Oh... another idea!!!

I was thinking my students could use wallwisher to pick a chemical that is in cigarettes, and then find at least 3 other places where that chemical is used. For example: Acetone is a chemical in cigarettes, it is also used in nail polish remover, nail polish, paint thinners and its used to clean fiberglass. My point to my students would be... why would you ingest a chemical in your body that is used in all these different ways?

Final Project Ideas...

I have decided to design a project for my students using web 2.0 tools... I found some interesting tools that I think students can use to be creative when completing a project!
My thoughts are for my students to do a project on substance abuse where they pick a drug they would like to research, they will brainstorm information they already know about the drug, create a warning sign on what the effects may have on the body, relationships, everyday life, or create a comic strip. Students will then create a bibliography using easybib... below are the sights I was thinking of using :)

Brain Storming

• https://bubbl.us/

Warning Sign 

• http://www.warningsigngenerator.com/

Comic Strips

• http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/

Bibliography

• http://www.easybib.com/

ISTE Article: A Small Kid Who Is Realizing Big Dreams

This article was refreshing to read! It amazed me that there are young kids out there who are so advanced when it comes to technology and integrating into their everyday lives and education. Adora Svitak, the youngest person to ever receive National Education Association (NEA) Foundation Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education, is an advocate of technology education for her peers, teachers and adults. 


According to the article, " Adora was reading at age 2½ and wrote short stories at age 4. She published her first book at age 7. That book, Flying Fingers: Master the Tools of Learning through the Joy of Writing, is a collection of adventure stories that includes tips on teaching kids to write. Her second book, Dancing Fingers, is a book of poetry and writing inspiration that she cowrote with her older sister Adrianna." This is amazing to me!!! Impressive, I am speechless!! This just shows me how advanced our students are when it comes to technology and web 2.0 tools. This article shows me where the future of education is heading. This kid is more advanced then most adults I know! 


I again was taken away by Adora's comment, " “Kids who have access to the Internet have access to learning and 24/7 education. They are not restricted to an hour of class time per subject,” she said. “Like education, technology has the potential to become a great democratizer, not a divider.”


Adora uses videoconferencing to teach to over 400 classrooms on literacy, writing, and making a difference. She is very well known for her talk on TED 2010 What You Can Learn From Kids. I watched her video and was again impressed! Here is the link I watched. http://reachsudbury.edublogs.org/2010/05/04/ted-talk-what-adults-can-learn-from-kids/


At the end of the video she states, “The way progress happens is that new generations and new eras grow and develop and become better than the previous ones,” she said. “It’s the reason we’re not in the Dark Ages anymore. No matter your position in life, it is imperative to create opportunities for children so we can grow up and blow you away!”


Again, very impressive, interesting and informative!!! 

ISTE Article: Learning Connections: WallWisher, A Geeky Teacher's Dream Tool

LEARNING CONNECTIONS: WALLWISHER, A GEEKY TEACHER'S DREAM TOOL

http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Learning_Connections_Wallwisher_A_Geeky_Teacher_s_Dream_Tool.aspx


I have never heard of Wallwisher until I read this article. Wallwisher is an internet application  where you can post or express thoughts on a common topic on a webpage. It allows the teacher to ask a question and then allow students to respond. You can use this for any topic, add pictures or sites if you would like!!! Pretty cool. 


The teacher that wrote the journal shared a variety of ways that she used wellwisher in her classroom and she added links to the pages for you to view. One example: 


Virtual Vocab Wall and Writing Tips

Students in one of my fifth grade classes are very much into building their vocabularies. I found that a lot of students were looking up the same words as their classmates and saving them in their own personal lists. There was no collaboration or working together to learn more. We now have a vocab word wall that allows students to post new words and definitions as they come across them from wherever they are.

Another class decided to create a wall with a collection of their tips for becoming a good writer. The wall has several great tips from students, for students, and they have excitedly shared this with other classes in the spirit of collaboration and learning from one another.

I think this is the coolest idea!! You can use this for homework, vocabulary definitions, generate discussions, research questions... etc I am so excited about this tool! I can use this for coaching and teaching :0) 

I created my own WallWisher, check it out!!   http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/grizzellcrosscountry

Check out a link that was attached... 31 ways to use Wallwisher 

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_436f8kscmdc

My First Prezi

http://prezi.com/t-bmlbgpged6/web-20-tools-in-your-classroom/


I had fun putting this together... however I need to figure out how to make my transitions look a little smoother... maybe change the fonts? I was afraid I was going to delete it after I got it to work, I accidentally deleted one prezi already...


