Educational Resources - Activity Reflection #1

Hello, everyone!  


There are a lot of educational resources available online, and it is very difficult for parents, students, and teachers to sort out what is available, what is appropriate, and what is applicable.  In my graduate class this week, we were asked to reflect on various resources that can be found online – from our local school district’s website  to our state’s website to various other educational websites.  Since I am not currently teaching, I decided to approach the project from 6 different angles, and see what I could find.  I searched the various websites as the following persons:

1. The parent of a first grade student who is struggling with reading
2. The parent of a gifted high school math and science student who loves physics
3. An elementary music teacher
4. A middle school social science teacher
5. A bored middle school math student
6. A curious Ninth grade language arts student

I think it is probably hardest to find things as a parent.  I found oodles of “how to become more involved in your child’s education” articles, and lots of policies, standards, and information.  But, as a parent, I wanted to find links for activities that my kids could do online – with or without me.  I wanted to find links to summer camps for physics students and 100 experiments you can do in your very own bathtub.  I wanted to find the 10 best websites for encouraging your struggling reader to remember her consonant blends.  I wanted to find online interactive books.  Maybe I didn’t know how to search as a parent, and of course, I would hope that my students’ teachers would be helping me find appropriate sites as well.

Next, the resources available for kids and teens are abounding.  I was glad to have some links as a launch-pad since kids and searching the web freely can be somewhat scary. The Brevard Public Schools site basically only had practice for FCAT.  Other sites, like the eduhound site and the Kid’s Search Tools  site proved to be useful with thousands of links to interactive and interesting websites.   Most kid’s sites I looked at were ad-free, as well, which I think is a HUGE plus.

Now, as a teacher, I was happy to see all the resources available – activities, multimedia, worksheets, forums, blogs, etc, etc, etc – just about anything I’d need, I could find on the web.  The trick is to find things quickly.  However, the FL Department of Education (FDOE) website was less than stellar, in my opinion.  The “Just for Teachers” section, which claims, “Designed with Teachers in Mind!” didn’t have what I had in mind.  Sure, I saw links for news and legislation, but not enough “Try THIS in your classroom!” ideas.  There was one section that had some instructional resources, but I was surprised at the slim list.  On the US Department of Education site,  I found that it was easy to navigate and I really liked their Success Stories section .

Overall, it was nice to have a list of links to start with.  With the millions of educational pages available, searching quickly is of highest priority.  I will say that if I was on a site that was difficult to navigate, had a bad search engine, or was visually unappealing, I didn’t stay there long.  I don’t have time to wonder where to click or to search and re-search.

Below, you will find my experiences searching for internet resources.  Remember, I searched as parents, students, and as teachers.  

Resources – Parent of First Grade Struggling Reader 

Education World  – This didn’t seem like a very good resource for me to find help for my child.  There were tons of lessons ideas, but I couldn’t find links for parents or homework helpers. 

Eduhound.com  - After clicking on Language Arts and then Reading, I found a link to BookHive, , which is part of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s website.  I could go to this site with my daughter and find some good books, as well as find some neat activities for us to do together.

State and Federal Sites – I had a hard time finding anything to help my child here.  I clicked on Families, and there were a lot of links, including early learning / preK, High School, and Middle school, but I could not find anything particular to Elementary School, or, especially Elementary reading. 

Brevard Public Schools – There were tons of links here, mostly about school rules, educational policies, children’s insurance programs, free and reduced lunch, FCAT information, etc.  I had to dig for the kinds of resources I needed.  However, what they did list was very appropriate for a parent of any public school child.  

Florida PIRC  - lots of resources, downloadable workshops, PowerPoints, and fact sheets, websites and tip sheets – mostly about parenting and becoming more involved in my child’s education.  This site didn’t really have resources to aid my child with her reading.

Families Building Better Readers - it is a K-3^rd grade parent workshop pdf file.  Once there, I found the website,  Just Read Florida.  There were lots of informational links and directions there.  In one document, Read to Learn, had some good tips – especially the “Six Components of Reading” on page 4.  It was definitely geared for 3^rd grade students, but it had some good tips for any age. 

