Chapter 11 - Generating and Testing Hypothesis

This chapter didn't seem to relate to what I teach as well as to some of the other subject areas. We don't do a lot of hypothesis testing in language arts. We do use predicting skills before reading assignments. This chapter had a lot of information I will gladly share with my colleagues.

I read through the appendix area of the book and the area on internet safety had good reminders that we should always stress with our students.

There were two books listed there that I am interested in reading (you, know, in all that free time I have!) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson and Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere by David Warlick. The blogs and wikis are two of the areas I found most interesting. I need a lot of work and practice with both to become more comfortable before trying to introduce them to my students.

I am so happy to discover all of the tools available in Microsoft Word that I had no clue were even there!

Chapter 10 - Homework and Practice

Ick. Homework. As a sixth grade language arts teacher I try to get writing into my classroom whenever I can. I have a weekly writing assignment due each Friday that is completely done at home. The final draft does not have to be printed from a computer- it can be hand written - but most students have access to a computer somewhere and do bring it in printed. I am going to spend time going through the options available through Microsoft Word that I was not aware of before reading this book. Word research tool? What? All of these things have been available- and I had no clue! We will definitely discuss the thesaurus available right there for word choice improvement. The Flesh-Kincaid grade level rating I think will be very interesting to them. They will enjoy seeing what rating their writing receives and I will help them learn some tips for raising that level. Also, autosummarizing? I didn't know that existed! We will use that tool in many different ways this year I hope.

The Flashacrd Exchange website also looks like a good site for reviewing vocab words.

Chapter 9 - Identifying Similarities and Differences

As others have said I also use a lot of graphic organizers to classify and differentiate in my classroom. I am a strong user of "Thinking Maps" I liked the tools discussed for students to use drawing toolbars to create their own graphic organizers. This will give them a little more ownership. This would allow students to use their own creativity in some tasks that often seem a little boring.

Inspiration and Kidspiration seem like sites with just abundant supplies of useful tools that I need to utilize with me students. Analogies and Metaphors with six graders are not the easiest things for them to learn. If these sites make those skills easier or more fun to manipulate, then I will definitely spend the time to investigate them more fully before school starts.

Chapter 8 - Reinforcing Effort

Effort is something that is lacking in a lot of students- even in the SEARCH students I teach. They have figured out what they have to do to get by and that's all they do. I honestly didn't get as much out of this chapter as the others previously. The effort rubric looks worthwhile. The spreadsheet looks easy to manipulate. But this is one of those areas I see myself not following through with. I see the importance, but with time limitations for planning and teaching, I can see this rubric as something I'd like to do , but I don't follow through with. The data collection section really left me with more questions as opposed to something I could walk away with and use.

Chapter 7 - Cooperative Learning

While reading this chapter a few ideas caught my eye. Personally, cooperative learning in general is not my favorite activity in the classroom. I do use cooperative learning frequently so any new ideas I encounter are always welcome. Jigsawclassroom.org was an enlightening sight. I have used jigsaw strategies often but this gave me some ideas I hadn't used before. It gave detailed instructions and quidelines for group members roles. I will use these ideas.

ANother point I am interested in is a webquest. I liked the site webtask taskonomy. It was interesting and enlightening to see all the different types of webquests available. I always thought of a webquest as kind of a scavenger hunt. It can be so much more. I think the two types I could use most often in my room would be the Journalistic task and the Self Knowledge tasks.

Chapter 6 - Summarizing and Note taking

I played around with the site ThinkTank. I think this will work well with my students. It walks you step by step through the process of narrowing a research topic. After you find a topic, it helps you with subtopics. Students have a very hard time deciding on topics. This site helps you define what you are searching for with great leading questions.

The site NoteStar will also be very helpful with research projects. It looks like a great site to help me manage my students projects. It will let me send messages to the students about their projects. It will help check authenticity- that's a big issue. It will also be good for a cooperative learning project. It lets me assign different aspects of the project to different students. It will help me track progress of all the group members.

Chapter 5 - Nonlimguistic Representation

When learning new vocabulary I always have my students create a grapphic representation along with the meaning of the word if possible. If I could find a way to complete this on the computer instead of paper/pencil activities, I think the students would really enjoy it and it will hit more of their learning styles. I liked the conceptual/descriptive pattern organizer created with kidspiration vocabulary word template. The graphics would appeal to the students. Personally, I like the look of the generalization/principle pattern organizer with Microsoft Word organization Chart, but I'm a "word" person and it looks very "wordy".

