Carrotsticks.com
Carrot Sticks, a Mathematics based website for elementary students, grades 1 -5. Students can create their own characters and used them while practicing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. The site provides several levels of difficulty that students can advance through and allows teachers to track their progress. In addition teachers can differentiate according to the students' needs by starting them on a level that is conducive to the child's level of learning.
The site is free to teachers giving them unlimited access between 7am and 3pm and has very good rates for those that would like to subscribe.
This is a great website for the learner that has difficulty remembering basic math facts. This site provides rigorous practice in a format that students can relate to.
Goorulearning.org
Gooru, a Mathematics and Science based website for 5th - 12th grade students. It offers students and teachers a variety of featured resources to include a discussion board, videos, interactive activities, websites, and slides. It is also has digital textbooks, animation, a note taking tab as well as assessments for student learning. Teachers can setup their students by using the classroom feature.
The information presented is based on the Core Curriculum Standards as well as California Science Curriculum Standards.
For these and more math websites click on the link below.
http://www.pearltrees.com/switch2teach/mathematic-websites/id4553214
Please give readers your feedback on these websites or if you know of others send your suggestions to authorsmouthpiece@gmail.com or respond to this post.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sharing Our Resources
During every teacher meeting/training that I have attended, teachers are more than willing to share the resources that they have found and used in their classrooms. Many of these resources include websites that allow students an interactive experience in the topic that is being taught. Some websites even allow teachers to assign graded activities and track students progress.
I have listed many websites in my book, Corporate to Classroom: A Career Switchers Guide to Teaching, but there are new websites being introduced all of the time. That being said, I am going to change the focus of this blog to share some of the websites that I or others have found useful in their classrooms.
If you have a website that you have found useful, please email authorsmouthpiece@gmail.com or respond to this entry and I will post in full or in part your experiences.
I will post one or more reviews or informational blurbs every Sunday. Let's help our students learn through mediums that they use daily. Technology is helping our students and teachers keep up with the times.
See you Sunday!
I have listed many websites in my book, Corporate to Classroom: A Career Switchers Guide to Teaching, but there are new websites being introduced all of the time. That being said, I am going to change the focus of this blog to share some of the websites that I or others have found useful in their classrooms.
If you have a website that you have found useful, please email authorsmouthpiece@gmail.com or respond to this entry and I will post in full or in part your experiences.
I will post one or more reviews or informational blurbs every Sunday. Let's help our students learn through mediums that they use daily. Technology is helping our students and teachers keep up with the times.
See you Sunday!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Do Not Lump Our Students Into One Category
It is a sad turn of events
when an educator starts to lump our children into one category by making haphazard
statements that every child of a certain race, ethnic group, or physical or
mental disability cannot accomplish what other groups or communities can. This
educator is indiscriminately grouping all of our children together instead of
looking at their unique strengths and abilities.
Some of our students may not
have the exposure or rich experiences as some of their counterparts. It should
be our mission to give them exposure and rich experiences by weaving it into
our lessons. Make every day an interesting and exciting journey into ‘undiscovered’
topics. Pull out all the stops, grab their attention and take them on an
adventure! Reading alone is okay but bringing that book to life is better.
Our students, even those who
lack in exposure, are on different levels of learning. Figure out their
learning styles and deliver your information in a way that they can receive it.
We must meet them where they are, finding common ground, and taking them to where
they can stand on their own amongst their counterparts.
Do some of our students have
great deficits? Yes. With all of the focus on assessments is it hard to find
the time to give them what they need? Yes. Do we need to overcome those
challenges and find ways to make the most of every moment that our students
have with us? YES.
For those of you who may
have forgotten, ALL of our children CAN learn!!! Will you be the one to invest
time, energy, and your resources to ensure that it happens? Will you be the
one to choose to not focus on the deficits or behaviors but focus on the possibility?
I hope your response is a resounding YES.
Monday, December 26, 2011
New Year, New Zeal
Writing the blog and the book is an outlet to encourage the masses that although we face many challenges we cannot give up on the dream. We must get to the final act and be able to look back and say that we gave it our all. We will beam with pride and relief as we watch our students go to the next level, ready for the new challenge.
This is the time when we need to hold ourselves accountable for what goes on in our classrooms. Yes, I know you may not have everything you need or want but that is irrelevant. You must press pass that and find ways to give your students what they need! Leave the pity party and get in the game! Renew your zeal and passion for teaching. Become contagious and the leader that your school so desperately needs. It's up to you!
Craig Harper list fifty things that highly successful people do, here are four:
7. They rarely complain (waste of energy). All complaining does is put the complainer in a negative and unproductive state.
21. They don’t believe in, or wait for fate, destiny, chance or luck to determine or shape their future. They believe in, and are committed to actively and consciously creating their own best life.
26. Their desire to be exceptional means that they typically do things that most won’t. They become exceptional by choice. We’re all faced with life-shaping decisions almost daily. Successful people make the decisions that most won’t and don’t.
37. They are resilient. When most would throw in the towel, they’re just warming up.
Do not give up on yourself or the students that you teach. I hope over your break you have taken time to refocus and renew your mind. In the midst of the battle sometimes it is hard to know whose winning, but as long as you keep fighting for the one everyone else has given up on, you win!
Have a great new year!
This is the time when we need to hold ourselves accountable for what goes on in our classrooms. Yes, I know you may not have everything you need or want but that is irrelevant. You must press pass that and find ways to give your students what they need! Leave the pity party and get in the game! Renew your zeal and passion for teaching. Become contagious and the leader that your school so desperately needs. It's up to you!
