POST #3: Share a resource

I used the resource Bookflix. This site is great for kindergarteners and other grade levels too! It contains books that are developmentally at their level of learning. I went to Bookflix.scholastic.com. From there, I logged in: http://auth.grolier.com/login/bookflix/login.php?bffs=N. Then I searched for Good Night Gorilla.It came up with Good Night Gorilla and another book titled Who Lives At The Zoo. It matched a fiction book (Good Night Gorilla) to a nonfiction book (Who Lives At The Zoo). I love that students were able to interact with both books and compare fiction and nonfiction book! Not only that, students were also able to listen to one book (Good Night Gorilla) and read the other (Who Lives At The Zoo). It was very interactive and dug deeper into their comprehension. It has an area for fact or fiction where students read a sentence and determine if the sentence is fact or fiction. Great questioning! You were also able to meet the author and learn a little bit more about her. Knowing author is one of the Kindergarten learning goals!

In 5th grade writing class, students have to write a research paper on Westward Expansion. Many of my students are interested in the 1849 California Gold Rush. Looking through TrueFlix I was able to find a book on this topic.  
On the Iowa AEA page find TrueFlix; On the main page of TrueFlix find the Westward Expansion Logo. After clicking on the Westward expansion tab you will be taken to a page where several books are listed. Also listed are several tabs that might be helpful to students. Find the one on the California Gold Rush; After clicking on the book you will be taken to a page where you can either watch the book or have it read to you or read it yourself. Since I work with students with reading difficulties having the book read to them will be helpful.
What I enjoyed as I was looking at the book, you are able to stop the reading and take notes. It also listed several resources in the back of the book.

Information on cultures at the k-2 level has always been difficult to find.  I chose to investigate CultureGrams - http://online.culturegrams.com/ - to see how it would have fit into the curriculum. The website was so easy and quick to navigate. Teacher help areas are easy to locate and come with many different discussion ideas and creative projects to teach about a specific culture.  You can also correlate the lesson with common core standards.
One of the cultures we taught was the Mexican-American culture. I went to the Kids Edition to the map of the world. At that point I chose Mexico and came to the information page. I only wish I had used it years ago! So much of the information is geared to what would interest the students. Categories include People and Places, History, Lifestyles, Society, and Culture Facts. Subcategories range from basic facts about the population to on titled "Life as a Kid". Students could choose videos to watch, recipes, or even listen to an interview of a person who lives there. I liked the fact it included a timeline and graphs and tables to teach those tools as well. I thought the site was very entertaining as well as educational. To teach my students how to find facts on the site I would have put up a few questions for them to find the answers to, then allow them to pick a project or activity to work on as they navigated through the information. My students would have spent days researching and learning about this culture and others.

So far my favorite resource is Book FLIX. I just go iowaaeaonline.org and clicked on bookflix. I have school code, and there it is.  I like this for my grandkids and when I get the chance, I will use this with them a lot!   So to just start off I clicked on "educator resources" and a complete explanation comes up on everything you need to know.  I clicked on "using paired texts".  It explains how they have paired fiction and nonfiction to help kids become better readers. I especially like the " library programs.  It gives you step by step details on how to prepare a theme for the week.  Finding library books, songs  ect.... You can browse the title list for just the right book.  You can click on any category to find a book.  Fiction and nonfiction, paired together.  I've clicked on "earth and sky"  You have the choice of watching the story or reading the book.  When you choose a book it gives you the choice to watch, read, puzzlers, meet the author and explore the web.  You are also offered lesson plans for the book that you have chosen. BookFLIX is geared towards PK-3. It is an excellent resource for beginning readers. It makes it FUN!  I will be using this for my  two grandchildren, ages 4 and 7.,

First, I go to www.iowaaeaonline.org and choose the BookFlix site from the menu on the left.  Once at the site, I log in with username and password - then select GO.  I choose a book category - in this case Animals and Nature.  Choose tab 1-4 and select the paired books of ANTARCTIC ANTICS/ANTARCTICA.

I will use these paired readings to provide information to my first grade class for a combined unit on Antarctica and Emperor Penguins. After we have discussed characteristic of Emperor Penguins and their habitat, we view the paired reading selections.  The ANTARCTIC ANTICS book has been put to music, and these delightful songs help the children remember the 4-5 characteristics of Emperor Penguins help make the Emperor Penguin unique.  1) How many eggs does an emperor penguin lay?     2) Who incubates the egg?  3)  What do Emperors eat?  4) Who are the enemies of the Emperor Penguin?  5)  Where does the Emperor Penguin live?

