Jesus’ Shampoo

I was teaching the Sunday School class of 2nd and 3rd graders for the first time.  I was filling in for a month.  We were going over the Easter Story using colorful Easter Eggs filled with little things to represent parts of the story.

The little boy with the green egg opened it up to find thirty cents.  “And what do those thirty cents represent?” I asked.  “The thirty gold coins that…” he was becoming unsure of his story. “Umm…Mary gave to Jesus…to buy shampoo or something?” he guessed.  I tried really hard not to laugh.  I corrected him saying, “Not quite.  Those represent the thirty gold coins the priests paid Judas to betray Jesus.”  I was still trying to keep from laughing.

For this little guy, it made perfect “cents” for Mary to give Jesus some money to go buy shampoo or something.  Didn’t everyone have to buy shampoo?  I smiled knowing that Jesus was fully human in this little guy’s eyes.  I think we sometimes forget that Jesus was human afterall.  He was human just as we are human.  He was fully divine, but he was also fully human.  He had to do human things and live a human life.  He ate, he slept, and he had to take a bath…just like us.

Idea Box

I found another use for my blog!

I was keeping a spiral notebook of things I’ve learned from watching other teachers I work with. In it, I wrote tips for behavior management, things I wanted to be sure not to do, things I admired about teachers, and of course, ideas and projects I wanted to be sure to use in my future classroom. I got kind of tired of carrying it around, so I thought, “HEY! I should use my blog!!” So here it is, another great use for my blog!

Plus, this has a much smaller chance of being lost or misplaced than a spiral notebook!

Ah-Hah! (#5)

As my first online course, I really didn’t know what to expect! I learned SO much as we went through the past 15 weeks. Here are my TOP THREE “THINGS I HAVE TO USE!”

#3. ALTEC – I was just amazed at all the things I found here! I know that I’ll use the tools I found here in my classroom in the future. My favorites were the RubiStar, QuizStar, and AssignADay. All these tools are so useful! RubiStar will help me make Rubrics for grading. QuizStar will help me make quizzes for students to complete with original content pertinent to the topics we’re studying. AssignADay will help students, parents, and I keep track of project deadlines and assignments.

#2. PowerPoint Games – I had NO idea this could be don with PowerPoint until this class. I made my own game called “Math Round-up.” It featured 20 cows that had “gotten loose” and needed to be “rounded-up” by answering a question from each cow. I made it for the 3^rd grade teachers I work with. It went along with a unit they were all teaching, so I got to actually play the game with the kids! They loved it and I loved all the creativity I could put into it. I’m in the process of making a template version of the game that I can give to teachers so they can personalize it for whatever content area they choose. I will definitely use this new knowledge to create my own games for my classroom.

#1. Social Bookmarking – I was a little leery of this at first because I had never even heard of it! But now I’m in love! I had my “Bookmarks” on my computer and didn’t see how this would even be useful. After I started adding sites, I realized this was an invaluable tool! Anytime I find a site or hear about a site from a teacher, I add it. This way, I’ll never be sitting at my computer wondering, “now, what was that site?!” I love how I can access this from any computer anywhere! If I find a really neat site, I don’t have to remember where I found it in order to share it. I can just go to my PortaPortal and show off whatever I’ve found. I know I’ll keep adding to this as I go through my education classes! And I’ll use it frequently as a teacher some day!

Apple Learning Interchange (#2)

I shared the Apple Learning Interchange with Deborah Bantam, a 3^rd grade teacher with whom I work. She had used Apple Learning Interchange some time ago and was impressed with the changes that have been made.

Together, we explored the Teaching Ideas. We really liked the Proscope Galleries that showed microscope views of some things students wouldn’t otherwise get to see, like a wasp’s eye and mold on fruit. We also checked out the Teaching with iPod and iTunes, since she has a video iPod and is always looking to new excuses to use it! We watched the “Walk a Mile in Another Man’s Shoes” lesson about the Trail of Tears.

But the BEST thing I found on there was the iTunes and iQuiz! http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/games/iquiz.html WOW! I found this later, and can’t wait to share it! Several teachers in my district have video iPods, so this would be an amazing tool for them!! Tomorrow at school, I’m e-mailing this site to every teacher I know of that has a video iPod!!

ALTEC Tools (#3)

I shared the ALTEC website with Deborah Bantam, a 3^rd grade teacher in Goodland, Kansas. She’s one of the teachers whose room I am often in during the day. Mrs. Bantam was most excited about all the ALTEC Star Tools, but especially excited to try out RubiStar and QuizStar in her classroom. She was impressed by everything, but was worried about just how she would use some of them with 3^rd graders. Some of the tools, she felt, were better suited for older elementary, Middle School and High School students.

I could go on for a long time about ALTEC, so I’ll just share the tools that really struck a chord with me.

