Point A to Point B

Month: October 2007

  • Learning is Everywhere

    I continue to be amazed at how learning opportunities are all around, and sneak up when you least expect it. Tonight I was co-teaching an inservice class, and while watching my colleague demonstrate something, I was learning many new insights and ideas for a topic I was already familiar with.

    One of the great joys of teaching is that you get to be immersed in learning every moment of every day – what a fantastic job!

    teachingaboutelectricity.gif
    Image citation:
    “Teaching about Electricity.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 23 October 2007. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>

  • Oh, and the Other Thing Today…

    So today was one of those “sneaker days” as I call them. Running from project to project and room to room. These days are awesome…

    digitaltypewriter.jpgMrs. Leone’s 8th grade spanish class finished the first digital storytelling project for the year today. Students had to be filmed in an interview situation with a partner. The content focus is to review the important basic communication elements they have learned for the past 3 years. The medium allowed them to create their own scenario for the interview. There were some clever ideas, and the time allottment was not big at all – just 3 days of classtime for editing (including exporting/burning). More importantly are 2 things: students were on task and self-directed (motivatied and captivated) since they were working on video of their own creation; and the product is tangible and lasting – the video will exist for as long as we want it to.

    We have spawned a series of storytelling projects already this year, and I think we are going to be very happy with the results!

    Image citation:
    “Typewriter with the Word Digital.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 5 October 2007. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>

  • While We’re on the Topic of Science

    Following up immediately on the previous post, and speaking of great science teachers…

    Another lesson today was with Mr. Trombley and Mrs. Krieger (current gifted programming teacher and littlegirlreadingbook.jpg former science teacher). The three of us and another teacher are working together on our Professional Study Plans. We are in year 3 , which means we do some sort of study on improving learning. We have chosen to focus on the work of Robert Marzano and his Building Academic Vocabulary meta-research. This is a district initiative and we are using science (and math) classes to do our study.

    Today was the first time to introduce the study to the students. We administered a pretest using the CPS “clickers,” followed by a lesson on learning vocabulary with the Marzano method, taught by Mrs. Krieger. Today’s group is the “focus” group and next Tuesday is the “control” group. We will evaluate the results of the unit test to see if there is any difference in scores based on how the vocabulary is taught. Throughout this year we will be rotating the focus and control groups so all the students in the class have the same opportunities.

    Its really exciting to be able to work on projects such as this. It makes learning for everyone exciting!

    Image citation:
    “Little Girl Reading Book as Words Come off the Page.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 5 October 2007. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>

  • An Answer to the “Copy and Paste” World

    Just finished a lesson today with our excellent science teacher, Mrs. Merlino. She is starting a unit on photosynthesis, and we introduced the students to the notecard tool within NoodleBib. The notecard tool allows the students to copy and paste direct quotations from a source, and then provides scaffolding for them to put what they paste into their own words, and then create their own ideas from there. It is a straight forward process that has existed long before technology, but the simple-to-use interface and anywhere-access makes this a powerful and easy resource. Within 10 or 15 minutes of overview, we were having great conversations about the right thing – how to paraphrase, and form ideas and questions. The ease and power of this tool is great.powerful.jpg

    Man, I wish I had NoodleBib while I was in school!

    Image citation:
    “Dictionary Definition: Powerful.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 5 October 2007. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>