POST #3: Share a resource

CultureGrams is also one of my favorites, and it's interesting to read so many reviews written here by others who also mention this resource. It is so interesting and addictive. Elsewhere I wrote about choosing one aspect (Housing, etc.) and how easy it is to instantly learn about the subject all across the world. And when I encountered Recipes. that is fun. That would be an amazing resource for any class. I still fondly remember in high school when my French teacher introduced us to Fondue, melting cheese with wine and serving it with crusty bread chunks, and hot melted creamy chocolate with fresh strawberries -- all during class.

Like some of the other threads on this forum, I am unable to login to the system to explore the resources. I tried using my username and password, but it did not work.

I plan to investigate WHY this is happening, so that I am able to access the great resources such as"

Bookflix, K-3:
I plan to use this resource with my students while teaching them "interactive read aloud" lesson planning. I read children's books to my students each day in class. This will provide them with examples of other ways to incorporate technology and literature in the classroom, which thrills young children. They love the interactive way that Bookflix brings their books to life!

Teachingbook.net:
Again, I love this resource for showing my students all the interactive capabilities available online, related the books they are reading every day. I especially love the fact that many books on teaching books.net provide examples of vocabulary from the book that might be helpful to teach prior to reading to students.

iclipart:
This resource will be extremely beneficial to my students. When we design lesson plans and activities for young children, we are always looking for clip art that is available and does not break any copyright laws. This will be a great resource to train my students regarding its use and make available to them as future teachers.

trueflix:
I plan to use this resource to show my students how their (future) students can use this database to find a wide-variety of information. This information can be used for research projects in literacy, among its many uses.

I would like to use culture grams with my middle and high school choirs. I think they would really benefit from finding out where the music we are singing is from and what the composers lives are like. I also think my students would really enjoy perusing the soundzabound website and getting familiar with all the different styles and types of music that are available (without all the royalties!). There are so many that I can use now that I've had just a taste of what is available that it's really a little overwhelming. I really need time to just dig in and become more familiar with the sites so I can feel confident sharing them with my students.

I have chosen the SIRS Issues Researcher Database to use in my classroom.  To access this I went to the AEA online website at www.iowaaeaonline.org.  I entered my school districts username and password. I selected SIRS Issue Researcher off the main menu. I also found entering the website sks.sirs.com can take you there as well.  

SIRS is a research database that can be used to address controversial topics.  It lists the two viewpoints on the issue and provides articles that address each supporting detail. Students can evaluate each viewpoint and decide the one they want to choose. After they choose a viewpoint and evaluate the listed resources, students can find more articles on their topic.  My target audience is a freshmen Earth Science class and the topic is global warming.  I did a subject search on global warming and the two opposing viewpoints were listed.  I clicked on some of the articles and skimmed through them.  At the end of each article is a word list of related topics.  This can expand student research.  There is more than enough valuable information on the subject.

I will use this in my class after we talk about the basics of weather and climate.   My overall student objective is for students to investigate the issue for themselves.  I want students to be informed about the facts on the issue and discern what they believe is true.  This is a hot topic issue that resurfaces a lot, especially during political campaign time.  Many claims and statements are made, and sometimes there is no evidence to support them.  I want students to learn to use logic and apply the process of scientific evidence to situations to help them discern fact from fiction.  I am preparing them to be life long learners.
I also want to give them a helpful tool they can continue to use to find resourceful information on controversial topics.

The two resources that I anticipate using the most in my classroom will be BookFlix,
http://auth.grolier.com/login/tfx/login.php?bffs=N, and TrueFlix, http://auth.grolier.com/login/bookflix/login.php?bffs=N. After learning about TrueFlix in this class, I used it when working with a fourth student who was learning about the Titanic in the general education classroom.  This book was used as a supplement to the general education classroom curriculum as this student spends a fair amount of time in the special education classroom due to behavioral issues.  On the right hand side of the screen under “Science and Nature”, I clicked on “Disasters.”  The last book listed on the next page is titled “The Titanic Disaster.”  When clicking on the book, the student was then able to watch a video providing him with some background knowledge.  Then he was able to read the book to learn more.  There are other websites that he can access from this page in order to learn more as well.  Finally, with adult assistance, he was able to complete some comprehension and vocabulary activities associated with the book. My only criticism of these two sites is that you are unable to search by keyword, subject, etc.  This makes finding materials time-consuming because the teacher must browse through several pages just to see if there is a book on a certain topic.