I would like to create one for my CC team meeting so I will try for smoother transitions... I am at least going to make a wordle for the meeting and attach it on the front of their information packet :) Maybe I will make a Tagul??

Web 2.0 Tools

I was excited to see quizlet posted and brain pop... this sounds silly however I did not know these were web 2.0 tools, I did not know how to access these tools. There are teachers in my school that use quizlet on and brain pop on a regular basis. I am fortunate to help out in the mornings as a parapro in my school and I get to learn from other teachers on some of their instructional strategies.

 I have watched Brain Pop video's before, I did not realize there were health video's on there!! I have seen the math and science brain pop video's before. I am so excited, my school subscribes to this so I can now show Health Brain Pop's!! I wish I knew this earlier in the year. I teach Body Systems to my 7th grade and Nutrition to both 7th and 8th graders, there are tons of Brain Pops for Nutrition and Body Systems.

One of my students asked me the other day if there was a quizlet for our Body Systems test coming up and I did not know how to do it... I am so excited that I can make a quizlet!! I did not know this was a free service, I thought it was something you had to subscribe to. I like that you can make flash cards and have a variety of test review options! I signed up for a subscription and I am going to make a quizlet for my classes!!

 http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3514785/health_wordle

Prezi...

SOOOO COOOL!!! I just watched the Prezi Tutorial... I have never seen this before. I use a lot of keynotes and power points for my classes, I am excited to try this out. My students are required to do at least one keynote or presentation through out the year, I think this would be an excellent alternative for them :0) I cannot wait to try it out!

Wordle

<a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3514785/health_wordle" 
          title="Wordle: health wordle"><img
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/3514785/health_wordle"
          alt="Wordle: health wordle"
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>

<a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3514785/health_wordle" 
          title="Wordle: health wordle"><img
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/3514785/health_wordle"
          alt="Wordle: health wordle"
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>

TED: Jamie Oliver's Ted Prize wish: Teach every child about food.

Jamie Oliver is a Chef who believes the power of food has a primal place in our homes. He starts his talk by saying 4 people will die within the next 18 minutes because of food. Can you believe 2/3 of Americans are over weight or obese? The children currently living now are cutting 10 years of their life based on their diets.

The top 15 deaths in the United States are listed as : Heart Disease, All Cancer, Stroke, Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease, Accidents, Diabetes, Influenza and Pneumonia, Kidney Disease, Septhroemia, Suicide, Liver Disease, Hypertension, Parkinson's Disease, and Homicide. The top 3 causes are health preventable, as well as diabetes. Diet related diseases are the number 1 killer in the United States.

Obesity cost 10% of our health care costs, totaling 150 billion a year. Within 10 years this will double to 300 billion a year. So what can we do to prevent or help the obesity problem in the United States? Jamie Oliver suggest his triangle that will help with the obesity issue in the US: Home, School and Main St.

Home: Parents need to start cooking again. Foods used to be natural, now they are processed and full of perservatives. Parents need to stop eating out or ordering in. Jamie Oliver introduced a 3rd generation obese family. In the video he had all the food that the family eats sitting on the table. The table was full of pizza, corn dogs, hot dogs, ice cream, etc. For three generations this family has not been educated on healthy foods and nutrition. Their portion sizes were out of control and the choices the family had to choose from were more then unhealthy.

School: Schools feed an average of 31 million children a day, mostly twice a day with breakfast and lunch. Schools play a big role in offering healthy lunches and snacks to the children they feed. The problem is not the lunch ladies, but the people who are in charge of funding in the school districts. Accounts, Admins or whoever is controlling the districts budget only allow their schools a certain amount of money to feed these children a day. The schools have to make this money stretch, unhealthy food options tend to be cheaper then healthier food options. Jamie went into schools and showed children different types of fruits and vegetables, many of the children did not know what these foods were. It reminded me of a clip in Super Size me where children were shown pictures of Ronald McDonalds and knew who he was, but they did not know who Jesus or famous presidents were. This is where schools and parents need to work hand and hand to educate children. Jamie suggested children have life skills and home economic classes, he feels young adults should leave with the basics of cooking and know how to make at least 10 healthy recipes.

