URL address for my three day old baby website.
https://sites.google.com/a/marymount.edu/mona-s-ed-554-site/podcast
https://sites.google.com/a/marymount.edu/mona-s-ed-554-site/podcast
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Standard of Learning
For my standard of learning, I chose standard 1.5 / Science / 1st Grade / Strand: Life Processes
Standard 1.5
The student will investigate and understand that animals, including humans, have basic needs and certain distinguishing characteristics. Key concepts include:
a) basic needs include adequate air, food, water, shelter, and space (habitat);
b) animals, including humans, have many physical characteristics; and
c) animals can be classified according to a variety of characteristics.
Overview
This standard focuses on the idea that animals move, need food, breathe, and reproduce.
Animals have a variety of ways in which they accomplish these activities. Each type of animal has features that allow it to function in unique and specific ways to obtain food, reproduce, and survive in a particular place. This standard builds upon the Life Processes strand (K.6 and K.7), in which students are introduced to the concept of living and nonliving, and investigate and understand basic needs and life processes of plants and animals. It is intended that students will actively develop scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic skills (1.1) in the context of the key concepts presented in this standard.
Animals have a variety of ways in which they accomplish these activities. Each type of animal has features that allow it to function in unique and specific ways to obtain food, reproduce, and survive in a particular place. This standard builds upon the Life Processes strand (K.6 and K.7), in which students are introduced to the concept of living and nonliving, and investigate and understand basic needs and life processes of plants and animals. It is intended that students will actively develop scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic skills (1.1) in the context of the key concepts presented in this standard.
Linking activities to different learning styles:
This topic lends itself to different activities that are bound to meet students' different learning styles ranging from using photos of animals for visual learners to investigate the physical characteristics, using miniature plastic figures of animals or stuffed toys for kinesthetic learners, learning songs and dances about animals' habitats, their physical appearances, and food preferences, using the internet to learn more about animals, taking field trips to a zoo to examine the different animal types there, bringing a pet to the classroom and watching it for an extended period of time to write something about what habits and characteristics it has, creating different corners in the classroom to represent the different animals and their habitat, the reenactment of a story about animals, and much more.
Teddy Bears Project
Even though the idea of having students practice writing to a real or imaginary friend in the same school or overseas has been around for decades now, implementing it using technology makes it more appealing, effective, convenient, and a strong representative of what we have so far learned in class 554 about integrating technology in teaching to meet all learning styles.
I remember that more than twenty years ago my classmates and I were engaged in a similar project, in which the teacher had assigned each student a pen-pal in another country ( I have realized long time ago that those were imaginary friends), asked us to write letters on weekly basis exchanging information about our country, culture, school, and events. The teacher would then revise the letters, bring them back to us to write the final draft, then send them to wherever those imaginary friends lived. Once each got a response letter, the next assignment was to revise it, point out structural, grammatical, and spelling mistakes, and share the content information with the rest of the class. I have enjoyed this project to a great extent, for it helped me to indirectly improve my knowledge in geography, practice writing, and refine my spelling and grammar skills.
Implementing a modern version of this project makes it up to date in engaging the new generation to use the computer instead of a pen and a paper, and a great opportunity for collaboration, taking responsibilities, and learning about different cultures. I also liked the proactive measures the teacher took in monitoring the students' work, and censoring and revising all that has been published. Integrating different elements pertaining to geography, history, technology, and Language Arts in this project makes it nothing but a successful, enjoyable, and beneficial learning experience.
As a teacher, I have always been a proponent for technology and its use in the classroom, but I was not fortunate enough to work in a district where the use of technology was appreciated or facilitated. I have spent a good part of my teaching income paying for all my teaching materials, and would have done the same to provide the privilege of technology for my students if it weren't for my classrooms being technology unfriendly, and poorly designed to accommodate any piece of technology devices. As
a future administrative, I will do my best to give each and every student the right to be exposed to technology, and practice learning using technology, because, whether we like it or not, our dear old pens and copy books have been almost completely replaced by keypads and printing paper.
