A Practice Voice Thread

This is a voice thread that my student made. I am so proud of her. She did it herself.
I can't wait to hear her story the she has been working on so that I can leave a comment.

CCMS Visit

On April 8th 2009 I took a tour of the Corpus Christi Montessori School. It was very interesting. I had never experienced a classroom environment like that before. I am used to the traditional classroom. i thought is was cool that they group all different age groups together. Everyone works at their own level and pace. I think that is great because it takes the pressure off children tryng to keep up wiith their peers. Also older children get to help the younger children. I was also impressed at some of the work and projects they were doing. Some of the work was way above the childrens level. What I really loved was all of the pets and plants that they had all over the school. It made me feel like I was at home. In all I think it was a great school and I would like to learn more about Montessori.

I Met My Student

Yesterday at 6:00p.m. I met with my service project student.  I could tell she was very bright and eager to learn what I had to show her.  Her mother was pretty excited too; as I was when I learned to use these cool tools.  Together we set up an account with google docs. and bloggspot.  She was so excited to have a blog.  I think that when this project is over with she will continue to use her blog, as will I.  They were very impressed with the voice thread tool.  We came up with many ideas of how we can use the voicethread. I think she is going to end up making some kind of cartoon and we will narrate it. She sent me a story idea on google docs. that I think is great.

The Service Project

I have contacted my student via e-mail, and I got a response today. They are ready to meet with me at their home tomarrow at 6p.m. I am very excited to hear from them, I thought maybe they did not get my message. I am relieved and very happy to get to work.

Check out my video RECYCLE: A video by Rita Paz

Using a Spredsheet in your classroom

Well I have finally figured it out.  I have never really worked with a spredsheet before.  It really is not all that complicated once you get the hang of it.  I was impressed that I was able to get it to do functions such as adding and multiplying.  i have created a spread sheet that would calculate how much money you could make by recycling.  All of the figures are just made up but, in  my project the child would have to so some resaech to find out how much items such as aluminum cans are sold for.  They could the plug in the numbers into my spreadsheet and see how much money they could generate.  I think children would find it as cool as I did.   Check out my spreadsheet.

Some questions I would ask my students when working on this project would be:

1. How can you use a spreadsheet to record data?
2. How can you organize the items collected on your spreadheet?
3. What types of graphs could you make with the data on your spreadsheet?

How Can I Save the Earth?

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How Can I Save the Earth?

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Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a way for teachers to put class work and technology together into their daily lessons. I think that students would really enjoy being able to record their thoughts for people all over the world to hear. This would do wonders for childrens self-esteem. Knowing that their opinion is being heard out loud is great for children. They will know that what they have to say is just as important as others. Voice thread is an awesome tool. It is fun, free, and easy to use. I think is is awesome that you can write, or draw as yot talk. What an amazing way to get a ponit across.

Internet Resources

Wow! I realized there was so much valuable information just floating out in space. You just have to be patient when venturing out to look for something. You can find what you need and so much more via Internet. When I just googled the word recycle so many sites, pictures, blogs, and videos became available in an instant. I would love to be able to share all of these things with the students in my classroom. I think it is great that the children today will get current information, when doing a project. I remember as a child in elementary school when doing projects i only had available a set of encyclopedias that were already 10 years old. It seemed like every other kid in my class was using it too. We all had just about the same reference books for research. Now children have chat rooms where they can ask people questions and get real live feedback. A simple little project can become huge and really teach a valuable lesson.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

I think it would be so exciting to use blogs in the classroom. I would use my classroom blogg to keep students and parents abrest on what we are doing each week in class. I would post assignments and newsletters weekly. I would also post outstanding samples of my students writings up for all to admire. I think that it would encourage every one to do their best. I might also use blogs for journal assignments with my students. It would allow other children to give feedback to thier classmates. They would not need to have a computer at home to do so they could do it in class, set up as a writing center. I think it is very important for students to be able to publish and share their ideas in writing.
I think blogs would be extremely helpful when doing group projects. Children could collaborate much easier. They could log on from wherever in the world they may be to contribute to their assignments. They can also share photos, videos, or links that may be of signifigance use to the project. If it were a project that involves experimenting over a gret deal of time they could use a blog to reflect their findings on a daily basis. I think that blogging can be a very wonderful thing.

chek out this site

inquiry & project-based learning.

Session 2
Rita Paz

Inquiry-based learning is a way of seeking for truth or information by asking questions. The process of inquiry is something that is natural in all human beings. We are all born with the desire to need or want know something. No one can ever know everything, but it is the educators job to help children build their skills and nurture the inquiring minds. Inquiry dates all the way back to Socrates, however John Dewy led the first inquiry-based learning methods in the United States. Dewy encouraged child centered learning based on real world activities. The components of inquiry based learning are well explained by Howard Gardener who claims that all humans have multiple intelligences. He believed that these intelligences can be nurtured, strengthened, ignored, or weakened. Our intelligences are: verbal, mathematical, musical, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existential. In the classroom we can teach children how to inquiry knowledge and turn it in to something useful. This is a skill that they will take with them through out their entire life. One way that I would like to use inquiry-based learning is to answer a really big question that may have several answers like "How can I save the earth"; this question alone can generate endless possibilities. There are also many activities I could have the students do like, recycling, planting trees, or research what types of animals are becoming extinct due to humans, and how can we put a stop to it. There is a website called Earth911 that is full of information and tips about preserving our planet that would be useful to students.
http://earth911.com/ Another very useful site is one that is called America's Power. In this site you can blog, ask experts questions, and get facts on pollution in America. http://www.americaspower.org/The-Facts/.
Project-based learning is an instructional approach to build upon real life learning activities. The activities are designed to answer questions or solve a problem that we would normally do in a classroom. Project-based learning usually done in groups. It teaches skills such as : communication, presentation skills, organization, time management, research, inquiry, self-assessment, reflection, group participation, and leadership skills. These are all higher order thinking skills, or better known as Bloom's Taxonomy. In 1999 John Thomas with the help of Andrew Michaelson and John R. Mergendoller prepared the first edition of the Buck Institute for Education Project Based Learning Handbook. Since then thousands of educators in the U.S. and other countries have used the handbook. It has been an important factor in the spread of project based teaching. One project that I would like to do would be recycling. I would like my students to learn how it is done, why we should do it, and how much good it would do for the environment. I would have students visit a recycling plant, participate in various local clean-ups, and recycle what they have collected. I would also want my student to visit a landfill so that they can see all of the land we are wasting on our trash. I also want to show my students how giving unwanted things we have could help out others . Collecting cans could be a fundraiser to give monies to local charities. A great website that shows how and what to recycle is called Funding Factory.
http://www.fundingfactory.com/. Another great website to visit is called Recycle City. On this site you will see how recycling can save our city money, and lots of interesting information on getting started. http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/.

References
Szalavitz, Maia (2004). Concept to classroom a series of workshops. Retrieved February 5, 2009, from Inquiry-based learning Web site: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html