I just returned from the New York State Reading Association annual reading conference. I am excited and invigorated to be the best teacher of literacy I can be. I saw Ralph Fletcher, Dr. Donald Leu, Kelly Gallagher, Dr. Donna Scanlon, Dr. Timothy Rasinski, The 2 Sisters, lots of authors, and Steven Layne. WOW! What an experience. I will tell you all about it, but tonight I wanted to get started on creating a database of Book Chats, suggested by Steven Layne (he has a binder, but I of course had to go tech!). I used google docs, and am posting the form here so my teacher friends can give me a hand. I thought this might also be a useful tool if I become a Charlotte Award Committee Member. Lets give it a whirl.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Ballot for the 2012 New York State Reading Association's Charlotte Award
Named for the main character in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, the purpose of the Charlotte Award is to encourage students to read outstanding literature and ultimately become life-long readers. Additionally, the award recognizes the authors and illustrators of such literature.
The Ballot for 2012 was announced today. We waited with baited breath to find out who would be nominated....
The Pre K-2 Primary list for this award is as follows:
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Ipod Videos Created by my 6th grade
My 6th graders had the chance to use iPods in our English classroom this year during our Medieval Unit. Every year I teach some lessons on storytelling. It is a great chance for students to use some higher level skills. They read a medieval tale, then read the history behind it, and get some storytelling pointers (all from this book). They have to synthesize the story and tell it in their own words.
In years past I asked the students to share their storytelling expertise at our feast. This was not always successful. Students were never comfortable enough to "tell" the stories in front of other classes, parents, administrators etc. Even when they were comfortable telling their stories, it was often too busy and noisy to share their expertise well.
The final project of the iPod pilot project was to use Reel Director to create a movie of their storytelling. I asked them to read the story and background information, take notes or highlight what they wanted to tell, and tell their story into the voice memo on the iPod. This was their "rough draft". Doing this gave them an idea of how long their story was, so they could find images and adjust the length and transitions on their video. Once they "created" the movie images, they recorded their story in to the Reel Director program and it created the movie.
Every student completed the assignment (yea!) and excluding a few poor picture choices, and not enough images (the audio ends when the images end, creating an abrupt stop to the story) most of the storytelling movies we amazing.
We showed the videos on the smart board throughout the feast, and everyone had a chance to see what a great job they did. The videos were evaluated using this rubric.
Here are some of the videos:
Beowulf Slays Grendel
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Robin Hood
Battle of Orleans
Arthur Meets Excalibur
In years past I asked the students to share their storytelling expertise at our feast. This was not always successful. Students were never comfortable enough to "tell" the stories in front of other classes, parents, administrators etc. Even when they were comfortable telling their stories, it was often too busy and noisy to share their expertise well.
The final project of the iPod pilot project was to use Reel Director to create a movie of their storytelling. I asked them to read the story and background information, take notes or highlight what they wanted to tell, and tell their story into the voice memo on the iPod. This was their "rough draft". Doing this gave them an idea of how long their story was, so they could find images and adjust the length and transitions on their video. Once they "created" the movie images, they recorded their story in to the Reel Director program and it created the movie.
Every student completed the assignment (yea!) and excluding a few poor picture choices, and not enough images (the audio ends when the images end, creating an abrupt stop to the story) most of the storytelling movies we amazing.
We showed the videos on the smart board throughout the feast, and everyone had a chance to see what a great job they did. The videos were evaluated using this rubric.
Here are some of the videos:
Beowulf Slays Grendel
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Robin Hood
Battle of Orleans
Arthur Meets Excalibur
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Technology in my Classroom
I am part of an iPod pilot project in my 6th grade ELA class. This coincides with our yearly Medieval Feast. I usually have the students create a recipe book. I do this for two reasons, they can have extra credit if they make a recipe, and to give them a chance to work with technology. the assignment in years past focused on fonts, centering, using headers and footers, and reading over the recipe in case they needed to summarize (conserve space). This year we used Comic Touch Lite on the iPods. They were asked to find authentic pictures, fill the background, have a title & first name, and defiantly had to adjust text and summarize. Here is an animoto video of the finished recipe projects. I included all, even the students who did not adhere completely to our rubric.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Free Audiobook Resources
Mary Burkey, a teacher, librarian, and audiobook addictvisits my Google reader a few times a week with great audiobook suggestions. This week she shares a free audiobook download from AudioGo. No email address, or survey, just a free book.
She also led me to the Tales2Go ipod app which is free to educators until June 30th. WOW What a resource, They have lots of popular titles, as well as great folktale resources for the NYS ELA test.
She also led me to the Tales2Go ipod app which is free to educators until June 30th. WOW What a resource, They have lots of popular titles, as well as great folktale resources for the NYS ELA test.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Book Apps
At work our principal offered us chances to join Professional Learning Communities. It is a great chance for teachers to work together reading, researching and developing sound resources for the district. My group is working on Response to Intervention and our recent implementation of the Daily 5.
This article from School Library Journal however, is a great resource for what another PLC group is researching. Do you ever wonder what to look for in a book application? This article gives some excellent advice.
This article from School Library Journal however, is a great resource for what another PLC group is researching. Do you ever wonder what to look for in a book application? This article gives some excellent advice.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Read a Children's Book, NOW!
I know I haven't posted in a while. I keep meaning to, but keep getting distracted with crafting (hehe), and reading my new nook. I did read this post, and felt I had to share it. I feel a little guilty reading children's literature all the time, but its sooo good. Take a monent to read this blog, and then a children's book.
I suggest:
Have Fun!!
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