)
*She has provided many links for students to access information, especially if they are at home doing homework or makeup work, and don't have their text book. (there is never an excuse for not being able to complete the work)
*If students want to know what happened on "This day in History", she has many links for students to browse. (could help them with extra credit?)
*She has made me realize the importance of posting notes and assignments on the web page. So often students will use the excuse, it is at school. (Not anymore, it is right in front of us)
*In her agenda for the week, some of her writing is conversational. She is writing to the students as if she were speaking with them. Ex: "you can leave your materials in my room, or ask some nice teacher". (this I found cute and what a fabulous way to build a relationship with parents and students)

I also took a look at resources for icons, images, and graphics. I had to use the "back door" to find it, but it had MANY icon, images, and graphic websites that I can use on my wiki space. Just more tools......for the tool box.
This chapter definitely solidified that I am "3/4 of a year behind", but "1/4 ahead" for next year. I am already seeing myself, for next year, using my wiki space. This text has challenged me to be better, and I am going to be a technological teacher, and have the wiki be a useful tool. It is a challenge, but one that I know I can continue to work on and accomplish! Thanks to this class and this text.

Chapter 7: Managing an Integration of Popular Culture Texts by Xu

2008-03-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

This chapter was a nice way to end the book. I appreciate the fact that Xu doesn't believe that she is the expert on all, but the messenger of ideas and beliefs in engaging students.
As she discussed the need to have the administration and parents involved in "changes" in curriculum, I continued to think how this would affect me. I teach Social Studies and most popular culture I use, comes from the internet. This is high school students "popular culture". So I work hard to find meaningful and interesting sites that students would use and be engaged. This is fun for me and a challenge for me.
Her rationale is quite helpful any teacher if the need is to have parent and administration involved in the curriculum change. It definitely is specific and very informative. No parent or administrator would question why a teacher would use popular culture in their classroom. I especially like the section: the relation of the book to the program. It brings to the community why the use of popular culture will enhance the reading program being used.
Just as she has mentioned, I so believe in sharing "new material" with my colleagues. Daily my next door colleague and I share ideas and activities. We both have been working daily to engage students in their learning. What better way to engage students, than to involve them in the planning. This is a risk, but many times is worth the risk.
In conclusion, this year has been a year of teaching, my 22nd year, has been a year of extreme growth. I continue to monitor and adjust my teaching, always evaluating: has it been rigorous, and relevant.
This class and National Board Certification continue to push me to be the teacher of the future and not the teacher of the past. And the teacher that students can say, "she made learning fun".
And using popular culture in the classroom is fun!

Chapter 7: Using the Internet to Support Scientific Thinking by Leu

2008-03-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

I great chapter for Science teachers. Science is helping students to ask questions, seek logical answers through observation, reading, writing, and critical analysis.
This chapter begins with a "cool" site called SETI@ Home. This would be awesome for students to see if there is any extraterrestrial life. I can see students being engaged daily to see if any life is in the "outer sphere". Of course the NASA sites are all very valuable, as is the Mad scientist network sites. I found interesting how "ask the scientist site" works. They do provide answers, but recognize that they aren't the ones writing the research paper. I like this Mad Scientist site, and will share this with my two children, who are always wondering about some science fact.
I too agree that workshop activities accomplish teaching better than any others. I am finding daily how students are becoming more confident in national, state, and local politics just through the many workshop activities that we do. It is exciting to hear them talking about politics......
There were many sites in this chapter that I plan to share with my science teaching colleagues. They seem to have ways, as did the ones for Language Arts and Social Studies, to enhanced learning and engage the students. This is our goal to engage the students. And believe me it is becoming a difficult task. Sites that I will share with my science colleagues are:
*Eisenhower National Clearinghouse For Math and Science Education
* Whelmers
*NASA quest
*Visit our Museums sln.org
*Scientific Thinking Literature
*Snowflake Study this looked awesome
*Earth Day Groceries Project
*DNA for Dinner

All these sites help enhance the student to use the five central functions of literacy:
identify, navigate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate.

I also took a look at two sites that I thought would enhance my teaching of the brain. The sites were Franklin Museum Science Institute and Or mind and Matter: The Mystery of the Human Brain. The Franklin didn't have anything on the brain, but had rich information on sports, the heart, and space command. Makes me want to go to Philadelphia to the museum. The site is still full of awesome information and video, that not just a science teacher could use. I never would have looked at this site, if it wasn't for this book.
The Or Mind and Matter was an awesome site. It is now in my bookmarks and del.icio.us list. This is a site that I want to have quick access to, to show my students information or have them do activities. I really liked the interactive activities they had. As we study memory and thinking I am going to have students participate in a couple activities. Again this book has been so valuable. I have missed out on many websites! Thanks Mr. Leu and others!