I remember that more than twenty years ago my classmates and I were engaged in a similar project, in which the teacher had assigned each student a pen-pal in another country ( I have realized long time ago that those were imaginary friends), asked us to write letters on weekly basis exchanging information about our country, culture, school, and events. The teacher would then revise the letters, bring them back to us to write the final draft, then send them to wherever those imaginary friends lived. Once each got a response letter, the next assignment was to revise it, point out structural, grammatical, and spelling mistakes, and share the content information with the rest of the class. I have enjoyed this project to a great extent, for it helped me to indirectly improve my knowledge in geography, practice writing, and refine my spelling and grammar skills.
Implementing a modern version of this project makes it up to date in engaging the new generation to use the computer instead of a pen and a paper, and a great opportunity for collaboration, taking responsibilities, and learning about different cultures. I also liked the proactive measures the teacher took in monitoring the students' work, and censoring and revising all that has been published. Integrating different elements pertaining to geography, history, technology, and Language Arts in this project makes it nothing but a successful, enjoyable, and beneficial learning experience.
As a teacher, I have always been a proponent for technology and its use in the classroom, but I was not fortunate enough to work in a district where the use of technology was appreciated or facilitated. I have spent a good part of my teaching income paying for all my teaching materials, and would have done the same to provide the privilege of technology for my students if it weren't for my classrooms being technology unfriendly, and poorly designed to accommodate any piece of technology devices. As
a future administrative, I will do my best to give each and every student the right to be exposed to technology, and practice learning using technology, because, whether we like it or not, our dear old pens and copy books have been almost completely replaced by keypads and printing paper.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
"Fun to Teach ESL" blog http://esleld.blogspot.com/
Fun to teach ESL-Teaching English as a Second Language blog is a useful tool for any ESL teacher. The creator of this blog Lorie Wolfe, who is an ESL and math teacher, is doing a remarkable job of enriching this blog with the latest information and ideas pertaining to teaching English as a second language. There is always a list of up to date best teaching blogs for readers to discover, differentiated freebies to print out and use in class, fun language activities to use with students, and web links that have materials beneficial for ESL teachers.
I visit this blog on regular basis to update myself with the latest news for ESL teachers, such as ideas for differentiating teaching styles, accommodating the students' different learning styles, and using fun activities and techniques in delivering the lessons. I always find something fun and interesting in this blog about teaching English, among which, worksheets that help ESL students differentiate between similar words such as their/there/they're, it's/its, affect/effect, etc.. This blog helps me generate ideas, strategies, worksheets, lesson plans, and activities to use with my ESL adult students in the Arlington County REEP program. Some of those ideas make use of technology in the classroom to create a fun, diverse, and creative environment for the learning process, which is what ED-554 is about.
Among the posts I have read and enjoyed, the one about teaching ESL students the academic language, in which the writer listed, by means of a clear and precise graphic organizer, all the language different elements teachers should cover in teaching the language. Another post I liked was the article that listed different suggestions and ideas to accommodate new ESL students, help them understand the different rules and regulations, get used to the new settings, and develop a sense of belonging to the new environment.
All in all, This blog is a treasure box full of useful, fun, and different ideas and materials for teaching English for ESL students.
I visit this blog on regular basis to update myself with the latest news for ESL teachers, such as ideas for differentiating teaching styles, accommodating the students' different learning styles, and using fun activities and techniques in delivering the lessons. I always find something fun and interesting in this blog about teaching English, among which, worksheets that help ESL students differentiate between similar words such as their/there/they're, it's/its, affect/effect, etc.. This blog helps me generate ideas, strategies, worksheets, lesson plans, and activities to use with my ESL adult students in the Arlington County REEP program. Some of those ideas make use of technology in the classroom to create a fun, diverse, and creative environment for the learning process, which is what ED-554 is about.
Among the posts I have read and enjoyed, the one about teaching ESL students the academic language, in which the writer listed, by means of a clear and precise graphic organizer, all the language different elements teachers should cover in teaching the language. Another post I liked was the article that listed different suggestions and ideas to accommodate new ESL students, help them understand the different rules and regulations, get used to the new settings, and develop a sense of belonging to the new environment.
All in all, This blog is a treasure box full of useful, fun, and different ideas and materials for teaching English for ESL students.
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