        My target audience is a full-inclusion classroom of twenty pre-kindergarten students.  For this particular assignment, I would like to share two related resources from my favorite sites.
        Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. is a very popular and beloved alphabet book found in most preschool classrooms.  It is a great book to study early in the year as it is both fun and predictable for young students.  Within a few readings, students enjoy chiming in with the text.  Yes this is both fun and cute, however, there is much more to early childhood activities than being fun and cute.  When children help a teacher “read,” they are increasing their fluency and learning important word-to-print connections.  They are gaining self-confidence and viewing themselves as readers.  They are also starting to pick up on various sight words and using one-to-one correspondence when the teacher uses a pointer while reading aloud.
        Upon reading this book several times, I would use bookFLIX to pair their beloved Chicka Chicka with a non-fiction book as well by using the following link: http://bkflix.grolier.com/p/node-33986/bk0076pr.  Viewing the book in a different context is helpful as is the supplemental non-fiction book provided as well.  I intentionally try to incorporate a lot of non-fiction books into my classroom.  This resource helps me to include them a little easier.
        After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a natural progression would be to then read Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 also by Bill Martin Jr.  It can be found by using this link: http://bkflix.grolier.com/p/node-33986/bk0025pr.  This book can be used to introduce counting by tens, which is a requirement in most kindergarten classrooms.
        I then would incorporate an interview of Bill Martin Jr. found using this link: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/martin.  This particular link contains five different videos, all of which are short and will keep the students’ attention.  Having various videos available also provide opportunities to extend the student’s learning opportunities for several days.  
        Seeing and hearing this particular author will extend the students learning by actually putting a real person in front of them.  The concept of an author or illustrator can be quite abstract to young minds.  In the first of the five videos, Bill Martin is found singing his famous book of Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See to the viewers which is very enjoyable as well, especially for the students who are musical learners.  Who knows, by incorporating various author and illustrators to my lessons, perhaps one of my students will want to be either an author or an illustrator someday themselves!
        Two of my favorite resources from this course are BookFLIX and Teachingbooks.net.  It was enjoyable to be able to incorporate a connection between the two of them.

The resource that I have chosen that would be very good to incorporate into a classroom would be the Teen Health and Wellness.  http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/
I found this resource by googling AEA Online Resouces and clicking on Teen Health and Wellness on the left side of the page.
I would be most interested in discussing such topics as exercise and nutrition.  I would also be very interested in discussing topics such as bullying, mental health, and suicide.  
I am a substitute teacher and I bounce around to different schools.  Therefore, I follow the instructions that the teacher leave for me for that day.  It would definitely be good to mention this resource to other teachers to find out if it is something that they incorporate into their classrooms.  I would also express interest in using it myself.  
I would likely be targeting High School students for the most part since that is the grade level that I prefer to sub for.  I believe that this age group is probably most likely to have interest with these topics.  I am an encourager and feel very passionate about helping others to feel good about themselves.  I feel that I can have a great impact on students by helping them with their self-esteem when necessary.  

Since I am new to the Iowa AEA Online website, I had never gotten a username and password before.  I have tried to contact our librarian to get one, but have yet to receive it.  Once she gets back to me, I fully intend to do a lot of research to find the best resources for me to use.  As a math teacher, good resources are hard to find.

However, in taking this class, I was very interested in the videos put out by Kahn Academy.  I decided to do more research on this, and have found it to be very useful in all levels of math.  

Since I teach in an at-risk program, I see students at various skill levels.  Some of these students are extremely high, while others are extremely low.  Due to this situation, we require all students to take 2 math classes.  Algebra 1 is the main class they all take, since it is a graduation requirement.  The other math class a skill building class, in which curriculum is differentiated to meet each student's needs.

I have begun implementing Khan Academy into both classes.  In Algebra 1, I have attached various videos to each lesson.  I require students to view each of these videos, at least one time, as they do each of the assignments.  These videos help them in 2 ways:  First, they can see how to solve problems from another perspective.  Second, they can repeatedly watch the video if they forgot what I had taught them at school.  In their skill building class, I created a classroom, within the site kahnacademy.org, and have assigned each individual to a certain level of mathematics based on their ability.  This classroom allows me to monitor their progression, and fill in the gaps where needed.