Chap 6: Using Popular Culture Texts to Enhance Literacy Learning by Xu

2008-03-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

Celebrating popular culture and celebrating and critically analyzing popular culture are the themes of this chapter. The goal is to engage students in the classroom, and what better way than to use popular culture texts.
As I read this chapter I kept thinking how exciting it is to engage students. Elementary teachers have such rich source in using the many cartoons and movies to work with children.
When teaching World or American History, I love to use story board/comics as an assessment. Students love to draw their own historical figures. So when I say www.kiddonet.com, the interactive comics site, I thought I better check it out. It is a site that would work for any age, especially if the teacher was working on short, concise explanations/descriptions.
I love how teachers had students create their own Pokemon figure/card. This is taking students to the highest level of thinking. This truly was a rich activity, one that my son did many years ago, on his own. He would sit in his room and create his own figure, and list all the strengths/weaknesses the character would have. :)
Many times I watch Language arts teachers (like Leonard), read a piece, then watch the movie, and do a comparison and contrast paper. This too is a rich and valuable activity to delve into the qualities of both genres. I too have done this with a Literature circle group. We read Five People You Meet in Heaven, and then watched the movie. In the end they enjoyed the book more, because they were able to have their own "pictures", not have the movie transform what the characters were to look like. And that is OK!
I really enjoyed the section in the text about Problematizing a Popular Culture Text. This section was a great way to evaluate the text, to see a different perspective of the text. It is amazing that the teacher can facilitate students to be the researchers of language, by asking them to look at how certain characters are portrayed and what kind of language is used. These questions could also be used in analyzing historical figures.
One thing I really appreciate about Shelley Xu, is that she always mentions that she challenges the reader to go beyond what she has, to just use her ideas as springboards. This I am doing, and I appreciate her ideas that I change steal and alter.

Website #3: www.pbs.org American Experience

2008-03-02T15:25:00.000-08:00

I chose to look at the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service Website). This website provides teachers, children, and parents many opportunities.
Children Link: provides young children all the pbs television shows with added links. Children can play games, listen to music, color, or listen to story told by their favorite characters. My children love the Berenstain Bears, and Barney. I took a sneak peak at the Berenstain Bears, and I played a matching game, same the theme song, played what's wrong with the picture, and colored sister bear. What fun for young children!
Parents Link: Parents can access these links:

All of these links provide parents help and support in working with their children (of all ages). It has a link that promotes reading and language. It provided Literacy Quick Tips, such as one that I believe many of us parents have used, read the menu at the restaurant together. This provides that child to process pictures with words. It also discusses "growing that child's brain" through interaction, play, and talk. The child's literacy skills will increase through this process. Yes, nothing too new to us, but also validating of what we do as parents. Teachers could share little clues and ideas to young parents of young children.
I also like the links they provide for the many television shows. Children could be given more opportunities than just watching the show, there are many literacy activities to enrich their skills.

Teacher Link: As I continue through our Psychology unit on Memory, I want students to understand the illness of Alzheimer's. I am sure many of my students have witnessed a family member struggle with Alzheimer's. This I feel is important to have students work through and understand. So what I did was type in Alzhemeimer's, and I was able to check every one of these categories:

Lesson Plans
Offline Activity/Project
Online Interactive/Activity
Audio/Video Clips
Shop PBS Products (cannot refine by subject or grade)
Recommended Non-PBS Links (cannot refine by grade)
Recommended Non-PBS Books

I was given 6 valuable resources for the topic of Alzheimer's. I was able to look and work through each one of them and found all 6 to be very valuable.
I never thought of using PBS for lesson plans for activity. This has been a great website, that I see myself using quite often. It is full of options and opportunities! It is a website that takes you through many routes of content. Teachers of all grade levels and content could find this website to be so useful. And then there was the parents and children.
Sesame Street isn't the Sesame Street I watched some years ago. Now children, parents, and teachers have wonderful opportunities. Do take advantage of this website!

