December 2010

December tends to be a blur for me. Actually I think it begins around Halloween and then the speeid proportionally increases as I get closer to my Christmas progam. So considering all that, it is a small miracle that I am writing this post with a relative sense of calm.

Speaking of the upcoming Christmas season, I was perusing Smart Exchange and came across some very nice lessons for Christmas there. My kindergarten students really enjoyed the December Hidden Pictures. Not very fancy but I am always grateful for someone who has taken the time to create something like this that I can use. Teachers are so generous when it comes to sharing their ideas. I am constantly amazed at the amount of material that is out there. Thank you!

Another tidbit for Christmas:
I have my sixth grade students do some research on a Christmas carol. Among the list of sites I send them to for information Christmas World is one of my favorites. They have a nice list of carols which includes information and background about the carol. The students will create a mini poster about the carol. Once completed we will sing all the carols they did their research on. It is a fun way to learn about some of those songs we sing or hear during December.

Well I don't know if I will get another post in during December. The program is next week and I have much to do yet to be ready. So for now, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Exciting Skype Event

This has definitely become a monthly posting. I just cannot keep up with all of it. But I do have a very exciting thing to report on today. Background first: This summer at Podstock in KC, Kansas, I met a teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. Barb is a third grade teacher at a Catholic school so we had lots to share. After many conversations and shared ideas, we decided to have her class join our school in our annual Saints game held at the end of November. We sent her the information on the saints we were studying and then skyped her class into the game. I had the SmartBoard set up so we could see her class. (noot the best picture but you get the idea!) There were a few glitches with sound but it was great fun. We look forward to doing more things like this.

Here is a link to Barb's audioboo about the event.

October 2010

I have not been very good at making posts recently. It seems once school starts my life spins on super fast speed. Christmas program is fast approaching, TMEA and TCEA are in February. Catholic Schools week before that and then it will be Young Authors Day, Art Fest and Graduation.

So here is my link for today- just saw this one and think it is valuable. This comes from one of my daily reads Free Technology for Teachers. If you don't already read this blog you definitely need to bookmark it. Richard Byrne offers more ideas and links than you can imagine. Wonderful, wonderful resource for teachers. In a recent post he shares the link to Open Educational Resources. It is "a place for educators to post lessons and lesson materials that others can use. There are thousands of lessons organized by content area and grade level. After you've made your initial selections of content area and grade level you can refine your search by lesson type, material, media format, and usage rights." (Byrne)

As a fine arts teacher, I naturally look at the lessons for that area. It is common for lesson plan sites to not have many fine arts lessons that I find workable. However, at OER I was able to find a number of lessons that really are nice. The ease of search makes OER a new favorite of mine. I highly recommend this site and thank Richard Byrne for sharing this link.

September 2010 links

It might be a better thing if I make my posting goal once a month. That way if I have more to say it will be a bonus. School has consumed my time. I suppose this is good since they do pay me for that. But I have felt guilty not spending time making any posts. I have had some good links come by my computer screen lately but have not had the opportunity to share. Hopefully anyone who sees my posts also reads many other blogs.

Here is a very cool one for today to start us off. Coming from BBC is Dimensions. The quick description from their site says "Dimensions takes important places, events and things, and overlays them onto a map of where you are." Simply put, that sums it up.

To use this in the classroom: It would give students a grasp on the relationship of events to their own place in the world. They(we) often cannot imagine the enormity of something that doesn't happen in our neighborhood. This brings it all home.