The class seems to enjoy this paired selection and ask to watch it repeatedly.  As a bonus,  this selection served as a catalyst for an at risk reader in my first grade class to check out every penguin book he could find and learn to read it, helping to transform him from a non reader to a fluent reader.

http://school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/277443

The resource that I have chosen comes from Britannica Online. I went to Britannica, chose middle school, and then searched for Harriet Tubman and found this article, as well as a short video when I clicked on the Video tab.
This article is about Harriet Tubman's role as an abolitionist and is geared toward the 4th grade, which would be appropriate to use at times in a high school special education classroom. The special education teacher that I work with teaches a unit about abolition which includes information about Harriet Tubman. This resource could be used as an introduction to Harriet Tubman's life and accomplishments. This resource would be very beneficial to special education students because it has the option of listening to the article as it is read to them. I would have the students listen to the article as it was being read, pausing at times to have them write down vocabulary words from the reading, such as abolitionism and Underground Railroad. I would then have the students watch the short clip that accompanies this reading. We would then discuss what we had read/heard/watched about Harriet Tubman and define the vocabulary words that we had picked out.
The overall objective would be to introduce them to the abolition movement, focusing on Harriet Tubman's contributions. It would also help familiarize students with terms that would likely be unknown to them and that they would need to learn to understand the unit.

I am excited to start using BookFlix, especially during our summer school with K-3 students.  We center summer school based around 3 different themes during the three 2-week sessions.  One of the units is around "The Great Outdoors" and planting flowers and vegetables in a garden.  BookFlix has the perfect unit for kids to explore and learn about seeds growing into flowers or plants.  There are paired books--a nonfiction book From Seed to Dandelion that goes along with a fiction book Miss Rumphius.  So the kids can listen to the book, which is interactive in that the vocabulary words are highlighted and the definition is given by clicking on the words.  Then they can listen to the fiction book, Miss Rumphius.  There is a link with a complete, detailed lesson plan with several activities, extension activities, and more resources to expand kids' learning.  

To get there.....
Once in BookFlix, click on Earth and Sky, then turn the page in the book until you see From Seed to Dandelion and Miss Rumphius.  Click on those books.  There are links on the left hand side which allows students to listen to and read the books along with other activities.  The link to the lesson plan is in the upper right hand corner labeled "Lesson Plan."

I went to the aea digital library, logged on, and typed in drivers education.. driving.
The video I selected is one that I have used before in the class when talking about driving on snow and ice during bad weather times.  

http://www.aeadigitallibrary.org/media.aspx?id=6290

The resource is from the aea digital library and is a short video on how to prepare and perform the specific driving skills you need when driving on snow and ice.  For students that take driver education in the summer months have a certain disadvantage compared to my students that take it during the winter months and get proper driving time in the snow and ice weather condition.  Unless they have parents that take them out to get that valuable experience.  By viewing the video it gives students some knowledge to be aware of the importance of driving during these inclement weather conditions.

As a substitute, I don't have my own username and password to get on and navigate the sites.  I would love to explore some of the sites more t learn more about using them.   I would use as many sites as I could to come up with lessons and that were appropriate for the grade I was teaching.  If there was anyway for the site to be used by substitute teachers that would be great then we could help the students more with their learning as well as the regular teachers.

One of my favorite resources in the Iowa AEA resources if the Culture Gram so that is the resource that I have chosen to share.  Students will be instructed to sign in to www.iowaaea.org and sign in using their username and password. Once on the site they will click on Culture Gram from the list of sites on the left side of the screen. On Culture Gram click on the World Edition.
Students will be asked to chose a country or region that they would like to visit or know more about. Students will explore the site. They will given a worksheet to complete the required information.

Location of choice:
1.List 3 bits of information about the average person living in this region such as what language do they speak, what is life expectancy, how many years do they attend school, etc.
2.Click on the official name and know how to pronounce.
3.In a few sentences tell me about the land and climate, customs and lifestyle of the people, and what do they like to do for fun?
4.Find a favorite recipe made by people in the region. What is the name of the recipe and would you like to make and eat?
5.Can you view photos, videos, or slide shows about the people? Make a note of what you viewed.  
6.What is the name of one famous person from the area?
7.Go to the tools area on the right side of the screen highlighted in blue.
What time is it in the region now?
Convert 1 American dollar to their currency.  What did you find out?
Generate a graph to compare mean years of education in the US to your region or country.  Print graph
8.View their flag and print out an outline of the flag to color.
If time allows, spend it learning more about your chosen area.

