POST #3: Share a resource

Just a quick comment before I discuss my resource... I noticed as I was reading posts below that I'm not the only teacher that does not have passwords for the aea database sites. I think it would be great if we as a whole could have better communication as instructors about the aea database and our passwords on a local level.
Ok, I'll get off my soapbox... I did actually find a site I could get into that I would like to use as a resource for my students.
I teach orchestra and would like the students to think about string music and where/how often we hear it every day. I think that sounds abound would be a great site for kids to begin researching this subject.
I found this site by going to www.iowaaeaonline.org and clicking on the soundzabound link. I then would like student to begin by entering classical in the search box. This brings you to a page with several pieces that are played by string players everywhere. One of the ones I noticed rit away was Air in G. This is a classical piece played usually at weddings. I will have my students search for classical pieces like these and tell me where they have heard these pieces or think these pieces could be played. I love the idea that the kids can use a broad word like classical, rock and jazz and they end up with several clips of music at there fingertips... All of which I do not need to worry will be inappropriate in nature.

I am retired and do not currently have a username or password.  However,  I anticipate that I may teach in the ESL summer school or even volunteer to work with ESL students who are newcomers and have very limited literacy skills.  Since I accessed the digital resources when I was employed by the Sioux City District, I am comfortable with how to put in the school username and password.  I would be excited to link to the Book Flex resource to use with these students  I would put in key words that would link a literature resource that would compliment a topic they are using in their small group reading situations or social studies and science.  The aural/visual component is a great accommodation for English Language students.  I am sure that their fluency and pronunciation would improve with this utility.  It would be excellent for repeated readings when the students would have access to the book and listen to it with headphones while I worked with other students.  I would also appreciate the students' ability to even listen to the books at home.  

Since I am a substitute and do not have a username or password I will not be able to actively respond to this question.  If I had a regular classroom, I would use the resource Britannica school.  This resource can be manipulated by users to fit the needs of each student and their learning styles.  Botanical school is an online encyclopedia that has three levels, elementary, middle school, and high school and students can create their own account and save their materials.  Teachers can create their own accounts, access lesson plans and save materials.  It allows the teacher to differentiate the lesson plans and make them age-appropriate.  Botanical school has many content types such as articles, images, videos, dictionary, magazines, and e-books.  Since collaboration is a key component in education today, teachers can share lesson plans with their peers.  Peers can add their own content and details to make the lesson template their own.

My third-grade classroom had students of various levels and three fourths of my students were ESL learners so it was very difficult to help individual students understand the book resources we used.  The Britannica school resource will help all students access and understand the given information.

Book Flex is another resource I intend utilize.  Students will be able to listen to books while viewing each word that is being said.  It supplements and reinforces reading.

My plan is to use the Iowa High School Battle of Books and Iowa Teen Awards....http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?lid=4005 and   http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?lid=4255 in my English 9 classroom. (Will need to make sure books are at their reading level)   I will start by having the students look through both lists and pick at least 4 novels from the list that they find interesting.  They will then fill out a short form to show that they investigated the novel and author.  They will do this for the 4 books that they picked from the list.  I will then have them pick one of the books and use that as their independent reading novel.   Students will finish up their independent reading unit with a presentation of their novel and of their author.  They can use this AEA as an resource.  

Another site I plan on using is Teen Health and Wellness.  My Sophomore class will be doing a short research paper and I plan on having them use one of the topics from this site.  It gives them many valuable resources to use to aid them in writing their paper.

Another site I plan on using for my Mass Media is this video on blogging.   http://www.learn360.com/Search.aspx?d=13863516&ActiveId=All&standardname=common&Correlation=27199552&SearchCorrelationPath=true

My students in Mass Media will then start a blog for the class.

I would go to AEA online and select Culture Grams and do a unit on the United States.  When watching the tutorials of these on the course I really found it interesting and how easy and fast it was to do so much on one website.  I also like that while you are researching you feel like you are there in that country or state and you get to experience their daily life and culture, their history, the customs of the land, and their lifestyles.  Also that it is a leading reference for concise, reliable and up-to-date cultural information on countries by people who actually live there.  How much more beneficial to get the information of a country from a person who lives there and knows the country well then a person just visiting to see what the country is like.  With this website I would have my 3rd graders or 4th graders each pick 5 states that they would like to know more about.  Then I would have them find different facts about each state and compare and contrast different information that they found on population, life expectancy, ect. Make a map of the different resources in that state, flower, flag.  There is just so much information that this site presents to teachers and students.  We might also take some of the recipes from the state that the students pick and try them!!

I teach in resource classroom in high school, middle school, mechanical, electrical institute, substitute teacher, star talk program setting. This site explains in detail the importance of knowledge of materials, knowing where and how you get the various knowledge, science language, mechanical, electrical, knowledge as well as arts, music, drawing, painting and explains how you need to get this knowledge and information and details for all these materials. My favorite part was the science-- biology, chemistry, physics, mechanical, electrical. Various knowledge that can be used in different fields of study, some of them to be graduate to higher level of studying and can be used as multi-references for those various fields of specialty study related to getting higher certificate as for associate, bachelor, master, or doctorate degrees.  I talk in the classroom about learning, teaching those subjects, materials, for getting a higher degree, which is really helpful for teachers like myself, with students that are in need of basic life skills.

