Summer Reading Challenge

Today, April 30 there is a live webcast about: Summer Reading. Here is the link: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=608&eml=TNL/20090430/TNL

Join the countdown and encourage summer reading!!!!

Standardized Tests

I cringe when I hear the word: standardized testing. Although every school uses this form of assessing students on a broad range across the country, I think it is an unfair way to determine a child's academic ability. The most common standardized test is the TerraNova test which tests students on a variety of subjects. the test results are given to the school, school district, and parent/child. The test is based on a scale-percentile, which is divided into three (3) levels: above average (80 or higher), average (30-79), and below average (29 and below). Seriously, how can you say a student is average if they receive a score of 40 in math? A 40 on a classroom test is failing and on a report card would be a failing mark as well. This form of assessment is all over the place and very unreliable. Also, not all students are great test-takers and because of this standardized testing is useless. I know that these tests will continue to be used to assess the students in our schools and continue to be compared to other children across the country, but I do feel they should not be taken as serious as they are and not to make them so important where classes are stopped for a week, now that is silly!

Report Cards

Report cards were never my favorite part of school. I used to dread when my parents would have back-to-school-night to go and speak with my teachers and get my report card. I was always so nervous and I didn't have a reason to be because I always did well in school, I just worried over nothing and I thing many children have this feeling. It's not like college where you have more control over your grades that you earn because in high school, and college you know when you are having a test or quiz whereas in elementary school it is sometimes sprung upon you without knowing. I used to feel it was not a fair evaluation/assessment. I also used to think how important the letter grades were, for example for outstanding work you would receive an "A" and for poor work you would get an "F." What a great way to make children hate those letters that represented poor or failing marks.

In today's schools there are many methods to communicate with students and parents and to keep records of students' s achievement. There are several methods when reporting student progress depending on the grade level. For example, letter grades may be used for those in the upper elementary, junior high, and high school levels. besides report cards many teachers will use progress reports to assess their students on a monthly basis, or for the younger children, a weekly basis.

Report cards will always exist and they will always make some children out their worry and nervous, but the purpose of them is still needed and the purpose of report cards will always give the parent and child a broad sense of their achievement and a better understanding of where improvement is needed.

California Learning Resources Network (CLRN)

CLRN provides educators with a "one-stop" resource for critical information needed for the selection of supplemental electronic learning resources aligned to the State Board of Education academic content standards.

CLRN objectives:
1. Identify and review supplemental electronic learning resources such as software, video, and Internet resources.
2. Identify learning units aligned to resources and the state academic content standards.
3. Maintain an interactive web site to provide information about electronic learning resources through an online searchable database and links to state education technology projects and resources.

After reading a little about CLRN I was eager to explore the site and see what it was really all about. I was aware that they had many of the traditional subjects, but when I discovered there was a link for visual and performing arts I was overjoyed. I have always had an interest the the performing arts field. One day when I am a teacher I hope to be able to incorporate some kind of program in the school for children to have access to.

There were several links I found useful and enjoyed. I also found the grade levels to be mixed which gave teachers a wide range of choices to work with. There were so many topics to choose from, such as: acting in a television series, acting in musicals, acting in a comedy, how to read music, understanding drama, and so on.

Check it out..it's FREE at: http://www.clrn.org/home/

Lesson Plans

Teachers at every level prepare plans that aid in the organization and delivery of their daily lessons. These plans vary widely in the style and degree of specificity. Some instructors prefer to construct detailed types of outlines while others prefer a more simple brief format. Regardless of the format, all teachers need to make wise decisions about the strategies and methods they will use to help students achieve their goals. A lesson plan will not only help you, as the educator, stay on track but it also serves as a guide for a substitute teacher to help him/her manage a learning environment.

When creating a lesson plan you have to think about the following: what are the goals, what content will I be teaching, and is this student-level appropriate? Once you are aware of what you will be doing, the next step is to create the lesson plan. A typical lesson plan consists of: the unit title, instructional goals, objectives, procedures, materials (if any), assessment, state standards, and provisions.