Craig Harper list fifty things that highly successful people do, here are four:
7. They rarely complain (waste of energy). All complaining does is put the complainer in a negative and unproductive state.
21. They don’t believe in, or wait for fate, destiny, chance or luck to determine or shape their future. They believe in, and are committed to actively and consciously creating their own best life.
26. Their desire to be exceptional means that they typically do things that most won’t. They become exceptional by choice. We’re all faced with life-shaping decisions almost daily. Successful people make the decisions that most won’t and don’t.
37. They are resilient. When most would throw in the towel, they’re just warming up.
Do not give up on yourself or the students that you teach. I hope over your break you have taken time to refocus and renew your mind. In the midst of the battle sometimes it is hard to know whose winning, but as long as you keep fighting for the one everyone else has given up on, you win!
Have a great new year!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Are You Someone's Superman?
I just finish watching the documentary, "Waiting for Superman." If
you have not seen it, you should make a point to watch it soon. One of its main
messages is that any student can learn if they are taught by a "good"
teacher. It made me think about how effective I am and how much more effective
I could be if I tweak a few things.
The film sheds light on the red tape that prevents us from moving forward in our education system here in the United States and how we are behind in Reading and Mathematics. There is a discussion about public schools versus charter schools and what they call "dropout factories." The differences in them all are teachers that are effective. My question is how can we become effective within our own schools.
I would venture to say that it has a lot to do with our attitudes. Currently and in the past, I have worked with many teachers that are frustrated with the system or comfortable with the minimum. There are teachers that seem to thrive on complaining from the time they enter the building until they leave with some taking it beyond the school house and complaining in any forum they can find. I wonder how so much complaining affects their ability to teach and deal with their students. If they are always mad about something I am sure that it is seeping into their classroom.
The film spoke on teachers’ tenure and how hard it is to fire someone who is not producing. In my opinion, these are teachers that either have a lack of training and accountability or those who have been teaching one way for so long that they are out of touch with today's realities.
The "fixes" discussed did not focus on changing the paradigm of teachers so we need to change it from within and ask ourselves some questions. Why would you want to be mediocre? Why would you not want to give a child hope to go beyond whatever his/her living conditions may be? Why wouldn't you want to be part of the solution? Certainly complaining about and continuing to do what you have always done is not working? Do you believe that one person can bring about change for a community? Are you the one who can do it?
There are parents out there that know that they are not in a great environment and want more for their children. We can be a bridge for those parents and their children right where they are. We should purpose to partner with these parents and teachers that have not given up and make a difference.
For those that would like to strive to go beyond the average teacher there are steps that you can take. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has a program where you can become a nationally certified teacher. It helps teacher become more engaged and a master at their craft. The process forces educators to evaluate and analyzes the “what”, “why”, and “how” they teach in the classroom. It is designed to make educators the best at what they do, building collaborative relationships, videotaping lessons so that the teacher could analyzes what was effective and what was not, as well as examining what could have been done differently to reach every student. This isn’t the only way but the concepts used in the program causes you to really think about what you are doing.
Whatever direction you take purpose to become a “Superman” for some child who needs hope injected into their life. Be the catapult of success for someone who may not see a need to read or do mathematics. Show them that they can make options for themselves.
The film sheds light on the red tape that prevents us from moving forward in our education system here in the United States and how we are behind in Reading and Mathematics. There is a discussion about public schools versus charter schools and what they call "dropout factories." The differences in them all are teachers that are effective. My question is how can we become effective within our own schools.
I would venture to say that it has a lot to do with our attitudes. Currently and in the past, I have worked with many teachers that are frustrated with the system or comfortable with the minimum. There are teachers that seem to thrive on complaining from the time they enter the building until they leave with some taking it beyond the school house and complaining in any forum they can find. I wonder how so much complaining affects their ability to teach and deal with their students. If they are always mad about something I am sure that it is seeping into their classroom.
The film spoke on teachers’ tenure and how hard it is to fire someone who is not producing. In my opinion, these are teachers that either have a lack of training and accountability or those who have been teaching one way for so long that they are out of touch with today's realities.
The "fixes" discussed did not focus on changing the paradigm of teachers so we need to change it from within and ask ourselves some questions. Why would you want to be mediocre? Why would you not want to give a child hope to go beyond whatever his/her living conditions may be? Why wouldn't you want to be part of the solution? Certainly complaining about and continuing to do what you have always done is not working? Do you believe that one person can bring about change for a community? Are you the one who can do it?
There are parents out there that know that they are not in a great environment and want more for their children. We can be a bridge for those parents and their children right where they are. We should purpose to partner with these parents and teachers that have not given up and make a difference.
For those that would like to strive to go beyond the average teacher there are steps that you can take. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has a program where you can become a nationally certified teacher. It helps teacher become more engaged and a master at their craft. The process forces educators to evaluate and analyzes the “what”, “why”, and “how” they teach in the classroom. It is designed to make educators the best at what they do, building collaborative relationships, videotaping lessons so that the teacher could analyzes what was effective and what was not, as well as examining what could have been done differently to reach every student. This isn’t the only way but the concepts used in the program causes you to really think about what you are doing.
Whatever direction you take purpose to become a “Superman” for some child who needs hope injected into their life. Be the catapult of success for someone who may not see a need to read or do mathematics. Show them that they can make options for themselves.
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