After knowing more about your chosen area, do you still want to visit there?
To conclude your assignment write a paragraph as to why you would like to visit the region or country or why not?

We will spend some time sharing with our classmates.  Students who volunteer to share with the class will be asked to read their conclusion paragraph and share something they learned doing this assignment. This should only take a couple of minutes per student.

The objective of this assignment is two fold.  Students will gain confidence in their ability to navigate a site to find information and they will learn more about the people and cultures of the world.

The resource that I am most excited to use in the preschool setting is the BookFlix.  The preschoolers loved to be read to over and over.  And I am really looking forward to giving them the opportunity to listen not only to me read aloud, but to also allow them to listen independently or with their classmates.  I love the fact the the text is highlighted as it goes along.  There are many children who are ready to make the connections with the printed and spoken words.  I think it will be a great learning tool for them.   I also like the fact that it ties fiction with non-fiction.  It just adds into their growing vocabularies and makes the connections with their learning that much deeper.  So many children are visual learners, and when the visual and auditory are combined, I know some of these little ones will grow in their learning.

I am not in a typical school setting, and therefore do not have registered school or school code, but really want to pursue my options for use of these resources. Not only would l love to use this in the class, but would love to share with the families as well.  

 http://bkflix.grolier.com/p/node-33978/bk0001pr.

One of the goals for this week will be the implementation of AP Images by my eighth-graders,  We've been building full-scale models of various birds of prey and I would like to introduce some concepts concerning flight paths the birds take and why they travel where they do.  Some newspaper and television articles from Duluth Minnesota along with some understanding of Duluth's unique position on the tip of Lake Superior will promote understanding of this interesting (at least to me!) natural occurrence.

For my skills class I have chosen TeachingBooks.net, https://www.teachingbooks.net/.  Each students must pick a book of their choice each quarter, read it and be able to complete a book report.  This is the requirement from the general education reading class. Once I got to the site, I logged on using my school account and password, scrolled down to the bottom clicked on the reading section for grades 4-8.  I quickly began to skim over the books and realized the reading level was too high for the students I work with.  So I switched my search to the grade levels of 1-5.  I found three books that students will be able to start at the beginning of second quarter.  I watched the short video on how to build a custom list. After visiting with the inclusion reading teacher she mentioned what they would be focusing on so I checked out the book guides/lesson plans attached to the book and found a lesson that matches the common core in reading, writing and language that they are focusing on in the inclusion classes.  I am eager to help the special needs students get a deeper understanding  http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/guided-comprehension-evaluating-using-244.html 

After investigating all of the Iowa AEA Online resources, I am going to be sure to use Britannica Online with my students.  The specific resource I found was an article on Chemical Bonding:  http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/110108#43435.toc.
This article is intended for my AP Chemistry students as a review of the different types and background of Chemical Bonding.  These students learned about how bonds are formed, the different types, chemical reactions and many more ideas in their initial Chemistry class.  This source would be a quick review for them to review before beginning discussions of the different types of bonds that now they will be going into more depth with.  It provides diagrams that they will be drawing, electron configuration – specifically shapes of the atomic orbitals and also some information that they could possibly learn about when taking different college chemistry classes.  This additional information might spark a possible research idea for them in high school or college.  After reading this article, we will be doing many activities in class learning about the different types of solids and other types of bonds that they did not learn about in their initial Chemistry class.
 

   
    I went to www.iowaaeaonline.org to the right-hand side of the screen and clicked on the AEA Digital Library tab. This took me to www.aeadigitallibrary.org where I logged in with my user name and password. In the keyword(s) search box I entered "Emancipation Proclamation". I went to the second page of the 18 items and scrolled down to "Episode 3 - Into the Fire (1861-1896)-The Emancipation Proclamation" and clicked on view now to watch the four minute segment of the full video.
   
     My target audience is a former fifth grade class that studied the Civil War. Students are often confused about the Emancipation Proclamation. Many think that Lincoln used it to free all the slaves.

    I hope that the student outcome from watching the video is a better understanding of why Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation and why no slaves were actually freed.

