Week 8 Grant Writing

To me grant writing seems very intimidating and I did not realize until this week how easy it can actually be.  There are so many helpful websites with a myriad of resources to choose from.  One that interested me was the Lowe's Toolbox for Education grants and I thought it might be fun to write a grant to have a fun reading area built in all the kindergarten classrooms.  This could possibly be a loft with space underneath.  I also thought it would be great to build a garden that all classes in the school could utilize and we could coordinate with the cafeteria on cooking some of the vegetables we have grown.  A lofty thought but not impossible.

Edutopia had many grant writing opportunities and I would love to write a grant for a science curriculum from Aims at www.aimsedu.org.  Our current science curriculum is not very hands or inquiry based and Aims and would benefit all our students.  We could purchase 2 kits per grade level at a cost of about $12,600.00.  There are many science orientated grants to choose from.

Our district does have its own Educational Foundation and an individual teacher can write a grant for up to $500.00.  If two or more teacher write the grant they can receive up to $1000.00.  I have written a grant that I hope gets approved for 2 iPad2s.  I wrote it with the gifted facilitator and we should find out in September if the grant was approved.  Last year I wrote a grant for the Daily 5 literacy program with a fellow 1st grade teacher and we were able to purchase the books and all the videos which have been very useful and gave us the tools we needed to present at an inservice.  We also wrote a separate grant requesting funds for iTunes gift cards for the iPads already in our building and it was approved.  We received $1000.00 to buy gift cards and they were distributed equally among the classrooms with iPads.

Although it is wonderful to have an education foundation it was extremely eyeopening this week to learn about all the other possibilities to get money.  I did sign up for adopt a classroom which I learned about this week to hopefully get more books for my library since I am switching to kindergarten.  I also am considering a few projects to post on donors choose which seems like a great place to get some extra items for a classroom.  I am thinking about asking for an iTouch to use as part of listening to reading and also to record our reading.  Just so much information and never enough time to do it all!

Week 6 Collaboration

This week we were to explore collaboration either within our school or outside our school.  I chose to explore www.epals.com.  This interested me because I teach in a school that is not very diverse and I feel it is important to expose students to many different cultures and holidays.  Our school really focuses on Christmas and its traditions and commercialism.  I tend not to do this and the reason is I grew up in a predominantly Jewish area so we were not allowed to celebrate any particular holiday in school.  I think it is better to recognize and celebrate many different holidays and traditions since our world is getting smaller and some of our students will be working with people from all over the world.  

I would like to use epals as way to investigate and explore other cultures.  The group I would like my class of kindergarteners to join is Holidays and Festivals Around the World.  Most of the lesson ideas can be adapted for kindergarten and they are relevant to our social studies themes which include celebrations and traditions.  I feel it is very important to open up our ego centric kindergartners to the global community.  

Another project I would like to do in my class is have soldiers from other countries come in and show and talk about their culture.  We are fortunate that Ft. Leavenworth is about 10 minutes from our school and the military is always willing to donate their time to support our school.  I think this would really make a lesson more concrete for my small learners.  

For epals my classroom would really not need to purchase anything.  We have netbooks for 5 students in my room and I have a project for whole group lessons.  The only cost maybe would be finding literature to support some of the lessons but the public library, our school library and other teachers would be great resources as well. 

Week 5 Multimedia-Visual Learning

Using video or picture media in the classroom is such a relevant and simple idea to utilize in any classroom.  Our students today have no idea what the world is like without constant video of any and all events happening around the world.  As a matter of fact I have no idea what it is like not to have television 24/7.  It makes perfect sense to give students no matter how young the opportunity to use this in class as often as possible. 

One idea I like from "45 Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom" is film an expert which I would use as a book review and have one student ask questions of another on a favorite book.  I also like using it to film PE class but I thought it would be useful to film different activities for field day and the kids could view this before they went out for the day so they were familiar with the rules and games before they started.  There are so many uses the most difficult part is finding the time in between all the other requirements.


Children are so used to being filmed by their parents that rarely are they shy to perform for the camera.  In my lesson we filmed a fitness video and no one was really camera shy.  The hardest part was staying on task and not getting too carried away with the activities.  


I used my own personal digital video camera but it would be wonderful to have one at the school.  The average cost for a camera is roughly $100.00 for a pocket video camera.  It would also be nice to have a microphone which would cost about $50.00.  Our school already has a projector installed in each room so viewing the created video would be easy. 

Week 4 Podcasts

This week I have subscribed to quite a few podcasts.  Some were not useful or updated at all and others had so much information I wish I had enough hours in the day to listen to them.  The one I chose to follow and hopefully utilize in my classroom as part of my personal professional development is on using the smart board in your classroom.   The URL is http://smartboard.libsyn.com/rss.  This podcast has two teachers, Scott Miller and Dave Sladkey, using the Smart Board and providing all kinds of free templates and resources for this technology.  They are a little quirky but once you get past the intro on each episode it is chock full of fabulous resources that can be adapted to any grade level.  I have an interwrite mobi in my class and I am hoping I can use some of their templates to enhance my lessons in all areas.  I have not used this technology very much and by subscribing to this podcast I hope it is the spark I need to utilize it more often on a daily basis. 