I do not have a username of password but if I did, I would go to Teaching Books.net and collect as many resources as possible for the read aloud I'm doing with my class. I would love to have them hear from the author herself.  DOK questions associated with the book would be a time saver too.  

It would be great if those of us with teaching credentials could have access to these resources.

I went to http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/ and explored Learn360 and Soundzabound. I would recommend both of these resources for my competitive speech students. We compete in contests through the Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA). In large group competitions, the categories of TV News, Radio News, Short Film, and Choral Reading allow students to use images, music, video and/or audio clips to enhance their performances. In Individual Events, Expository Address and Reviewing allow them as well. It is often difficult to find video, sound effects and/or music that are appropriate and copyright free for students to use in their speech events. Both of these AEA resources have a lot to offer. For example: a TV or Radio News team could use one of the many news-themed music clips on Soundzabound for their theme music, http://www.soundzabound.com/audio/search/news , or a student doing an Expository Address about bullying could use one of the Film Clips for Character Education from Learn360, like “A Christmas Story: Standing Up to a Dare” http://www.learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?FromAdvancedSearch=true&lid=163210&Publisher=11462749&ID=366807 , to show the effects of giving in to peer pressure. There are many resources available for students to help augment their speech presentations.

I am going to use BookFlix to help build the confidence, fluency, and word recognition for my struggling readers.  I have "Reader of the Day" in my classroom.  Each student is assigned to read a story/book to the class one day each month during "Reader of the Day" time.  Students are encouraged to pick a book from home and practice at home BUT that does not always happen.

I am going to have students find a book on BookFlix that we also have a hard copy of either in our classroom library or school library.  I will read the book with them during "read to self" and they can use Bookflix during "listen to reading" to practice reading before their "Reader of the Day." I firmly believe that using this resource will benefit my struggling readers in many ways.

  I used Learn360, typed in Resiliency and marked it for grs. 6-8 and 9-12.  A video listing of eleven items came up. Each listing has the name, grades, run time and a few sentences telling about it.  I then copied and pasted the items into a word document.  At the top of the page I listed Learn360, the URL listing, the username and password for our school as well as how to reach the listings.
  My target audience is our high school teachers.  Five of these teachers work with students who are average or above in ability. One classroom has students functioning at approximately the 5th grade level.
As teachers work through our Resiliency and Grit Curriculum they will choose which items correlate with the topic being discussed and will use their interactive boards to bring the video/video clip into their classroom.
  At our weekly teacher meeting I will introduce them to Learn360 by bringing it up on the interactive board and showing them how to mark it so it is easily accessible to them in the classroom.
There was a section within each item in the Learn360 listing that had a spot for the Standards and Benchmarks, although none were listed with the video clips that were there.
  I looked up the standards and benchmarks that correlate with our topics and will review these with our teachers as well.  They are from the high school "Technology Literacy", "Employability Skills" and "Health Literacy".

I'm a substitute teacher and haven't been able to crack the code for a login. I would hone in on the Teen Health and Wellness site for both midldle schoolers and high schoolers.  This site has a wealth of relevant topics and if I were a regular teacher I would look to institute some sort of debate forum with some of the controversial topics.  Those would include Drugs and Alcohol, Sexuality and Sexual Health, and Friendship and Dating. Students might be hesitant at first but hopefully open up over time.  There would be great forums to develop articulate and thought provoking arguments while discussing important teen subjects. Students could use many of the opinions and editorials to buttress their own viewpoints.  Some of the other topics could be used for material in regular Health and Wellness type classes. These would include Body Basics, Food and Nutrition, Green Living, and Nutrition, Fitness, and Appearance. Several topics lend themselves to use in one week courses.  I would use one week in the first semester to facilitate discussion and role-playing with the Diversity topic. Students could access the writings and experiences from fellow students across varied backgrounds. I would use a week in the second semester to discuss Skills for School, Work, and Life. These would have practical application for all students including those with special needs.

The Iowa AEA Online resource I would like to share is "Atomic Learning".  This a resource I have shared many times with local schools on their professional development days.  Since my focus is on the Library Media/Technology area and one of the key focus areas is literacy, it is a natural progression for me to work with schools in how to use and setup iPads as e-Readers.  The first thing I do in the workshop is explain the technological change from hardcopy book format to the digital format that is being used by more  consumers everyday.  After the background explanation I then show the group the Iowa AEA Online website, explain how it works and then take them directly to the Atomic Learning database.  I then have them enter their username and password, search for iPad trainings and then scroll down to the iPad iBook training sequence.  The following link takes you directly to the iBook training:
http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/ipad_wkshp
At this point I let each teacher have time for a hands on experience.  The key to this workshop/training is to allow each teacher time to find and locate the specific resources that fit and work with their curriculum and classroom activities.  

