A useful Facebook page

Aaron has provided yet another fabulous link to ICT resources.  It is a link to a Facebook page which has some great links to ICTs in the classroom. Check it out !

Dancing Robots

Thank you Aaron for the link to the dancing robot song.  It is catching and I think the kids would enjoy it.

Behaviour management

In Kelsies blog “Breakthrough” she talks about her experiences with behaviour management strategies she used on her prac. So far each school I have been to for my prac have had different policies and practices but in the end the same goal.  I have also found some teachers much harder than others on the students and it has been a challenge to determine how I feel about it.  For instance one school was very particular about standing in 2 very straight lights and not saying a word when they walked from the assembly area after lunch to their classroom.  In another school it was ok to chat and stay in rough lines as long as you where keeping your hands and feet to yourself and going in the right direction.  I feel that if you are walking around the school in school time the students must be quite as it is distruptive but when they are walking back to class from lunch I think my feeling lies between the 2 options.

I do feel that you have to pick your battles and it does come down to how you feel about it as the teacher and what the school policy is.  Behaviour management is tricky.

Thrass words

Thank you Kelsie for your link the the Thrass site.  I had heard of Thrass before but haven’t had time to check it out properly.  Not only as a teacher but as a parent the more resources you can get your hands on to teach the kids the better.

education.com

Hi everyone have you used education.com before.  They have some great games, worksheets, workbooks, activities and articles for the classroom from kindy to grade 5.  Angela I think you would find this site interesting because they have some great science ideas for all primary ages check this link out.

http://www.education.com/activity/article/Backyard_Astronomy_Kindergarten/?cid=50.200&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly&utm_content=activity

You can subscribe to the site and you get an email around once a week telling you about what is new and what you might find interesting.  I am always on the lookout for new and different things especially if the can differentiated.  Let me know if you find something that you think is practical and adjustable in your travels.

Bitstrips for school

Thank you Amanda Conway for the link to Bitstrips for school.

Bitstrips would be great for kids who struggle with literacy as it will assist in allowing for students to create a project using their knowledge without the need to write a lot of information with pencil and paper.  For many students who struggle with writting they don’t get to see a final outcome, a finished product because the give up or run out of time.

I am going to try it out for myself and add the site to my list of resources for the future.

Reading – Into the book

Hi everyone, I hope you have all had a wonderful prac, I definitely did.  My prac teacher put me onto another site to help teach reading.  The site is called “Into the book”.  It is a reading comprehension resource for primary students and teachers. The resource focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. There are online interactive activities and engaging videos available and lesson plans and ideas.

When your assignments are over take a minute and have a look.  It may even be useful if you need information or resources for other literacy subjects.

Quick and easy word searches

When planning for a whole class big book reading lesson I needed a fast finisher activity.  The class I am teaching has a wide range of abilities which need to be catered for.  I decided to create a word search using words from the book we were looking at.  This site The Teachers Corner has a program which allows for you to easily create a word search.  You can add words from the book and choose the size and complexity you would like.  This will be so helpful as the kids love a challenge and they need to be kept busy and staying on task.  Have a look and see if it may be useful for what you are teaching at the moment.

Keep soldiering on, we are half way through now.

History APPs

Hi everyone, how is your Prac going.  I am having a great time and have learnt so much.

Have you seen this?  As I was googling information for my lesson plans I came across this site Kids Discover which has APPs that assist in teaching content and includes lesson plans for learning about different countries.  It looks like a great idea and when I get a chance I will look at all the options available.  Have a look and see what you think.

TPACK ?

On week 1’s  learning path TPACK is explained.  As I am a visual learner I found the link that has been provided to a video by Clare Kilbane has been very helpful in explaining what TPACK is.  It will take a bit to get my head around but at least now I have a better understanding.

I am so grateful whenever the learning path offers a video to help explain the learning path content.  I know when I begin my teaching career it will be a strategy I ensure I use in my classroom.