POST #3: Share a resource

I went to the AEA online website and I choose to use Bookflix. I picked that one because I work with students who have behavior disorders and at times my teaching gets interrupted with behaviors just part of the job. However, I don’t like to just have my other students do word-searches or play games on their chrome books. If a behavior happens and I have to have my other students do what we call order out (working independently) , I would like what they are doing to still be educational. I like the idea of having them log on to Bookflix.  I like that the fiction book is paired with a non-fiction book and it is something they can do independently and for my struggling readers I like that it reads the books to them. When they have completed the books they can write or draw a picture about what they read in their journals.
 I would do a planned teaching on Bookflix where I would teach my students how to go to the AEA online website and have them log online and go through how to get to the Bookflix site and find books that are appropriate for there reading level. I like that it is something once taught student can do without much assistance.

I will be using the iclipart for schools with my graphic design class.  We create our own fonts each year in the course.  I find that research of existing fonts is a great way to see what is out there.  iclipart has the fonts setup how I would want my students to present their fonts to the class.  We will get onto the site and then it is very easy because all we have to do is click on the fonts tab on the top toolbar to take us to the main fonts page.  When here the students will have the ability to peruse a wide variety of fonts to help steer them in the right direction.  This list is broken down perfectly for the high school students.  We can search by either theme or by name.  It allows them to not only look at the fonts they already know but then also kind of look into different themes that may interest them.  I also enjoy how they have the featured fonts section.  By being able to see a few right of the bat that shows the letters listed, but also with an image, it gives them a great idea of what i'm looking for.

http://schools.iclipart.com/index2.php?tl=fonts&keys=&rows=5

I have started using Bookflix in my classroom and love all the different opportunities it provides within the one resource. I’m an early childhood teacher and use this with my kindergarteners. I love how it pairs a fiction and non-fiction book and reads it aloud to students as it highlights the words. When we do our animal study, there are a whole section of animal books. http://sdm-bkflix.digital.scholastic.com/pb/wwbkcat03b Although a lot of my students couldn’t read these independently, they are able to independently listen and learn about the animals they choose. There is also an area to the left of the book that says “explore the web” with links that take students to safe and appropriate websites with more on the animals. There are also games that students can play that help them with vocabulary from the stories and the sequence of the story. In the non-fiction book, students can click on vocabulary words and it will read the definition aloud. There is also a link that students can click on to “meet the author”. I love how this resource gives students access to books that could be above their reading level. Students have independence to choose the book that they are interested in.

Resource-True Flix-Wildfires
http://sdm-tfx.digital.scholastic.com/p/node-33054/01001902 

1. Go to Iowa AEA Online
2. Select TrueFlix and sign in using your districts sign in and password
3. Once on the homepage, select Extreme Nature from the topics on the right
4. Select book Wildfires

The resource that I have chosen to use is TrueFlix. I will be using this digital resource as a supplement to a non-fiction/using text feature unit in my 5th grade language arts class. (Making Meaning Unit 2) In this unit, students focus on reading non-fiction texts during IDR (Independent Daily Reading) time. While they are reading non-fiction, we discuss using text features and strategies to aide in reading comprehension. Students then practice identifying text features and sharing what they learn from these features.  

Utilizing this resource in class will be a great addition to non-fiction topic choices my students currently have. TrueFlix has 22 different topics of interest, within each topic there are many different book choices.   I will allow students to choose books from this site and read online during IDR. The non-fiction selection in our library is small and I have not ordered my books from my local AEA yet, so this is perfect in the pinch that I am in. This will also be effective in aiding student understanding and comprehension, as the students have the choice of having the story read to them. This will deepen their understanding of the topic, giving them the opportunity to reread as needed for understanding, allows them to choose their topic, and has videos and great illustrations that will peak student interest.

I will model how to access page,sign in,  choose topic,(modeling Wildfires from the Extreme Nature section) read book individually and with it read aloud and will point out how the various text features found in each book help me understand important and interesting information about the topic. I will then give them time to explore.

With me working in a preschool class room I choose Book Flix http://sdm-bkflix.digital.scholastic.com/ from there you can choose what category. I have been working on the ABC,s with the kids so I choose ABC,s and 123, from there it give you the options on read a book or watch the book.  Once the child has watch the book, the site has other tool bars to choose. One is call puzzlers which give them 3 or 4 short games they can play that ties into the book which helps with their comprehension. One of the games is called which comes first, so that helps with recall, another one is word match, this one gives a short definition of the word and the student clicks on one of the 4 words they have listed. They would need a adult help with this one but it would be a great small group game.
Sometimes it helps kids learn by looking at the pages, see them highlighted. It a different and fun way of learning. Some kids are easily distracted and this looks like this could help them stay focused.

