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/

Tetor Totter Curriculum

Our in class discussion of the pendulum swings in education reminded me of a paper I read in a fourth year anthropology course. The paper's author is Max Gluckman a South African Anthropologist and activist. In his paper entitled "The utility of the equilibrium model in the study of social change" Gluckman explores theoretical models that deal with social change. He is particularly interested in how people describe social change and whether we can actually distinguish true change from variations in the status quo.

The paper talks about "pendulum swings" as inevitable cycles that are caused by internal structural logics of institutions and organizations. Wow, what does that even mean. The article is fascinating but dense. I think that what he means is that by imagining humanity on a grand scale one can see the cycles in attitudes and practices that are present in governments, the field of education, classrooms, and even households. In the long-view patterns of how long parties stay in office or how long particular agendas last in education emerge. I do not fully agree with this mechanistic view of how societies function but I enjoy thinking about this concept once in a while. There is comfort in knowing that somethings are are beyond our control. I tried to find excerpts from the article online but I think that it is only available through catalogs like J-Stor.

Gluckman, Max. 1970. "The utility of the equilibrium model in the study of social change." American anthropologist, 72, 21-237

Real teaching

How is everyone feeling about their lesson plans in their dyads?

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