What I learned from bloggers

I read several different blogs during this class.the two I commented on were;

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2013/06/let-him-fly.html#disqus_thread

http://teachinglikeits2999.blogspot.com/2013/06/what-gif.html#comment-form

The two blogs were very different. The first was more about the daily life in the classroom. I really liked reading this blog and her thoughts on the classroom and in life. Her manifesto was my favorite blog although I commented on her most recent blog about letting them "fly."I learned that she shares the same basic philosophy as I do about students. 

The second blog was about technology tools and instantly I was able to find other tools to easily use in the classroom. I think there might even be a solution to my question of how to keep track of all my sites and all the tools I want to use in the classroom (with notes, links and ideas). 

Tech tool

To be honest, the best tech tool I used in the classroom this year were the IPods borrowed from the district. Sounds silly, but at any one time, specifically after 3rd quarter started I was teaching two classes and running two major outside projects. These IPods were a godsend because I could keep all these students working on multiple projects but, still under my supervision at one time. The tech team was able to put together a broken set to loan me for an extended period of time.

During the 2012-2013 school year I taught two 7th grade subjects-History and Science. I also guided the nutrition group (mentioned in the last blog) and decided to jump in, feet first, into National History Day. For the two classes I taught I offered differentiated instruction such as timelines and the Mock Trial which are heavy in research. For National History Day I had students from all four teams flexing into and out of my classroom. It was so much easier to keep them with me in the class or close by in our team room then to let them travel to the library toward distraction. Our nutrition group also used the iPods daily, for their research. I would love to have a class set to use everyday.

Great lesson-Blogger 201

Whenever I teach 7th grade Science (5 out of 7 years), I have done a lesson that my mentor showed me my first year. During EO 4, Digestion & Nutrition, we do a label lab. In this lab, the students answere questions about the major food groups and then use real labels of the food that they eat to fill out a chart. The chart asks for two examples from each food group; dairy, veggies, fruits, meat/protein, grains & oils/sweets. EVery year this lab is done with the same basic questions and same basic learning outcomes. This year was different.

I wanted to do more differentiation in the class this year  in both my history and science classes. SO the week before this lab (the start of 3rd quarter), I told all my classes that if they were interested in taking a subject to another level, I would work with them. I had a group of girls from each class that were really interested in learning more about nutrition and how they could inform others to eat better. This led to meeting everyday for lunch and during guided study and developed into the grand ide that they could get the school district to adopt healthier lunches and revamp the school lunch programs.   They have taken this to the superintendent and are in our newly created summer school nutrition class to work on the items he requested they look into. The entire group is also moving with me up to 8th grade so we can continue our work together. 

That was a simple lesson that turned in to a great projects.