The resource that I will definitely be using in my class this year is Trueflix.  How to get there...

1. Go to iowaaeaonline.org
2. Choose Trueflix on the left hand side of the page
3. Log in using your school user name and password

From here I am going to choose Ecosystems on the right side of the screen under the Science and Nature column.  There are books for each of the 6 ecosystems.  My objective will be for students to become familiar with an ecosystem that they are assigned to.  They will then have the option to either read the book online or to listen to it being read to them.  This will be an awesome option for my ELL students. This will be the beginning of a science project that my students will work on.  I can't wait to try this out and see how it works!!

There are times when I want to provide articles to help provide a historical context to pieces we are singing in our ensembles. I think a great too to use for the is GALE. This site has a specific section just for Fine Arts and Music which is very helpful when trying to wade through many articles.

We will be singing an Eric Whitacre piece this year, so I want to provide the students with some information about his work in choral composition. On GALE, with just a simple search, I was able to find many articles about Eric Whitacre.

To find GALE, I went to the AEA Online website and clicked on GALE on the left. I used my school's login and it took me to the list of GALE resources. All I needed to do is find the Fine Arts and Music Collection and I was ready to search. Here is the link to the article I found.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA253535764&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=PPFA&contentSet=GALE%7CA253535764&searchId=R1&userGroupName=1611wesths&inPS=true

This article will be great for the students to connect to some of the outreach Eric has done with the broader choral community, creating a virtual choir on his Youtube channel.

The resource I plan to use first is the iClipArt (http://schools.iclipart.com/iowa/). You can also access the sight through the Heartland AEA website. There are a few review activities that I use and in those activities, we on a virtual field trip. Because of this, I am always trying to use pictures of different characters. During the virtual fields trips, I have a mystery they are trying to solve and part of that is interviewing different (fake) characters. This review activity has been created through google slides where I hyperlink photos of these character and pictures to other things or facts within the presentation.

These photos will allow me to share this presentation without the concern of copyright laws. It will also make the presentation much more enjoyable for the students to navigate through while learning the particular standards from that unit. While this doesn't seem like anything ground breaking, I couldn't be more excited to give this presentation a more unique and realistic feel through the images. I think in a lesson like this, the presentation to the student goes a long way towards their enjoyment, which in turn effects their engagement in such an activity.  

The number of images that I will have access to will allow me to create a unique experience for each review activity that i create. One for unit 1, unit 2 etc. To me, this is such a simple resource that can go a long way toward student engagement.

For my lesson, I started at the AEA on-line database at https://www.iowaaeaonline.org/.  Next I had students access the soundzabond database site at http://www.soundzabound.com.  I explained to students that like many other databases, this is a subscription service, but that the AEA’s across the state have made this access available to us through our school’s login information.  I first introduced the lesson in our unit on multi-media presentations—using primarily PowerPoint.  As part of the lesson, students needed to learn that much like image files, sound files also have a variety of formats, but that sound files are not always as compatible across platforms as image files.  I explained the .mp3 extension—which will most with most of the software we will be using—as the next unit will be on iMovie and will incorporate these same concepts.
The next step was for students to start browsing around the site.  It is important to note—this website is a database like other sites, and the music is sorted by title, Artist, Category, and the duration and downloads are of particular note.  The files will download as .mp3 files—and like images students must not the name, location, file name and extension for the file downloaded.  In addition, we will address the copyright implications for using soundsabounds.  It is an excellent resource for school projects.
Students will then practice placing their files in the appropriate applications, and use the software for fading, splicing, etc. that they need to do to fit their needs.

Being a substitute and knowing this website http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/Students will be half the battle.  From there depending on the project the students or my own children are doing will determine which link I will suggest.  As a parent I love the Teen Health and Wellness link http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/.  There are so many resources and help for teens.  Hopefully the word of this site will spread to help those teens that feel they can't talk to anyone.

https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=29378
I’m hooked on Teachingbooks.net!  I really like all of the resources that this site provides.  I would implement this in my fourth grade classroom right away by using it as a supplement to the novel Wonder that we are currently reading.  I went to the novel on the website with ease, very user-friendly.  I love that this site has resources that involve the author.  I would have the kids use their chromebooks and listen to the author talk about writing this novel.  I also love how they have book trailers, so I would have them watch the ones provided.  There is also a link to the upcoming movie trailer that I would have them check out.  The lesson plans have some great ideas, but my favorite one is how we can help educate children what bullying is and how to prevent it.  I think this is so important, so hopefully the kids can help pass what they learned to their families as many parents really don’t understand what bullying is.  There are also other links that the kids and families can take a look at to continue these discussions at home and beyond!

