POST #3: Share a resource

I went to the AEA Online Resource Page and clicked on Teen Health and Wellness (7-12).  I logged in with my school account and started looking through the information on the the site.  Saw an article that was in the news on the website titled "Teen’s Death Linked to Caffeine-Induced Heart Failure"  I read through the short summary they had and clicked on this link http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/article/77/4. This link provided more information not only on caffeine but some information on nicotine as well.   I will be able to use this information in my high school health class when doing the Unit on Alcohol and Drugs.  I will be able to incorporate the use of caffeine and the negative effects it has on the body.  The outcome that I would like for the students to understands that there are negative side effects of caffeine and the energy drinks that they are using are not good for them and can harm their bodies.  The article talked about the psychological effects of caffeine, it gave different products that contained caffeine and how much caffeine each product had, and the article talked about the health effects of caffeine on the body.  This will be a good article to supplement information that will be presented in class from the book not only about caffeine but nicotine as well.  

 I am a para educator and do not have direct access to the username and password for our school. I will
talk to the Librarian to see if we have one. If I had my own class I would use the AEA bookflix. I think
this would be a great tool for learning comprehension. I like that the story is read to the student. In my
job a great deal of the time I am reading to students. For some of them reading is a huge challenge. I bet the kids would like to hear a different voice other than mine. The audio and visual will really be helpful to the students I work with. I also have a grandson that is Autistic and I think he would love bookflix. I will
experiment on my grandkids this summer and see all the different learning games we can use and play.

   Since I work with kids with reading levels from !st grade to 6th grade it will be nice to have a large
selection at different levels. This will help each student to be a successful reader. Thanks for all the great
resources you have available for us.

   

After accessing the AEA website, I clicked on the Media tab, then on Online Resources.  From there I chose CultureGRAMS.  Once I logged in to the site, I clicked on Kids Edition, then Explore.  I was able to chose a continent, then a specific country.  I chose Germany,  as that was a country a student researched for a writing project in my classroom this year.  He did not use this site, so I was anxious to see how the information compared to what he found using other resources.  Once I clicked on Germany, a page pulled up that had quick "Did you know?" facts about the country, the flag, a map, information on the average person living in Germany,sound bites for the country's national anthem, and how to pronounce the country's name.  On the left-hand side of the page there are many links that students will be able to click on to learn about more specific things such as the country's history and lifestyle.  I think the lifestyle tab would be of particular interest to students as they can learn what it is like to be a kid growing up in Germany.

This site will be great for my fourth grade class, as we have a nonfiction writing unit that involves students choosing a country to research and write a report about.  In the past I have taught my class how to do safe internet searches for their country.  We have talked about how to decide if the information provided on websites is accurate or not, and some about copyright.  Next school year, I plan to use CultureGRAMS as our main resource instead of letting students have free reign on their internet searches.  I know that the information provided on this site is accurate and reliable.  It will be easier for me to score accuracy of their facts that they have written about if I have a better idea where they are finding their information.  I am excited to give this a shot next year!

https://secure.infosnap.com/family/gosnap.aspx?snapcode=gdndb32588ngtpf

A resource that I would like to share is found in BookFlix: http://bkflix.grolier.com/ 

I looked under the category “Family and Community”. The paired books "Leo the Late Bloomer" and "We are Alike, We are Different" addresses how we are all the same in some ways but different in other ways. It also suggests that some of us are late bloomers – that we learn the same things as others, but it might be at different times.

In the fall of each year, we talk about school rules, getting along with others, acceptance of others, and how we show good “Cadet Pride” in the classroom, on the playground, and with our friends. I plan to use this BookFLix resource with my first, second, and third grade Title I students as an opportunity to discuss how we are the same and how we are different and to teach tolerance of our differences.

The objective will be to teach acceptance of one another and to acknowledge that we may do things at different times, but that is okay. Even though we may not all be reading at the same speed, we are making progress, and that is what is important. We are all still learning and growing. We will write or draw pictures depicting some of the things that we can do. We will also discuss how we can help ourselves to overcome challenges in reading by practicing what we have learned in school in our reading at home. We need to celebrate each others' accomplishments and maintain a growth mindset to reach our goals.

