Respect the Beach - Surfrider Foundation

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit organization established around the nation to provide ocean environment awareness and educational programs for students and community members of all ages. Respect the Beach is an educational program created for students in grades K-12 and community groups.

"The Respect the Beach program is brought into classrooms by Surfrider members, who represent ocean environmentalism from the surfer's perspective, and who are role models that students can relate to." (Surfrider website)

These representatives of RTB and the Foundation provide "field trips, classroom lectures, handouts, video, and hands-on projects designed to explain coastal watershed processes, shoreline ecology and coastal areas." (Surfrider website)

I believe that communities and students who live near the ocean (especially here in California) should take into account the importance of maintaining the environment. This year, I have dedicated myself to becoming more involved with the Orange County community. I believe students need to recognize and participate in volunteer projects provided by these grassroots organizations. This is a great resource that teachers can use to engage their students in to learn more about beach protection and ocean awareness.

Making a Hawaiian Lei - arts and crafts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO7RecPCW9s

The above link is a video taken from youtube showing how to create a construction paper lei. I know this video may seem irrelevant to the rest of the blogs but I really found this video enjoyable and educational. Being that my emphasis is art and I am from Hawaii, this how-to video can show students from all over the nation and world how to create something cultural to Hawaii and Hawaiian people, which they can then appreciate the symbolism and history behind the flower lei. If I choose to pursue a future in education, I would certainly return to Hawaii to help the future generations. Being that Hawaii is so mixed ethnically, many local students would benefit from this activity and also use this lesson as an outlet for creativity and expression. I believe however small an arts and crafts lesson is, providing the opportunity for students to partake in such doings is beneficial. Do any of you feel the same way? Or shold the arts and crafts lesson be more "complicated" than just making a paper lei?

Kid's Cafe

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County provides needy people of all ages with nutrition. All food is collected on a donation-basis from schools, churches, and charity events and is stored and distributed at their warehouse in Irvine. The Second Harvest Food Bank has created a number of different programs that provide food aid to the hundreds of people who go hungry in Orange County. One of these programs is the Kid's Cafe, which is a volunteer program that provides children with proper nutrition education and a healthy snack at after-school programs all over Orange County. Children from low-income homes who usually would not receive proper nutrition at home have the opportunity to learn about the importance of keeping their bodies properly nourished.

Read some of the statistics about underprivileged children in Orange County and facts about the Kid's Cafe program by following this link: http://www.feedoc.org/childhunger.html. Why is it important for us (as future teachers) to know about these types of programs? Would you be interested in volunteering in a nutrition education program such as Kid's Cafe? How can you incorporate nutrition education into your classroom and ensure that your students know about eating properly?

Inspiration Anyone?

Earlier this semester I mentioned planning to use the Inspiration Software in my classroom. I know some of you already know about it from Educational Applications of Computers, but for those of you that haven't heard of it I thought it would be a good addition to our blog.

The Inspiration program allows students to learn and understand new topics in a simple, visual, and interactive way. It is incredibly easy to use, and through it students will fell in control and have fun while improving their organizational thinking, computer and writing skills, and vocabulary. Users may use various tools included in the program such as the world guide, which is a dictionary and thesaurus, word applications, brainstorm feature, hyperlink, and multimedia abilities, ready-to-complete project templates, and even text-to-speech capabilities! Students can create their own graphic organizers using their own or projected pictures, then add their own notes and multimedia to enhance their ideas - then with just the click of the mouse turn their thoughts into an essay outline! This program is especially helpful to language learners or those students with disabilities, as the simplicity, organization, and multimedia features allow all children to connect and
learn.


Would you ever use Inspiration (or the primary-grade version - Kidspiration) in your classroom? What types of projects do you think you might use it with? How might the program help those students that were previously struggling with a particular topic (you pick) achieve? Can you think of an example lesson with which you might use the Inspiration software?

Edutopia: The New Utopia?

I recently found this amazing site called Edutopia: What Works in Public Education. It's funded by the George Lucas Educational Fund and it is absolutely bursting with great information and videos to help teachers improve their students' educations by figuring out "what works in education." On the home page alone there are articles on whether or not teaching to the test will decline during Obama's presidency, taking students outside for environmental education, and even the use of youtube in the classroom!

