I couldn't be more excited about this year! I am looping with my students from 1st grade to 2nd grade. One reason this excites me is because I realized last year what worked with these students and what didn't and now I am ready to begin the year with their needs in mind. 



Something that I am going to try is Reading Workshop. I have used literacy stations and done Guided Reading, but using this system not only seems more organized, but there is so much research behind each station. I am ready to dig deep into Reading Workshop. That being said here are some great blogs with Daily 5 Cafe and more that you should check out if you use this in your classroom. If you don't use this in your classroom, then this is a great place to start.

Article from Scholastic:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2009/10/reading-workshop


Great Schedule:
http://www.bainbridgeclass.com/readingworkshop.htm




Awesome activities and ideas:
http://lessonplansos.blogspot.com/
Strategies:
http://www.lauracandler.com/strategies/readingworkshop.php



More ideas and places to get lessons and activities coming soon!

Reading Workshop

Reading Workshop/Daily 5

I found so many great ways to start using Daily 5 Cafe and continue using it. I have literacy workstations and practice Guided Reading in my classroom, but Reading Workshop or Daily 5 is a bit new to me.

Here is a website that has everything you need to get started including parent notes, lesson plans, and workstation cards.

http://www.willoughby-eastlake.k12.oh.us/classroom/technology/daily_5.htm


There are so many awesome websites! More to resources to come!

Gettin' Wiki with it!

My wiki is designed for extra discussions with our class book club. Students take books home after doing guided reading with me. After students have had a chance to read their book, we have a class book club. The book club meets every other Friday and the groups are put together based on interests, ability, skill, etc. During the book club students eat popcorn and discuss their books in detail. I give parents a list of questions at the beginning of book club, so that students are understanding what they are reading at home and taking responsibility for their reading. I thought creating a wiki would be a great way to be more interactive with parents as they help with book club. Now students can write a sentence or two about what they learned from the book at home.

This is the Wiki that students will use to guide their learning during bookclub. https://bookclubgilliland.wikispaces.com/ (Request an Invite if needed)

Geotagging: How can students use it?

This week I learned something completely new to me: Geotagging. Have you ever checked in somewhere on Facebook, Google +, or Blogger? Those ideas are not new to me. However, having my students geotag was an entirely new concept. I was not sure how difficult it would be for students to geotag or how I would create a lesson that would be appropriate for geotagging.

Luckily I was introduced to Flickr a photostream site where photos can be uploaded. After photos are uploaded you can tag them, name them, add a description, add them to a group and many more creative things. There are so many great things that can be done with geotagging.

More example Lessons on Geotagging coming soon!!!!




Geotagging Famous American Lesson-

Grade: 1^st

Subject: Social Studies and Language Arts

Materials: Internet, Flickr, Computers/computer lab, Delicious Stacks



This will be a lesson that wraps up a unit. After learning about Famous American, students will research a Famous American of their choice. The teacher will explain that after we learn about Famous Americans we will be working with a few other classes in schools from Maryland, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. The teacher will inform students on how to use Flickr by showing students how to add tags to pictures, join the group, add a description and of course geotag. Students will

1. Teacher will give directions and guidelines for researching Famous Americans
2. There will be six famous Americans to choose from. There will be 3 students in each group in my class.
3. After students know the FA they will be researching they will get on the Delicious Stacks site on Famous Americans to search for information about their person. Students can find their chosen FA by clicking on the tags on the side of the screen.
4. Students will find facts about places that the FA lived, died, fought in war, or a historical even occurred and take notes on it in their research notebook. They will also find pictures as they search for more about the FA. They will save the pictures in the Famous American folder inside of a folder with their name.
5. When students are finished with research the teacher will talk about joining the group on Flickr where a group of students from the many different schoosl will be joined with us to learn more about FA.
6. Students will join the group on Flickr.
7. Students will add pictures. Then they will tag by the name of the FA, add a description, and geotag at least the state that the FA was in at the time. If a city was listed teacher will help to make sure students type it in correctly on the map search.
8. When students are finished adding picture, adding name and description, and geotagging they will use their Flickr projects to create a Voicethread for their Famous American person
9. After presentations the class will learn from the other class’s tags in their Flickr group

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Tagging Lesson

Tagging is a great way for teachers and students alike to organize and search. In this lesson my first grade students used tagging to sift through to find websites that help them find answers to questions and information about the subject.

Lesson Overview:

Introduction: The teacher will show students pictures of various plants on the board and have them use what they know about plants to infer where the plants habitat may be. The teacher will explain to students that plants adapt to the environment they live in to survive.

Questions: The teacher will pose questions that students will need to know by the end of the lesson. She will write down some of the “What I think I knows” on the board to save for later. Questions: “How and why do plants adapt to their environment?”, “What resources and characteristics do plants need to survive in different environments?”, “How can you identify characteristics of a plant that help them survive in their own distinct environment?”, etc.

Video: After the teacher has talked to students a little more about habitats and plant environments, the teacher will show a video on Brainpop Jr. called plant adaptations. Teacher and students will discuss the video

Student Response: The students will then take out their Activexpressions to do a short formative assessment about plant environments. Students will choose the best environment for a plant after first knowing the specific needs of that plant.

Notes: Students will take research notes throughout the lesson to add to what they have learned on the KWL chart.

Research: Teacher will have previously gone over directions on how to research Delicious stacks by typing in key words/main words on the Delicious Stack the teacher created. Teacher will put students into research groups and will explain the guidelines for group research. The students will receive an outline to assist them in finding the necessary information needed to complete the lesson. Students will use classroom computers and laptops to get on Delicious Stacks for research. There will be about 4 students at each computer. The students will get on the plant stack on Delicious that the teacher created and they will search the best tags to answer certain questions. Students, especially at this young age are overwhelmed during research if there are websites scattered on a page or all over the web without tags. Another problem is making it too simple for students, by putting each set of websites in a certain folder or spot to locate each set of questions. Tagging allows teachers to make a Stack of websites for students to use for many different questions. It also allows students to have freedom to search for the best websites to answer questions or find more information by searching key words. When students know how to search by tags, they understand the overall question and can search for an answer by using tags to find the website.

Blog: After students have finished conducting research they will each use the classroom blog to blog about 3 different plant habitats and explain how they think that plants can survive there from what they have learned in their research.
Each individual student will blog and then leave one question they have about plant environments for a peer to answer. Students can add pictures and attatchments to support their thinking.

Visualizing Poetry

During our poetry unit in 1st grade we discuss the importance of finding meaning in poetry through word choice and figurative language. We listen to songs and discuss the likenesses between songs and poems. One of the songs we listen to is "House that Built Me" by Miranda Lambert because most students can make connections to it and really find meaning withing the words. I created a podcast to read my students a poem that I wanted them to visualize. Students will use the poem as a mentor text to write their own poem using details that will help the reader visualize their writing.

Visualizing Poetry Podcast

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5742640&height=267&width=200

 

More Ideas

I found a few really cool blogs about table top tweeting! Check it out. It may be worth while to try.

http://minimatisse.blogspot.com/2012/01/homeroom-trophy-and-twitter.html

http://artfor1170.blogspot.com/2012/01/twitter.html



Here is a website that informs teachers how to build a positive online community.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lesson/build-your-ideal-community-7-8#.T-3PW_rdsqo.pinterest


This is a great blog!!! I found a few new resources for students that I had never heard of. Here is a website that this teacher said she is replacing glogster with http://www.easel.ly/.

http://mesmrswhitesclass.blogspot.com/- Take a look at some of her technology ideas.


Love this because I use Edmodo, but it is a great idea for blogging in general.