POST #3: Share a resource

One of the new projects I would like to start this year is a book club. TrueFlix would be a great online resource to facilitate this idea, and a lot of the work has been done already! You can get to the chosen book by logging on to http://tfx.grolier.com/ (TrueFlix), choosing the Civil War button, and then clicking on the Abraham Lincoln book OR follow this link directly: http://tfx.grolier.com/p/node-33965/10010384 .
After viewing the short video clip the families can then read the book aloud or listen to it online. The TrueFlix website has project ideas, quizzes, vocabulary (listed in the book), and an activity center. My target audience would be K-6. I anticipate that we would read a chapter a day and our closed group Facebook page will provide a forum for students/parents to share information and questions. The second week students will extend their learning by exploring the "Explore the Web" and "More...The Civil War" tabs, as well as resources they discover on their own. During the second week the students will also view "Abraham Lincoln, Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents" http://snap.gpaea.k12.ia.us/tomms2/tommsplayer/tomms.php?id=75-000483&conf=numeric_ext.xml. It is a streaming video available from the AEA. The third week the families/students will chose a project to demonstrate what they have learned, and the fourth week we will gather together to discuss what we learned about Abraham Lincoln and share the projects. I hope through using TrueFlix families gain an understanding of how valuable a resource it can be for their home schools. Even though most students have a rudimentary knowledge of Abraham Lincoln, I hope they can discover some new facts about our great 16th president.

As a substitute I don't have access to the AEA website. but if I did I would go to the AEA online resources and login. I would then use the tool bar for search & select the resource I wanted. the Keywords I would use is Culture grams. I also, would combined Atomic, AP Images, & Soundzabound.
Culture grams through Pro Quest will help students research people & places, history, lifestyles, society, culture facts recipes.
Atomic will to help with video technology
AP images will help with adding Pictures, graphic's, maps, graphs, charts, logos, flags, audio News clips & text from history to students presentations.
soundzabound will help students add royality free music to their presentations. As well as,histrical clips, audio themes & sound effects.
      My target audience would be High School Art Class. I would assign them to look into their own family heritage. Pick a Culture that is connected to their heritage and start researching Culture grams to find out different traditions that possibly their family still carries on today. It could be a holiday, a recipe, or some kind of family history they could show original examples of or historical clips. I would have students put all this information together in a presentation to present in class. I would require the students to use at least one video clip off of atomic, ap images, or soundzabound. They could also can use original video or pictures from their own family. Their Goal objective will be that they will present a presentation. Learn to use technology to enrich their presentation. add photos and video to sharpen the technology skills and just learn something new in their family and the culture they chose.

I went to the Iowa AEA  On-line webpage and click on AEA digital library under the student tab. Then I put “minerals” in the key word box and checked the following options: search title, description, and key words.  I had several listings. I read the description, grade level, and time length. I choose the full episode for grade 5-9 since I will be using this with a 9th grade class. The full episode is 21 minutes long and gives a good overview of identifying minerals. There are also clips of each property of minerals from the full episode that I could use as I introduce each mineral properties. I watched the videos and it looks like it will be topic and grade level appropriate.
http://www.aeadigitallibrary.org/Search.aspx?sub=208&sub=207&sub=17&sub=33&kw=minerals&kwt=all&kwi=d&kwi=k&kwi=t

Iowa AEA Online
Click on Britannica Online, sign in using your school's account and password
Under "Elementary" drop down, type in Monarch Butterfly
Choose Level 3, and Video
Choose The life cycle of a monarch butterfly

My target audience is my 3rd grade classroom. We have a monarch caterpillar in the classroom that we look forward to releasing one day as a butterfly. Students will research her environment, her characteristics, habitats, human beings' influence on her habitat, and environmental stewardship.

Part of our lesson will be viewing the short video and following along with the text provided.

The instructions to add curriculum standards are as follows:

Click on the "Educators" tab, top right corner
Choose US State Standards under Curriculum Standards Browse
From drop down menu, choose Iowa Content Standards
Choose a Subject (science) and Grade
From here, use Standards that apply to your lesson, mine are included below:

IA.LS. — Life Science
LS.1. — Understand and apply knowledge of organisms and their environments, including:
LS.1.1. — Structures, characteristics, and adaptations of organisms that allow them to function and survive within their habitats.
LS.2. — Understand and apply knowledge of environmental stewardship.
LS.1.2. — How individual organisms are influenced by internal and external factors.

One of the resources that would be a great connection to my 4th and 5th music classes would be Culture Grams.  As I do not have a password to get into the system to browse through the actual Culture Grams database, I know that I can access it through the Iowa AEA online website. Once I am on the website, the log in to Culture Grams is clearly displayed on the right hand side of the page or I could  simply go to the  address at http://online.culturegrams.com/.