Social Studies: A World of Possibiities Chapter 6 by Leu

2008-03-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

The candy store has more and more and more! This the best! The internet give students more and more possibilities that any other content area. This is my area! This chapter validates my teaching and the use of the internet.
This chapter has provided my Social Studies colleagues and me so many websites, websites I didn't even know existed. Am I ever lucky :)
Here are a few websites that I have looked and have bookmarked for future reference and use:

memory.loc.gov.learn Library of Congress
EDSITEment.neh.gov National Endowment for the Humanities lesson plans
eartheasy.com help sustain the environment in the community
devlab.darthmouth.edu/olympic/ Ancient Olympic Games Virtual Museum
webquest.sdsu.edu I love doing webquests, this site has many activities, I have already "borrowed" the political party website
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/china/ action plan with China
www.kn.sbc.com Little Rock Nine, desegregation
Our language arts teachers use turnitin.com, for students to submit work, to keep an eye on plagiarism, great website
www.pbs.org PBS is the best, pyramids and Giza
use senate.gov house.gov to locate and communicate with Wyoming's senators and representatives
remember.org Holocaust
oncampus.richmond.edu Ancient Rome
www.nationalgeographic.com National Geographic Society
www.ncss.org National Council for Social Studies always a good one to use
www.si.edu The Smithsonian! nation's treasures
www,oyez.org Supreme Court... every Supreme Court case, audio if wanted!

Such a treasure this chapter was! What a text we have been exposed too..... My final thoughts come from a page in the text:
"it is clear that effective use of the Internet should be integrated throughout the curriculum since students need many opportunities in all content areas to fully develop the new literacies necessary for success in an information society. Teaching new literacies as they are actually required in various content areas is more effective and efficient than having students learn them in isolated exercises".
I believe the social studies classroom provides an especially rich environment to do this. This is my classroom. This is why I have pushed to have 12 computers in my classroom. This is why I am lucky to have a smart board to use to effectively teach and model the use of certain websites. This is Social Studies!

Gaining Knowledge of Popular Culture Texts: Chapter 5, Leu

2008-03-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

The beginning of this chapter discusses learning from students about popular culture texts. It discusses how teachers should and could learn from these students, and find out why popular culture is so engaging and appealing.
As I process this chapter, my two children are husband are immersed in popular culture. My daughter has spent the afternoon watching movies both on the television and on internet. My son has checked his email, caught up on today's sports and news,both in print and on the internet and played video games on his wii. And my husband has used the internet to check the high school basketball sports, and play a few games of Scrabble. At this moment, we have two computers running at one time. All using many literacy skills to understand the text. Oh how things have changed since I was in junior high and high school!
It really makes me think, how different texts lends us to use these literacy skills of:
*predicting
*reading
*listening
*making personal connections
*differentiating reality and fantasy
*making inferences
*using intonation clues
*trial and error
Television and film text have the longest history with readers, yet still situations are changing if people watch these shows at home. Viewers can converse about the movie, during the movie. We continue to stop in the middle of a movie we have rented or watching from "DISH", and discuss the movie: make our own inferences or predictions. But as the text says, when in that movie theater, discussion comes later.
Hypermedia text on the internet is an ever growing literacy. Even my high school students ( the greatest users of the internet) are sometimes overwhelmed by the many linguistic units, such as sound effects, animations, images, actions, pop-up windows. As mentioned in the text, students with limited knowledge about the topic, consecutively clicking each heading to see which one will lead to a hypertext with needed information is common practice. My students do this. They are so use to just clicking, that they don't have the patience or reading ability to take time to find the right link.
Music text is a constant in our household. Between Scrabble games today, my husband and son were busy installing our new Sirius radio. In the classroom, students are welcome to have music(mp3, ipod). This is their literacy. My language arts colleagues, do an outstanding job of analyzing music lyrics. Students greatly enjoy that unit.
Oh the days of comic books......this was my literacy! I love to read all sorts of comics. My students, this month are experiencing political cartoons that are on the internet. Is this a new literacy for them! I am watching students break down the text, and make inferences on a very number of linguistic units. It is grand to watch this in action.
The day after I finished this chapter, a student came into my room and asked to use my computer. I slowly wandered over to see what he was up to. He was on the Tony Hawk (skateboarder) game site. OK. no problem. I continued dong my thing and then I noticed he was printing something. He was printing CHEAT sheets for the game. I giggled! And then proceeded to tell him about the chapter I was reading........ giggle......and told him about my son always is doing this. Finding the cheat sheets on the internet. Truly students/adults who play games: probe, hypothesize, re -probe, and rethink. These individuals are in a metacognitive state. Always reflecting and practicing.
It is a new world compared to the text world I grew up in. I am glad I have children and students who teach me a long the way. It is my commitment to capitalize on their acquired literacy skills by teaching in a way that makes connections between their personal literacy practices and with the popular culture texts. But not to forget their learning of the traditional shcool texts. It is exciting to watch this in action.

