National Geographic Young Explorers is a great research tool for the primary grades. Each month’s article has the read aloud feature that is great for beginning readers. To facilitate finding what you are looking for, a colleague of mine, Suzanne Whitlow, and I created this spreadsheet with links to help teachers find information quicker.
The Flipped Classroom — Video Segment
Mar 12th, 12
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If you missed 60 Minutes on Sunday, March 11th, take a look at this video segment about using instructional videos to teach and using class time to remediate and extend.
The Flipped Classroom
Feb 7th, 12
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There has been a lot of new “buzz” about the flipped classroom idea all over the news, in conferences, and even on facebook. The overall concept is outlined below. Have you thought about doing this to your classroom?
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media
Students as Teachers
Feb 7th, 12
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Third grade students in Mrs. Barnett’s class created their own flipcharts to share the information they learned about the frog and butterfly life cycles. They added actions, inserted videos, and used the screen recorder to record their presentations.
If you have used Pixie and Keynote with your class then introducing ActivInspire should be a natural transition.
Beyond the Classroom
Jan 12th, 12
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So much learning takes places within the classroom walls, but how can we take the information and relate it to the world around the students? We can frame lessons around real world problems to allow critical thinking to take place at a deeper level, but we can also communicate in other ways. Students can communicate and collaborate with students in other classes in their school, county, state, country and beyond, but they can also communicate with experts in the field. Fourth graders at Ridge went beyond the school system and into the Science Museum of Virginia. Please view Nancy Essid’s blog to find out more!
21st Century and Math
Dec 5th, 11
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Take a moment to watch this video.
How would you score this math lesson using the TIPC? What math process standards are shown? (Click here for help)
Google Galore
Dec 2nd, 11
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The third grade at Ridge are diving into Google documents and presentations. They are using the docs to share research between classrooms about bullying. They are then creating presentations to share with other students in the school as well as other schools to promote their anti-bullying campaign. These presentations are being featured on their classroom blog so take a look and allow your students to comment on their hard work.
Click on this picture to go to the blog
A Century Later
Nov 11th, 11
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An amazing woman was born 100 years ago…. My grandmother, Sara Schmoyer. She began her teaching career in 1937. She taught 1st grade and later taught 2nd grade until she was no longer allowed to teach since she wanted to get married. This was during the depression and married couples were not allowed to have dual incomes. She had 40 second graders and taught them the curriculum as well as music and art. They had to learn the musical notes and famous paintings! Instead of teaching in a rural area and having to collect her own firewood to heat her classroom, she taught in a more urban area. Can you imagine having to collect your own firewood to heat your classroom of 40 students??
A few years ago she gave me her set of teaching manuals (Copyright 1927) 
and it is very interesting to flip through and see the kinds of things she was taught to teach to her students (i.e. farm cultivation). She asks me about the kinds of things that the students are doing today in schools. I showed her the iPad and she tried out some of the apps despite her failure to see very well (I made the font as big as I could). She doesn’t quite understand the Internet or Promethean Boards but I do my best to explain them to her. It would be so amazing for her to actually see one of today’s classrooms in session. Students using the Promethean board, iPads, computers, researching online, etc. What would she say? How do you think her classroom was different than the classrooms today? How were they the same? What about the student behaviors and parent and community involvement?
To celebrate her birthday, her great-granddaughters created their own songs for her using Garageband and cards in Pixie instead of giving her regular paper cards this year because her eyesight is getting progressively worse. (I didn’t help them much)
I look up to my grandmother in so many ways, but above and beyond for her dedication to children. Happy 100th Birthday to an amazing teacher, role model, and friend.
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The birthday party was a huge success. She was surrounded by lots of family and friends and loved using the iPad with her great-granddaughters!!
Discovery Interactive Atlas
Nov 4th, 11
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Students can use the new Discovery interactive atlas to research countries. They can see where the country is located and then view Discovery streaming videos on the Culture, Government, History and Natural World of any country. What an excellent researching tool!
Google Docs
Oct 25th, 11
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Google accounts are free so if you don’t already have one for your class then you should create one. One way to use Google is with the built in documents. These “docs” can be created and shared with small groups in your class or in other classes to promote communication beyond the classroom. Take a look at this video.
Google Docs from Sarah Schmoyer on Vimeo.