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?