Blogging in Classrooms

I love all of the reasons this video mentions for introducing blogging into the classroom! However, I wonder what the best grade(s) is for this?

The field trip that came to us!

Our second graders met the owner and operator of Bug Safari last Thursday. He brought live spiders, scorpions and beetles with him, as well as dead specimens of butterflies, mantises (or is it "manti"?) and more. The kids had a great time, it only took an hour, and each second grade class had a turn. It was great he was able to come to us, and we didn't have a long bus ride to Pike Place Market, where his zoo is located. The kids loved learning about these creatures from someone who truly respects and honors them. We have a pet turantula in the classroom, and the Bug Man was able to inform us that, despite our prediction that it was a she, the spider was a he.
Having this kind of visual is great, and it's something that the kids will remember! This is a tree turantula - when a preditor approaches, they can jump - eek! They are built to survive the fall, unlike squat, round turantulas, whose exoskeleton could shatter from a big fall.

so last week, the class went for a field trip to watch a play called Bluenose at the Seattle Children's theatre and i must say i also enjoyed it. The play talked how each of us is different from one another and that it is okay to different. I think this a good way of how we can discuss in class issues such as racism, discrimination and a good way to build communities within our classroom/

ReadWriteThink - A resource for teachers

My dyad instructor recommended ReadWriteThink.org to me. It's fairly easy to search for lesson plans based on grade level or age, as well as topic. I used it to find creative ideas for a writing lesson I taught near Halloween. The site is huge! :)

Hotchalk~Another Great Website

This is a another great resource. It has tons of different lesson plans, ideas, activities, etc. Best of all it is free! You can register as a teacher if you want to to organize what you find, but it is not nescessary.

http://www.hotchalk.com/index_new.html

Day of the dead

my field instructor observed me teaching Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the dead) in Evergreen School last week. At first I was really nervous because I did not know how the students will react as well as it was the day before Halloween and students might be not engaged in my lesson. For my attention grabber I created a Calavera mask the night before and I just hold it in front of my face and not saying anything. To my surprise, there was at leas two students who just said out loud "Day of the dead!". As I start my lesson I asked the whole class what they thought about the mask I was holding. Other students said that it was a colorful skull mask, its for halloween, or we will be learning about Day of the dead. So for my lesson I created a short powerpoint and showed a video about the Dia De Los Muertos which I found in YouTube. After I did my powerpoint, I told the class that they will be doing their own Calavera mask. Then after each student created their own mask, I told the class that I need their help in creating a Venn diagram about Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos. For this activity, I gave each student a word and ask them to think about their word and decide if it belongs to Halloween or Dia de Los Muertos or both. For class participation, I asked the students to post their word in the huge Venn diagram that Sarah and I created. I asked each student to show thier mask in class then post thier word. The students really liked to stand up on a chair (we had to use a chair since their whiteboard where I posted the Venn diagram was too high for them), show their mask and paste their word. I really enjoyed the whole lesson. I found the template of the mask online. I think being in an independent school really helped me to be really a very creative lesson. There were a few students who did not finish their mask in time. So I asked my master teacher if we could have time in the afternoon. And here is the picture of the whole class with their mask :).

Teacher Vision

I found this great website. It has lesson plans, printables (including almost 200 printable books), and many other resources. It also has seasonal lessons and current event activities. The site is organized by grade and subject and is extremely accessible. It offers a great variety of things we can use now and into our teaching careers. You can sign up for a 7 day free trial, or a year subscription for $39.95. This seems like a reasonable price for all the site has available!

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/