Last year I used Interactive Notebooks with my Grade 8-10 Math classes with some success. My Grade 8 and 9 students used them the most but my implementation lacked direction and I don’t feel my students got as much out of them as they should have. I still taught my lessons regularly and then we would do an Interactive Notebook entry at the end of that topic as a type of review activity. So, while useful, I wasn’t using them to my full potential and my students could pick up on that, This year I was… Read More
Stanley the Koosh Ball!
This post is for all of you that have a SMART Board or other brand of Interactive Whiteboard in your classroom. Did you know that you can use a “Koosh Ball” to activate your board and, thus, create a kinesthetic learning opportunity for your students? Before I graduated with my B.Ed I spent a lot of time substitute teaching in a Kindergarten class near our home. As part of their morning calendar time, students reviewed months/days/years by activating review prompts on their SMART Board with a “Koosh Ball”. These rubbery balls are the perfect sensory tools if you have… Read More
When Science & Music Collide
As you might know, I am teaching two different science classes this upcoming year: Grade 7 & Grade 8. I had a really fun time planning out these two classes because my class sizes are SO small and I could easily build in A LOT of labs and various other hands-on activities. My primary focus when developing my lessons is to provide a relevant and meaningful learning experience for my students. (Obviously, this means that I will continue to modify things as the school year progress and I learn more about my students.) One resource that… Read More
Exploring Interests… Planning for the End of the School Year
On average, I try to blog at least twice a week, but this can reach up to four or five times a week depending on what is going on in my life. I also spend time each morning reading through various edu-blogs (my version of the morning paper) and try to keep up with Twitter throughout the day. This has become my routine and I feel like I have benefited ten-fold from the networking opportunities that my PLN has granted me. Last week, however, I found myself completely pull away from my computer and my iPhone… Read More
Don't Take Credit For Teaching Me
There has been a specific video popping up everywhere online this week: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. You probably know the one I am talking about: Jeff Bliss, from Texas, telling his teacher how she should be doing her job. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look: When I watched this video I couldn’t help but think of my experiences in the classroom and some things definitely jumped out at me. The first thing was how the teacher handled the situation. The video, unfortunately, doesn’t show the lead up to this conversation but the student… Read More
Dr. Kathie Nunley Part 2: Layered Curriculum
*The following is Part 2 of a two-part reflection on a PD session I attended by Dr. Kathie Nunley. Part 1 of this reflection on, A Student’s Brain, can be found by following the highlighted link. Layered Curriculum, developed by Dr. Kathie Nunley, is an instructional method based specifically on her work with neuroscience and how the adolescent brain functions. It is developed as a means to effectively meet the needs of the adolescent learner by taking into account how the brain processes information and reacts to various stimuli. One very important factor in this method… Read More
Dr. Kathie Nunley Part 1: A Student's Brain
Today all the teachers and support staff in “T-Division” had the opportunity to attend a PD session with Dr. Kathie Nunley, an educator and brain-image researcher from the eastern US. I was immediately excited because I have always been really interested in how to engage different parts of our student’s brains and differentiate instruction to best meet their individual learning styles/needs. I can definitely say that I was not disappointed by this PD session! Dr. Nunley is not only just extremely knowledgeable about her subject area but is also a very humorous and engaging speaker (I spent a great deal of the… Read More
A Snapshot of Information
Edvolution. (2013). “So True…”. Available online at: http://edvolution.info/so-true/ Today in Grade 8 Social Studies we did a Jigsaw activity where students, in small groups, researched about different social classes found in Ancient Greece. Once completed, students wrote their findings on the board and verbally presented about their specific social class (wealthy citizen, middle class woman, slave, etc). What resulted was six different sets of information on various social classes that students were responsible for having in order to utilize, in more depth, in the next class. Once all of the information was on the board and students were writing down their… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Integrating Aboriginal Perspectives into Curricula
One of the classes that I am taking this year for my education degree is Teaching of Aboriginal Studies, which I’ve posted about previously over the past few weeks. (For my followers who are from other countries, this course has actually been a Provincially-mandated requirement for all educators in Manitoba since 2008.) Today we discussed Understanding the Integration of Aboriginal Perspectives through Theory and I was especially intrigued by our highlight of the traditional Aboriginal view of education. As I will be entering the workforce (fingers crossed) within the year this discussion really encouraged me to examine specific aspects… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Certification Videos & 5 Step Lesson Plans
So today was my second day student teaching. Our day consisted of staff meetings, individual meetings with the principal and prep periods alternating throughout the day. I am going to provide an update tomorrow, as my student teaching schedule has changed DRASTICALLY (in a good way). In the mean time, I have exciting news!! Our principal, “Mrs. R” has told me that I should be able to film my class when I come back to student teach in October! 🙂 Our school has a letter that goes home to all students at the beginning of the year for… Read More