I chose iCLIPART For Schools a great resource for my classroom.  This resource great for photographs of various subject matters for my Graphic Arts I class.  The photographs are clear and of high resolution which makes them great for use in Adobe Photoshop and projects that teach the basics of Photoshop.
I will have the students log in to the www.iowaaeaonline.org website and then choose the iCLIPART For Schools option from the choices on the left side of the page schools.iclipart.com/iowa/.  The students will then choose from a variety of photographs to use in Adobe Photoshop.  The one thing I always think is important for art students to remember is that digital art is still art.  I don't allow my students to redraw or paint and existing piece of work so I do not allow them to use digital drawings in their digital art works and projects.  I will have them use the Photos and/or the Photo Objects for searching for their subject matter.  
I like that the search is very easy to use and it is broke down into subject areas.
The subject photos will then be used for introduction to Adobe Photoshop tools and tool options used in my high school Graphic Arts I class.

I visited Atomic Learning to seek relevant video tutorials for programming. I logged in, clicked on the search button and entered "HTML" in the field. I was surprised to see 73 video tutorials available for HTML5 & CSS3, and an additional 76 for basic HTML5! I went through some of the tutorials. Turns out the videos are for the most part good, but challenging for middle school students on Chromebooks. The video tutorials require Dreamweaver software which cannot be used on Chromebooks. However, the editors the students use on their Chromebooks are similar to the Dreamweaver editor in the tutorials, so after a quick comparison/contrast exercise on code editors, they can be useful. I chose
the main topic "HTML5 & CSS3 - Basics Training" and a found a sub-topic "HTML Text and Page Formatting". This is an important topic covered in the early stages of my coding classes when students are learning how to write HTML tags. There are series of ten videos, all of which would be excellent for reinforcing for understanding the basics of creating HTML elements appropriately.  I can use this specific video tutorial, "Creating ordered and unordered lists" for introducing the concept of creating numbered or bullet lists in HTML. The assignment after the video is to code a food recipe in HTML, and students will determine which type of element will they use for the ingredients(bullet) and also for the instructions(numbered). The assignment will also allow the students to visit any of the other video tutorials for a refresher on making headings and block paragraphs for the other parts of the recipe assignment.
 
I went back to the search, and entered "programming" in the field. I was happy to see Javascript and Java in the results! Javascript still uses Dreamweaver for the code editor, however Java uses notepad!

I teach a 7th grade Literature class - a reading elective for proficient readers. I liked the teachingbooks.net resources for a number of reasons. One activity I would like to try is using the Iowa Teen Award books. A simple search on the site will pull up the most recent winners and all the resources available. I can see using them for book talk mini lessons. We can practice creating our own trailers for self-selected books after viewing samples from the award winners. Other books have author interviews, websites, even discussion guides. I think this resource will also come in handy when planning lit circles and/or novel discussions. I look forward to digging deeper and becoming more familiar with this site. I think it will be a great resource to get/keep my students interested in reading.

As I was exploring the module about using videos in the classroom, I clicked on a recommended link for 50 Ways to Use Video in the Classroom.

http://community.eflclassroom.com/profiles/blogs/50-ways-to-use-video-in-the-classroom

I found several to be very intriguing and I will definitely try them.  Here is #6.

"6.  Backdoor.  Great for getting students to speak and use language.  In pairs, one student views and describes to the other student who has their back to the screen. Alternate every few minutes and circulate to give help with vocab (or just write it on the board as needed, students will see you and use to describe the action.   Mr. Bean is perfect for this!"

When you click on "View It"  you will go to "Mr. Bean at the Swimming Pool".  Here is the URL:

http://community.eflclassroom.com/video/mr-bean-at-the-swimming-pool

The target audience for this activity would be my 2nd-5th grade students.  I would tie this particular activity to beginning of the year ice breakers to get the students working as partners and communicating so their partners can visualize what they are describing.  We do a lot of multi-age partner work in my classroom, and I think this activity would be a great way to get the students comfortable with each other and communicating effectively.

One caution:  When clicking on Related Videos to the right of these 50 activities, please preview before showing these links.  The "Misheard Song Lyrics" video is NOT one you would want to show to students.

