"The Magic School Bus" review

"The Magic School Bus", is a wonderful web based tool to use in teaching children. The ages it can teach would be from 3 years to 10 years old. Considering the cognitive level of the child, it may be a little younger to a little older than these ages. This tool contains themes such as: Animals, Archeology, Dinosaurs, Earth Science, Environment, Five Senses, Forces & Motion, Insects, Kitchen Science, Life Science, Machines & Building, Physical Science, Plants & Ecology, Power & Energy, Space, The Human Body, Water & Ocean, and Weather. I found a real neat fingerprint activity in this tool to use in my "Body Parts" unit. The interaction in this, could easily be used with a typical child or special needs student. I believe it would help in encouraging Autistic children to interact more. For children who learn through sight, auditory, and kinesthetics it is an especially good learning tool. The only disadvantage I could see in this tool is that all of the children will want a chance every day to use it, and with a normal sized classroom this wouldn't be possible. The teacher will have to set up time limits and chances for all who want to use it. The "Magic School Bus" is a fun, exciting, and entertaining learning tool.

Software Recommendation

I have come upon an exciting discovery for learning for our students. It is in the form of software for our computers here in our classrooms. It is called GenkiEnglish. There are many different CDs with many different themes incorporated into them. It contains lesson plans, worksheets, flashcards, clipart, games, songs, and activities. There are vocabulary games, conversation games, learning english games etc. There are activities and songs for all themes. The various subject areas it includes are: body parts, animals, occupations, bigger vs smaller, slow vs fast, counting, Christmas, knowing left from right, money, weather, names, courtesy, vegetables, where are you from?, flavors, numbers, telling time, family, food, super heros, clothes, holidays, colors, age, sports, months of the year, transportation, pets, and the sea. The grade level begins with kindergarten and goes to Jr.High. I recommend that we purchase this complete package which comes to $302.00. You can read all about it on genkienglish.net. It's truly a fun way to learn!

Well, isn't that Delicious?

Well, isn't that Delicious?

Well, after floundering around a few days unsure of what to do with this "Delicious" thing, my husband called my beautiful stepdaughter to come over and save the day. She came over and looked around at the piles of papers that I'd printed to try to get organized and understand this stuff. She said, "Uh, where is your syllabus?" Then she said, "Where's your list of assignments?" I said, "I don't know but somewhere among these papers there has to be directions on how to do "Delicious". She said, "How to do what?". So we spent the night learning together and bonding. What I least liked about it was probably the awful feeling that I might not ever figure it out. What I most liked about it was finishing it and realizing that sleep was not too far away. I suppose a group project could benefit from having this. My stepdaughter told me that she wanted to tell a teacher from her past about it. She said that it could help teachers. I don't think I personally would use it in the classroom because I really like simple things. I also do not plan on being a lead teacher in the classroom. I am interested in being an assistant in public school or a one on one for a special needs child in public school, or maybe I'll just stay in the infant room at Easter Seals U.C.P. I love working with special needs children and babies. It's really strange. The further along I come with technology, the less I like it!

Mobile Computing Devices

What I learned about the Mobile Computing Devices this week really impressed me. They would be very advantageous for classrooms to have. The i-Pod Touches are generating higher test scores for students. Children can practice reading into them and it records their voices. They can play it back and evaluate their own reading. The Apple i'Pod Touch and Microsoft Zune can be used to learn Algebra. That's great news! I also liked viewing the classroom where all of the students were given a mouse to play "Mouse Mischief". The teacher can interact with all of her students and they can interact with her. She can also see which students are the most involved. All of them can interact on a screen in front of the class. The children really looked like they were enjoying their learning experiences. Learning should be fun!

NETS: To Communicate and Collaborate

This week in our discussion board, we discussed a teachers' lesson plans and activities she had put together for her classroom. Sybert's lesson plans were on "Dinosaurs". I really thought it was great how she incorporated math, language, reading, science, music and history in her unit. For example, in Science she had the students research on the internet about dinosaurs to find out which ones were plant eaters and which were meat eaters. She incorporated Math, by having the children use their calculators to figure out the height, length, and weight of these dinosaurs. They also worked in groups with tape measures to figure out the length of them. I think all of us in the discussion board were impressed with Sybert's lesson plans. I was especially impressed that the students were able to use a Smartboard Notebook and create a power point presentation. I am sure her students learned a lot in this unit and also had fun doing it.

