Weekend, Swimming Suit, Craft Night, and I feel like crap!

Hey all! I hope that your weekend was fabulous! I will be honest... I enjoyed sleeping and doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend. I wish the weekends were longer. One day of sleeping in just isn't enough for me. We also enjoyed spending time with Casey's family on Sunday. 

Sweet baby Grayson...LOVE LOVE LOVE him and those chunky thighs! 

 I've said it once and i'll say it again... cutest future daddy right there! All of his nephews sure love their Uncle Casey! 

 Look what came in the mail today! My FREE swimming suit from Eco Swim! Love it! It is navy with white polka dots :) 

 We had a craft night at work tonight and look at what I made! Yes me, the most un-crafty person on the planet. Love both of them! :) 

I either have horrible allergies or a cold. Either way I feel like crap and I am totally going to bed right now. -Yes it is 8:36...don't judge! I have to teach 10-11 year olds all week...any sleep I can get I will take. :)

Maps with 1st Graders

Standard 3 (Geography): Students will use geographic tools to demonstrate how symbols and models are used to represent features of the school, the neighborhood, and the real world.

Objective 2: Recognize and use a map or globe.

a. Create a map showing important sites or landmarks on a school or community (i.e., firehouse, city hall, churches).

Engage: Read Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. This book is about a little girl who starts in her room and uses maps to slowly zoom out to a map of the world and then zoom back in to her own room.

Explore: After reading Me on the Map, I pulled up Google Maps on the teacher's computer and projected it on to the Smart Board. I started with a map of the world and then slowly zoomed in to Wilson Elementary School so that we could find ourselves on the map like the little girl in the story did.

Explain: As we looked at the maps I explained more about maps and talked specifically about landmarks. After we were done looking at the maps I explained that the students would be creating their own maps of their classroom.

Elaborate: I let the students pick their partners and then they explored their classroom for things that would be important to put on a map of their classroom. After they were finished exploring the room they began working on their maps of the classroom. I told them to make sure that they put things on their map exactly like they were in our classroom because maps have to show things just as they are or people won’t be able to find the things they need to with them. I also explained that they should use various shapes around the room to help them draw their maps i.e., rectangle bells for tables and square pattern blocks for windows.

Evaluate: When the students were finished with their maps I looked at them to see how much they had understood about maps. They ended up doing a very good job on their maps. They were very colorful and things were put exactly where they needed to be.

Strengths:

• · The students loved being able to pick their partners and this helped them to stay on task

• · The students really enjoyed creating maps of their classroom

• · Using Google Maps to find ourselves helped keep the students on task with looking at maps

Weaknesses:

• · I did this lesson in two days and during the first day I didn’t have enough planned to get through the time I had set aside. In the future I will need to plan extra just in case we get through the lesson quicker than expected.

• · During my lesson my cooperating teacher stepped in to give students an example. I should have given the students an example myself. In the future I will make sure that I have examples prepared for my students to see.

Twitter Best Practices

1. Avoid over sharing. You don't want to tweet about a fight you have had with a friend or significant other or about how much you hate your boss. I think this is important because Twitter is a very public place and anyone can see what you write. It could endanger your job/relationship if you are writing things like that all over Twitter.
2. Don't use Twitter to tell about your everyday tasks. A lot of people will find this to be boring. I think this is important because it seems that Twitter is a place to post your ideas on certain subjects, not a place to write about the cereal you ate this morning. You can use Facebook to post these types of things.
3. Have a bio. When people see an interesting tweet they will want to find out more about you. I believe it is important to have a bio so that others can decide if you are someone that they would really like to follow on Twitter. It helps others to see if you have anything in common with them or not.



http://www.nten.org/blog/2010/04/28/social-media-and-privacy-best-practices-managing-your-personal-and-professional-identities
http://blog.ogilvypr.com/2008/08/the-creation-of-twitter-best-practices-round-1/
http://www.davidleeking.com/2008/06/25/twitter-best-practices-so-far/

Volcano Lava Video

Mrs. King's Wedding

These are a few of my pictures from my wedding this summer. :)

 

 

 

Being a Safe Blogger

Four Safe Blogging Strategies I have found are:

1. Keep personal information personal. You don't want to post things like your birth date, social security number, or address on your blog. This will give people too much information about you and can bring danger to you. As a teacher you definitely don't want to share too much information about your classroom and/or school with the public. For example, don't mention students' first and last names.

2. Ensure your user name does not reveal too much information and be careful with pictures that you post. Try to use a user name that doesn't give away too much information to the public. Also be very careful with the pictures you post. As a teacher make sure you are careful with the pictures you post of students. Obtain permission from the students parents before posting pictures because otherwise it is illegal.

3. Post only things that are appropriate for the entire public. Future employers have been known to look at blogs. Be careful what you post. It could be the determining factor in whether or not you obtain a job.

4. Be aware of the things that you are posting. You don't want to tell the world that you will be gone all weekend or that you are home alone all night. This can potentially cause danger to you because the entire public can access your information.


http://www.teach2learn.info/docs/presentations/Safebloggingpractices10-24-06.pdf
http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2008/101308-12-tips-social-net.html#slide13

Blog Pedagogy

There are many different ways that teachers go about using blogs in the classroom. I know there are three different types of blogs we are supposed to write about, but I would actually like to write about four.

One blog I found was The Wocket Spot Blog. This blog is used to show others the students work, to show the parents links for the different units they studied in class, and it also has links for the students to find their spelling lists and "not homework". The "not homework" link has links for different learning activities. She tells the students it isn't homework, so it gets them more interested in reviewing concepts. I think this is a great thing she uses on her blog. I also really enjoy how she uses the blog to show the parents some of the different units the students are going through. I just think her blog is very accessible to many different types of people, not just students. She also shows some of the students' work on the home page, and I think it is really great because the parents can go to the blog and see what their children are doing in class.
http://thewocketspot.edublogs.org/

Another blog I found was Nicole Gleason's blog. This is a blog that she uses primarily for student work. She has links for teacher assignments (assignments students are supposed to complete on the blog), and she also has links to students writing assignments they have completed. I think it is great that the students are able to take their writing assignments and put them on a blog so that others can see their work.
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=221080

Another blog I found that I enjoyed is Grade Three is Great!
This blog is used for the students' assignments. The home page has an explanation of a lesson the teacher taught that day and then poses a question to the students regarding that lesson. There is also a student work tab which I think is great because it gives the students the option of typing up their writing on the blog or they can record their writing. I thought this was a great resource! It is amazing the things that technology can provide to us as teachers and students.
http://mswift.edublogs.org/category/student-contributors/

The last blog I found that I fell in love with is Surviving a Teacher's Salary. The reason I decided to find three other blogs and then add this one at the end is because this blog is primarily for teachers. This blog has links for giveaways, freebies, links for educators and parents, and a do it yourself link. This blog is fabulous for teachers because it gives different resources available to us that we can afford on a teacher's salary. I thought her blog name was extremely clever. :)
http://survivingateacherssalary.blogspot.com/2010/09/publix-sneak-peek.html