Chapter Five: English and Language Arts Opening New Doors to Literature and Literacy

2008-02-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

This chapter has provided so many opportunities for me as a teacher and for my students. I so agree with the statement at the beginning of the chapter: "Today, reading and writing are being defined by changed in even more profound ways. Internet technologies create new literacies, which are required to effectively exploit their potentials". And that is our responsibilities to our students: to prepare them for the literacies of the future. I do believe the internet is another door that is opening new worlds for my students.
This book is becoming my all time favorite "text" that I have read. It is a text that I am highlighting, post it noting, and circling websites that I see such value in. It is a text that I am photo copying for my English Language Arts and Social Studies colleagues. I am sharing ideas, and websites with them.
A few points and websites that just "hit" me with many teaching ideas and units and how I can use this topic or websites:

Grand conversation are "cooler" words that discussion. This I will be using this week
I will share the Shakespeare websites with my LA colleagues
Imaginary Lands is a website that I can use to help find children lit books to use in my High School classroom
I can now find Older Classics on the internet.... something is always preserved
Pantheon.org (Encyclopedia Mythica) will be a great resource to use next year in World History
Biography maker will be a great website to use with students when students are writing a biographical story ( my middle school daughter can use this, too)
Reminder: do the book reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble with our Literature Circles groups. Kids get a kick out of seeing their book reviews!
I can use Magic Treehouse even in my h.s. classroom. It is helps students make text to world connections
I will share with me LA colleagues the website and ideas when reading Lord of the Flies and Julius Caesar
A connection for me when reading about Project based learning. My teaching is becoming more and more like this: students are engaged in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing experiences during the course of their projects. It is rich learning
I want and WILL do the solving mysteries sleuth training. It would be an awesome activity with my Civics and Government classes
Next year, I will be using the Tragic Heroes in Lit and Life website. Students will love this in my World History class.
Keep using Ben's Guide to Government for U.S. Kids.
Students should have many opportunities across disciplines to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate that information, synthesize information to solve those questions, and communicate the solutions to others.
Do the Right Thing is just a FUN vocabulary, word building website. A site to offer some extra credit!
I foresee myself in the month of April, working with the Face to Face website, and having students explore the ideas of what it means to be an American. It truly will lead to some rich discussion and writing

While reading this Chapter, I felt like a child in a candy shop. I am a teacher of students, who I want to provide as many opportunities for them to be successful. This chapter has given me many tools to use and share with them. I see the next chapter is titled: Social Studies........I can't WAIT!

Trading Cards: Chapter 4 6th-8th grade students

2008-02-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

As I progress through the reading of the book, it becomes more and more relevant to me. I keep recognizing the need for building a relationship with students, and what better way than through the popular culture text. As the teacher built these relationships, there was always one key point: what is best for the students?
Many of us face situations where our students read below grade level, and we know that we need to find and use instructional reading strategies that will help these students become motivated and proficient readers.
I immediately recognized the reading strategies that the teacher used from the "Comprehension Instruction" text. I have used the 4 step process a couple of times with my high school student. It is one that worked pretty efficiently when reading our government text.
Step 1. Preview the reading
Step 2 Click and Clunk
Step 3 get the Gist
Step 4 Wrap up
It was exciting to see reading strategies used that I have used.

I have highlighted and circled, and marked that Sample Four-Box Journal. I absolutely love the way this Journal entry can summarize, question, use vocab, and make connections all in one entry. I am going to steal this idea and USE IT!
This chapter just provided me with so many useful tools that I NEED to use more often! The fat questions, concept maps, collages, raps, small group discussions all are so valuable in motivating students, and in helping them improve their reading skills.
As the teacher stated, it took a lot of effort to use popular text in her lesson, but it was sooooooo worth it! Student's are motivated, are learning, and improving their skills all in one effort.