Below is a video I found on Edutopia which shows a program called Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA). It is a student-achievement program that uses music, dance, and visual arts to teach skills used in reading, writing, math, science, and other subjects. The curriculum is based on brain-development research and designed to engage specific skills targeted to each grade level. So far, research has shown that OMA dramatically improves test scores and teacher effectiveness. The program was only launched in 2000, and is already used in more than 40 Tucson, Arizona, public elementary schools.

What do you think about the OMA program? Would you be happy to have it used in your school? Or would you feel awkward singing opera for your students? Do you wish you had been a student in this program? Also, how do you feel about the Edutopia site? Do you think you could use it in the future? Might you think about signing up for the newsletter? Try to look and find me one interesting article (other than the one I have mentioned) that you find useful, eye-opening, invigorating, angering - whatever - just something that catches your attention.

The Early Development of Global Education (EDGE) has revolutionized the way you think about early education and environmental education. They promote ecological awareness through early childhood education. They help schools and educators make a difference in the future, enjoy a user friendly curriculum, teach you how to partner up with you local community, and tap into foundation resources.

Here is a link to a video about the organization:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FiJbT68SEc

What do you think about this organization? Would you like something like this in your classroom? Are there other ways to make your class eco-friendly?

Arts Every Day

Arts Every Day has as its mission to strengthen learning by making arts education and cultural experiences an integral part of the education of all Baltimore City School students through the facilitation of collaborations among the arts, educational, cultural, and leadership communities. Arts Every Day believes that a complete education includes a combination of arts learning, arts experiences and arts integration. It is the role of Arts Every Day to help facilitate connections between the arts and learning for every student everyday. They strongly believe that art integration is only possible with the presence of highly skilled certified art teachers in every school.

This site is a great resource for many teachers and families that want to integrate the arts into their students. The site includes teaching resources, how to integrate the arts, posts of upcoming events and workshops, and give you ideas for funding and support.

The website is:

www.artseveryday.com

Go check it out!

Can you see this website being useful in your classroom? Have you had any experience with arts in the classroom? Do you support the arts in the classroom?

BrainPOP

I was introduced to the website BrainPOP when I took the Computer Applications for Teachers class here at Chapman.  It includes numerous animated, curriculum-based content that engages students and can support educators.  What I thought was really neat is that there is a State Standards tab on the Home page of the website that you can click on, select your state, subject (Health Education, Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science), and grade, and it will provide you with animations and activities that build on the various standards.  Many of the animation clips also include little quizzes after to assess the students' understanding and comprehension of the subject matter.  BrainPOP also includes a BrainPOP Junior section for students grades K-3.  There is also a "BrainPOP Educators Unite!" section that includes lesson plans, tools, and tips for teachers.

You can watch some free clips to get an idea of what they are like.

http://www.brainpop.com/

Do you see this website as being useful in your future classroom?  What are the benefits of this website for you as a teacher, and in what ways and for what activities can you use these resources in the classroom?  

Pink Friday and California Education Cuts

The California Education Code mandates that by March 15th, all teachers must receive pink slips notification if they are no longer guaranteed a job.  Because March 15th fell on a Sunday this year, teachers, parents, and students wore pink on Friday in protest of the education budget cuts, calling this statewide protest Pink Friday.  California's public schools, colleges, and universities are facing more than $11 billion in state budget cuts.  As of March 13th, 26,590 teachers received pink slips, as well as many aides, school-support members such as secretaries and janitors, and school district office employees.  

Orange County's 28 public schools districts alone announced this week budget cuts of more than $290.4 million and layoffs for as many as 3,063 employees.  Class-size reductions, Music, art, drama, athletic, second language, and International Baccalaureate programs are being taken out of schools.  Orange Unified School District has decided to close Silverado Elementary , with proposed closure for also Panorama Elementary, Riverdale Elementary, and Imperial Elementary.  

California is 47th in the country for the amount of money per student which is extremely low especially for such a prosperous state.  President Obama's federal stimulus package provides $7.9 billion for California schools, but because the California government does not have to release money for 2 years,  we do not know how much they actually will receive, when they will receive it, and what strings will be attached.  

Here is a news video on Fullerton's Pink Friday Protest.