Again, after going through this course, I chose to use www.khanacademy.org

     The resource that I have chosen to share is CultureGrams. There is so much information about the world to be found in this resource!
     To reach this resource first you must go to iowaaeaonline.org. Next click on the orange link on the left labeled CultureGrams.  You will need to enter your school username and password.  You will then be asked to explore one of the sites available on online.culturegrams.com- World Edition, Kids Edition, States Edition or Provinces Edition. I have chosen the World Edition so I clicked on "Explore." You will then have the option to click anywhere on a world map to choose a country to explore or choose one from the menu. I have a Danish heritage so I clicked on Europe and then the country of Denmark. The Denmark page then appears and there are many options for learning about that country. You can learn about the background,people,customs,lifestyle and society.  You can listen to their national anthem, print a flag, view recipes and see pictures of the country- and so much more.
     The target audience I would choose are my Foods and Nutrition classes in the spring semester. I would incorporate CultureGrams into our International Studies and Banquet unit.  The overall outcome/objective is to provide a resource for students to research a country of their choice in preparation for a major project that is part of their final.  Students would research information to be presented via a medium of their choice (poster, powerpoint, panel discussion etc.) to the class.  They then would use this information to create various recipes from that country. They could also use this source to create costumes representing the country and proper table settings.    

One of the resources I really like is Bookflix, because it allows the students to read a book and watch the story in Spanish. It has many more options that you can use but they are not in Spanish, such as puzzlers, meet the author, and explore the web. This is the link that will get you to Bookflix  http://bkflix.grolier.com/.   When you enter the website they have different options. I selected Animals and Nature. Then went to pairs 5-8 and found The Caterpiller and clicked on the book. You will notice right on top of the screen there is a cloud that says “Espanol.” Click the cloud and the story will change to Spanish. There is an option that allows you to read along. You can turn it off if you want.  I will use this story for my exploratory class (7th grade). Since we already learned adjectives and a few animals, I will ask the students to name some of the animals that they remember (butterfly is one of the animals they already know). Then I will show the video to introduce animal vocabulary and review previous subjects. I will replay the video and will stop it when they mention new animals, and ask the students to predict what animal they are talking about. Also, this story will help the students review previous lessons.  

I would like to use TrueFlix, which is accessed by signing in with one’s Iowa AEA Online school username and password:  http://auth.grolier.com/login/tfx/login.php?bffs=N

During third quarter, we will be requiring everyone to read at least one nonfiction book for a book report. TrueFlix is designed for grades 3-6 and provides a short video paired with a book on a variety of social studies and science topics. The books are interactive with a “read aloud” option. The “Explore More” tab contains related information such as Grolier articles, charts and tables, maps, poems, artwork, primary sources, and multimedia. Other resources include a project idea guide, multiple-choice comprehension quiz, vocabulary quiz, and links to other web resources.

TrueFlix would provide some excellent accessibility for our lower readers, but it would be highly motivational for all students. I could see taking time to go through one book as a class, guiding students through the process. The main outcome would be that when given nonfiction material, students will be able to write a quality summary in their own words. (Some of my special education students have a similar IEP writing goal.) We could use the lesson plan ideas for cross-curricular ties to either social studies or science, covering many of the Iowa Core Reading Standards for Informational Text. Writing standards covered would include how to “Research to Build and Present Knowledge.” This resource and the others available on Iowa AEA Online would certainly be very helpful for developing 21st century skills in technology literacy.

Because I am not currently an educator in the state of Iowa, I cannot log into the AEA Online Resource websites. Thus, I will reply to several of the posts by other educators (below).

I like this educators ideas in terms of using the AEA Online resources with MS and HS students. Music is a common denominator for students. The Soundzaboud caught my eye as well. I think students would respond very well to this type of application. I would use it in a unit on career research, one of my educational passion areas. Students could take a simple career interest inventory and learn what types of careers they are naturally suited for, then build a project about 3 career areas, using Soundzaboud to add some neat special effects.

When I relocate to Iowa, I hope to secure a position where I can assist weak readers. Middle School students could greatly benefit from the www.teachingbooks.net website. I would like to use this resource to help middle school students research current books on careers waiting for them .... especially in the skilled trades. My current position requires quite a bit of work with students preparing for career life. The U.S. Department of Labor suggests that around 70% of careers waiting for our middle school and high school students in today's labor market DO NOT require a 4-year bachelors degree. I would use this resource to explore the careers that await students in technical fields, where vocational and/or community college training is suitable for the 70% of students who do not pursue a field that requires a bachelor's degree.