I went to the AEA online and selected BookFlix, as there are many books on the scholastic website that are appropriate for preschool age children. I was amazed at all the features, categories,  lesson plans, videos, interactive games, read along features, and other ways to reinforce desires to discover, read and engage in literacy. My target audience would be my preschool friends in a classroom I support, and I would use this during circle time and create lessons to be used during small group learning. The book that caught my attention was Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert. The objective would include learning activities about trees in the areas of language arts, math, science, and food science (one of my favorites).

The lesson plans provided give numerous ideas that could be easily adapted to meet the learning styles and levels of the students in the ECSE classrooms I support. From taking a walk in to collect leaves (perfect for this time of the year in Iowa), sorting the leaves, making a grid and talking about why the students grouped their leaves. I would also include the food science activity of using different edible plants to introduce parts of plants that include flowers, leave, stems, roots, fruit, and seeds.

There are also many ideas on ways to extend the learning that are just a few clicks away on BookFLIX.

Every year near the end of October I do a lesson on Dia De Los Muertos with my 5th graders. I used CultureGrams to help with this lesson.


First, I went to Iowa AEA Online website and chose CultureGrams from the menu. After logging in, I selected the Kids Edition. I would have the students click on Mexico. Many facts are given right off the bat, including Quick Facts, Did You Know as well as a map. ( http://online.culturegrams.com/kids/kids_country.php?contid=6&wmn=North_America&cid=30&cn=Mexico)

The main portions I would want the students to research are the Early Civilizations and the Holidays. Dia De Los Muertos has its roots in Aztec religions and history as well as modern Christianity. CultureGrams offers many different topics to research and I think the students would really enjoy navigating through such an easy yet concise datebase. Another thing I would want the students to pay attention to is the historical database from the History menu. I love when I am able to show students that history plays a large role in what we create, why we create and how we create artwork.

In edition to the use of CultrueGrams, I also found a fantastic book called "Viva Frida" on AEA  Digital Library. (http://www.aeadigitallibrary.org/Media.aspx?id=9207)

Upon signing into the AEA Digital Library, I searched for Frida who is a famous Mexican artist and this popped right up! This will be very fun to use during this unit as well. I always try to integrate literacy into my units so this is a great resource for me. Often times libraries are lacking books about artists so this will be a large help.

There are a number of sources available that I think would work great with my seventh grade life science class.  Especially when we do our disease research projects.  One source that I think would work great for that is the Teen Health and Wellness database.  The link to this is http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/.  Over the years we have transitioned from doing our research through textbooks, a combination of book and online resources, to the point now where we only use the internet.  The tricky part with that is we do not want students using Google to find the answers to their questions.  So, giving them specific resources like the one above helps students follow their CRAAP testing and find good, reliable answers to their questions.  Another obvious benefit is this still requires them to read and learn about their topic instead of having an answer show up on on a Google search from an unreliable source.

Choose a resource and how will it be use and to what benefit:
Starting at
>  http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/Students
> I will click on the Student tab.
> on the left hand side click on Britannaca online link.

It asks for level. This is a great starting point for my elementary researchers. Drag and drop this address: http://school.eb.com/levels  to their tab bar for student’s easy access.
When they are given an assignment they can click on this research tab.  
When ready to research,
 Click that research tab. Britannaca Online  http://school.eb.com/levels
 Hover over elementary level  it will show a search bar.
 Click here and type in their subject to research. (Planet Mars)
 As an example my 4th   grade ELA students have a writing assignment on Mars. Also, my 5th graders are researching a planet for science. One of them chose Mars. They both could start out hovering over the elementary level and type in the search bar, “Planet Mars”. This will give them 3 level choices to choose from. As they click on each level they can determine if it is too easy or hard for them and choose their best level. (Level 1)
They also have options of article link to click on. On the left there is a sidebar with a Web’s Best Site option.
  If they click the first link available at top of page it will give them a chance to look at different reading levels, at a glance, within the chosen article. In Special Education we have such broad range of levels within one grade. This will help the students comfortably research alongside their peers.