One of the many resources I explored on the Iowa AEA On-line resource site was Learn360. I started with the Iowa AEA On-line resource home page (https://www.iowaaeaonline.org/). From this site, I clicked on the Learn360 link or you can access it from the direct link (https://learn360.infobase.com). After logging on to the site, I scrolled down on the home page to the section "Browse Subjects" and clicked the "view all" link to show all of the subjects. I then selected the "English & Language Arts" link. On the top of the page I then clicked on the "Interactives" tab. Then I filtered my search on the right side of the page by choosing the grade range (3-5) and the interactive type (comprehension activities). There were 76 results that appeared of short interactive reading passages of varied topics that include a ten question comprehension check. These are the reading passages that I will be using with my students.

I teach two small reading intervention groups with about five students in each group. The students that I have in this group are 5th graders that were not proficient on their IA Assessments and the MAPS test. I reteach all of the reading comprehension strategies and focus on my students' improvements with their comprehension. I thought this resource would be very helpful to my students. I liked that students could read different passages on-line and answer ten comprehension questions when they were finished reading. The passages are short in length and all of the questions are multiple choice. Students would be able to get instant feedback on their answer choices and even a chance to correct their mistakes. I plan to use these a few times a week for students to practice their reading comprehension and also a quick way to keep track of daily progress. I will have my students record their results on a bar graph so they can have a visual of their progress. My overall outcome from using this resource is for my students to see a steady growth of their reading comprehension using the strategies that we work on in our intervention group. I'm glad I discovered this resource as it is more engaging then using just paper and pencil to get the same results.  

I logged into the AEA Online page using my school username and password. From the AEA Online Home page, I chose the Learn360 tab on the left side menu, then set up a personal login for myself. I will use the Learn360 Resource to introduce particular topics to my Pre-Algebra students. I will give each class a login for Learn360 at the beginning of the school year.
One example is the topic "Equation of a line".  I searched for my grade level and general topic.  From there, I chose the Interactive tab at the top of the page.  There were several options for Equations.  I picked the one that I wanted to share. After previewing the activity, I chose the Share icon under the title and copied the link to that activity to my Google Classroom.  When I clicked on that icon, my Google Classroom came up and a pulldown menu to Choose Class.  Once I selected the class, Pre-Algebra, I chose an Action.  The action I chose was Create an assignment. The link was automatically added to my Google Classroom
(https://learn360.infobase.com/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=123484 )  
I then chose a title and gave instructions for the assignment.
(Go through the activities on this site and answer each question.)
This will be assigned as a precursor to the lesson I teach in class.  It will give students some exposure to the topic, which will be followed up by other activities on the topic.

I am so excited about https://www.teachingbooks.net/  Finding new literature resources is important for what I do.  In our home school assistance program, we work with k-12.  We have a middle school and high school class for literature that meets weekly.  We have lead it more like a book club and the kids love it!  We love it!  We take on different genres and sometimes push the kids way out of their comfort zones.  Having these additions resources will really add to what we are doing but it will also allow us to keep the parents tied in with the books too.  Often we have parents reading the book at the same time as the student and this will help us link things together.

Our parents do an amazing job with finding resources to help themselves but I am excited about sharing this site so they can add to their options.  They will love having spelling lists, videos, and lessons plans for so many new books. I will be sending out the link information and the log on details with our weekly newsletters.  I can't wait to hear how they take advantage of this and I know one of our first books for next year will be "Wonder" by Palacio.  The resources are incredible for that one book alone!

We open the year introducing our Culture of Readers project.  We define what a culture of readers is as a class, and then work towards establishing one in our room (Last year, they came up with a definition of a group of people that enjoys reading, communicates this enjoyment with others, and finds opportunities to share their ideas about reading with others).  
The first novel I teach in 6th grade is Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli.  I would like to introduce TeachingBooks.net’s page on Maniac Magee after we finish the novel.   This lesson would tie in to our previous discussions about a culture of readers and begin the research into an author’s journey about how/why they write.  I would use this resource as a whole group at first, introducing them to TeachingBooks.net, then addressing the possible uses for our novel.  Here is the link I would use to begin: https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=4354&s=n. I would login in there, using our school’s login and password (reminding them that they all have cards for that!), and then walk through the various sections available.  I will specifically stop on the book reading aspect, as I found that 3-minute clip of Jerry Spinelli talking to be very informative.  I would also lead a discussion on how can the information on this page help us in our Culture of Readers.  They would then need to access the page at home and talk about what they found interesting about the website and how It could help us in ELA. This would be the first step in introducing the TeachingBooks.net website for the various novels we’d read in the year.