Communicating on the Internet: Chapter 4, Leu

2008-02-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

Baby, we have come a long way! I believe it has been 15 years that I have been immersed in the world of email, and has it every changed my way of communicating. On a personal basis, I can communicate with friends and family on such a simple basis. I can catch a few seconds, and or a few minutes and send off an email to family and friends. I don't have to wait a certain time to do this. Even when my husband was recovering from surgery in India, he and I were able to communicate much more effectively than with our telephones. This chapter has helped me process the beauty of email, and how it has changed my life, personally and professionally
Just the other day, I emailed Senator Barasso and Enzi's office, asking for a Capitol Tour while my Close Up students and I are in Washington DC. I didn't have to use a phone and deal with, if you want the press secretary, press 1, or legislative staff, press 2. In a matter of days I received an email, setting up the tour! Mission accomplished!
As the chapter discusses international keypals, I love the idea, and am seriously considering this a goal in the fourth quarter units.
I am not a fan of list servs or mailing lists, I get enough of that without even asking for it. I am on a "neuropsychology newsletter list", and receive updated lessons and ideas on teaching about the brain. This letter comes from a university in California.
Our media specialist is on a million list servs, and is awesome about forwarding key Social Studies information to our department.
I have had colleagues who are working on their national board certification join google groups. I just feel that I don't have the time right now to join newsgroups.
I have seen great value in our weblogs (blogs). They have been fun to read, informative, and a learning experience for me. I have even had students find blogs when doing research. I just question how valid are they, when they are someones opinion?
Go into my daughters every evening, and watch her msn messaging with 10 or so friends at one time. It is quite the art to be so muti-phasic as she is. And what a connection she has with these friends. They work through their homework as they are on msn. They are engaged!
As the text says, "communicating successfully on the Internet requires broad knowledge, and a wide variety of skills, ans any mode of communication does. Students and teachers need both foundational and new literacies. Students are ready, but are the teachers?

Integrating Popular Culture Texts in a Fourth-Grade Class--Chapter 3, Xu

2008-02-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

It seems this fourth grade teacher began dealing with issues of reading level, motivation, and a frustration with the mandated reading program. What a splendid job she in did in "striking a balance between the mandated program and teaching practices that served to enhance student growth".
Just by interacting with her students and sharing a brief dialogue, she was able to see that her students had limited knowledge, and a lack of engagement working on th "starting and running a business" unit. She knew that she needed to figure out a way to engage her students in this unit.
I really liked how she came back to the tried and true literacy activities. Just recently in a meeting with our principal and language arts facilitator, we discussed using these activities. Activities like activating prior knowledge, KWL chart, sorting questions, and conducting interviews, guided writing, conducting research, writing comic strips, writing expository text, writing personal reflections, and conducting a tour. All of these are key components in any teachers unit.
As I have begun a unit on the Presidential campaign, I so have used and will use many of these literacy activities. They are strong and powerful when engaging students through the reading and writing process.
She sure had a box of tricks, when she asked that when they created a fun question to ask the cartoon artist, they have to have a question related to the unit. Students loved this!
As they wrote the expository text, they implemented this creating a shared writing. Many of my language arts colleagues do this using the smart board! Students again get a kick out of this.
I have in the past asked student to create their own story boards/cartoons. What is interesting with this, they don't even notice they are writing. They get so caught up in the creation of the cartoon, that they wrote beautifully.
In closing, it was nice to see, the phrase "funds of knowledge". As she stated " by capitalizing on the funds of knowledge, I was able to make learning student centered, rather than teacher imposed". As I continue my Presidential campaign, I do hope that I have made this unit student centered and not teacher imposed, and students will enjoy learning about the Presidential candidates.
I am hoping to engage them right away on Tuesday, and tell the Michelle Obama called me Friday.........but will I tell them it was a recorded message.....don't know :) Making teaching relevant and fun.....isn't that what it is all about?

Web site Review #2 Kids Web Japan

2008-02-10T16:16:00.001-08:00

Website Review#2 Kids Web Japan

http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/

I have always had a fascination with Japan, and its culture. So immediately I found the website in the Leu text as one that I needed to “check out”

My fascination with Japanese cultures take be back many years ago, when I was teaching a World Cultures class, and had the opportunity to have two individuals from my school district talk to my students about visiting and living in Japan. What a wonderful experience for my students and myself to be able to learn first hand what “life in Japan” is like. This website supports all the details that these two individuals have shared with me.

It is a very informative, easy navigating, and fun websites. There are many components for teacher instruction and student learning.

For students there is a play component. The play component could be used in remediation or enrichment.

