Different books for teachers

This is a website I found that has a lot of books fo differnt techining strategies.

http://shop.scholastic.com/

BookFinder by Scholastic: I’m in love!!!

So one teacher this semester suggested I go to this site called Teacher Book Wizard. It’s by Scholastic, and let me tell you, I’m in LOVE!!!! There are tools to help you find books quickly (say you know the title but not the author or something), a tool called “Book Alike” which lets you put in a book you liked and search for books that are similar (those “If you read this.. you might like this” things), and my favorite tool of all: the Leveled Search!!!  Leveled Search is just amazing, and it’s a great tool for all teachers and teachers in training. It’s simple: Say you have a reluctant reader in your classroom… Put in information such as their interests by topic, grade level of student, READING LEVEL OF STUDENT (yes, reading level too. Now you can find books for advanced and struggling readers alike easily), the kind of book (how to, picture book, etc), and the genre or theme of the book… The site pops all this information into it’s database and voila’ you have a list of  books custom picked for your picky reader. I absolutely love this site because it helps me to choose good books for my brother, who is below grade level in reading and is a super picky reader. I can see this being a godsend in the classroom… But don’t just take my word for it, check it out for yourself!!!

Main site 

Go right to “Leveled Search” 

Between the Lions

I was in an elementary classroom the other day and observed the teacher using an educational video from a PBS show called Between the Lions.  It was a very cute and catchy way for elementary students to learn and remember literacy skills.  I know the show airs everyday where I am (you can check your local listings for PBS).  I think it’s a great show for kids to watch, either in school or at home.

Text Speak

As a future teacher and a Communications/Writing Arts dual major, this article bothered me.  The article discusses how schools in New Zealand now allow their students to use “text speak” on national exams.  For those who don’t know, text speak is the slang and abbreviations for words/phrases used in text messaging and instant messaging.  For example, CU = see you, lol = laugh out loud, etc.  The example they give in the article is “2b or nt 2b” for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  I’m sure English majors would cringe at the sight of that.  The schools in New Zealand aren’t concerned with how the students write, as long as they get their point across.  I always thought, in schools, the focus should be on writing correctly.  I’m not against text speak because I use it myself but when writing papers and doing assignments for school, I write in complete sentences with real, correctly spelled words.  Do you think text speak should be allowed in schools?  Will text speak one day join or replace the English language?

Video Games are Good

For the most part, video games have a bad reputation linked with violence and obesity in children and teens.  Not until recently did people start to see the positive effects of playing video games.  Last semester, in one of my college courses, I was in a debate over video games and whether or not that could teach literacy skills to children.  Without hesitation, I chose to be on the opposing side, with the belief that video games could not teach literacy skills.  Looking back, I wish I knew all that I learned while researching the topic.  I came across many articles by James Paul Gee, an advocate for video games, which had a lot of great information promoting the positive effects of playing video games.  There are even games and video game systems that are designed specifically for teaching literacy skills, such as VTech Electronic Learning Products.  After doing more research, I found that there are certain video games that even prepare soldiers for war or help doctors perform better surgery.

I agree with the information stated in the previous post entitled “Are Video Games Really That Dangerous.”  Video games are not to blame for the undesirable behavior in people because there is violence everywhere, in movies, shows, music, etc.  People just need to be able to differentiate play from reality.  I agree that video games are an outlet for stress, instead of a gateway to committing crime in real life.  Playing violent video games doesn’t make someone want to go out and harm others, there’s other things that affect people who steal, kill, and do other illegal acts.  Video games are only games and if they were truly the cause of shootings and other undesirable behaviors, there would be many more crimes committed because the majority of children and teens in America play video games regularly.

Pets in the classroom

As a child, I remember having a pet hamster in my classroom. But there are many teachers who are against pets int he classroom. Sure, the hamster was smelly sometimes, and it peed on my hand more than once, but I still liked having it in the room. Now that I am on my way to becoming a teacher, I’m beginning to think about things like classroom pets. At first I wanted to have a fish tank, but while I love fish I didn’t love the idea of a tank in my classroom. It didn’t seem to excite me enough. I wanted to put one of my many newts in a 10 gallon in the classroom, but there’s a lot of problems with that, too. Newts and other amphibians all have salmonella on their skin and I worry that that would prevent me from being able to bring them into the classroom. It might worry parents and principals. Turtles are cute, but again they have salmonella. I thought of a reptile, but the care of such an animal is demanding and plus, they have teeth. There’s always a chance, no matter how slim, of it biting a student.

I thought about fuzzy animals, too. But hamsters can bite if they have a bad temperament,  and rabbits need a lot of space and care, too. I think fancy mice are neat, but they present the same biting problem as the other animals.