I went  to the AEA Online Resource home page and clicked on the student, parent, and educator tabs just to see what is available. I chose to look at Learn360 and found a lot of great resources that I can use in my Family & Consumer Science middle school courses.   http://learn360.infobase.com/p_Home.aspx  To see what's available I logged in and typed in "alcohol" for the key word as this is a topic in my 7th grade Human Growth & Development class. I  first searched video's, full titles and segments. There were three different video companies supplying choices. I then explored the Menu tab and found six different choices to look at which I was not aware of. Still using the keyword "alcohol" I  found interactive sites, pintables (fact sheets), you are able to browse segments of video, browse producers, other media, a calendar which highlights important dates in history during each month, and I am also able to make my own playlist and list of favorites to keep.
My first target audience is 7th graders in my Human Growth & Development class. I will incorporate Learn360 by using video's, full and segments for a variety of topics such as drugs, tobacco, sexuality families, goal setting, decision making, stress, and nutrition. I mentioned alcohol earlier but I spent a lot of time looking for  Food & Nutrition information on healthy diets, fast food, food safety, and portion controls. Students may also look up information to add to power points, Google docs. reports, posters.... The interactive page is something new for me as I have not seen this in any FCS online resource.  The objective will be for the student learner to be able to navigate through the materials and find up to date information on a variety of topics. I will also use Learn360 for my sewing class as I have been trying to add more technology into this class.
This online resource will help enhance my FCS class lesson plans and I am excited to explore many more topics in the three subject area's I teach.  I have found a lot of online sources carry a lot of materials for the core classes but not many for FCS. This website gives me a variety and I am so glad they have FCS curriculum.

Because my children are dual enrolled in the Mount Pleasant Community School district through the Homeschool Assistance Program, I do have a user name and password. I would use the search tool to type in the two resources I am first planning to use.    I am so excited that I took this course because I am definitely more informed as to what the AEA provides instead of just exploring on my own!

I have two daughters and will plan to test out a different resource for each.   For my sixth grader, I plan to utilize Culture Grams.   As a matter of fact, as I was experiencing the tutorial for Culture Grams my daughter sat with me and  became so excited and adamant that we further peruse this resource that she begged for me to "purchase" it.  Good news daughter, through the AEA we get it free!  She is beyond excited to learn about our world's countries!  What a great resource to utilize to learn about over 200 countries and their flags, currency, culture, languages, heritage, landmarks, maps, and more.  I am thoroughly pleased that the information from this resource was provided by people with firsthand knowledge.

For my second grade daughter, I plan to utilize Bookflix.  I love that it will assist in her reading comprehension, vocabulary building skills, and how it pairs fiction and non fiction books.   She will be excited about how interactive this source is.  

In my 4th grade science curriculum, I teach the topic of habitats to my combination 3 &4th graders. Using a 4th grade textbook always presents a challenge for students reading at a lower level. In Learn360, I located a video,http://learn360.infobase.com/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=117472&loid=428072&tScript=0, which I can use to introduce this subject to my students. I found this video by searching "habitats" and narrowing the search to grade 3-5. This video will introduce my students to basic vocabulary and concepts covered in my unit and introduce them to different habitats found around the world.
A culminating project in this unit is for the students to research and share information about a specific habitat. I will model the research process I would like my students to use and provide a page of questions for them to answer about their selected habitat. I can either order books about habitats from SNAP or have my students log onto TrudFLIX http://tfx.grolier.com/cb/node-33057 and find the information about their habitat. I would probably use both options because my students have a limited amount of access to the chromebooks and computer lab at my school. The students then organize their research on a poster to be shared with the rest of the class.

The resource I chose was CultureGrams:  http://online.culturegrams.com/world/.