*what’s cool, virtual culture, folk legends, games, quiz

For teachers there are many interactive components that can be use for instruction. I especially found the 8+ lessons in language lessons that could easily embedded into a Japanese culture unit. The link provides the teacher and student the opportunity to hear the phrases and words pronounced. Students enjoy hearing these.

There are also links where students can read about Japanese culture and experience it first hand. Here you can get a look at how Japanese kids live. Be able to answer questions such as: What are Japanese schools like? What do kids do after school? Some Japanese children practice traditional Japanese culture and arts, and here you can get a close-up look at their training and their daily lives. This learning is relevant as students are always curious to know what other culture’s schools are like.

I also like the virtual component found on this website. Students can learn to create origami (one of my favorites), participate in a sumo match, read manga (cartoons), see what it is like to wear a kimono, and the list is unlimited.

I see this website a fabulous tool for secondary social studies. Oh how I wish I was still teaching Geography. High School students would get “kick out of this site”, and they’d be learning and having a great time doing so.

Please share this site with your fellow World culture teachers. They will find it very valuable!

Effective Instructional Models by Donald Leu

2008-02-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

Speaking of relevance, every page in this chapter became relevant to me!
I immediately enjoyed the section on "healthy skeptics". Too often our students believe in everything that is found on the internet as truth. Starting on Monday, we will be researching for an interpretive essay, and it will be very important that my students be healthy skeptics!
I am a user of Internet Workshop. To prevent students from "wasting the class period" away, I delvelop internet activities for students, dictating to them to use just one site. It becomes very easy to manage when doing this. I will locate a good site, develop an activity, assign a due date, and have students share their learning. Sometimes sharing their learning may be an oral presentation, written work, or group activity. it is just a "fun" way to engage students!
I particularly enjoyed reading the information from Kids web Japan. I have taught Geography and saw an unlimited amount of value in this website. Matter of fact, I did my website review on this website. I have also share this web site with a Social Studies colleague.
I also like the ideas of two steps to consider when using internet workshop: 1. What I learned and what I want to learn. Internet workshop provides asks students to think critically. Yes, a thinking skill we want for all our students!
I see myself using internet inquiry and internet project in the near future. These two are great activities when using the internet. They provide a structure that sometimes we tend to assume. It provides an opportunity for students to be engaged and flourish with their learning of something new, and using the internet as a tool.

Here are sites that I will use in my Social Studies classroom :
puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com
myhero.com
web-jpn.org.kidsweb/index.html
k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu
How to cite your source oslis.k12.or.us
memory.loc.gov/learn/start/cite/index.html
United Nations un.org/Pubs/CyberschoolBus
Constution: a Living Document.yahooligans.com/tg/constitution

Wow! Just one chapter and all these fun and exciting web sites..... Thanks to you Donal Leu (hey that rhymes) :)

Chapter Two: Integrating Popular culture Texts in Primary Grades by Xu

2008-02-08T13:11:00.001-08:00

This chapter is all about relevance. I found it interesting how Xu's first statement of this chapter discusses how to "capitalize on student's familiarity with popular culture to enhance student's literacy learning.
What a great way to get students engaged! Such innovative ways these 3 teachers used in getting students engaged. Jean's unit on Superheroes warmed my heart. This was my son learning in primary school. His first grade or kindergarten (I forget) teacher did a unit on Superheroes. He loved it. It was very similar to Jean's structure: brainstorming, reading books, and discussing, She definitely struck a balance between celebrating and critically analyzing popular cultures tests. What a great way to engage those "little kids" of students :)
Again Sherry put together an awesome unit on popular culture when using music and lyrics. All students enjoy this and I have witness high school Language Arts teachers have students do an analysis of the popular "subculture". I also enjoyed and appreciate the "funds of knowledge" that she used. Bringing in a community member, this time a parent to teach the dance was just another way of engaging student's in their learning. She made learning about other cultures not separated from students' interests and their own culture. In doing this lesson Sherry was able to be a teacher that built a strong relationship and a closer connection with her students.
Lastly, the unit on Scooby Doo warmed my heart. It brought me back to childhood. Comparing and contrasting Scooby Doo to Inspector Gadget was a great engagement activity. To be able to end a Scooby Doo story would have been an awesome experience for me. I am sure there were great endings to a mystery of sorts.
As I read these three teacher's lessons, I continued to think how these teachers brought the RIGOR of reading and writing, made learning relevant, along with building relationships. Exactly what is needed in student learning and in teaching! :)