In the parent workshop manual, on page 4, is an overview: Blueprints for Success.  Each section of the Blueprints is then expanded upon later in the pdf.  This pdf has DIRECT and SIMPLE instructions and suggestions for how to assist my child in reading, like “Try taking turns”, “Supply your child missed or unfamiliar words”, and “Have your child read the same passage again the next day”  (6-8).  There are games, activities, goals, and instructions.  This is a really good resource and I will use this document with my child. 

Resources – Parent of High School Gifted Math and Science Student 

Eduhound.com – I found a cool-looking site for my son called Fizzics Fizzle by clicking on Science and then Physics.  My son would be able to get some great information here, while keeping his interest with games and activities.  

Kid’s Search Tools – When I went to this page , it loaded several search kid-safe search engines.  When I clicked on Awesome Library, and entered “physics”, I got a list of 280 links of topics related to physics – all kid-friendly.  I would be able to help my child a lot with information from this website.  

Florida Dept of Education – Again, lots of links with information – this time geared towards exceptional education.  Again, not much that I could present to my child. 

Resources – Middle School Social Studies Teacher 

Education World – I clicked on Main Channels, then Subjects & Specialties, then History and found this link:   Top Teacher Ties History to Current Events.  So many times my students ask me, “Why do we have to know this?” or “How is this important to me today?” and this site would help me answer those questions.  Deidra Grode’s interview is quite interesting.  Another link  took me to an interview with Whitwell Middle School where they collected 6 million paperclips in order to comprehend the number of Jews killed by the Nazis.  In the interview, Peter and Dagmar Schroeder, German journalists spoke about how this project can be used in the classroom:  “These students, these young adults, have a pretty good idea about right and wrong. They can draw conclusions. When we tell students about the "precursors" of the Holocaust, about seemingly "innocent" anti-Semitic remarks and jokes, they can transplant this to their daily lives. They understand that you only have to substitute, let's say, "Jew" in a derogatory remark with "Black", Asian," "fat," "slow", stupid" or "dim-witted" to be already on the foundation of the "Pyramid of Hate". And that the next step could be exclusion, physical violence, and -- in the end -- possibly mass murder. This is not rocket science; it is simple reality.”  Lots to think about there.  

Sitesforteachers.com – When I typed “Middle School Social Science” I got 0 results from their search engine.  The same happened when I put in “Social Science”.  Not good.  I got 27 results after I put in “Social Studies”.  I don’t like that I had to search several times.  Of the 27 results, most of them were generic worksheets.  I don’t have time for a site like this.  

Brevard Public Schools – When I clicked on TEACHERS and then Social Studies under the Teaching Social Science with Technology link, and selected National Park subject, I was led to the Discovery Education website where they have an extensive National Park area, complete with resources, lesson plans, assignments, clips, guides, and games.  I would be able to use a lot of the activities on this site with my students.

Also, the History Detectives website would be a fun interactive media site (where you can even submit ideas for them!) that students could access on their own or I could guide them through it. 

Resources – Elementary Music Teacher 

Education World – After clicking on Main Channels, Subjects & Specialties, then Fine Arts, I had a large number of choices at my fingertips.  I really liked “Sites to See: Music”  It is a listing (with reviews) of various music education sites.  I would have a lot of fun with my students with these sites.  Of note (no pun intended):  The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra’s kids site.   

Eduhound.com – I clicked on Music as the subject and was led to this site: Play Music .  There are lots of fun activities for my students to do there – either in a center, individually, or guided by me.    Another site, by the NY Philharmonic Orchestra, is a delightfully interactive website that I will use often in my class.   Kids can even be composers here!  

Brevard Public Schools – The elementary Music subject area of the teacher portion of the website is comprehensive and has a lot of information about programs, policies and how to integrate other subjects into the music classroom’s curriculum.  This area of the website would be very useful for me in my classroom. 

Florida Dept of Education – The Just for Teachers section seemed to be informative, but I need substantial ideas of what works and where to find resources for my classroom.  I am glad for the information, but I need to find activities! 