For a very long time, I have felt the desire to create a video-based presentation centered on the  portion of "A Sand County Almanac," by Aldo Leopold that inspired me to change majors in college. "On a Monument to the Pigeon" is that text that was life-changing for me.
My challenge is to begin; I think that iCLIPART for images is an obvious choice, AP Images with primary source materials and archival images also will be useful.  I will access Atomic Learning to actually put the thing in order.  I would like to include sound effects related to the passing-by of millions of these now extinct creatures.
Finally, images of the last passenger pigeon in its cage in a zoo has to be used.

If there is anyone out there with advice, I am very interested in hearing it.  This part of Sand County is on page 108- let me know what you think of it.    

Since we have been learning about Hippos, I wanted to show my Kindergarten students actual footage and videos about hippos.  I went to the Iowa AEA Online, clicked on the LEARN360 button.  After signing in, the LEARN360 page came up.  In the search bar I typed in hippos.  After getting the search results for hippos, I narrowed the search under "Filters" to include only Pre-K-2.  We watched 3 short hippo videos:  Hippopotamus, Hippo and Sink or Swim.  (http://learn360.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=192727&loid=33846)
My target audience was my Pre-K/Kindergarten class.  These videos helped the students learn more about hippos and actually view real hippos.  They were so excited when they could see inside a big hippo mouth and watch a hippo eat carrots.

These resources are all so wonderful. I’m not currently teaching, but with my High School Social Studies and Communications background, I’m particularly interested in CultureGrams. I began with http://online.culturegrams.com/, then http://online.culturegrams.com/world/, then found Canada at http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?cid=192&cn=Canada&ctid=6
This site provides so much useful information about Canada to compare with other countries: Land and Climate, History, People, Population, Language, Religion, Attitudes, Personal Appearance, Customs & Courtesies, Greetings, Gestures, Visiting, Eating, Lifestyle, Family, Housing, Dating and Marriage, Life Cycle, Diet, Recreation, The Arts, Holidays, Society, Government, Economy, Transportation and Communications, Education, Health, and perhaps more I may have missed. There are print and audio and visual references. I went to Housing at http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?cid=192&cn=Canada&sname=Housing&snid=27 and was interested to learn about balconvilles (balcony cities), apartment complexes with external staircases and balconies. And in Vancouver, “Tudor, Victorian, Spanish, Italian, and contemporary homes coexist with the so-called ‘Vancouver Specials,’ houses from the 1960s and 1970s that were all built to the same specifications and made from wood and white stucco.” This information would be especially appropriate for Regional Geography, Anthropology, and Sociology courses. And since Canada was so interesting, I “visited” other countries to learn of their housing. At
http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?cid=52&cn=Ethiopia&sname=Housing&snid=27 I found the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia explaining that different ethnic groups build culturally-unique homes, such as the Dorze, a culture of weavers, who live in “woven houses that resemble beehives.” At http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?contid=12&wmn=Asia&cid=191&cn=Iraq I found the Republic of Iraq and read about Iraqi homes decorated with religious art, including “culturally significant decorations, such as ceramic objects thought to ward off the ‘evil eye.’” At
http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?contid=8&wmn=Oceania&cid=208&cn=Palau I found the Republic of Palau in the Philippine Sea and learned that after a new home is built, house parties are held as major celebrations, including that guests arrive expected to make a financial contribution toward paying off the house debt. CultureGrams is very addictive and even offers Recipes from the many countries, arranged by country. This would be fascinating information for any Cooking class at schools, or as part of a unit studying a country. Beyond CultureGrams, I also visited the AP resource and searched for President-Elect Donald Trump. There is a fine selection of images including
http://classic.apimages.com/Search.aspx?st=k&remem=x&entity=&kw=trump&intv=1w&shgroup=-10&sh=14. With both these resources, teachers could adjust content to fit any grade level, with learning objects focusing on comparing cultural lifestyles.

Interesting. I hadn't been thinking about Global Warming in exploring AEA's sites. Now I'm curious to see if there's a Pro-Con of Global Warming in SIRS, considering some other countries still insist the problem is Global Cooling, not Warming.

iClipArt is also a favorite site of mine, reflecting my appreciation for artistic endeavors. It was fun to explore, but I was rather shocked, when searching for visuals of farm animals, to be shown numerous images of meat rather than animals. Other than that, I enjoyed the great variety of styles of images. This is a great resource for preparing data visualization projects or even for students to decorate their report covers.