In Class Portfolio

Michelle's In Class Portfolio:
ELA/Science(Nutrition)

Bio Poem
Graphic Organizer)
Lesson Plan (Including cover page, lesson plan, student activities)
Rubric 

Dialogue Poem

My Dialogue Poem with Angela

Caught or Taught?

Reading complex texts all through my life has been a challenge for me. I always have to go back and reread to understand, take notes and read in a quiet place. Growing up, reading complex text was taught for me. Right after school I would do my homework, my mom did not allow distractions and we would concentrate at the quiet, technology-free kitchen table. I was taught strategies like rereading what I read, underlining/highlighting key ideas and writing notes or questions. The only distraction I had at that time was the sound of the doorbell and a friend asking me to play outside. As technology started to become big, I can remember in High School and in College, my habits changed. Between cell phones, facebook and laptops, it was more easy to become distracted than not. As a result of the distractions it became easier to use sparknotes and easier to ask your roommate what the answers were, because it was midnight when you finally Xed out of facebook and you only had a little time before class to complete that reading.

Parents and teachers can “teach” and demonstrate the correct way to read a complex texts. Students are more than capable, however, with all the technology and distractions, they may need more practice and more direct instruction about how to read complex texts. They may need to know the basics such as read in a quiet room. Growing up with distractions, they may not know that. The technology part is caught in life. We have all caught it. It is easy to multitask, so we think. Many times I become overwhelmed while I am on facebook, clicking a link to pinterest and watching TV while I am texting my friend. I did not grow up with these things, but with technology growing, it seems to come natural and that I have “caught it”. As you see others do it and know it is “what everyone is doing,” it becomes something you want to do to stay with the world.

Helpful Websites

Website: Enchanted Learning
Category: Teacher Resource
Audience: Teachers Elementary - High School
Grade Level: All grades (K-12)
Subject Areas: All subjects
Description: This website provides many good supplemental printouts for students which incorporates writing and reading about all subjects. It also provides resources for teachers such as poems to use in class or projects you can do with the class. There are some free options, but most of it requires a subscription.

Website: Education.com
Category: Teacher Resources
Audience: Teachers (K-12)
Grade Level: K-12 (but is more beneficial to elementary school teachers)
Subject Area: All Subjects
Description: This is a great teacher resource for teachers of all grades to find supplemental worksheets. You can choose a grade level (K-12) and choose a subject area such as writing, reading, social studies or math. You can then choose a category within that subject sust as counting money. It will find many great student friendly worksheets.


Website: Pro Teacher
Category: Teacher Resource
Audience: Teachers of all grade levels
Grade Level: All grades
Subject Areas: All subjects
Description: This teacher resource is a way for teachers to communicate with other teachers and share different ideas they have in their classroom. Teachers can post questions or ideas and other teachers can respond to those posts. They can post other ideas and answer other teacher’s questions. There are posts by different subjects, grade levels and even posts by categories such as bulletin boards and behavior management. A great way to share ideas and get ideas to bring you your classroom!

Website: Central Intelligence Agency
Category: Student Resource
Audience: Students
Grade Level: 6-12
Subject Areas: History, Geography
Description: CIA stands for “Central Intelligence Agency” which provides a great website where students can look up information about different countries, leaders, presidents, people, government, economy, ect. It is easy to navigate and even has a “whats new” section where there are constant updates about what is currently happening around the world.

Website: Awesome Library
Category: Student Resource
Audience: Students
Grade Level: K-6
Subject Areas: All subject areas
Description: This is a search engine that is kid friendly. Students can type in what they are looking for in the search box and kid friendly links and results will come up for them to select. There is also an option for this website to appear in different languages.

Website: Sheppard Software

Category: Student Resource / Student Interactive Learning
Audience: Students, young elementary
Grade Level: Pre-K - 4th (also has links for older students)
Subject Area: History/ Science
This website is great for younger students to use on the computer. It is an interactive website which provides information for them to read about as well as games for them to play. It is very educational (based on Science and History) as students can read to learn about animals, nutrition, food chains, ect. It is has sound, is colorful and student friendly!

Website: Starfall
Category: Student Interactive
Audience: Students
Grade Level: K-3
Subject Areas: Reading / ELA
Description: This is a great reading tool for young elementary students. It is very student friendly, and is an easy to navigate website that all young elementary students would be able to go on independently. Students wear headphones and it provides everything from interactive phonics games to interactive reading books. Students can actively read the stories and if they have trouble with a word, they can click on the word and will hear the word sounded out. It is a great website for beginning readers who can find joy and entertainment in reading.

Website: Lesson Plans 4 Teachers
Category: Teacher Lesson Plan Sites
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: K-12
Subject Areas: All Subjects
Description: This is a great resource for teachers who are looking for lesson plans. Not only does this provide templates for different lesson plans, but it also provides lessons already typed up ready to teach! You can search by grade, subject and sub-subject. It also provides links to other resources to help you make the perfect lesson!