Resources – Bored middle school math student 

Great Web Sites for Kids – This website  has a lot of stuff to look at!  My teacher told me to click on the Mathematics and Computers section.  Each link is color-coded for grade levels.  My teacher said to click on the blue pencils, and I found some cool links.

 A+ Click I just chose my grade and questions popped up.  Whether I got them right or wrong, the answers were worked out for me.  

Johnnie's Math Page - I had a lot of fun here!  There are games and games here!  My parents and teachers even have their own space here.  I loved the Hitting the Target game  where I could learn angles through sports.  Way cool!  I got a trophy in tennis! 

Math is fun.  Really?  Well, on this site, YES!  When I have a question about inequalities or fractions, I’m going to come here because things were explained in an easy way.  

Brevard Public Schools – I clicked on the Students area of the bps website, and the first thing that hits me is FCAT.  YUCK.  There are a lot of links on this page for stuff that doesn’t matter to me, so I guess I’ll click around the FCAT link because my teacher told me to.  I will say that the Math Station in the FCAT explorer section is pretty cool.   Hmmm…. What’s for lunch tomorrow? 

Resources – 9^th grade enthusiastic Language Arts student 

Eduhound.com - We’re studying the Diary of Anne Frank at school, and I found a lot of interesting links on this Anne Frank site.   This site had a lot of cool information about the 80^th anniversary of her birth in 2009.

Kid’s Search Tools – I clicked on WordsSmyth on this site, just because I wanted to know what it was.  It is a really cool dictionary and thesaurus site with words of different levels and a neat quiz maker.   

Great Web Sites for Kids - This site has a lot of cool links.  I can go there for help with all of my classes.  I really like the Bartleby.com website that I found when I clicked on Expanding the Classics because I can look up my favorite authors or search poetry and find out more information about what we’re studying in school.  This site definitely isn’t for little kids.  I feel like a grown-up on this site.  I’ve been reading a lot of love quotes lately…   :o)

I also found this fun site by one of my favorite poets, Jack Prelutsky:    I cannot say that I am learning a lot here, but it is fun anyway.
Brevard Public Schools – My teacher tells us to go to FCAT explorer and I go there every day after school to practice.   Sometimes the games there are for littler kids, but I like them anyway.  I think that the Reading Factory and Reading Boardwalk sections are pretty fun. 

Happy Monday!

(That is, quite possibly, one of the biggest examples of an oxymoron ever!)

But I digress.... before I even start....

Does anyone out there in Blog Land know how to promote a blog?

~ Christi

Did You Know? (Reading Reflection #1)

Good afternoon, all!

In one of my classes, we viewed this video:   Did You Know?  It's a short presentation by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod describing where we are in the digital world.  Did you know that there are over 1 trillion web pages?  (Well, 1 trillion and ONE, since I just created this one today - *grin*)  Did you know that there are over 240,000,000 TVs in the USA - with over 2,000,000 in bathrooms???  Do we need TVs in bathrooms?  I actually never felt the need for a TV in the bathroom - I was usually busy with other things, so to speak...

The point is .... that our world is digital-crazy, and we are only going to become more so. One time, after showing my niece and nephew their photo I had just taken on my phone, I said to my sister, "These kids will never know what it is like to have to wait to see how the picture comes out."  It isn't lost on me either, that I didn't take their picture on a camera even - I took it on my PHONE.


My niece and nephew are six years old.  They don't know what a cassette tape is or that telephone handsets used to be attached to the base with a squiggly cord and had a dial that slowly turned to access the numbers.  They don't know that in the "olden days" computer screens were black and print was neon green. To them, appliances like microwaves, computers, and cell phones aren't novel:  they're the norm.  And these aren't kids who are exposed to tons of digital gadgets like wii's (except for mine), smart phones (again, except for mine) and iPods (yet, again, except for mine... *sigh*).  They rarely watch network TV and have limited computer time - and only for educational websites.  Yet, these kids can figure out how to move all my icons on my iPhone and navigate through a website to find the activity that they want to do.  No one had to teach them these skills - I truly believe that kids today have an innate sense of how to manipulate media. 