Navigating the Internet with Efficiency and a Critical Eye

2008-02-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

"Many researchers are exploring the notion that comprehension strategies for reading web pages are interwoven with meta-cognitive strategies and navigational strategies." (page 50). This I find so true. I have been a user of the internet for well over 15 years. A user in my personal life and in my teaching. Each day as I use the internet with my students, I see struggling readers struggle with reading the web pages. In every phase of reading these students struggle. It was very evident today as I watched two students who lack in meta-cognitive skills not be able to search, evaluation or definitely SELF-regulate while navigating the internet. I have even given them the specific URL address, yet there reading skills are so low, they are unable to move through this activity with any efficiency and purpose. It was frustrating for all of us. But.....on the good side, those who have those meta-cognitive skills, reading comprehension skills, and navigational skills were successful.
The chapter is a reminder of many bits of information when using the internet both as a teacher of students, and personally. The many reminders are as follows:
*Truncate a certain web site's URL to trace back to the sponsor of the webpage
*I like Mozilla, better than Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator
*Setting bookmarks on my desktop is a grand idea, as is on my del.icio.us bar
*Saving website URL into student's folders is important, so they can find them again when needed
*Use quotation marks when searching topics
*MAKE SURE YOU SPELL CORRECTLY. Students always seem to learn this the hard way
*When planning a lesson, always check the web page on a school's computer to make sure it isn't filtered, because you may have to contact your tech director to unblock it (this happened 3 days ago)
*Kids like to use askjeeves.com.
*Use the BACK button when finding something inappropriate. Don't make a big deal out of it. It embarrasses the student enough as it is.
*Do more pair grouping when working with the internet
*Always help students understand the what a valid source is....This helps students decide "who is right"?
*Pop up blocks are Awesome at school and home!
This chapter has brought an ample amount of information back to the surface, things that we tend to overlook in both our personal and professional life. We must continue to model and teach our student strong and efficient navigational skills.
*

New Literacy Studies and Popular Culture Texts

2008-02-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

The first chapter of the Xu book reminds me of my son. He is the boy at Wal-Mart playing, watching, or encouraging those who are playing video games. Vignette 1.1 is my son and many of his friends.... Fast forward six years later, and my son and his friends are members of game literacy. The Wii and the many games that go with it are my students. My son, his friends, my friends are the one who have to be able to read quickly and efficiently to move to the next level. This is not me.
As a new "owner" of a smart board, I many times struggle with technology. It is my son, my 7th grade daughter, and my students, who teach me. As the reading mentions, it is their power. If we have struggles with the internet. It is my son who figures out the problem. This is his literacy! The new world of the internet and technology! And I, with drill and practice am making it my technology!
I really appreciate the concept of literacy as social practice. Is the literacy meaningful and purposeful? I think of this blog as a social practice for me. I don't think I would ever do a blog, but it is this course that has taught me how to create and monitor one. This literacy practice is meaningful and purposeful to me. I feel confident to teach my students how to do one.
I am now fighting with the old practice that students SHOULD READ A NOVEL during SSR, not anything else. Then I read the text on page 20, and now I am ok with students reading comic books, magazines on skateboarding, sports magazines. But how do they earn their "reading" points in English, or earn accelerated reading points when all they read is a magazine? Does there need to be a paradigm shift?
And in closing, page 25 has given me a goal for the semester and beyond in my teaching ""study common literacy events in order to better understand our students and to be able to build curriculum from that point of reference, and to keep our curricula current and our teaching relevant. In doing so, teachers make their school literacy-learning experience more personally meaningful and engaging students".
Not a new idea......just a commitment to literacy and to teaching: for my students!

Nettrekker d.i.

2008-01-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

School.nettrekker.com

Website Review #1

http://school.nettrekker.com

I chose the website, Nettrekker d.i.(differentiated instruction). It is a teacher curriculum resource that offers lesson plans, student activities, and related websites. This website is provided to Converse County School District #1 (Douglas) by the Wyoming Education Gateway Initiative. Our school district is a subscriber of this program/website. During our staff development day, we spent time browsing and using this website. From what little time I have spent on it, I have found it to be very beneficial and effective in internet research. It is specific for the teacher and student alike.

As mentioned, this site is very beneficial for students and teachers. I especially like the fact that it is categorized into grade level, but I still can access, elementary websites if I like. Here is a summary of site contents:

lesson plan resources for teachers correlated to the standards
student content resources
web links that have been tested and organized for relevancy

-overall rating

-authority/credibility

-multimedia content

-Content language for the ESL learner

-readability score (have we found a source that our students can read and understand.