My intention is to use the Culture Gram website to give students more insight into a certain set of songs.  For example, I do a unit on Japan in my classroom, where we perform Japanese folk songs and learn some Japanese drumming patterns and learn some recorder pieces that have Japanese folk melodies in them.  As an extension on this unit, I would like to use Culture Grams to help students have their own personal 'passport' to that country to further their understanding of Japanese culture.

The website I will share is http://galesites.com/state/iowa/

I chose this site to use with my 6th grade students when they write a research paper later in the year.  I plan to use this to help them as they research their topic for their paper.  I like this because it gives them so many options for research.  They can access many different forms of written material to use.  In addition to the written form they have access to audio and video materials.  These help not only in preparing the paper, but also in the presentation of their paper which they give to the rest of the class upon completion.  I also appreciate the fact that the site has citation tools which makes it easy for the student to properly cite any works used.

My hope for the student is that this variety of tools will make the subject come to life for them.  As they become more excited and engaged in the topic, I trust they will be more attentive to their writing and composition.

I am choosing to share the SIRS issues researcher.  Since I no longer am at Turkey Valley I do not have my former keystone username and password.  But if I did I would long on the AEA online website and select SIRS and then enter my user name and password.  As a sub and or parent I know I can also access the sites by talking to my child's teacher if they are using them or talking with the teacher I may subbing for and getting their username to be able to access the sites they may be using in the classroom.

My target audience for SIRS will be high school students.  I would like to incorporate SIRS into a current issues or current events type of class or unit.  The biggest objective or outcome I think that this resource has is it teaches students great critical thinking skills.

Let me give an example.  If I was to bring up and issue like legalizing marijuana or capital punishment, I could use SIRS to have students examine both sides of the issues.  I could have them summarize a couple of articles that focus on one side and then a couple of articles that focus on the other side.  We could then have a great class discussion about what the students researched.  At the end I could have the students pick a side and write a report about why they chose a certain side and why they disagree with the other side.  This would allow for great thinking skills to be used because they would have to be able to back up their arguments based on the research that they had completed using the information they found on SIRS.  I would really hope that the discussions we have would make the students think about both sides as they hear their classmates give their points of view.  

In navigating the resources, one of the tools that I found most interesting was the TeachingBooks.net resource.  In fact, I forwarded this link on to our LA teachers in our school as a way to stay current on the award winning books that are out annually.  We have a strong literacy push within our schools, and challenging students to read through the awards list is a great way to encourage our kids to increase those literacy minutes.  In addition, I appreciate the fact that you can look up texts by genre.

In addition to this resource, I also encouraged use of Learn360 as a way to use video without the "distractions" that can be found on a general Youtube page.  At the middle level, some of the ads or suggested videos that appear on Youtube can make it somewhat risky to show videos, therefore it was nice to share out the Learn360 option for videos.  

I plan to use teachingbooks.net through the AEA's site.  I found that the book I am to introduce this week is listed there and we can "meet" the illustrator.  There are also lesson plans I can use to supplement the ones I am required to teach, but there is also an art activity to go with the book that I think my first graders would enjoy.  I also plan to use Learn360 to find other videos that will help teach what an autobiography is and possibly making a timeline to mark important times in their lives (birth, first words, first steps, go to school, etc...).  When I begin teaching social studies later in the school year, I plan to used culturegrams.com as a resource.

My resource BookFlix is found on AEA Online.  Specifically, it is a visual movie clip of a story booked called The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

http://bkflix.grolier.com/sw/node-33979/bk0028prynolds

We just received an email/invitation from our Literacy Coach that we will be having our first school-wide STEM Challenge next week.  I work in a brand new STEM Elementary School –specifically I teach 3rd Grade.  The challenge revolves around this book.  I have never read, or heard, of this book until today.  Her email states that:
Tuesday is International Dot Day!
We are going to have an All School STEM Challenge

The Dot is the first of three books -- a trilogy of books dedicated to creativity.
But The Dot is more than a book about art. It is a book that encourages us to be brave about expressing ourselves. It gently reminds us to start small and explore the IDEA.

This resource will help my class have access to the book at any time to help with this STEM challenge.  I will not have to go check it out or go online to buy it for them.  BookFLIX looks to be a “keeper” for elementary teachers.  So many of the teachers utilize this resource found on AEA already.  This is the first time that I actually looked into it.  The possibilities seem endless.

Since I am home and not within reach of my login ( I don't have it memorized yet), I will explain where I would go and what I plan to do with my resource choice.  I would go to AEA online and then after logging in, I would go to culture grams. I find this to be an excellent resource for my 3rd grade social studies students. I teach all of the social studies for our school's grade level and this resource will definitely be a permanent fixture within my planning.