In my 6th grade class, they do a research project. I am planning to use Britannica Online: http://school.eb.com/ and GALE: http://galesites.com/state/iowa/ both of these are wonderful and can be geared towards my middle-school aged students level of understanding. I also really appreciate the translation option. I have a few students who speak very little English. I know that by allowing them to switch the level to 1 or Elementary as well as translating into their native language it will help keep them involved with the rest of the class. Our libraries actual amount of books in various languages in minimal and by using the Iowa AEA they have an abundance of resources now. I also plan on sharing Culture Grams: http://online.culturegrams.com/ with my elementary teachers. They do an international fair in fourth grade and this could provide a great amount of information for their students. It is very helpful and provides real perspectives of each location.  I also like that it includes recipes right within CultureGrams! Students won’t have to use outside sources for this. This is one of the requirements of the fourth grade project and being able to meet all the requirements with this one resources is amazing! It will make it that much more productive and efficient for the students class work time.  

www.teachingbooks.net

I chose to look a little deeper into Teachingbooks.net that can be found on the AEA Learning Online website.  Once I clicked on the site, I was able to enter the book name of the book I was looking for.  Once it was found, I had access to the book trailer, a meet the author video, vocabulary list for the book and many different teachers guides and activities for students to do before the reading, during the reading and after the reading.

I am thinking about incorporating teachingbooks.net for a group of students who are struggling readers, but are not considered sped.  I would be able to select a book for this group of students, check the complexity level of the book to make sure it is an appropriate book level for them.  I can have them watch the book trailer and meet the author to try and motivate them to want to read the book.  There are many teachers guides available that will help me guide the students before, during and after the reading.  I can supply the students with the printable vocab list that they can refer to as they read.  

I am hoping that this resource will help encourage my struggling readers to want to read.

The SIRS Issues Researcher (http://auth.proquestk12.com/IA/) would be very beneficial to me in the classroom because I focus a lot on the business world.  SIRS can provide relevant and up-to-date articles that the students can bring to class that focus on a specific topic such as business.  My target audience would be high schoolers (or in my case since I’m an adjunct at a college, college students as well).
Learn360 (https://learn360.infobase.com/p_Login.aspx?iowaaea=1) is another one that I can see using as it incorporates multi-media.  The more I’m in the classroom, the more I see the advantages of multi-media.  I use it to wake kids up in the morning.  I use it to demonstrate a topic we’ve been discussing that gives them more of a visual image instead of just the auditory concept.  My target audience would be any grade as it can be useful in any of the K-12 and beyond classrooms.  As an adjunct at the college, I have kids doing presentations and often promote them using multi-media in their presentations to give a clearer view of the topic they are discussing.  The kids seem to get excited to do research for multi-media items and really seem to put more effort into that research then just a regular article or word type of search.  I would also use this to emphasize a procedure that I’m trying to show them in class.  In today’s class, I talked to them about cross-referencing results and finding the correlation between items.  I used a video to help clarify what I was showing them in the PowerPoint.  I also made that resource available to them after the class so they can go back and reference what we talked about as well.  I think that’s the greatest advantage to having these resources available is that it goes beyond the classroom.  If the student didn’t pick up on something in class, they can go back to that resource and review it again in their own time and maybe in a space that they feel they can concentrate better as well.

I am happy to see a site in the AEA Online Resources that is dedicated solely to health and wellness. It's called Teen Health and Wellness and can be found at http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/

The site covers a vast amount of health and wellness issues-from diseases to friendships and dating, emotions, drugs and alcohol, safety, green living, and more. Under each category there are subtopics that discuss things in detail. Students are allowed to navigate and choose where they want to go with their research on each topic. The information is solid and accessible to many students. I worry if it might be too much reading for struggling students. There is an option for the articles to be read to students, however.

I teach middle school Wellness, and would use this site to help provide information to students. Whether it is an introduction, or the students are doing a research project, I can feel confident that is accurate and vetted.

Since I will be a substitute, a number of these resources will be helpful to me, but I feel the one that will provide me with the most flexibility will actually be the Teen Health and Wellness site (http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/).  

Teen Health and Wellness is a site that covers a exceptionally wide variety of subjects all related to the teens.  Many of the subjects are Health related, but I am most impressed with its broad interpretation of wellness which includes a section called:  Skills for School, Work, and Life.  This area, and others, have a direct impact on the age groups I plan on working with, Middle to High School.  

I would utilize this source in situations where I may not have direction from the teacher I am substituting for and the students don't have work that needs to be completed.  The Skills for School, Work, and Life section, contains information on subjects that nearly every student will/has encounter, but are also not so personal that it will cause embarrassment.  Areas such as getting your first car, or your first job to conflict resolution and decision making are all general topics that are useful to nearly everyone.  Plus they could inspire productive conversations and research.