-Level 1 grades 1-3
-Level 2 grades 4-6
-Level 3 grades 7-8
-Level 4 grades 9-10
-Level 5 grades 11-12+

Web links that have been tested for grade level.
Additional views for information, such as timelines, biographies, calendar, and more
Collection of link to reference websites
Filter for specific information:

-Assessments, bibliographies, biographies, formulas, lesson plans, learning exercised, learning games, maps, charts, primary source, quotations

It provides access to all of the above in Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Mathematics, World Languages, and Health/Physical Fitness all within the elementary, middle, and high school level. The site is endless!
Has a voice read-aloud feature (quick time is required)
May use java virtual machine for some interactive demonstrations and examples

As I reflect and see a connection with this site, I am excited and please that there is a website with a tremendous amount of validity. When I am on the web looking for information, stories, etc, I seem to get “as lost” as my students. As I began using this site, I wanted to find some specific information on psychologists. Because these sites have been rated and are valid, I now know that what I have printed is effective material.

I see this as an effective tool for my students. When they are researching a topic this website will allow them to look at valid sources, not just the .coms that they believe are valid. There is also an added bonus for the student. One they have registered on a school computer, they can access nettrekker from any other computer. This puts the parent component into the picture.

Chapter One: New Literacies for New Times by Donald Leu

2008-01-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

New ideas and more ideas come from this chapter!

One, I am very excited to visit the memory.loc.gov site. I too believe that students should be looking at historical documents and artifacts. They should be reading the document, writing about them, and using their critical thinking skills.

Two, The Internet is our students. They use it everyday. I watch my daughter and son, use it for more than research. They use it to chat, shop, create projects, etc. If my children are that versed in using the Internet, we know that our students are. It is a highly motivation teaching tool. One that needs to be monitored closely, but such an effective tool.

Three, as we lead our students in to being more productive, civic-minded, and empowered students and people, we need to help them focus on the following skills:
*identifying important questions
*Navigating information
*critically evaluating information
*synthesizing information
and *communicating the solutions.
These skills as we all know are higher level skills found within Bloom's taxonomy. The Internet can be overwhelming, but no more overwhelming when reading a book as a research source. We as educators need to work closely with our students in a focus-centered activity. I find that if I lead them to the direct source, their work is more productive.

This chapter without a doubt has sparked my teaching. I have been tying to be more innovative in my teaching. The multiple list of websites have sparked the teaching. I have more tools to add to my tool box, and after 22 years of teaching. I am always looking for some "free and new" tools :)

Funds of Knowledge for Teaching by Luis Moll

2008-01-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

I have found with this reading that it's number one component is to make learning relevant, building relationships, and through these two key components, the learning can become rigorous. It was prevalent in the reading how important building relationships not just with the students, but with the family, too.

In my teaching, I find that I can build relationships quite easy with my students. I do have to admit that I don't do very well with phone calls home, or involving parents in our everyday classroom. This was something that I made a commitment to last year. I am doing better in bringing in the parent and community into my classroom.

I reflected upon the following terms that were shared in the reading: thick/multi-stranded, think single stranded, and funds of knowledge.
I work hard to know students in a thick/multi stranded relationship. By building relationships we as teachers can best meet the needs of our learners. We know their concerns, their needs, and that sometimes "school" is not their number one priority.

Funds of knowledge....is just a cool word for culture. What a great term to take into a government, psychology, and especially a geography classroom.

This was a wonderful article to reflect upon. The research is becoming more evident. We need to build relationships and make learning relevant!

Introduction :Trading Cards to Comic Strips

2008-01-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

As I read the first two pages of this introduction, I immediately began thinking of my own 2 children. My children read Blues Clues to me. Many times they would make up new songs to cartoon songs. It became a family tradition to do this!

What a connection!

Popular culture text are what our students are using. They are extremely computer/technologically literate. I am still trying to figure out how to use my husband's i-pod. I really am not that "illiterate", only in some categories .

Setting up this blog was a bit of a challenge. Thanks Patrick for the great directions. I'd still be back on step 2. :)

One key idea I felt was expressed in this introduction, is to make school learning more relevant to our students. Popular culture text lends itself to that. The three step purpose of this text is making the student's learning relevant.

The challenge awaits us!