So what should I do? I was really looking for an animal that could become a part of the classroom community. I even envisioned children being able to “read to” their classroom pet as a way to boost reading skills (kind of like with the therapy dogs). Any suggestions?

My own Sub woes

Okay, someone tell me if I’m crazy here: I started teaching my own 3rd grade ccd (catholic education) class this year. I have 15 students and I absolutely love teaching all of them. Last week I went away to Disney for Spring Break. I had to leave my students with a substitute teacher for the first time ever. I was worried about how things would go, especially since I have a few … let’s call them bouncy…. students in my class. I know that they didn’t get to sing at the start of class, something they love to do and something I feel helps get them ready for class. ( We sing a song called “Father Abraham” for those who don’t know the song, it’s a little like the hokey-pokey. Right arm, left, arm… the last action is “sit down” and when we get to that part, the kids shout it out and sit in their seats, ready for class. I know, I was amazed too). We also didn’t get to do our Bible Trivia, which the kids play to earn stickers on their sticker charts. To make a long story short, I felt totally guilty about leaving my kids with a sub. Am I just crazy here? I should be glad for a break, right? I kept worrying about how the class would go.

As a teacher, there will be many times where I will have to utilize a substitute in my classroom. Are there any ways to help  me to worry less?

Resources for Teachers

As a future educator in today’s world, I find myself very fortunate. The Internet provides millions of websites for teachers that include ideas for classroom activities, lesson plans, worksheets, games, and advice. Teachers can use these ideas, alter them, or even stem new ideas and concepts from them. Teachers twenty years ago unfortunately didn’t have these luxuries. However, it can be difficult to determine which teacher resource websites are the most useful. Therefore, I am posting some of my favorites. I hope that you can find them useful as well.

Some of my favorite teacher reference sites:
Education World

Kathy’s Schrock’s Site

ABC Teach

A to Z Teacher Stuff

Are Video Games Really That Dangerous?

You’ve heard the story countless times, a teenage boy gets finished playing his violent video games one night and goes to school the next day with a gun.  Many people instantly blame the video games. After all, we have to blame violent acts by teenagers on something.  However, should video games really be to blame?

Today’s youth is surrounded by images of violence. It appears in movies, on television, can be heard in musical lyrics, and can be seen on video games. There are thousands of teens exposed to violent images in their lifetimes, and not every teen goes out and tries to kill people. In facts, there is a very low percentage of teens that commit violent acts after playing these types of video games or watching these types of movies.

In fact, I think that video games serve as an “escape” for many teens. Video games give them almost a retreat, where they can become someone else and act out emotions. It gives them a chance to rid stress. I don’t believe that they cause increased harm to anyonw when played in moderation (I stress moderation).

Iconography in school

So I didn’t grow up in a public school, but from what I hear, many schools are really cracking down on what students can  and can’t wear. Why? Iconography. It all has to do with symbols. While you read this post, think about what symbols mean to you. Which ones are important, which ones have “become” the objects they represent in your lives?

In chapter 2 of “Understanding Comics” I read a lot about symbols, symbolism, and what it means to us. (I call things symbols instead of icons)

First, let’s think about the icons of words. Read each word individually and picture it in your head. After you get your own picture in your mind, click the link to see what others see in this word.*note: all these images are ones I found by simply googling the word they represent*

 Cheerleader

Train 

Gang

So… what are your perceptions on certain words? As you can see with the last word, there’s probably a huge difference between what you thought and what I linked to. But I can tell you that at 6 or 7 years of age, if you asked me if I wanted to “join the gang” I’d proudly volunteer to be part of the Barney gang. That was what “gang” meant to me.

Think for a moment of this formula that my high school Psychology teacher drilled into my head:

Perception = Sensation + Interpretation

Interpretation of things plays a big part in how we perceive them. So what about symbols? They can mean a more broad variety of things because unlike words, just about any idea can be attached to a symbol.

So what does this all have to do with dress codes? Simple. As I said earlier, schools are becoming strict about what students wear. This is because of the iconography, the symbolism, present in what many students are outfitting themselves in. These symbols send messages to others. There are “gang colors” which promote separation and fighting in schools. There are also symbols meant to send a negative message to other students. While we do have freedom of expression, we can not tread on anyone else’s’ freedoms  in our own expression. (Not to mention, prejudicial symbols are just asking for fights to break out.)

There’s a huge problem with all this attire censoring: Abstractivity.

How do we as adults “out of the loop” know what symbols are meaning what? I just don’t think it is possible to. And in our attempts we may be persecuting a large number of innocent students. There’s a great way to make the kids your enemy. So what do we do?

Don’t ask me for answers! Work on solutions yourself. Because like it or not, kids DO wear symbols that hold meanings we do not want in our school. And like it or not, many of these symbols float totally over the heads of faculty and teachers. We never know they exist, or if we do find out, we find out too late.