After going to culture grams, I would have my students go to the world edition. Next, I would have the students click on the continent or type in the country that they have chosen. From here, they can go to many different areas which include photos, flags, food, research,  and etc.  The reason I would go here would be to specifically use this for our culture unit. Students study different cultures and countries and then either do a power point or report to share with the class. We then use these to make a comparison chart and world study. Finally we will be doing a class presentation with parents.

This resource will provide a much more in depth and realistic view of the country that they are studying. Students will get an actual feel of what life can be like in their specific country. They can get all the information with one resource and will have fun while they research!

Unfortunately I do not have log in credentials for AEA online. However, if I was able to log on, I would use APimages, Culture Grams and Gale newstand. I do a majority of my subbing for high school Family Consumer Science focusing on foods classes and fashion design, illustration and garment production/sewing along with fashion merchandising. The foods classes(female and males students usually sophomores and juniors) would be able to access recipes from all over the country and world. This exposure to what other cultures are preparing and eating along with foods that are native to their country would be very eye opening and unique to that location. My fashion students are usually females in their junior or senior year. Many of them have an interest in pursuing this area of focus for college. It would be very beneficial for them to be able to access Womens Wear Daily(newspaper for the fashion industry), view fashion magazines, photos and periodicals. It would also be useful for the students to be able to access information of other states and countries such as New York, France and Italy which are know fashion empires. Overall, these resources would benefit the students to have a broader understanding and knowledge of the fashion industry and what is trending. They would be able to visualize the fashion market, designers and see up to date information from a variety of sources. It will open up the world to them right at their fingertips!

I was unable to access the various resources presented in the modules through the AEA Online site as I am not currently teaching within a school district.  I was impressed and surprised by how many resources are available and that the resources encompass all media formats.  The tutorials throughout the modules presented easy navigational tips and tricks which should make it easy to locate grade and content appropriate materials.
One of the tools I was able to investigate for myself was Kahn Academy as prior to my current position I was an 8th grade math teacher in the Dubuque Public School System.  After creating an account and exploring the site, I found the missions to be very interesting and something that could help supplement the varying learning needs of the students.  What I liked the most about the missions is that they are beneficial not only for students who are performing at grade-level but can be used for remediation as well as to offer more challenging work for those above grade level.  The students are giving the opportunity to explore.  I also liked that there is a mission warm-up that helps Khan identify the student’s ability level and where to begin offering help, so that the practice and problems offered are not the same for each student.  This is something that can be offered to students to access at school or can even be offered for extra support outside of school.  Having tutored several middle school and high school students the online tutorials and online support are invaluable as everyone learns at their own pace so having different avenues available to them ensures a greater chance at success.

I went to AEA on line and logged into Culturegrams. From there I went to Afghanistan. The URL is http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?cid=1&cn=Afghanistan&ctid=3. I love this site when I find myself with a little spare time in a classroom. Many times as a sub, especially in social science classes, i like to bring in a news paper and talk about recent happenings in our world. The site opens a new avenue for information and insight into another culture that differs from ours but is every bit as important to its people.

The site is also a valuable resource in understanding the differences within our own country. I like to think that the students open their minds to the "other side of the street" by presenting the information in an open forum and seeing where it goes.

I was able to sign into Teachingbooks.net and browse through the book lists, teacher resources, and lesson plans.  I typed in my book of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin, Jr.  and Eric Carle and was able to find resources and ideas to use with the children. There were 7 different lesson plans to navigate through. I was able to find a Slide & Find book video that would be fun to share with preschoolers.
Expanding on the ideas for the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" the children could come up with ideas to expand the book or write their own maybe for the seasons. Fall, Fall, What Do You See?, I see an Oak tree looking at me....... and so on. The children will be able to identify colors, rhyming concepts, and be able to take ownership of there own ideas. With online book resources,being able to find some videos, pictures and interviews with the authors of the books is a big benefit for the classroom. The only thing I have troubles with is that since we are a private school I am unable to navigate some things since I don't have a public school code or password. I am hoping to get that figured out soon.

I will be using Atomic Learning to help teach my help desk students OS Yosemite and Terminal. From the Atomic Learning page I searched for “Mac”. Out of the 76 results I quickly found Yosemite training http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/mac-os-x-10.10-yosemite-training and Terminal training http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/macosxterminalx.shtml on the first page. I had previously viewed the Terminal training while exploring the site during the course.

Atomic learning provides videos/tutorials broken down into small short segments to learn assorted topics. The Yosemite training will be used with my help desk students by placing links to the videos within our LMS. The goal is to introduce the help desk students to the new OS before rolling out the upgrade to the rest of the students and staff. Having these students understand the basics and new features will alleviate some of the stress others may have during the change.