Website: PBS
Category: Teacher Lesson Plan Site/ Student Interactive Learning Site
Audience: Teachers and Students
Grade Level: Young Elementary Age Students
Subject Areas: All subjects
Description: On this website, teachers can find instructional ideas as well as lesson plans that have to do with certain books or subjects. It provides the lesson plan and includes resources/ activities and videos that supplement the lesson. It is also a student interactive learning site as students can direct themselves to play certain learning games and activities. They can choose a subject area and it will lead them to playful games with a friendly voice providing directions.

Website: Have Fun Teaching

Category: Teacher Lesson Plan Site
Audience: Elementary School Teachers
Grade Level: Younger Elementary Age Students
Subject Areas: All subjects
Description: This is a great website for teachers as it provides lesson plan templates as well as ideas, games, centers, songs, printouts, ect. It is a great way to supplement what you are teaching in class and has great ideas to help your lessons become more interesting to the students.

Wordle

Wikipedia: A Friend to Teachers

The article on Wikipedia was an eye opener as to what Wikipedia actually is. I always used Wikipedia in high school and in college and often times still do use it to look things up. I was not taught in depth about Wikipedia but just told “don’t use Wikipedia.” In college,  I remember finding out that anyone was able to post information about a topic on this website. I was surprised and therefore, since then, never thought of Wikipedia as being a reliable source.

After reading this article, I realized that although Wikipedia is open to the public, it can be a friend to a teacher. Many teachers shy away from it and do not give it a chance, however teachers need to use it as a teaching tool. ln my years of teaching, my boss is always telling us that teaching the “non example” is often a better example for the students to grasp an idea that you are teaching. This fits with Wikipedia; teachers, if well prepared, can take Wikipedia in many directions which will not only have the children engaged, but also have them learning something from it. Students can look into what is wrong with Wikipedia and find irrelevant or bias information. They will enjoy finding the flaws and as a result they will remember as they discovered it themselves. They can also read about a topic on Wikipedia and ask themselves questions about that topic or think about what further information they want to find out about that topic; this creates a higher level thinking. This steers them in the right direction and encourages them to find reliable sources so they can get to the deep meaning and find the answers to their questions. Wikipedia also provides sources of where the information was found. Students can click on those links and evaluate that site; if it is a good site, they can use that for their papers. If I was taught this way in high school, as opposed to just saying, “don’t use wikipedia,” I would have had a better understanding of what a proper website to use was and why Wikipedia was not reliable. As one can see, Wikipedia is a teaching tool and when used correctly can be beneficial to students learning on the computer.

Will I be able to keep up with technology?

I can remember being five years old, fast forwarding and rewinding VCR players. Many of my favorite childhood movies are on VCRs (my favorite: “It Takes Two”). Computers became big when I was about seven. I remember the first large, grey, slow computer my family had. Using the internet on that computer was a big deal because it would take up the phone line and my mother was always on the phone or waiting for a phone call; there were no cell phones. My middle school and high school years were focused around the internet, particularly AOL and instant messaging. Everyday after school, my sister, my brother and I would fight over who got to go on AOL to chat with their friends. During my sophomore year of high school, I got my first cell phone! It was a razor cell phone, now replaced by my blackberry, which will soon be replaced by an ipone. The use of computers continued to grow as my high school teachers incorporated slide shows, showed us images, and shared certain videos. The teachers taught me how to use and cite correct sources in high school which helped me write my big research project.

Summer of 2006, I was heading into college, and facebook become big. At first I was reluctant about it, but of course I did it, and loved it. I called my roommate on the phone to introduce myself, but once I got a facebook account, all of my other friends were made were via facebook, no more phone calls. Many of my classes in college were based around technology. The way we signed up for classes, homework assignments and communication with teachers were all done through technology. Instead of visiting a professor during office hours, it was a quick e-mail. Teachers would have us post on blackboard, and walked us through the steps on how to do it, which helped tremendously.

Returning home from college in 2010, my family no longer has a big gray computer to fight over. My brother, sister and I have our own laptops and my parents each have their own computer. Technology can be great until problems arise. I try to figure them out, but am afraid I will make it worse.

Where there used to be a VCR, there is now solely a DVD player which still does not allow me to play “It Takes Two”. I will have to watch it on demand because there are no longer any Blockbusters around! My friends and I would always go to Blockbuster, now we have to find a Red Box and can even reserve our movie online for us to pick up. I seem to adapt well to the new technology, but as it is moving so quick and things keep updating, I am not sure if I can keep up. Sitting in my technology class today, I was thinking, I guess I have tons to learn and will I ever be able to keep up with technology to learn it all?