         I absolutely love CultureGrams-- I actually got lost into this resource for over an hour!  CultureGrams is a great resource not only for teachers but also for students to use.
         The resource is very easy to access.  First, go to the Iowa AEA Online page and click on the CultureGrams link (located on the left of the page).  Once it opens, it will ask you for your username and password, I used the one given to us by our media specialist (I had to e-mail her about two weeks ago to remind myself of what it was).  I navigated the site http://online.culturegrams.com/world/ and got very excited because the site is very easy to use and it offers so much to teachers and students.
         Our school district is very diverse (17 different languages spoken) and as I navigated the site I was thinking that I had to share this resource with teachers and tell them that if they are wondering about where their students are coming from, or to know a bit more about their students—they can check CultureGrams.  Their students would appreciate that their teachers are taking time to find out about their native countries!
         While on the site, I also got an idea of how my students can also use this site.  This would be a wonderful resource to use when they talk about their native country.  At the beginning of the year I always have my newcomers share about their homeland but many times they do not know what to say.  I can extend the project a bit and have them surf the site and find cool facts and info bits (as well as videos, pictures, etc.) of their home country and share these with the class!

he resource that I really liked was CultureGrams (http://online.culturegrams.com/). I liked how interactive this site was and at the same time how easy it was to find what you are looking for. I like that this website is kept up-to-date.

CultureGrams homepage gives you four options; World Edition; Kids Edition; States Edition;  or Provinces Edition. The material is for upper elementary to high school age. In the World Edition and the Kid’s Edition you can learn about any country that is recognized by the United Nations. The Kids Edition is geared toward upper elementary and the World Edition is geared toward middle school and up.  You can also switch which edition you are in while on those different pages. The States Edition you can learn about any of the 50 States and in the Provinces Edition you can learn about any of Canada’s 13 Provinces.  
Each page gives you much basic information such as the geography, climate, population, a map and a picture of the flag.  But you get information about their history, who the native inhabitants were, how their government is set up and who is currently in office, religions of the people, recipes, and more.

I don’t currently have a classroom but I could envision using this as a teacher resource with any elementary students as you learn about other countries, their culture and the people.  But I could also see allowing upper elementary and older students using this website to research and put together a research paper about countries. I believe this CultureGrams can provide a valuable resource for social studies by providing valuable information about other countries, states, and provinces as well as cultures.

Here is the a video I will show in my high school basic auto class:
From Iowa AEA Online select Britannica from the menu on the left. Enter the High School tab. Enter "Automobile Recycle" in the search box. Click video on the left side. The first video is just over 3-minutes long and does a fantastic job of showing cars being recycled with text that can be read underneath. The process is explained in simple terms. There is a lot of science involved, which might appeal to some of the students. This video can open up a dialog between the students and me about what happens to older cars that are no longer wanted.

I chose BookFlix to use more in depth after taking this course. I felt this was an awesome way to integrate technology along with reading into my classroom. In second grade our students still enjoy a snack time due to our lunch schedule being so late. During snack I like to do a read a loud or listen to a book on audio. I think Bookflix would also be a great option. I love how it allows the students to not only hear the words but it also gives them the visual by highlighting the words as well. Some of my better readers enjoy practicing their fluency by reading along with the author. Bookflix offers a wide variety of books that I find easy enough to even match up with my units I'm studying in class. I also think BookFlix is very user friendly.

I am a substitute teacher and do not have a permanent classroom.  I usually sub for middle and high school students.  Although I enjoy all subjects, I have a interest in Global/Social Science/Studies. The Culturegram program would be a great resource in this subject to assist students with the understanding of continents, countries, ethnic groups, religion, their government style, each groups way of living and more.  
The following links would be the reference I would share from the Heartland AEA online website.  

- Middle School - http://www.heartlandaea.org/library-and-digital-resources/online-resources/6-8th-grade/.  
- High School - http://www.heartlandaea.org/library-and-digital-resources/online-resources/6-8th-grade/ 
- Educators - http://www.heartlandaea.org/library-and-digital-resources/online-resources/educators/ 
 
The links would broaden the students horizons with knowing where to locate Culturegrams for information and at the same time see the many different resources that could also assist them.  

The objective would be to gain knowledge of the international world and how it relates to the people of all cultures today.

Students as people of all ages and nationalities, are very curious of ethnic groups outside of their race. The information within the program will open up room for class discussions, debates, group and individual work/projects. Allowing students to be creative at what they learn and possible bringing in speakers, samples of the countries food and more would keep their interest. Keeping the student excited and interested in the resources at hand would definitely be the key.
 

While I am a substitute teacher, my original endorsement was K-12 vocal music, so I love the resource of Soundzabound. http://www.soundzabound.com.  I would first use volumes 3, 4 and 6 to teach music genre and link to periods of twentieth century music and composers.   Volume 4 would also be a resource for teaching tempo.  Overall, it would enable lesson plans to be varied from listening for theory and history to playing from music text books and would appeal to a wide range of learning styles.