As future teachers, it is extremely important for us to be aware of what is taking place in our current school systems.  How do you feel about the budget cuts on our schools, and what will the impacts be of the budget cuts on our schools, our children's education, and us as future teachers?   Who do you think is to blame for all the problems our schools are facing in California?  What can be done to help solve the problem for the future?

Planting Trees

Hey everyone,
I know a lot of us are focusing on the environment for our research, and I got this email a few weeks ago about planting trees in the San Bernardino area where the fires were. It's free and runs from 8:30 to 1:00. I am putting the email I recieved so you can all get the information. I'm going and have recruiting a few others. It sounds like fun!

~Brittany Sprague


Okay folks,
Some of you know this and some of you do not but through our involvement with the off highway adopt a trail in Big Bear area we have become involved with forestry. I am also an ecologist/teacher and am offering this as a community service experience for my students. So I thought I would pass this on to others that I know.

Starting March 7th through May 9th on Saturday or Sunday. Forestaid is working to plant 32,000 trees in to the Old Fire burn area the scorched 91,000 acres and 993 homes. The seedlings where harvested from jeffrey and ponderosa pines near the fire area.

How does this work, well Stephan and I will be volunteer supervisors on March 21-22. We are hoping that people that have enjoyed the San Bernardino Forest will come out and help. Volunteers show up at 845 at the designated site and will return to their cars at 1pm.
Children under 16 are welcome with a parent. 17-18 year olds must have a parent consent form. This is the first year in a two year effort. If you are interested in coming to our weekend or another weekend. Please visit www.forestaid.net to register as a volunteer.

Come on it is a great day in the forest and good stewardship for young people to learn.
PS please forward this to any people that love our forests and might enjoy this activity.
Thanks Sonia and Stephan

Easy TestMaker

Easy TestMaker is a free online program that organizes testing information to help create different tests.  This is a great and easy-to-use generator that can easily make any sort of test: multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true/false tests, any number of which can be combined.

All that teachers need to do is access the website above, decide which feature to use (what type of test), and fill in the necessary testing information.  This website makes it easy for teachers to organize tests free of cost!  The website will also automatically generate alternate versions of any tests, accompanied with master answer sheets for each.  This can be used to minimize cheating in the classroom in an manageable approach.

What are your thoughts about this test-generator?  Could you see yourself using this tool in your future classroom?  What are other benefits from the Easy TestMaker?

During Barack Obama's presidential election back in 2007, he addressed the issues of Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and pointed out its flaws.  NCLB has gained constant criticism and also contributes to the many errors of the Bush administration era, as Obama states, "The goals sound good on paper, but the problem with NCLB is that George Bush left the money behind."  he continues to criticize the act stating that it forces teachers to do everything without any sufficient resources, NCLB also labels kids as failures and then pawns them off to another school, and Obama addresses standardized testing as the wrong assessment to be made, rather we should be "teaching the whole child" to include physical education, the arts, and sciences in a child's education.  Obama says that it is time to fix the failures of No Child Left Behind and he hopes to do so in the next four years as President.

Now that President Obama has been elected, what do you think about his policies to increase federal funding for resources in the classroom (like SmartBoards and ELMOs)?  What are possible successes and failures of this approach to reform the education system in America?

Smart Notebook Bracelet

In elementary school students do a lot of work on a lot of different computers. Even in college we use our own personal computer, friends computers and computers in the library. Sometimes it is so difficult to keep track of all the files and paperwork we need. Although we like to think of ourselves as competent college students we, just like elementary school students have lots of trouble keeping track of things. Therefore the smart bracelet was designed. It allows students to keep all their files right there on their wrist to take from classroom, to library, to home. It makes it a fun way for students to keep track of their files!

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4c618e34bb0dc56b33f6

DO you think a product like this is useful or just kind of overkill? Do you think this would encourage students to do their homework because teachers knew they had their files on hand? Do you think that school work is become to digital or do you think it is important to involve technology in the classroom?