AssignADay – I’m a sucker for organizational tools, so I loved this. What a neat way to keep track of assignments and especially project due dates. I can really see myself using this in my future classroom to help students (and their parents) keep track of project due dates.

CasaNotes – My first thought when I saw this was, “how useful!” In fact, I shared this site with another teacher who was just today talking about how she sent home a permission note to a Spanish-speaking mom who didn’t understand what it was and threw it away. I think I’ll use this in my future classroom for sending home information and such to Spanish-speaking parents. I also talked to our Migrant Coordinator about whether parents would actually appreciate the attempts to use Spanish to send notes home, and she said, “of course!” I really think this is a useful site!

Project Based Learning Checklist – This was one of my favorite parts of ALTEC. I think being able to make checklists like this will be very handy in the future. I made one for writing and I’m going to share it with a teacher who I think would really use it.

Profiler PRO – I liked the idea of using this among future staff. Deb Bantam said that our district has used a site similar to this (surveymonkey.com) to gather information and opinions from teachers across the district’s five buildings when a physical meeting of all those people would be impossible. I really think that this site would be valuable for that type of thing.

QuizStar – This was one of my favorites of all the ALTEC tools. I don’t always like the “canned” quizzes and worksheets that come with a unit of a book. I can see myself using this to make quizzes for kids to do where I get to chose the questions.

RubiStar – I think I found a new favorite tool! When I was in school, I LOVED when teachers had a rubric! I could see exactly what was expected of me in order to attain the best grade possible. It’s always nice to know what you’re being graded on when you are completing an assignment. Rubrics are usually pretty clear and I can’t wait to use them in my classroom! I really like how clear-cut they are! These can even be altered to be a rubric of standards so that I could easily see what constitutes the categories used in assessing standards. (approaches standard, meets standard, exceeds, standard, etc.)

Classroom Architect – This one was just too much fun to play with! I’d love to let students play with this tool as a way to explore area and perimeter of a space. And just let them design what they think would be an ideal classroom.

4 Teachers – ALL the tools from 4teachers.org are just plain amazing! WOW! That’s about all I can say. I will make sure I know where to find this site again when I’m a teacher!

I added all these sites to me PortaPortal so I can find them again! They are too precious to let them be forgotten or lost in the abyss.

My 10 Favorite Ed Websites (#4)

10. IKnowThat.com
http://www.iknowthat.com
This website has games in Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and MORE.

9. Game Goo
http://www.cogcon.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
This is such a neat website full of educational games that kids will love to play because of the cute characters and teachers will love to have them play because it follows language arts standards.

8. Rainforest Maths
http://www.rainforestmaths.com/
Math games for grades K-6 covering topics such as numbers, calculations, strategies, patterns, algebra and more!

7. Cool Math for Kids
http://coolmath4kids.com/
GREAT teaching helps! Includes all kinds of math and algorithms. Student, parent, and teacher sites.

6. National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
Things to manipulate when you can’t have them in your classroom! Activities and Lessons for preK-12 including Number and Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Data analysis and probability. Aligned to standards.

5. 50States.com
http://www.50states.com/
A MUST for social studies teachers. Information about all 50 states. Everything from Area to Zip Codes.

4. Storyline Online
http://www.storylineonline.net/
Screen Actors Guild online streaming video program with stories read by actors along with activities and lessons.

3. Discovery School’s Puzzlemaker
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
Useful for making word searches, cryptograms, and mazes with words teachers provide to personalize for any unit in any content area.

2. I Love that Teaching Idea
http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/
A place to see what neat ideas other teachers have come up with or submit your own. Ideas from Art to Writing.

1. A to Z Teacher Stuff
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/
Ready-to-go themes, lessons, tips, articles and printables. It also has several worksheet generators and word find makers along with Teacher Chat Forums.

Article Reflection (#1)

U.S. Schools lag behind in use of technology http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-01-07-schools-lag-in-tech_x.htm

I think this article hit the nail on the head when it said, “Education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology.” I know that schools often give the excuse that they don’t have the money to implement any radical technology, but I really think schools should give an effort to integrate technology! My school district does a pretty good job of this….they are NOT afraid of technology. After all, a computer mouse shouldn’t scare anyone!!

National Education Technology Plan
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/site/edlite-default.html

I hate to say that I am not a fan of No Child Left Behind, but I’m going to say it anyway. I am not a fan of No Child Left Behind. I think that the desire to make changes in the schools should come from the inside – the staff and students – not the outside – politicians who are not in education. Likewise, I think the drive to become more technology driven should be a motivation from the inside, not the outside. The Plan sounds great, but so did NCLB on paper. I think teachers who are in the classrooms everyday know that technology is valuable. I think they are honestly trying – at least in the district where I work. They are doing such neat things, and it’s not because someone told them to do it. It’s because they saw a need and worked to meet it.