The terminal training will show the help desk students some of the uses for Terminal to do both trivial and in depth troubleshooting tasks. Students don’t have access to Terminal, but that would be lifted for those in help desk only. This would allow them some “freedom” to explore terminal while following along with the videos. I would again place links to the trainings in our LMS setting dates to complete each portion.

I have already been using BookFLIX with my first graders.  I go to the website www.iowaaeaonline.org and click on BookFLIX on the left side of the homepage.  You need to get your user name and password from your school librarian or media specialist to log in.  You are then taken to this URL http://bkflix.grolier.com/ In first grade we do a lot of different themed lessons that are cross-curricular in reading, math, writing, social studies and science.  Last week we had a unit on neighborhoods and community helpers.  I bring up the BookFLIX website onto my SmartBoard to project the stories and activities to do with my first graders.  There are nine categories to choose from: Animals and Nature, Earth and Sky, People and Places, ABC's and 1,2,3's, Family and Community, Music and Rhyme, Adventure, Celebrations, and Imagination.  I went to Family and Community for my unit.  Then you flip through the paired story pages until you find the story and video that correlates with your lesson.  One of the pairs I chose was the book "Police Officers on the Go" and the video "Officer Buckle and Gloria".  When using the book option, you can have the read along on or off depending on your students' reading level.  You can do a vocabulary lesson as well by looking at the yellow highlighted words in the story.  If you click on one of those yellow words you can hear a definition.  You can get background information from the Meet the Author tab and other options from Explore the Web.  After reading the book or watching the video (which has the words highlighted as it plays), your class can do the Puzzlers.  There is a vocabulary word match, fact or fiction activities, or a sequencing game called Which Came First?  The Lesson Plan button lists the subjects, grade levels, learning objectives, assessments, curriculum correlations, and a PDF version for you to print out the lessons.  

One resource I want to try using with the students is CultureGrams. To get there I go to the Iowa AEA online website, then choose CultureGrams. I already have the Iowa AEA website bookmarked, so that speeds things up! Since I teach ELL, CultureGrams is especially interesting to me. My students always like hearing about themselves and sharing their stories, so this is a resource to use where they can show off their home country. Some of the students were born in the US, so I'm really glad there are state versions too. As an add on, I might let the students record their own personal CultureGram to share with the class. They could interview family members, record cooking a meal, or showcase anything they want people to know about their culture. Using CultureGrams as an ideal example will hopefully springboard them into opening up and sharing.

I used the video from Learn360 - Math - 3rd-5th Grade - "Fun with Fractions".

I know this sounds a little "stupid", but I have a class of Algebra I students who are very low in math.  We have been solving equations and whenever it comes to problems whose answers are not an integer, all they know to do is put it in their calculator and come up with a decimal answer.  Well, we have been doing some Khan Academy problems and that resource requires the answers to be written as fractions.  That has totally thrown my entire class into a frenzy.  The resource teacher that is in the room with me says, "Can't we work on fractions?".  I have noticed that at my school, all of the kids struggle with fractions.  However, these kids really struggle.  They are pretty much clueless.  So, I am off on a tangent going to attempt to get these kiddos understanding fractions better.  I enjoyed this film because it is relative to life - and they LOVE eating.  This will be my introduction into fractions and then I plan on finding some more clips which will demonstrate the next step in fractions.  I also use a lot of IXL, so I am going to have them start in Kindergarten and work their way up to 5th grade fractions.  Once we are finished with this video, I am going to give them a recipe and have them double and triple the recipe.  We will see if there is a transference from the video to the recipe I will give to them.  My only concern is the length of the video.  "19 minutes is a bit long".  When she goes through the process of doubling each part of the recipe, I am going to pause the recipe and see if they can do 1 or 2 of the ingredients on their own.  Then they can check their answer as the movie progresses.  My hope is that they will begin to like fractions as we endeavor to go down this path.

One of the units that I teach in a general science class is astronomy.  As our culminating lesson we talk about the Universe as a whole (formation, expansion, etc).  I have found a great video on Learn360 that illustrates many of these topics (link is shown below).  Many of the these topics are very abstract and often hard for students to "wrap their minds around", so this video will be an excellent addition to that lesson.

http://www.learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?lid=6811845&Subject=9331474&ID=227111

I plan on either using clips of this video as either an introductory activity or as supplements to lectures and lab activities as we go through the unit.  My target audience for this will be high school freshman with no previous knowledge on this topic.  My goal is that these video clips will help students visualize and understand these often hard to teach and learn topics.  I will assess their learning in a variety of ways including video guides, quizzes and other assignments that relate to this topic.  I also plan on sharing this video with students so they can use it to review on their own time.