Podcasting is excellent for professional development if teachers are willing to take their own time to sit and listen and then practice what is presented.  As stated in our text "RSS for Educators", "teachers contribute to a group or community blog that supports the publication of podcasts." (p. 66)  The teachers to collaborate and discuss best practices in their school for whatever topic they choose to focus on in the podcast.  With budget cuts across the board this is one cheap way to gather teachers to listen and view the podcast and then collaborate to see how to utilize the lessons learned.  All you would need and our school already has in every room is a projector and a computer.  

For this particular podcast it would be wonderful to learn how to use these resources and then write a grant or ask for funding for a Smart Board and be able to put together a proposal package to show how I would use this technology in my classroom.  A Smart Board would cost about $4500.00 so that is quite a bit of money to ask for but if you could present all the lessons you would use to enhance your teaching it is worth the time and effort. 

Handheld technology in first grade

First I would love to write this about the iPads because they have become an invaluable piece of technology in my class.  I am currently fluctuating between staying in 1st grade or moving down to kindergarten and my decision will partly be based on whether I can take the iPads with me.  If they must stay in first I will probably stay in first.  That being said I am also very interested in two other types of handheld technologies.  I would love to be able to utilize clickers in my classroom. I have the mobi interwrite board from einstruction and I will admit that I have used it only twice this year.  If I had the student response system that goes with this technology I would definitely incorporate the interwrite into my instruction more often. The type of clicker I am interested in is the CPS Pulse which allows for instant teacher assessment of student responses.  For 28 clickers it would cost about $1500.00.   I think it would be great for formative assessments before during and after a lesson to really gauge my students' learning.  

I am also interested in another type of handheld technology called the neo2 which would support our investment in the Renaissance Learning Program.  The neo2 would allow students to easily take Accelerated Reading tests and Accelerated Math tests as well as teacher created tests and worksheets which would help to make for a paperless classroom.  It is also interactive with computers, whiteboards, and projectors.  There is also compatibility with Study Island which our district utilizes as well as Google Docs.  The neo2 would replace the need for clickers but it does have a higher cost since it has so many other uses.  For a set of 30 with the docking cart to input data to the teacher's computer the cost would be $4000.00. An individual neo2 is $149.00 but that would not be very beneficial.   It could easily be shared between several classes on a grade level. 

Both types of handheld technologies discussed above would enhance the quality of my classroom.  It would give me instant feedback on my students and would help dictate instruction.  It would allow me to differentiate instruction more quickly than waiting on our progress monitoring tests which require me to input data and then figure out how to compare the students with each other.  All of this would be done instantly so instruction could be adjusted the next class period.  The dilemmas with this technology are in the storage of all the devices as well as the risk of them not working and be able to adjust to paper pencil tasks to assess students.

Diverse Learners

Who are your Diverse Learners?

Every learner is a diverse learner.  All students learn in different ways and process information differently.  All learners come to school with different cultural backgrounds and experiences which shape how they learn.  Trying to meet all these needs is the arduous job of the classroom teacher.  One way to foster this learning for all students is to create what Barell (1998) states as an “invitational environment”.  Trust and the ability to take risks and communicate openly are keys to this type of learning environment.  Making accommodations for students with special needs and learning abilities will also foster the diversity of all learners.

In my first grade classroom I have 2 Hispanic children, 1 Asian child who was adopted from Russia, 1 child who appears to be on the autistic spectrum but the parents will not get him tested so he receives no outside services, 4 gifted students, 1 child who receives speech and occupational therapy, 1 child who has tracking issues and receives private assistance for this need, and 2 students on ADHD medication.  It can be very challenging to meet all of these diverse needs with every lesson to meet every learning standard. 

 What do you do or can you do to meet the needs of diverse learners. Are you creating Multicultural lessons, Multiple Intelligence Projects, and/or specific assistive technologies for students with special needs?

To accommodate my autistic student who struggles with transition and communicating with others during unstructured time in my classroom I created cards with icons for his desk to show the order of our day.  He can take them off when we have accomplished a lesson and this helps him categorize his day and tackle each lesson with more focus.  I also spend a few extra minutes explaining his assignments privately to make sure he understands the objective.  We also work on skills to handle how to ask someone if you can play at recess and making eye contact.  To accommodate my ADHD students I will break down their lessons into smaller chunks of time and provide them with frequent brain breaks.  They also are allowed to do their work standing, on the floor or however they want as long as they are on task.  For my gifted students I meet with them before heading to our Daily 5 rotations and I usually give them a higher objective I want them to meet.  Sometimes this is during writing and it might be to rewrite the ending to a story in a different way.  Sometimes they might need to use a more complicated graphic organizer to retell a story.  One item I would love to have in my classroom would be iTouches for helping my ELL students with phonics and letter sounds.  There are many apps that are perfect for this and having a handheld device to listen and repeat and record would be ideal for them.  I am hoping through grant writing to get 4 iTouches to use next year for this purpose.  With the price of $229.00 each I feel it is a practical and viable tool to use with many different learners and hope my grant gets approved.  I have also written a grant with the gifted facilitator for 2 iPad2’s  which will cost $1000.00 with the hopes of utilizing them during small group sessions for production of stories and recording of story retellings to work on reading strategies.  I currently have 3 iPads and my students use them daily to work on all reading skills.  They are organized in folders and I plan to scaffold the activities in these folders to better meet the needs of all my learners next year.  

