Teaching Channel

I just came across this site and felt the need to share!  And in a shameless effort to attract new followers, I am linking this post to the weekly

Have you seen this??

Teaching Channel is a video showcase -- on the Internet and TV -- of innovative and effective teaching practices in America's schools.

Not my TV, though.  It airs on PBS, but the local PBS station doesn't carry it.  *Bummed*

However,
there are plenty of great resources on the internet channel.  "Videos, Common Core Resources and Lesson Plans" to be precise!  I am afraid to add up the hours that I have spent exploring this site!

I was looking for inspiration for a lesson I have to teach later this week during an interview, and I hit the JACKPOT when I came across this site.  I watched this video and was able to use her ideas as a springboard for my own Main Idea lesson plan.




Seriously - check out this amazing resource!

Wonder Woman I am not!

Boy, have I been a bad blogger this week.  I had big plans to be a part of the Teacher Week Linky, but only got Monday's post written, before I hit the wall.  We started with kids on Thursday after three days of meetings, and I am wiped out!  I spent yesterday catching up on laundry, sleep, and grocery shopping.  I also managed to write some basic lesson plans for this week.  So today, I have time to relax, read, knit and blog!

Speaking of reading, I am reading a really great story by Chandra Hahn called UnEnchanted; an Unfortunate Fairy Tale.  It was a freebie I found and started earlier in the summer on the school's iPad and found yesterday for my Nook.  In UnEnchanted, Mina is a typical insecure teenager who is unknowingly descended from the Grimm Brothers.  A family curse catches up to her, and she must complete the Grimm tales to stop the characters from living in our world.  I love it.  Click the picture to add it to your Nook library for free!

In other book news, Ivan died this week.  So sad!  Ivan's story was just released by Katherine Applegate (of Animorphs fame) in her remarkable book The One and Only Ivan.  You can read my review of this amazing story here.

In other news, my new class is great!  Although we only have two days done, and who knows what they'll be like when we actually start school work, so far, they have been delightful!  A bit chatty, but I am hopefully attributing that to their excitement of a new year.  This week, they will have so much to do, they won't have time to talk!!!  :)

The scariest night of the year is just around the corner.  No, I'm not talking about Halloween.  Or even Monday...  CURRICULUM NIGHT!  Picture me cowering in a corner...  I don't know if anyone can relate, but I get sooo nervous in front of parents!  I am super silly and have been known to sing and dance in front of the kids, but in front of the parents, I turn into a complete mess.  Even after 12 years, I hate it.  But I have a secret weapon this year.  I have made a Prezi to introduce the parents to room 102; my hope is they will be sol busy being amazed by my tech-savviness, they won't notice how nervous they make me!

Room 102 on Prezi

Back when I thought I was Wonder Woman and could do everything plus three more things, I was going to write about Prezi for Technology Tip Tuesday.  And to wrap up this crazy, rambling post, the movie at the end of my presentation is about Ivan.

Hope the beginning of your year is the best ever!

Early Mornings & PD

Boy! Is it me, or are mornings earlier in August than any other time of year?

Do you enjoy PD as much as I do?  I love learning new ideas, new technologies and anything else that I can implement in my classroom!  Today I spent the day at a technology conference.  The day was broken into four sessions.  I went to sessions called ActivInspire, iPads for the Intermediate Teacher, Digital Storytelling, and ActvInspire and Elmo. 

The first one was not good.  It was really for beginners, so I didn't get much out of it.  In fact, I started writing this post during it.  Here's what I wrote:  Just a quick post today.  I'm at a technology inservice, and usually I love these kinds of things.   So far this morning - not so much.  This first session is using ActivInspire; not much new.  But I'm hoping for good things in the next sessions.  Fingers crossed!

Fortunately the day got better!  (And the sessions weren't as long as I thought, which is why that's as far as I got when I was feeling icky about the whole day.)  Anyway...  the conference turned out to be well worth the extremely early morning drive and the rough start!

My favorite session was Digital Storytelling led by Stephanie DeMichele, M.A.  She is the technology teacher at St. John of the Cross School in Euclid.  And let me tell you people - this woman is amazing.  This session could have gone on all day long, and I wouldn't complained.  Her passion for digital storytelling came through in a big way.  She has so many great ideas and resources to share.  The best part was that she had practical ways to incorporate Digital Storytelling into real lesson plans with examples from 1st grade up to middle school.  And she was very clear that these technologies don't eliminate the need to teach the writing process or the content areas; it's just a way to enhance and motivate the students to do it better!  By giving them an audience of more than just one (the teacher), students are motivated to impress their peers, their families, etc.

Stephanie shared a webpage she made for just this conference that is chock full of resources.  She included some great technology blogs (Just what I need, more blogs to follow! Who can resist, though?),  sites to get free pictures, music and sound effects, and tutorials.  She has also included practical pages for creating storyboards, links to great sites for both Mac or PC, and even rubrics.  Click here to check out this amazing site!

All in all a very successful day!  I love Professional Development that gets me fired up and excited!  I'm off now to explore and try to create my own digital story to share with my students and their parents.