Baldesberger9's Blog

Games in the Classroom

baldesberger9 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:12:41 +0000

The classroom needs to be a place for learning and a place to have some fun! Spelling wasn’t my favorite subject in school. I was never good at it and never wanted to study for it. I remember always playing a game called Sparkle that made me enjoy spelling a bit more. It was a game that we played and had some fun with spelling. So here is how you play the game. Arrange students in a line. The teacher calls out the first word. The first person in line calls out the first letter in that word. The second person calls out the second letter. The third person calls out the third letter and so on. The person who says the last letter in the word must turn to the next person in the sequence and say sparkle. The person who is “sparkled” must return to his or her seat. If a word is misspelled, the person to say the first wrong letter must sit down and the spelling of that word continues. After a student is sparkled, the leader calls out a new word. The game continues until only one student remains standing. Its a fun game for spelling and a lot of fun! Games in the classroom can help shed a different light on subjects that are not as fun or favorites of all the students.

WebQuest

baldesberger9 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:01:29 +0000

Web-Quests are something that is used by educators and are becoming more and more popular among educators. They were invented by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego State university. A Web-Quest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. It is a fun interactive way for students to sue the Internet to accomplish various tasks. For example, a web-quest that I will be describing deals with the zoo. It is titles Who Works at the Zoo? (http://questgarden.com/46/92/9/070220194228/) In this web-quest, students are asked to pretend that they are opening up a zoo and they have to come up with e list of jobs and descriptions of the jobs that they will need to hire. I think that this particular web-quest is neat for children to learn about different jobs at the zoo. Instead of a teacher preaching directions children can work at their own pace to understand and complete the activity.

This Week’s Update #7

baldesberger9 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:47:45 +0000

This week is the week before finals and its really hectic. Sometimes it feels like teachers pile everything in all last minute. I like to know what is happening throughout the semester in the beginning of the semester so I can plan out my work load. I do not like to get very behind in my work. My favorite final project was one that I am doing in my Electronic Media for Teachers class. We are making an eFolio. It is something that compiles your resume all throughout college for a future employer. It is like a huge portfolio but done on the computer. I think that it has benefits because when you go for an interview it can separate you from the rest because you are able to leave a copy behind with the employer.

Technology in the Classroom

baldesberger9 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:43:20 +0000

Technology in the classroom is becoming more common. Although, some teachers rely on Technology a tad to much. Technology should only be an aid to enhance learning for students, not the only thing that should be used. When a teacher lectures from a PowerPoint for the whole class, yes they are using technology but they are not using it in the most effective way for the students to benefit from. A more effective way to integrate the same PowerPoint would be to have sound clips and pictures of what they children are learning. In addition to adding sound clips and pictures, you could make the PowerPoint more interactive. Come up with a matching game of some sort. For example, if you were doing a lesson on animals you could give each student a picture or have them drawl the pictures of the animals they are learning about. Then you could play the sound on the computer and they have to hold up the picture that matches the sound. It is important to be creative with the technology and not rely only on it.

Kidspiration

baldesberger9 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:25:23 +0000

Kidspiration is a software program that I used last semester. I really liked it so I thought that I would share a little about the program to you. Kidspiration is an interactive software program that helps students get involved with their learning. In reading and writing, Kidspiration strengthens word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension and written expression. With new visual math tools, students build reasoning and problem solving skills. I really enjoyed using the program for brainstorming certain ideas and relating what I was doing with pictures. I found it fun and exciting. It is a program that I would like to have in my classroom. For more information check out their website at http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration.

Physical Education

baldesberger9 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:29:41 +0000

I was looking at my Comcast Home page the other day and I saw a link for Physical Education. I went to the site to check it out and it was really neat. I think Physical Education and Health is very important for children in today’s society. Especially because of the problem America is facing with obesity. Their goal is to provide recent information about physical education in youth. They offer motivational fitness programs for children and guides to help them enjoy what they are doing. It also provides lesson ideas and program guides. It’s a neat site and an interactive way to get younger children physically fit or interested in Physical Education.

The website is http://www.pecentral.org/

This Week’s Update #6

baldesberger9 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:26:29 +0000

This week in my Children’s Literature class we are doing presentations of Individual projects that we did. One topic was Deaf Children and integrating books about deaf children in the classroom. The girl talked about three different books that she suggested in her project for teachers to use in the classroom. It is important for children to learn the different types of groups of people there are in our world. Deaf children are just one of the many groups. The three books that can help integrate deaf children in the classroom are Dina the Deaf Dinosaur by Carole Addabbo, I Have a Sister- My Sister is Deaf by Jeanne Whitehouse, and A Button in Her Ear by Ada B. Litchfield. All stories explain deaf children and shows some insight to their culture. They are the same as everyone else they just cannon hear as well or speak as well in some cases. I think this type of topic is important to use in the classroom.

Distance Learning

baldesberger9 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:13:53 +0000

I was searching the Internet the other day and came across a website about Distance Learning. I thought it was really interesting. It was called TEAMS Distance Learning (TEAMS).
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The program started in 1990 and has been telecast on PBS across the country. It was created to give instructions in math and science for grades K-8. School districts can purchase certain teacher supported materials accessible on the Web. Among the states participating in the program Pennsylvania is not one of them. Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi, Utah and New Mexico just to name a few states that are participating. The certain curriculum that TEAMS uses if Reading (Grades K-3), English/Language Arts(Grades 4-7), History Social Science (Grades 4-7), Mathematics (Grades 1-8), Primary Science (Grades 2-3, and Science (Grades 4-7). I thought the site was pretty interesting to learn a little about distance education, and see how it is being used by districts and organizations.

The web-site is http://teams.lacoe.edu/

Economy

baldesberger9 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:20:14 +0000

Our economy is bad and that is obvious but what some people might not realize, is that the stress on the bad economy is beginning to effect children. There was a story that was just released about a 10-year-old boy who had local neighborhood jobs to help out his family. He earns five dollars an hour for doing various jobs. His mother has been out of a job for a year and he wanted to be able to help so he did various jobs for his neighbors and they payed him. Since the further of the economic crisis, the boy’s father lost his job. When the boy found this out he went to his school counselor and told the counselor that he needed a job to help out his family. Obviously he is unable to get a job because he is only ten.

I really though it was interesting to find out that our economy has an effect of younger children. As a future teacher, I think it would be a good idea to teach issues like this. I have no clue how you would go about doing this, but I do think that it is necessary. Children are much brighter about current issues than we think, but it is still necessary to keep them informed.

This Week’s Update #5

baldesberger9 — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:23:49 +0000

This week for me in education, I have been getting slammed with school work. It always seems like at the end of each semester you always get the most work to do. One project that I really have found interesting was an individual assignment that I was assigned for a Children’s Literature course that I am taking. You could do whatever you wanted for the assignment, and I chose to do a favorite book list for local teachers and part of our education department at Robert Morris University. One book that keeps coming up that teachers like is called The Giving Tree. I have never read it but and really interested in reading it. The teachers tend to use the book to teach their students about giving. One teacher said that she uses it every year to teach the students about the gift of giving around Christmas time. I think it souds like a neat idea to use the book for.