I feel that I need to work on more multi-cultural lessons for next year.  Two years ago I had a Muslim student and I had her mother come in and do a lesson about their holidays.  It was great fun and she cooked some ethnic foods and we played some of their traditional holiday games.  This year I did not do that but should have asked even though her daughter moved on to 2^nd grade.   I usually try to cover different cultures around December with a holiday around the world unit.  I focus on Hanukah, Las Posadas, Christmas, and the different ways to celebrate Christmas around the world.  I would love to work on connecting with other classrooms around the world and I am going to research further on the International E-mail Classroom Connection and the Sister School Project suggested in our text.   Since our world is getting smaller through the use of technology it is more important than ever to teach about different cultures because our students will be working with many different kinds of people from all over the world.  

Barell, J. (1998).  Problem-based learning:  An inquiry approach.  Arlington Heights, IL:        Skylight.      

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Diverse Learners

Who are your Diverse Learners?

Every learner is a diverse learner.  All students learn in different ways and process information differently.  All learners come to school with different cultural backgrounds and experiences which shape how they learn.  Trying to meet all these needs is the arduous job of the classroom teacher.  One way to foster this learning for all students is to create what Barell (1998) states as an “invitational environment”.  Trust and the ability to take risks and communicate openly are keys to this type of learning environment.  Making accommodations for students with special needs and learning abilities will also foster the diversity of all learners.

In my first grade classroom I have 2 Hispanic children, 1 Asian child who was adopted from Russia, 1 child who appears to be on the autistic spectrum but the parents will not get him tested so he receives no outside services, 4 gifted students, 1 child who receives speech and occupational therapy, 1 child who has tracking issues and receives private assistance for this need, and 2 students on ADHD medication.  It can be very challenging to meet all of these diverse needs with every lesson. 

 What do you do or can you do to meet the needs of diverse learners. Are you creating Multicultural lessons, Multiple Intelligence Projects, and/or specific assistive technologies for students with special needs?

To accommodate my autistic student who struggles with transition and communicating with others during unstructured time in my classroom I created cards with icons for his desk to show the order of our day.  He can take them off when we have accomplished a lesson and this helps him categorize his day and tackle each lesson with more focus.  I also spend a few extra minutes explaining his assignments privately to make sure he understands the objective.  We also work on skills to handle how to ask someone if you can play at recess and making eye contact.  To accommodate my ADHD students I will break down their lessons into smaller chunks of time and provide them with frequent brain breaks.  They also are allowed to do their work standing, on the floor or however they want as long as they are on task.  For my gifted students I meet with them before heading to our Daily 5 rotations and I usually give them a higher objective I want them to meet.  Sometimes this is during writing and it might be to rewrite the ending to a story in a different way.  Sometimes they might need to use a more complicated graphic organizer to retell a story.  One item I would love to have in my classroom would be iTouches for helping my ELL students with phonics and letter sounds.  There are many apps that are perfect for this and having a handheld device to listen and repeat and record would be ideal for them.  I am hoping through grant writing to get 4 iTouches to use next year for this purpose.  With the price of $229.00 each I feel it is a practical and viable tool to use with many different learners and hope my grant gets approved.  I have also written a grant with the gifted facilitator for 2 iPad2’s  which will cost $1000.00 with the hopes of utilizing them during small group sessions for production of stories and recording of story retellings to work on reading strategies.  I currently have 3 iPads and my students use them daily to work on all reading skills.  They are organized in folders and I plan to scaffold the activities in these folders to better meet the needs of all my learners next year.  

I feel that I need to work on more multi-cultural lessons for next year.  Two years ago I had a Muslim student and I had her mother come in and do a lesson about their holidays.  It was great fun and she cooked some ethnic foods and we played some of their traditional holiday games. This year I did not do that but should have asked even though her daughter moved on to 2^nd grade.   I usually try to cover different cultures around December with a holiday around the world unit.  I focus on Hanukah, Las Posadas, Christmas, and the different ways to celebrate Christmas around the world.  I would love to work on connecting with other classrooms around the world and I am going to research further on the International E-mail Classroom Connection and the Sister School Project suggested in our text.   Since our world is getting smaller through the use of technology it is more important than ever to teach about different cultures because our students will be working with many different kinds of people from all over the world.  

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

 

Barell, J. (1998).  Problem-based learning:  An inquiry approach.  Arlington Heights, IL:        Skylight.