After Action Report

In our group project, I will have to admit that it was kind of like the blind trying to lead the blind. We couldn't ever seem to figure out how to communicate. I tried to communicate, but I did everything wrong and I guess none of us really knew how to. The real bummer is that I stayed out of work a day working on it, and I don't think anyone ever got my information in the e-mails I sent. I thought -"If I can just get this info. to someone in my group, maybe they will know how to get it in the paper". I'm not blaming anyone. I'm as guilty as anyone else. We didn't know what to do, so we hoped someone else would, and take the lead. Personally, I prefer individual assignments because if I fail, I fail alone and I don't drag anyone down with me. Group assignments in a classroom work better because it's much easier to communicate. We can plan when we're together and show each other what we have so far. We can assign areas for each of us to research. I don't have any recommendations for the next group project. To be perfectly honest, I'm hoping we don't have another. Congratulations to those who did well on their groups. I take my hat off to you ladies and gentlemen! How did you do it?

Identifying Lesson Topics

Teachers should use a year long planning framework to identify their lesson topics. This gives sequential, integrated, continual and cumulative learning. Teachers can ensure that all curriculum objectives are met.

Meeting the Needs of All Students

Teachers planning to meet the needs of all students do this by using curriculum, rules, instruction, materials and the environment. The curriculum should include both oral and written exams and include both group and individual work. Rules must be simple and implicit. Instruction needs to include class discussion lectures, note taking and models. The materials that would be needed would be spell checkers, graphic organizers and audiotapes of textbooks. The environment needs good seating arrangement, accommodated furniture and no distractions such as noise or window views.

Instructional Cycle

There are three stages to the instructional cycle. In the first stage, we have the "Intended Instructional Outcomes". Teachers identify the content standards and benchmarks. These standards are then translated into measurable learning outcomes.
In the second stage, we have "Planning". The teacher will plan effective teaching strategies and instructional activities.
In the third stage we have "Assessment". The teacher will implement assessments to see if students have met the intended learning outcomes.

Components of Good Assessment

Three components of a good assessment would be, general characteristics, specific entry competencies and learning styles. Once you have completed these for each student, you should have a good assessment.

Adapting Instruction

Adapting instruction is important. Teachers who have used individual learning programs based on learning styles have seen improvement in discipline, attitude and academic achievement. By using this, a teacher is adapting the instructions to meet the individual needs of each student.

Information - Processing Model

Students learn and process information differently. There are four learning categories. They are, concrete sequential learners, Concrete random learners, Abstract sequential learners and abstract random learners.
Concrete sequential learners learn better with direct hands on experiences such as structured laboratory exercises, demonstrations, computer based instruction, and workbooks.
Concrete random learners learn from trial and error or from exploratory experiences. They learn best from discovery learning, projects, independent study, simulations and games.
Abstract sequential learners learn best by decoding symbolic and verbal messages in logical sequence. They do well with reading and listening to presentations.
Abstract random learners learn best from human mediated presentations. They respond to the style and tone of the speaker. It is best to use audiovisual learning experiences, question and answer periods, lectures, and group discussions.

Learning Characteristics

Teachers need to understand characteristics of each student to meet his or her needs. Characteristics include gender, ethnicity, interests, attitudes, age, and experiences. It is a good idea to review academic records of students to be able to design and implement lessons that meet the needs of each one. As an example - When our students represent multiple ethnic groups, it is important to have instructional materials and examples that give priority to cultural values and identity.

Content Standards

When putting together our standards and learning objectives, we must ask ourselves, "What learning outcome do we want our students to achieve by the end of the topic?" We need to take our objectives of curriculum and technology standards from those established at the school district, state and national level. These give general descriptions of expected student performance.