Here are some of the books that I have read recently for my professional reading and one book that I'm personally reading. My philosophy is to try to alternate professional/personal reading choices as a way to stay balanced. Otherwise, my reading list tends to pile up and then I spend an entire weekend downloading books onto the Ipad. I may have, cough, cough, done just that this past weekend.
Larry Ferlazzo's-English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies that Work- this book was fairly typical as far as teaching tips for English language learners go. Nothing new to me but it was a good reminder for me on how to refine my teaching practice even more. The tips centered around high school students and some of the tips could be used in the elementary setting. I have already used one of his tips and that was to add more choice in the classroom. It has been working pretty well. There have been benefits for me, as well as for the children.
I have joined/started another book club here. Previously, I had started one with two other teachers from our school. There was a lack of enthusiasm for the books that were chosen (on my part because we were limited to books other teachers had left behind in Vietnam and no one had a Kindle) and we had conflicting schedules. Needless to say, the club only lasted three months. The new book club has parents, colleagues, and people I haven't met yet in it. This is our May selection-The Light Between Oceans: A Novel. I have only read the prologue and I am very intrigued.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Scratch
Computer programming-something we all benefit from, but don't understand. I'm slowly learning Python and have my eyes set on Google Scripts in the future. Now how do I introduce this kids so that they have a better understanding of the computers that are all around them? Scratch.
This is old news to most people who are on the tech side of a school, but I wanted to share my approach this year in teaching Scratch. I have only had the opportunity to teach Scratch as an after-school activity. I will be introducing it to my 5th grade class during our teacher-run ICT time. This will be interesting as 1/3rd of the class is in my after-school activity and will be far ahead of everyone else. I've given myself a differentiation challenge.
Lesson 1: I introduced the program. A few kids had seen it the year before but had no real grasp of anything beyond simple animation that relied solely on costume changes. So, we played games and kids explored the interface.
Lessons 2-4: I introduced a few of the basic commands at the start of each lesson and then let the kids experiment. They were running into a lot of problems and not knowing where to look for solutions. On top of this, everyone was working on their own project.
Lesson 5: I changed direction and we worked as a group. First, I wrote this tag game. I left a few simple bugs in it, ones that dealt with the order of commands or a few small missing blocks. I gave the class 3 things to fix and sent them off to work together. With some guidance, all the bugs were solved and this is the improved version that two of the girls came up with.
Here are the bugs I left in a very basic tag game:
1. The sprites could move during the introduction countdown.
2. If the second sprite did not move, it could not be tagged.
3. When the game was over, it did not reset automatically.
As you can see, these were fixed. The students gained a better understanding of both the details that are needed for a good project and how to read through their code and find issues.
This post by@jeffreywrensen
This is old news to most people who are on the tech side of a school, but I wanted to share my approach this year in teaching Scratch. I have only had the opportunity to teach Scratch as an after-school activity. I will be introducing it to my 5th grade class during our teacher-run ICT time. This will be interesting as 1/3rd of the class is in my after-school activity and will be far ahead of everyone else. I've given myself a differentiation challenge.
Lesson 1: I introduced the program. A few kids had seen it the year before but had no real grasp of anything beyond simple animation that relied solely on costume changes. So, we played games and kids explored the interface.
Lessons 2-4: I introduced a few of the basic commands at the start of each lesson and then let the kids experiment. They were running into a lot of problems and not knowing where to look for solutions. On top of this, everyone was working on their own project.
Lesson 5: I changed direction and we worked as a group. First, I wrote this tag game. I left a few simple bugs in it, ones that dealt with the order of commands or a few small missing blocks. I gave the class 3 things to fix and sent them off to work together. With some guidance, all the bugs were solved and this is the improved version that two of the girls came up with.
Here are the bugs I left in a very basic tag game:
1. The sprites could move during the introduction countdown.
2. If the second sprite did not move, it could not be tagged.
3. When the game was over, it did not reset automatically.
As you can see, these were fixed. The students gained a better understanding of both the details that are needed for a good project and how to read through their code and find issues.
This post by
Saturday, May 4, 2013
The Perils of Walking
It was a calm spring night. We went for a walk. We walked. All of a sudden there was a rope across the sidewalk and Janet bit the dust. Why was the rope up? We are full of theories, but no answers. Janet got this:
You are right, it looks like her first of many Teardrop tattoos. If you know Janet, she has a penchant for killing. (Kidding) If you know Janet, you know that this is no surprise (the falling and subsequent bleeding). Watch your step!
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