Curved glass of J

Curved glass of J

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Youtube is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom. We are working with a new generation of students, who use technology in their day to day life. So why not meet them where they are at.

Youtube.com has many great videos for all subjects and ages. Here are some of my favorites that I have used in various classes I have taught.

 

U.S. History: It's Too Late to Apologize

 

 

 

U.S. History Bill of Rights Rap

 

 

 

 

U.S. History: Presidents Videos by Disney

 

 

 

Science: What Causes Seasons

 

 

 

Science: Black Holes

 

 



 

 

 

Tips for Youtube.com

 

 

1. Sometimes there are commercials for youtube. Make sure you have loaded the video in advance, and the commercial has already run before class. Sometimes the commercials are not school appropriate.

 

2. If you find a really good video, sometimes the creators of that video made more in a series. Check to see if they have their own website.

 

3. Please make sure you watch the video all the way through before you show it to the class. Surprises are never good!

Cornell Notes Made Simple

I am a huge fan of Cornell notes. They lay out the information so simply for the students, and there are so many different ways you can use them in the classroom.

Avid describes Cornell notes as focused note-taking. Where students are given an essential questions, can take notes, jot down questions or interesting ideas, and summarize their findings at the end. It allows them to review and reflect on the information, and at times, make judgements.

I have incorporated Cornell notes into my classroom; however, I mold them to fit my particular lesson or concept that I am teaching.

I teach two on-level classes (co-teach) of 8th grade science and 3 Pre-Ap 8 grade science classes, where I have to reach many different types of learners. I mold the Cornell notes to help each of the different learners in my classroom.

Here are two examples of how I use Cornell notes in my classroom:

1. Fill in the blank Cornell Notes to outline PowerPoints or chapters.  

These are great for very slow writers, visual learners, or trying to teach Cornell Notes. I especially like these for my students with modifications or accommodations, because it helps them take notes, organizes the information for them, and gives them pictures and visuals.

How to create: I use word to make these Cornell notes, and I insert a 2 x 1 table. I move the center line over to the left to create the topics column.

Extend their use

~As students are writing, they can jot questions or interesting things that you say in the left hand column. That way, they can remember what questions they want to ask when you are finished talking, or interesting facts you might have mentioned that are not in the notes.

~At the end of Cornell notes, I like to add a summary box at the bottom with 3-5 specific key terms they have to use in their summary. This gives them a chance to review their information and condense it into the key ideas and topics that were discussed. This can be done right after taking the notes, or even the next day as a warm-up to familiarize themselves with what they did yesterday.

2. Cornell Notes Outline 

These are great for taking PowerPoint notes in class or reading an excerpt of material with partners or on your own. I especially like these for my Pre-AP classes, where I like to teach note-taking strategies for them to be able to use in any high school class.

This type of note taking helps focus their notes by giving them an essential question to focus on. It also gives them the topics to look for as they are in the process of listening or reading. It organizes their notes into meaningful concepts, and models good note taking.

When I tell my students to "set up for Cornell notes" in their interactive journal, they know exactly what to do. They immediately title their Cornell notes, draw their margin line, and if necessary write down the topics I put on the board in the margin.

Extend their use: 

~You can extend the use of these Cornell notes the same way that you can with the above version.

~With this version or Cornell notes, you can have students skim the reading and come up with their own topics for the margin as a class.

~Eventually stop giving them the topic, but just the essential question. Have them practice dissecting the question as they read or take notes, to determine what they think the topics should be.


***Be warned: If you use this idea, please make sure you tell them how many spaces they should skip between topics in the margin! Think ahead, so students do not run out of space.

Preparing for TAKS 101

I always look for extra help where ever I can get it. Teachers only have so much time, and I have found that the internet has a wealth of information, strategies, lessons, study guides and more that can cut our time planning time in half!

TAKS (Texas's standardized test) is approaching quickly for Texas teachers across the state. As a new teacher, I am a little anxious about it. Planning what to do to get my students ready for the big day is just as stressful as giving the test! But I found an absolutely wonderful website that has a multitude of resources to make this part of your planning a breeze.

