More ideas!

At the end of the semester, with time to spare after the EOC, I had my algebra one, part two class do an activity involving using the newspaper. I took the idea to practice finding percents, but I noticed as the papers were on the desk that they did get a good bit of perusing the news. It sparked conversations among the class members. It was nice to hear them collecting information and conversing on matters in the news. Now that the new semester has begun, I am looking for reading material for my algebra students. I cannot see using class time to give silent reading because I have the pressures of the EOC bearing down on me and cannot "afford" to give up enormous amounts of time to reading. I would like ideas of books that are math motivated to introduce math concepts. I have used Curious George and the donut shop book to introduce scientific notation. It was great, but I simply cannot find more books to help me teach upper level math classes. Any ideas are welcome.

Need ideas!

I would like to do more read alouds in my Spanish classes. If anyone has any suggestions for some books (not necessarily in Spanish) that would be good for me to use please let me know. Thanks in advance for any input!!

Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam

I read aloud from the book Dr. Franklin’s Island written by Ann Halam as a reflection to genetic engineering. My students were asked to reflect upon the reading and do a quick write expressing their thoughts about the possibility of scientist mixing animal genes with human genes in the future as is portrayed in the book. They were asked if they thought that this was bioethical and would they consider it for their on own children. The students volunteered to read their responses and had many interesting ideas about this topic. Some students thought this would really happen and that in the future parents might choose to have a horn or wings for their children. Most students seem to think the mixing of human and animal genes was not ethical and should not be allowed. The majority of students definitely would not vote for laws to allow this.

Science Teachers....I need read-alouds!

I am searching for some read-alouds for anatomy and physiology for this new semester. Plus, if anyone has come across any great children's books about healthcare or healthcare professionals, please let me know. I am wanting to build a mini library and I could really use some suggestions. One idea I have is to use "case histories" to encourage the students to read in my health science classes. Any other ideas?

Dealing with repeaters

It's a new semester; and once again, we see the names we've seen before in our classes. The ones who failed us before, failed someone else, and are back in our classes. What do we do with these kids? You have two "experienced" members of your class and the rest are new. Ideally, we differentiate and give them seperate materials; but they have done everything by this point. They are bored; they aren't engaged; they have done all the stories, poems, novels, everything we've done in the past. What should we do with these? They lower the morale of the class, we beat ourselves up trying to help them, and it does not seem to do any good. Suggestions?

The semester has ended and grades are in. Many of my students have not done well. Many of the ones who passed only passed by the skin of their teeth and many failed all together. I have a big challenge before me... I have to help them be more successful in the general curriculum. I have to teach them how to study and take tests. I hope I'm up for the challenge.

Language Grammar & Read Aloud

I tried a modified read aloud this semester. Our library had a bilingual book "The calling of the doves." Each page had the English printed and then the Spanish below it. I started by reading the Spanish aloud and then the English. Of course, I also showed the pictures.

We then read the book again. However, this time students were listening for two verb tenses, the preterit and the imperfect. Students took a piece of paper and folded it in half, then labeled each side "Preterit" and "Imperfect". Every time they heard a verb in each tense they wrote down that verb.

Prereading the text helped them understand the story and get interested. Then, during the second reading they heard the verbs and also knew that it "should" be in the past (either one of the tenses). So they were able to make predictions on the tense of those verbs.

The students were interested in the read aloud, and were partially interested in the activitiy the second time. Any ideas on how to get them MORE interested in the second activity to focus the grammar too!

I'am very excited to start a new semester with my new French II class and use my little children books I brought from France this summer!

In Need of Advice

This past semester I incorporated independent reading as part of my class activities in my Spanish classes. Two days per week my students had to read for 10-15 minutes. In addition, they had to fill in a sheet summarizing the book and showing me a few things they learned while reading the book. I was just wondering how often and for how long others (especially non-English classes) have their students to read independently. Also, what do you do to hold students responsible for learning during this independent reading time? Any advice would be much appreciated!! :)

Walking the Walk

Happy New Year to all you bloggers!
With a new semester starting next week, I am making a commitment to read a book to each of my classes. I am reading A Dog's Life (The Autobiography of a Stray) by Ann M. Martin to my physical science classes. It is my hope that it will help students see animals as God's creatures...maybe make someone think twice before committing a cruel act on a stray. To my astronomy classes I am reading The Same Stuff as Stars by Katherine Patterson. It is a novel that incorporates astronomy into a story about a girl whose family is falling apart. I am hoping kids might connect with this one on more than one level, depending on the perspective of the student.
In the coming weeks I will let y'all know how the books are received. I hope the new semester is a good one for everyone.

Next semester is about to begin and I am both excited and nervous. I'm looking forward to going into classrooms and working with the teachers and students, but I am worried that the teachers will feel uncomfortable. My hope is that even though I will only be in each class for 30 minutes, I will be able to assist the teacher and the students. Anyway, just some thoughts. I'll let you know how it goes.

Starting New

With this semester coming to an end and a new semester only days away I am trying to figure out how to start my new semester with something RAISSE-ish. I have a book "What is Science" that I am going to read-aloud to my students and have them come up with thier own definition of science.

Does any one else have good starting semester activities that they typically do or are going to try for the first time?

"Rithmatic and other "Rs" Revisit that blog

One comment on that previous blog asked for the name of the article that I was reading ,so here goes: I found it in the November, 2007 "Educational Leadership" Making Math Count, How Mathematics Counts by Lynn Arthur Steen, and it begins on page 9.

Raise & Rithmetic

Surfing the web, I came upon a book "Writing to Learn Mathematics" by Joan Countryman. Once again, I see another strong advocate of journal writing, but not just from the students but teachers as well. I agree, but I have to "tweek" what I have been doing in my classes for years using the "Free Response" model. Students turn in a free response question and I return it to them providing comments, encouragements, suggestions and just back-and-forth dialogue and give them the opportunity to "try-try again". What I would like to do is provide this opportunity more frequently and in all of my classes.