PBS

We all know that we loved our PBS shows as kids and even today we can appreciate the shows. PBS is an incredible company that puts a lot into children's education. Their shows are fun but educational at the same time. You all know you LOVED the magic school bus! The PBS website is filled with so many links to help teachers in their classrooms. You can click on any subject and then specify the grade and lesson you hope to teach and it will give you lesson ideas! The lessons are also standard based, which we all know is very im There is also a spot on the website to register with PBS. Once registered you can get access to courses in all different kinds of subjects as well as more lesson ideas! It is a very useful website that I think could help any teacher!

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/
(i dont know why it isn't posting as a link but you can copy and paste it!!)

This is the website. Once on the website make sure to navigate through the lesson plans. You can find the link to the lesson plans on the left side of the top of the page.

Do you think it is important to have standard based lessons all the time? Would you use a website like this often? Would you sign up and subscribe to a site like this for further information or do you think you get enough without registering?

Geography: My Wonderful World

“My Wonderful World” is a website led by National Geographic. It's a fabulous site geared toward parents, educators, and students with facts and information about the geography and what they mean to us. The site emphasizes the importance of understanding the connection between people and places, as it is so important for children to know about world in order to succeed in it. Their slogan is “a national campaign to give kids the power of global knowledge.” As we at Chapman strive to be "global citizens" this knowledge can play a powerful role in our lives. So often students come out of school knowing so little about the locations of the continents and oceans and much less about each of the countries. Personally, having just returned from a trip around the world last spring, geography has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I think children need to be educated about other countries and cultures to broaden their perspectives, as well as their hopes and dreams. This site and the “My Wonderful World” campaign is providing a way for educators, parents, and students to find out about the world through various facts, links and activities. This site is inspirational and an agent for change; if it doesn’t motivate parents and educators about teaching kids about geography, nothing will.  

What do you think of this site? Is it something you would use as a resource in the future? 

Based on the information from this site as well as others, how can we, as future teachers, incorporate geography into our future classrooms?  What are some cross-curricular ways of incorporating geography? 

Can you think of additional reasons why knowledge of geography is important in today's world? 

Book Buddies

I came across this video when searching for sites pertaining to children’s literacy. It is a great video which talks about a program in Virginia geared toward first graders that has the children work with Book Buddies who are community volunteers. This program works with struggling students and primarily focuses on building fluency and comprehension using read-alouds, games, and promotes children’s literacy.  

The Book Buddies program focuses on building parental support, systematic phonics, good children’s literature, and providing lots of individual attention. 

Book Buddies sounds like such a valuable community outreach program. 
Are you or have you been a part of a tutoring program such as Book Buddies? 
What do you think it would take to start a program like this in the Orange School District?  

ePals

ePals is a website that connects classrooms around the world. It is an online program that provides classrooms with email accounts and blogs and can match up classrooms to be “key pals.” Key pals are basically pen pals, but with ePals, students can communicate with their key pals much more quickly and easily. Once a teacher has found his or her classroom a partner classroom, students get individual email accounts on the ePals website, and can log in online to view their messages, reply to their ePal, and even translate emails from other students into their language using the translation tool. Teachers can review the messages being received and sent, control when students can access their accounts, and preview any messages being sent to his or her students. ePals has been used in classrooms to promote cross-cultural experiences, foreign language learning, and work together on projects such as culture comparisons, global warming discussions, habitats, geography, weather, water cycle and conservation, and human rights.

Check out the ePals website at: http://www.epals.com/

What do you think of this website? What benefits might students gain from participating in a program like this? Would you consider using this in your classroom? If so, how could you use this service effectively?

Flocabulary

While he was still a high school student, Blake Harrison, came up with the idea for Flocabulary. He was having trouble memorizing facts for tests, and realized that if he put them to music he could remember them much better. Years later when Harrison met Alex Rappaport and they decided to record a rap album that defined SAT vocabulary words, which was commissioned by Sparknotes. They launched a website and performed a "Shakespeare as Hip-Hop" tour in 2005. Today, Flocabulary has material on many subjects. Check out www.flocabulary.com to view all of their songs/products.

Flocabulary artists also created a series of rap songs called “The Week in Rap” that is released every week online and covers the main news of the past week.
Here is the link for "The Week in Rap" for the week that President Obama was inaugurated: http://theweekinrap.com/?p=134


What do you think about this video or about Flocabulary in general? Do you think this would interest students today? How do you think this may or may not be helpful for students? Would you consider using these websites or products in your classroom?