I went to the AEA Online site and chose SIRS from the menu on the left.  I logged in using our school login and password, and then chose "Civil Rights" as my topic.  http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-portal-res?id=S0621405-0-2199 

I am hoping to have students utilize SIRS in my classroom as an alternative to researching topics via Google.  This particular topic would be primarily for research on topics for Social Studies class, but could also be used for other curricular areas.  SIRS offers an excellent base of topics to gather research and a large variety of different mediums (newspapers, magazines, graphics, etc) for students to use.  By using SIRS I hope to lessen the amount of research our teachers are seeing gathered from sites like Wikipedia.

I went to heartland website, then I clicked on the 6-8th grade then the link to CultureGram. I then picked the kids edition. I chose this site and grade level because the students that I work with were at a lower reading level. The students had a one page World Studies information project about different countries in Latin America.  They were able to find all the information that they needed there they could read it themselves or it could be read to them with their headphones. The student that we usually read to was so happy because they were able to be with the other students and not have to leave to be read to.

I am a media specialist aide and one of the resources I would recommend to the younger students is Book Flix.  They can easily pick out a book of their choice, click on it and the narrator will read the book to them. It's great the way the book comes alive with video and sound.  As the students get older they will be able to read along, word by word. It also includes games using vocabulary words from the story.  The resource I would recommend to our History students would be Culture Gram.  They can find any and all research material they would need on their country or state. They can make maps and find out information on the culture, population, history etc. It's a great resource, I wish it would have been around when I was in school.

The AEA Online offers many resources that are exceptional. One that I plan to use while substitute teaching is Britannica Digital Learning. The main reason I have selected this resource is because it offers high-quality online resources and instructional solutions that improve teaching and learning in grade Pre K-12. Britannica Digital Learning is aligned to the Common Core Curriculum. The resource has four levels of learning and can be used on any device. From day to day my classroom can be at any grade K-12, so I plan to use this instructional digital learning to cover a wide range of academic subjects. This digital learning would allow for easy differentiated instruction. Britannica Online is user-friendly, inquiry-based, and trusted. Britannica can be used at home as well as at school. At school I plan to have the students read encyclopedia articles and age appropriate reference and learning materials for students.

Other helpful teaching tools available are Merriam-Webster's student dictionary and thesaurus, timelines, and hundreds of animated maps, charts and videos are accessible. There is also an app that is full of information, activities, and games that can be utilized to assist within the classroom. Students may also use this online site for homework help and general knowledge. The Education Britannica site was among the top ten Best Digital resources for being able to reach every user at every level while still providing educators with teacher resources, additional learning materials, digital images, video clips, and maps.  

I love both BookFlix and TrueFlix equally. I work with a 2nd grader that is a very low reader. We opened up Antartic Antics. I love how this is at his reading level. He had so much fun with this as he followed along as it was reading to him. On this story it actually sang to him. He didn't know he was in reading class! He asked if we could watch another movie. I loved how he could follow along with the highlighted words. We then looked at the non-fiction book next to it. Next time I will start with that one because it was a good book but the fiction was sooo much fun.

With all of the resources it is hard to choose a resource to share.  I would like to share the Learn360 resource.  I could spend forever on this program.  There are so many resources to bring science and social studies to life.  The movie clips are up to date and prevalent to the world today.  That isn't the only use for this site.  The uses are endless.

Besides using to research and bring history to life, the site can be used for working on math drill and practice. I like the idea of being able to utilize the smart board interface with the math program to be able to make the mathematic process more kinesthetic.  

The other part of the Learn 360 that excited me is that the material on the site are based on state standards, core standards, 21st century skills, and national standards.  

I really believe there are a lot of different valuable resources that this site offers to that can be easily infused into the daily curriculum.

Since I do not have a user name or password, I cannot get on the website, but I really enjoyed the possibilities with Bookflix.   I would go to the AEA website, click on “Teacher Resources” on the left, and then follow the link to Bookflix… http://auth.grolier.com/login/bookflix/login.php?bffs=N .  Although I feel limited on how much of it I could use, with being on the low side of the lowest age, I know that my 3-year-olds would love hearing the stories.  I would definitely want the words to be highlighted as the story is read.  Even though they wouldn’t be able to read the words yet, we have been working enough with letters that I believe they would recognize some.  I think it would help show them that the letters make the words; and the words are what make that story come alive.

    A resource that I found and will use with my students can be found at http://online.culturegrams./world/accessibl-report.php?cid=169.  This is an accessible report of the United States found on Culturegrams.  My students are male offenders at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility who have completed little if any high school.  Many of these men are quite intelligent but due to a lack of education they have very little knowledge of American history.  This resource will help me bring historical, cultural, economic, and governmental knowledge to my students about the United States and all nations of our world.  The information is not only historical in nature but is also current to todays events. My overall objective in using this resource is to help the men I teach obtain their high school equivalency diploma.  I believe that the information I share with my classes from Culturegrams will be instrumental in helping many of these men achieve their goal.