My past two projects for my education courses have been on creating: a unit of instruction lesson plan and a technology enhanced lesson plan. the unit of instruction lesson plan was based a subject of choice and creating a week long outline for that subject to teach in a classroom, whereas my technology enhanced lesson plan was to focus on how to incorporate technology into everyday teaching. I know that formatting a lesson plan for each subject is time consuming but I feel it's a great way to map out ones goals and instructions to see how he or she will accomplish what they plan to by using their lesson plans as guides. Lesson plans also help you stay on track and stay organized which is essential when teaching children, unorganized teacher = unorganized students. You set the standards and if you cannot hold it together when instructing a lesson or the class as a whole than it is inevitable to expect the students to do the same.

Portfolios

Another form of assessment is a portfolio, which is a "limited collection of a student's work used either to present the student's best work(s) or to demonstrate the student's educational growth over a given time, on one or a set of learning targets."

The work that is selected for a portfolio is carefully selected to add to the whole document to show one's growth and academic achievement over a period of time. "Presenting one's best work and demonstrating educational growth are two purposes for a portfolio," of course there are many more. Another type of portfolio is a growth and learning-progress portfolio, which contains examples of a student's work, along with comments, given by the instructor to demonstrate how well the student's ;earning has progressed over a given period of time. This type of portfolio is used for formative assessment. When putting a portfolio together student's will insert work into the document several times a year, typically three (3) or two (2). Along with the pieces of work the student should include a little write-up explaining why each piece was included/it's meaning, student reviews, whether it be your own or from other's, and student drafts, notes/teacher notes and comments on the progress.

I think portfolios are great because it gives other's a chance to appreciate your hard work and it's a great way to speak confidently about your work and include other's in on your project and what details go into creating your portfolio. It really allows other's to see a different side of you and what your achievement includes and how well you comprehend the material. It is especially great for those who are going on interviews, they can easily bring that and speak about certain assignments and give the interviewer a chance to see a piece of their work, that they are proud of.

- "Assessment and Grading in Classrooms." Chapter 9, Page 180-185

To Test or Not To Test?

Testing has been and always will be a major part of assessment in the classroom. Growing up I was never a great test taker-I was decent-but not great. Prior to attending catholic school, when I was in public school, I was in the 98 percent tile of the standardize test scores. when my parents moved me to catholic school my grades dropped drastically. My teacher from the public school always told my mom I was best suited for the public schools system and that I would thrive, whereas my sister would do better in a catholic school. I'm not sure if i even understand this myself but I guess she knew what she was talking about because I only attend a public school once more throughout all of my schooling and again when I was in the public school I did excellent. Nowadays I am in a catholic college, but this time my grades are great and I work hard to maintain my G.P.A. Does the school really have something to do with how a child academically succeeds? I'm not sure if it has something to do with the school, as it would with the teacher.

Since I never liked to take tests and never felt I could show my full potential and understanding, I was not a fan of tests and always had a stigma against them. I feel schools place too much emphasis on the tests rather than other material that could be counted or taken in place of tests. I am not saying that we should get rid of tests altogether, but I do think we need more forms of assessment than just tests.

There are several kinds of tests: essay based tests and multiple choice based tests. each subject requires different kinds of test formats. Essay based tests are a great way, in my opinion, to let the students fully explain their knowledge and comprehension of that subject/topic, and I would rather have an essay formatted test. Multiple choice based tests can go in many directions: they can either really give you the lead way because of the various choices or they could really confuse you and turn out to be worse than any other kind of test. I look at a multiple choice test in these ways: 1. if you are stumped, you have several other choices to narrow the answer down to, or secondly, if you really know the material but when you see other choice answers you begin to second guess yourself and a test you studied for hours for and were confident you would get a passing grade can turn to be a disaster.