I was so excited to find this resource, in the past I use CIA Factbook for my students when we researched countries.  I can use this site many different ways.  My "target audience" will be 7th grade.  My students will range in ability from special needs students to talented and gifted students.  The first way is to introduce students to all the countries in a a continent and then explain the difference to how our textbook is arranged (culture regions).  Next this site will allow students to compare countries within a continent or within for my classes within a culture region.  Students will be able design graphs and tables for countries based on a number of different categories.  Students will be able to find videos, interviews, recipes, and so much more about the countries we study.

As for the overall outcome, I go to our standards:
IA.G.   Geography
G.2.   Understand how geographic and human characteristics create culture and define regions.
G.2.1.   Understand human and physical characteristics of place.
G.1.3.   Understand geographic relationships such as population density and spatial distribution patterns.
G.4.   Understand how physical processes and human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans.
G.4.5.   Understand the environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment.

I have chosen Culture Grams at  http://online.culturegrams.com/  I have a large background in Social Studies.  I love geography, history, and the study of other cultures.  Culture Grams is a great resource.  I will begin teaching 4th grade at MNW this fall and they do a Social Studies unit on ancestry and heritage.  This will be a great tool to use for my students to look up their cultural heritage.  It provides any kind of information you might need about a nations culture, politics, ethnic traditions, and even it's dietary traditions.  

I would have the students find out their cultural heritage and then we would use Culture Grams to research their specific ethnic backgrounds and country of origin.  Most students will have several to choose from.
 For example I am German, Scotish, and Irish.  I will have them choose one of their countries of origin, if they like, they can choose more than one to research.  Items I would expect them to gather would include their countries flag; the language they speek, possibly include some common phrases in that language; a brief summary of the nations history; popular religions; daily life; and holidays they observe.  Since Culture Grams has a section with recipes from each country we could do a ethnic feast and sample some ethinic dishes.

One of the books I cover with my eighth grade students is Harper Lee's _To Kill a Mockingbird_.  It is such an important work on so many levels and there is really so much you can do with it.  In searching through Learn 360 I came across the following video -- Hey Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird; I typed "mockingbird" into the search box and found the video.  This video will be a great source to use.  I love that Learn 360 has segments listed; this makes it easy to find parts of the video to share at the appropriate time throughout our study of the novel.  For instance, before we begin our study I always go over a brief biography of Harper Lee -- I love that this video has a segment "Book Mirrors Life" which is one of the things we talk about.  The segments saves time -- I don't have to search for the "right" sections and I don't have to watch a full length video that is an hour plus in length.  My overall outcome/objective is to enhance my lesson, give a visual to what we are reading/discussing.  In addition, the video would present additional background information and provide further character analysis -- enhance our discussion of important characters such as Atticus and Boo.

Resource: CultureGrams
How I get there: Go to the main page and click Culturegrams, log on and surf away.

Target audience : We will be using this for Social Studies class.  Each student will be responsible for a world news item once a week.  It will be required to write a paragraph about their topic of discussion and then a paragraph stating their opinion. The students will present their paper in class and prepare for questions from their classmates.

How to incorporate in class:  We will have students use this resource to find current information from places all around the world.  So much information can be found and shared that will really increases students knowledge of what life looks like in different parts of the world.

Outcome: We want students to be well rounded with world issues.  So if they hear Mom and Dad talking about the a Middle east issue they will be able to chime in on the conversation.  Just making kids more aware of what goes on outside of the state of Iowa is very important.  Through this activity I hope to open eyes and hearts of kids to see the bigger picture of life.  

I plan on using Learn 360 in my preschool classroom.  Go to:  https://learn360.infobase.com/p_Search.aspx?bc=0&rd=a&q=sesame%20street.  This will bring you to Sesame Street, Titles in this Series.  Click on Titles in this Series and it will bring up several short clips that you can use while teaching preschool concepts to your students (numbers, letters, rhyming, feelings, emotions, math and science are just a few of the topics you can explore).  This is the perfect resource for preschool students.  The video clips are very short and appropriate for younger students.  One of my favorites is a clip called Belly Breathe.  I plan on using this video early in the school year and whenever it's needed.  One of the most important things we teach preschool children is how to deal with their emotions and this video gets straight to the point.  It would be a great clip to use during our meeting time to start a discussion on strategies that people use when their emotions feel out of control.  Through a short song and actions, it teaches children how to belly breathe when they are feeling angry or upset.