The step by step instructions for creating projects with movies and animation will be very useful. I need to be braver and embrace all the technology out there. It will be to the benefit of my students.

The sites Iknowthat.com and Knowitall.org look like sites I will use often from now on.

Chapter 4 - Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers.

I took a course this summer about using menus in the classroom.With many of the menus, I will need to create a rubric. The instructions for creating a rubric using Excel on page 77 will be extremely helpful.

Most sixth graders are not organized- imagine that. ANyway to help get them organized by using a graphic or advance organizer will be a plus. We are starting a new power hour program at Rasco this year. One day a week focuses on study skill and organization. The ideas in this chapter might be beneficial as I start planning my power hour lessons.

Chapter 3 - Providing Feedback

The three generalizations at the beginning of the chapter reaffirmed what I've always believed. Rewards don't neccessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation. Each year of new students I encounter seems to arrive with less and less motivation. Any way to reward that doesn't cost a lot but will increase motivation is wonderful.

One of the recommendations is personalized recognition. I have taken the Microsoft workshop for creating awards so I was familiar with the multimedia software the chapter referenced. Certificates and awards are easy ways to personalize recognition.

The audio email sounds like something I'd like to use. I'd like to receive an email that gave me praise for something I had accoimplished. I'm sure my students would enjoy that as well.

Chapter 2 - Providing Feedback

I did not know about the track changes and insert comments features in Microsoft Word. This looks like a great feature to use with writing. It will be useful for me offering editing advice and feedback. I can see that it would be useful with peer editing as well. I think students would be excited about using this for editing purposes. It would be something different than paper and pencil editing. I would need to play with that feature awhile to become comfortable with it.

We do have clickers available to us at our school. I don't know of anyone using them. I think the idea of the set up being overwhelming and time consuming prevents some of us from using the clickers. I could be completely wrong on that point, but when I think about using them I immediately think I don't have any time to set that up.

In the web resources section I immediately thought of Study Island. I love that program, but of course, we do not have the site license at Rasco. My children have access to it on their campuses. I think it is absolutely wonderful. I haven't seen many sites like this that have really good writing activities. Study Island does. As a parent, I like the idea that students can access it from home as well. Not only did they get that extra practice at home, I had a chance to see what they were working on. I don't know how to convince those in charge, but Study Island would be a wonderful addition to what we do at Rasco.

I really like the Wikis. Thank you for including the video - Wikis in Plain English - that really illustrated how a wiki could be used. I have set up a wiki account. This would be great for collaborative work. The easiest way to use it would be for a group writing activity. Is there a way to track how much imput each person offers? For example if I had a group of four working on a specific writing topic, is there a way to check that each person actually added something to the assignment? Again, this looks like something I could use that the students would enjoy, but I need to spend some more time working with it to become comfortable.

Chapter 1 - Setting Objectives

I think Surveymonkey will be a very useful site. I have set up my account and have some ideas for using the surveys in my classroom. I am going to try a survey as a reading interest inventory at the beginning of the school year. The students might enjoy seeing how their interests compare to other students interests. I've always used interest inventories but I have only used the results for my own insight into the students likes and dislikes. A survey would also be useful at the beginning of a new novel. I always go through some thought questions- like an anticipation guide - before we begin. A survey would be an easy way to do this.

I am also interested in using a blog with my classes. I'd like to try to figure out how to have students post book reviews to my blog. I think I'll have to start out with just my SEARCH classes so I don't get overwhelmed reading responses from all five classes at once. Since I'm VERY new to blogging I'm going to have to spend a lot of time figuring out all the ins and outs.

With my team I would like to start a different email system to parents then we've used in the past few years. The science teacher on the team sends out alerts for important dates, assignments, etc as they arise at school. I want to start out with a more organized system this year similar to what I received from my daughter's team last year at LJI. At the Meet the Teacher night, I only had to fill out one info sheet for her whole team of teachers and it was very brief. One teacher from the team sent out a group email for the team each Friday. It gave an idea, obj, assignment for what would be going on in the core classes on each day of the following week. It gave me a heads up on what I could be expecting my child to be working on each night. It came to my email which I check much more frequently than a monthly calendar or an assignment folder. We will be imlementing something very similar to this.

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

I just viewed the video again and as an educator it does make you stop and evaluate what you are doing in the classroom. I fall into several of those percentages of teachers that have never used some of the technology pointed out in the video. As a parent, I also think about what my children are getting the opportunity to do in their classrooms. Great video.