Georgetown ISD has a Curriculum Corner they have put together that is open to any one who has access to internet. Here is a list of just a few of the wonderful resources that this website offers:

• Study guides
• Flashcards
• 100 Facts Packet
• TEKS overview 
• Significant information broken down by era
• Links to game websites for students
• Interactive activities in the classroom
• SO MUCH MORE

Even if you just need ideas for TAKS review, this is the place to go!

Here is the link below:

http://www.georgetownisd.org/ccorner/index.asp

Good luck with your planning!

Glogster.com

Survival Skill #1 as a new teacher - Obviously, do not get a blog. You do not have time for it!


Where has the time gone. It has been almost 7 months since I started blogging, and I have only written, now, 3 entries. Why? I blame it on my job!


Well... throughout the first several months of my year I have found several online resources that I have used in my classroom. It is not only fun for my students, but it makes teaching (and grading) a lot more fun!


One online resource that my students LOVE is glogster.com. Glogster.com is my new favorite project medium. It is an online poster maker where students can demonstrate what they know through pictures, videos, word bubbles and more. And the best part about the entire website is they have a free education version at edu.glogster.com. Here, the teacher controls the accounts, passwords, and anything that is put onto the computer by the student. It is wonderful!


This is the example that I made to show my students when I was demonstrating how to use it.





If you are not good with technology, do not be afraid. This is definitely a user friendly website. After some trial and error, if you still can't figure something out, go to the source thats not afraid of the computer.... the students!

My mom has spent the last couple of nights reading over all of her student's science fair project ideas. I have an interesting topic that I think would win grand prize: is there a correlation between how hard you worked at school to how hard you will work out at the gym.


My hypothesis: If a teacher has a hard day at school, then there will be an increase in the amount of calories she will burn when you keep food and time constant.


I might not win grand prize (unless there are only teachers for judges), but I think that I would find a lot of teachers who agree with me. I had one of those hard days, not awful, just hard. As I began to run on the treadmill, I realized I had a lot more stress energy to burn than normal. For the first time in a long time I ran for 9 minutes. When you are me, thats a huge accomplishment. I normally do not make it over 4! (I think that Glee helped me towards my goal!)


But when I was done, how my mood improved! That gives me an idea. I could do a second study on how exercising can improve the mood of teachers :)


My principal gave all the new teachers a word of advice, or insight, at new teacher in service: Take care of yourself outside of work. That advice did not make much sense till today. Today I realized that the stress of life itself can simply be removed by one quick prayer and a good, hard workout. Thank you Lord for treadmills!  

What am I getting myself into....

One minute I am overwhelmed enough to cry and the next, happy enough to laugh. This is the joy and curse of being a teacher. 

I am a first year middle school social studies teacher. Life does not get any more amusing than that, until you add in the twist. I teach at the middle school I attended, as well as the middle school that my mom works at. Yes, my mom and I teach in the same building, we are on the same team, we carpool to work, and yes, dare I say, we live together.  

My average day consists of waking up, getting ready, going to school, being at school, staying late, coming home, going to the gym, talking to my boyfriend on the phone, watching television with my parents, going to bed, and repeating the next day. It does not look to exciting when you put it in black and white; however, after spending one hour in the "being at school" section of my day, you will come to realize that life is the total opposite of boring, it is planned lessons that lead to unplanned/unpredictable amusing life lessons. 

Apart from teaching, one of my goals in life is to be published. I have tried numerous times to begin writing my memoir about losing weight, or my memoir of my relationships, or my memoir about college, but I realized very quickly, my life is not interesting enough to write an entire memoir, let alone get to page 3. However, I have found the loop hole. I can write on my blog, pretend people read it, and I am published. One dream down, check! 

As I go throughout my first months of teaching, I hope that my funny, sad, embarrassing, and first moments in the school can bring joy to those reading.