Main Street: Business could offer cooking lessons and food education to families. Food ambassadors need to be present in grocery stores to help educate people on the foods they eat and help them with healthy recipes. The government needs to work with fast food chains to weine people off the sugar and fats that people have to choose from when they eat out. Support the Obama campaign to fight obesity in the United States. Jamie feels if the United States changes, others will follow.

Jamie concludes his inspirational talk with his wish. Jamie's wish is for children to be educated on healthy foods, inspire families to cook again and encourage Americans to fight obesity!

I really enjoyed watching this video and could not agree more with Jamie on his thoughts. I tell my students to develop healthy habits now, these habits will follow you into adulthood. I also tell my students bad or unhealthy habits are hard to break. I plan on showing my students this video in hopes it will inspire them to want to learn and to be more healthy!

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

ISTE Article Review: Do Web 2.0 Right By: Daniel Light

This article was about teachers implementing Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms to improve student learning.  Two teachers/researchers traveled to 22 different schools interviewing 39 educators on how Web 2.0 tools were used in their classrooms, what worked well and what did not work well. The researches found Web 2.0 tools worked best when they were used for on going conversations among students and teachers. There were three main elements that helped teachers create and maintain meaningful communication between their students: Instituting daily practice, carefully considering the audience, teaching and enforcing appropriate behavior.

Blogs were an effective communication tool for creating interest in classroom discussions. The article noted  the daily blogs worked best when the teachers prompted the students for a response, verses allowing students to author their own daily blog. When students had to create their own daily prompts, they showed signs of not being motivated, self-conscious about making their work public for all to read, and had nothing meaningful to write about. The most successful blogs were the blogs that were set up as a private communication between the teacher and student. Students were able to express their feelings in the blogs with out being shy, students were able to express their concerns about sensitive issues like bullying. The blogs served as a private journal for the students, teachers felt they were able to understand students feelings and thoughts by reading their private blogs.

Classroom blogs were used to generate discussions, tap into prior knowledge, generate interest, support student debates and provide students with feedback from their peers. Classroom blogs were used a classroom warmups/starters, and student on student feedback. Students learned to give and receive criticism on the blogs.

There are many uses of blogs, I really like the idea of using a blog as a means on communication between teachers, students and parents. Blogs give the shy kids in the class an opportunity to participate and share their opinions and feelings with out fear. I also like the idea that students can learn from one another through blogs!

Hepful Website: We Are Teachers

I found this website to be extremely helpful with new ideas for lesson plans! I found a lesson called obesity ball, that teaches students about fat cells, healthy and unhealthy foods, and incorporates exercise into the lesson... I shared this with the other health and pe teachers at my school as well!

http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=9917&grantId=45

Article Review: Get Your Students Moving

The article: Get You Students Moving was about blending physical education with what is being taught in the classroom to help students retain information.

The author of this article wrote about five different activities he implemented in his physical education class that covered concepts being taught in the classroom. The author suggest students sit for a long period of time through out the day at their desks. Giving students the opportunity to interact and move around while learning, allows students to refocus and learn classroom material in a new way.

 The first example provided was jogging and sequencing for younger students. The students were put into groups where they would jog across the gym and turn over cards with numbers on them. If the students found a number 1 they would run back to the start area and the next team member would run across the gym looking for a 2. The numbers had to be in numerical order, so if the second team member did not bring back a 2, then he or she would run back empty handed and the next team member would go in search of a 2. This activity would continue until all the numbers were brought back to the start in numerical order. Students were developing skills such as, working with a team, communication, patience and concentration to complete these activities.

The author of this article also incorporated technology into his classes, while blending Physical Education and classroom content. During a unit on the Heart, students pretend to be the blood moving through the heart. The students work in groups to narrate and film the path of blood through out the heart and body. The students produce a commercial for the school to watch on how to keep the heart healthy. The students are physically active while learning facts about the heart, retaining information because they are actively engaged in the activity.

This article shared innovative ways to incorporate physical education, classroom content and technology into the classroom to enrich students education. I found this article to be interesting and exciting, I would love to try some of these activities with my students and share this article with my colleagues!