Apple Computer (and our textbook) defines today's children as "Digital Students" or "Digital Kids" (Shelly, 15). Today's children are media savvy, digitally inclined, and can and will do more things at once than we did as kids. The "ancient" items that I mentioned in the previous paragraph were all staples in my childhood.  Yet they barely exist in today's world.  Does that mean that the media that our children are exposed to today will not exist when they are my age? 

Shelly elaborated by saying, "Today's digital kids like watching TV, listening to music on their iPods, listening to their favorite shows via podcasts, talking on their cell phones, texting or instant messaging their friends, and blogging.  Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this scenario is that they are doing all of these activities while completing their math homework assignment" (15-16). 

How do we, as educators, deal with that?  

That's a big question.  Even bigger is the one posed by one of the video's authors, Dr. Scott McLeod on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant: "Are we doing what is best for our students, or are we doing what is most convenient for us?"

I'd like to say that we are doing what is best for our students.  I would LOVE to be able to say that.  But the reality is that we are clueless.  In my opinion, education, and educational theories, for years, went along with the philosophy something like this:  "Well, it worked in the past...."  And, I guess the educational system was okay in the past - lumping everyone together and teaching all learners as if they were the same - with identical needs and interests.  (I mean, think about it - some students in the past learned in one-room school houses with one teacher who taught all grades simultaneously!)  And, all of a sudden, it occurred to educators that we had problems.  Little Johnny couldn't read.  We then compared ourselves to other countries and the outlook was grim:  Little Johnny couldn't read, write, calculate, analyze, interpret, evaluate, problem solve, and create like Little Lin or Little Jaleel or Little Sven.

Reform!  Reform!  Reform!  Multiple intelligences!  Cooperative learning! Behaviorism! Cognitivism!  Constructivism!  Teach this!  Teach that!  A new method, a new idea, a new theory...

Were we too late?  I think so.

Because, it seems to me that we are trying to play catch-up.  Catch-up on years and years of "what we should have done" and we are scrambling to identify with our media-infused students.  Education didn't stay current to where their current students were academically, socially, and emotionally. Sure, over the years,  we put a computer in our classrooms.  We even hooked it up to the internet.  And we even allowed out students access to that computer.  That was HUGE.  But not enough.

An example:  I taught elementary music, and I left in 2003. When I was teaching, I had a computer in my office that was hooked up to the Internet and I, alone, was allowed to use it.  I had a computer in my classroom for students to use, which was not hooked up to the Internet, but the students never used it because the tech administrator never installed the software which came with the textbooks - and I wasn't allowed to.  I cannot tell you how often I requested the installation, but back then, technology was considered "supplemental" to my students and not "essential".  My classroom computer was a dust-catcher.  The kids would say, "can we use the computer?" and I would say, "when it's hooked up".  Kids were, and are, hungry for technology.

Some students were pretty good with computers.  They'd offer to install the software for me.  They would describe how they found this or that out on the Internet. Then this blast of tech-savvy students became the normal student.

In the past, we did what was most convenient for the educator.  It's a lot easier to teach students in a lump.  However, we don't have lumpy kids.  We have individuals - who we now know learn differently than our ancestors and even from their peers.  That is where technology can really make a difference to kids.  We can individualize education and make it more relevant to our students. It is essential for educators to not only offer technological experiences for our students but to integrate technology into every aspect of their learning.  We are preparing our students for a more digitally-charged future - one that we cannot even imagine.  We need to constantly update our skills as teachers in order to remain current (and, dare I say, ahead) of our students.

To me, it seems like an impossible task.  But, I accept the mission.





References:

Fisch, K. & McLeod, S. (2009). Did you know? 4.0.  Retrieved from http://www1.teachertube.com
     /viewVideo.php?video_id=126933&title=Did_You_Know__4_0

McLeod, S. (2007). Well?  What's Your Answer?  Retrieved from http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/05
     /well_whats_your.html

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the

      classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Hello, World!

Welcome to my blog.  I am a former elementary music teacher in her 3rd semester of grad school.  I am getting my Master's Degree in Instructional Technology, with an educational technology focus.  I have a pretty strong background in graphic design and multimedia as well. 

I am glad you are here! Together, we can explore the world of Educational Technology.  Please feel free to leave comments.