I think tests are important to keep in the curriculum but to make some modifications to the types of tests given and to make sure they are related to the subject the educator is testing the students on.

Earth Day 2009

April 22nd is Earth Day! There are many great sites that you can use to access helpful tips on how to go green, fun classroom activities, games, and reading material.

Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day wrote this interesting article: "How the First Earth Day Came About"

Article: What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.

After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance.

For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office. Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities. Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

***Please keep in mind I did not write this article it was written by Senator Nelson. When I came across it I found it interesting and wanted to share it with everyone. I also added links to websites that I found interesting, feel free to take a look...

http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-day/
http://www.earthday.net/
http://earthday.wilderness.org/history/
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/

*Also check out the Scholastic web page for cool "going green" ideas. For example, go green report cards.

Videos & Social Networking

The videos for this module had a variety of topics being discussed. The titles were: Le Book, Cyberbullying, and Social networking with special education students and tips.

The first video: Le Book was a French video which portrayed how someone reacts to something "new." Like many of us who are introduced to new things all the time, we can grasp certain things easier than others. We may not always like being forced to use for example, new software and by trying to figure it out we become frustrated. Just like the man in the video he was unsure and nervous to tackle the book, he was afraid he was going to loose the story if he turned the page and was unsure what would happen if he closed the book. I think this is a great example of how we all get and can see a little part of us in him. once you learn how to use the new software, or for his case open and close or turn the pages of the book, we become more comfortable and eager to proceed with exploring.

The next video: cyberbullying, is a serious case with many young children and teens today. although the video was animated with panda bears there is more behind this topic, a topic that harms and affects many people in the world today. And unfortunately does not always get resolved with a happy ending. Cyberbullying is a main cause for children and teens committing suicide today. Not to long ago I was watching a TV program on investigating the Internet and cyberspace with teens and older children (typically 8 and older) and many of the stories shared were about children being bullied through the Internet and becoming so frustrated they took their own life. Many of the parents were not aware since it had been going on on the computer and became aware of the cyber abuse after it was too late. The severity of the abuse ranges from being told you are "fat" to naming calling, such as "you're gay!" I think parents need to definitely become more active in their child's computer use and need to teach their children how to protect themselves from bullying going further. In the video they mentioned three great words to help stop or prevent this from happening: "STOP, BLOCK, and TELL!!!!"

Social networking is part of our daily lives and the computer. We are all aware of myspace, facebook, twitter, and blog pages, so it is no surprise when people talk about the "creeps" that are out there pretending to be people they truly are not. Teens these days are now making sure their web pages are set to private because of those individuals who's incentive is to cause harm, etc. Networking is a great way to get yourself out there, but it can also be dangerous. The teens in the video seemed very aware of who is out there and what could happen if they are not careful. Being able to have access to a computer and the technology is amazing as long as you know the do's and don't's. The teens expressed how many of them set their pages to private to secure that nobody other than those they know can access them or send them anything through mail or IM's, their parents seem to be very on top of what is going on, for example one boy said that he computer is placed in his living room where his family spends much of their time and his mom is always making sure he is not on bad websites or people are not bothering him. There are pros ands cons to everything and if you are caution there is no harm in trying new things out and there is definitely no harm in making sure your child is using the computer wisely and is not being bullied.

April- National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and a great time to explore the world of words with your students!

Some Interesting books for the classroom are:
1. Hip Hop Speaks to Children, by, Nikki Giovanni
2. Poetry for Young People by, Emily Dickinson and Lewis Carroll and Robert Frost
3. Dinothesaurus, by, Douglas Florian
4. Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers, by, Mary Ann Hoberman

Hoppy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Great sites full of resources and activities for teachers:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/teacher/easter.htm

http://familyfun.go.com/easter/

http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/easter/easter-party-crafts.html

http://abcteach.com/directory/seasonalholidays/easter/

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/EasterGames.htm