NETS: National Education Technology Standards
http://cnets.iste.org

I love plans that have detailed and practical steps. So, I like that this is set up just the same way as the other standards for Education. My only worry is that this needs to be age-appropriate. No one expects a 1st grader to meet the standard of “Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information and software.”(2.3) And I’d venture to guess that most of my 3rd graders aren’t “proficient in the use of technology.” (1.2) But I do like this and I think it’s good to have standards to show where we think students should be in their use of technology.

Don’t Just Adapt Technology, Adopt It!!
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1423&issue=dec_05

WOW! What an article! I loved how it was set up into four categories:

1. Dabbling
2. Doing old things old ways
3. Doing old things new ways
4. Doing new things new ways

I think the district I work in falls somewhere between 2 and 3. Our district has a one-to-one laptop program for its teachers. These teachers are then able to help students use computer lab time to use some of the technology the teachers are using.

But the thing that really hit me was that we really are, for the most part, doing old things in new ways! I look at how “tech savvy” our teachers are in my district and think, “Wow! Look at all the new stuff we’re doing!” But this article made me see that we really are doing old things (writing reports, filing data, communicating) just in new ways. I think that with the new crop of “digital natives” coming into the teaching field, we’ll be able to move forward toward doing NEW things in NEW ways!

HighSchool.com http://edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1270&issue=apr_05

How neat that this is available! Having graduated from a “bricks-and-mortar” high school and college, then taking classes online, I’d have to say that virtual classes are NOT for everyone! I totally agree with the article that virtual classes are not a panacea! The biggest difference is not responsibility (as the article said) but discipline! Students have to take responsibility for their education whether in a classroom or in a virtual setting. But in a virtual school, a student MUST have the discipline to make him/herself do the work required, because there is no one making him/her go to school and sit in a desk.

I did really enjoy reading about how students can use virtual classes to get an education in things they may not otherwise get to learn about. I’m in favor of using virtual classes, but I think it’s important to realize that not everyone is going to do well in virtual classes. It takes a special kind of student with motivation and passion and discipline to handle an online class.

Laptops replace textbooks in Louisiana district
http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6998&page=1

This sounds a little like college where I got my first degree! The campus was wireless and all students had laptops. (on which I type this blog!) The major difference is that we had traditional textbooks. It sounds like the teachers there are more tech savvy and using technology to its fullest. I’d like to go check this out for myself! Were I not in Kansas, I might! I’d love to hear how they do this from the teachers’ standpoint and from the kids’. I think this is a great step forward in technology.

Video system helps create multimedia curriculum
http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=7015&page=1

I think they’re on to something by trying to engage their students with video! This generation of kids really is one of visual learners. Using video-on-demand to showcase thousands of videos is a great way for teachers to connect to the kids and educate them in a way that is effective for this generation of learners.

MySpave enforcer patrols virtual streets to keep kids safe
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_17/b4031092.htm

I’m not even going to try to defend the usefulness of MySpace and Facebook here – I’m tired of it. But I think what Hemu is doing is needed! I do not use MySpace, but I’m sure glad that it is someone’s JOB to make sure the users are safe from pedophiles. I think it’s an important issue that bullies are using MySpace and Facebook as their avenue for abuse! I’m not sure I have the solution, but I think it’s an important issue to discuss. Just as you can’t totally eliminate bullying in person or in gatherings of students in school, I don’t think it can be totally eradicated. But measures to keep users safe are needed! I’m just not sure how.

If wired right, computers do belong in classrooms
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-schoolme16apr16,1,5262663.column?coll=la-news-learning

I think one of the most important things to remember about using technology is that it puts information into a medium the students are used to and comfortable with. As my communications prof used to say, “the medium is the massage.” (yes, I meant to say massage, not message.) Students frequently use and enjoy using technology. I loved what Noemi Flores said about written text taking twice as long for students to read and respond to. It’s too true! And using online forums and blogs is a GREAT way to get student feedback!

So why Daisies and Dandelions?

    Just a quick note about why I called this blog “Daisies and Dandelions”. When I was going to college, I worked in a preschool. I often came home to my roommates wiht stories that began, “today at the preschool…” and ended with something cute, sad, agrivating, funny, or downright hilarious that one of the kids or other teachers had done. My roommates often told me I should write a book!

Every once in a while something would happen that would really get me to thinking about faith, love, and life. One day in particular stuck out to me. I had just walked onto the plaground where the kids were playing when one little red-headed girl cam running at me full-speed. She shoved a fistful of dandelions up my nose and exclaimed, “Look Miss Alyssa! Daisies!!” As I sneezed, coughed, and rubbed the yellow pollen from my nose, I just didn’t have the heart to tell her they were just weeds.

I had found the title and point of my book. I wanted to write devotionals for teachers based on the things I learned from my kiddos. From this little red-headed girl, I learned how to look at the bright side of any situation…even if it took a little imagination…or made you sneeze!

Maybe after this class is over, I’ll use this blog to actually WRITE that book….