Blogs!

Hello!

     Summers are wonderful for teachers not only for the rest and relaxation that comes along with it, but for the time we are now allowed to study and research on teaching topics that we usually cannot afford throughout the year!  One of the items that I researched this summer were teacher blogs.  I receive so many emails about other teaching blogs that I was interested in checking them out.  Hearing about them last year also gave me the idea to start one of my own!
     With the thousands of blogs on the web today, where did I begin?!  Scholastic has created a list of their Top 14 Teacher Blogs which was a great resource for me.  This is where I found one of my favorite blogs, A Year of Reading.

(http://readingyear.blogspot.com/)

     A Year of Reading has a countless number of kid book reviews.  The bloggers on this site are two teachers; one in 5th and another in 3rd.  The slight difference in their grade levels allows them to review a myriad of children's books from all ages.  Sometimes, they even include an adult book or two.  :) There is such a variety that many are some in which I have never even heard!  I love reading about books that might not be on the Bestsellers List but are still great resources to use in the classroom. This blog also includes poetry, uses for the poems and books that are reviewed, book lists, author and illustrator websites as well as a list of blogs that the bloggers follow.  This is where I found another blog that I find is filled with great information, The Nerdy Book Club.

(http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/)

     Besides the fact that I LOVE the title of this blog, it is quite unique because it involves various book reviewers rather than just the creators.  The Nerdy Book Club blog asks other bloggers to submit reviews, top ten lists, and posts about their reading lives.  They are reviewed and if chosen, are posted on the blog.  This format gives multiple bibliophiles the opportunity to be published with a wide variety of tastes, styles, and interests.  If the reviewers have a blog, that is also featured.  Maybe I will be featured on the blog one day.... :)

(http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/)

     When I was told that I was moving to second grade from 4th and 5th, I truly did not know where to begin.  In order to combat some of my anxiety, I started researching information on the Internet right away.  One of the first resources that I found was from Amy Lemons, a second grade teacher in the south.  Her blog, Step Into Second Grade, is so much fun and made me love my grade change right away!  Her ideas are innovative, creative, and engaging.  I have already taken many from her website and used them in my classroom immediately.  My students LOVE the activities!  One that Lemons created was using the text, The Recess Queen.  What a great book to start the beginning of the year to teach about kindness, respect, school rules, and community.  She posts almost daily and includes student work, pictures, and links if she found her ideas from another website.  Many of her resources are located on Teachers Pay Teachers and a few are even freebies!  She is certainly a dedicated teacher who is passionate about her job; it shines through her blog!

(http://www.3rdgradethoughts.com/)

     Finally, through Pinterest I came across the blog Third Grade Thoughts by a teacher named Stephanie.  I utilized this blog often when I taught 4th and 5th grade due to variety of Daily 5 activities that she posts.  Even though she teaches 3rd grade, I was easily able to modify them to meet my older students' needs.  Now that I am in second grade, it is easier to use the ideas as is.  Just like Step Into Second Grade, the Third Grade Thoughts blog posts pictures of student work to show exactly how it has been used in her classroom.  She also works with Teachers Pay Teachers but many of her items I have gotten as freebies.  Additionally, Stephanie's blog has been featured in many different organizations such as NBC News, Scholastic's Parent & Child magazine, and Really Good Stuff catalog.  This is another great blog to check out!

     I would love to learn about more successful and helpful blogs that I could use in the classroom.  Please feel free to share as well as enjoy the ones I have posted today!

Project-Based Learning

Hello!

    2nd Grade has taken up a lot of my time but I have been thinking about this blog everyday!  Time to get back into things!
     Project-Based Learning is on the forefront of everyone's mind, especially since our Core Curriculum Content Standards as well as our teacher rubrics during observations focus on this type of learning as being more effective.  This means that we as teachers have to change our style of teaching to one where students are at the center and are problem solving.  This is a very different approach from one where students are used to being passive and were "fed" the information rather than interacting with it.  My district had IDE Corp (Innovative Design for Education) come to our school to teach us how to make a problem-based learning classroom.  My training ended some years ago and now that I have moved grade levels, I have been trying to get back into this type of learning and teaching, especially since I saw that my students were much more engaged in the material and focused on working together to solve a common and relevant problem.

(http://bie.org/)

     A great site that I explored in my graduate class was BIE (Buck Institute of Education)'s website which is completely about problem-based learning.  Not only does it explain the concept, but it gives countless websites and resources for teachers to utilize in their own classrooms.  One of the sites I am looking into now is about communities.  This is a topic we discuss in the second grade.  On the site, it gives me a week by week plan of what the model classroom did, gives examples of books that were used in the unit, and even uploaded the final project of a class magazine.  This is all available for teacher's to use and modify for their own needs.
     Another PBL that I viewed was for the upper grades.  It made an "Amazing Race" type project for students to study different continents and countries around the globe.  Even though the 5th grade does not study this content, they do study the regions of the United States.  Taking a PBL such as the "Amazing Race" idea and modifying it to fit the 5th grade curriculum would be easy to do with all of the materials offered on the site.
     One criticism I have of BIE is that it is not as user-friendly as I would like.  There is so much to offer but the viewer definitely has to take some time to look around and see what works with his/her classroom as well as where certain resources are located.  If you take the time, you will find a wealth of information.

     If you have used the site or are instructing in a problem-based learning classroom, I would love to hear your successes, troubles, advice, and sites that you use to develop your units.
     Enjoy!