Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Online Assignment #2 -- Rebecca Bland

I have found this assignment; to find resources to help us meet our Professional Growth Goals; to be very helpful. There is a vast amount of research and blueprints for lessons and handouts at our dispense so I am glad to find them and use them - why reinvent the wheel? I hope you will find these helpful in your individual quest to meet your goals.

1) North Central Regional Educational Labatory
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/pa0cont.htm

This website has a vast amount of links to articiles and handouts reguarding involving families in schools. Much of the articles discuss how we as educators can structure our practicies to involve the families. For example, translating documents that are sent home. Futhermore, increasing the amount of information we share with families about their student's progress but also classroom/school activities.

2) New Ways of Classroom Assessment; Brown

From skiming the book, it seems that Brown wrote it with a focus on teaching english as a new language. However, one chapter is on new ways to assess learning when ELL students. My classroom is composed for many ELL studentsm and although they are children and not adults I am hoping some of Brown's strategies can be altered and thus applied to a primary classroom.

3) Integrating Technology into your Classroom
http://www.k12.hi.us/~dtisdell/integration/resource.html#one

This website is awesome! It addresses grades K-12 and has a variety of resouces from lesson plans to management of different technologies. One specific article that stood out was How to Teach in a One Computer Classroom. I, infact, teach in a one-computer classroom and have often wondered how I can include multiple or all students with our sole computer. Check this website out!

3 comments:

Rachel Bergere said...

Hi Rebecca,

The resources that you found are excellent. I have especially enjoyed the articles on school and family involvement. One of the articles included a list of questions called "Questionnaire to Assess Parent Perspectives and Participation". This questionnaire would be a useful tool to have parents complete at the beginning of the year or before fall conferences. My partner teacher and I have the parents write us a letter about their child at the beginning of the year, but the letter does not include questions about the parents themselves. Some of the questions include the following: "parent attitudes toward their children's school, the school subjects that parents want to know more about, how frequently the parents are involved in different ways in their children's education, and how well school programs and teacher practices inform and involve them in their children's education." I think posing these types of thoughtful reflections for parents would be beneficial in giving us valuable insight into the home life and culture of each child in our classroom.
The articles on technology are also useful. I am really lucky in that I teach at a school where we have a lot of access to technology. (My classroom has a 1:1 laptop to student ratio.) However, even with this overabundance in technology I find that I am constantly using the same programs and websites with the students over and over again. It is nice to get some more inspiration and ideas.

Thank you for sharing some of what you found and I will see you in a couple of weeks!
Rachel Bergere

Darren Hunter said...

Hi Rebecca,
I have been searching for a strong resource to help with involving families and community members in my classroom. I visited the North Central Regional Education Lab Website and was very happy to find such excellent source materials. The links and journals offered practical suggestions and recommended ideas for forming partnerships with families and community members. The link called “CONNECTING FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS TO HELP OUR CHILDREN SUCCEED” gives simple and yet powerful ways to include parents in the child’s education. I find this is my most important Professional Growth Area and will definitely benefit my classroom and my students. I am looking forward to exploring the website further. Thanks for the great resource!

Kathy said...

Hi Rebecca,

I checked out your site on communication with parents. This is an awesome site. I am also working on this as one of my growth plans. I am going to access this site to help in improving communication and get some ideas of how to improve parent volunteering and working with their child to help support us. (teachers) Thank you for your insight into this new resource for me.