Day 3-IC

Don't forget to sign in!

Check in on the Edmodo. Work on your blog, Wiki, website or anything else you'd like until we get started.

Must do's today:

1. sign in for all 3 days

2. final project submission

3. course evaluation

Today's Agenda:

How to plan inspired classroom lessons
How to differentiate inspired classroom lessons to personalize instruction
Collaborate with like levels, subjects etc.
Extending lessons
Individualized help session
Turn in final project

Work on Your Plan:

Create a general outline of your "typical" day, then look at each piece and think about the skills that you are trying to teach (these can be specific standards or units of study). After identifying the skills you can start to think about the resources (online, technology-based, paper/pencil), and the options for grouping (independent, pair, small group, whole group)

Here is an example and options for my 3rd grade class (I wouldn't try to do all of this on the same day, but these are the kinds of activities I might include throughout the week):

7:25 - 7:50 Homeroom
- Students respond to a blog post reviewing previous day's activities,
- Practice spelling words on www.spellingcity.com,
- Use ActivSlate to work on flip chart (Calendar Math, review skills, etc)
- View a PowerPoint to review basic math facts or sight words
- Preview a skill or topic we will be discussing later that day
7:55 - 9:15 Math
- View an instructional video on Discovery Educators Network (formerly known as United Streaming)
- Work through an interactive flipchart from Promethean Planet
- Small group activities using Exemplars and Great Source
- Independent work on www.ixl.com (you can set monthly goals for your students)
- Rotate small groups through learning centers (ActivSlate and interactive flipcharts, desktops using www.aaamath.com, and small group instruction with teacher)
9:15 - 10:00 Writing Workshop/Grammar
- Mini-lesson using flipchart, Discovery Educators Network, PowerPoint, or class wiki
- Independent writing in journals
- Conferences with individual students
- Peer editing (pair students to review and comment using the wiki)
- Online Harcourt activities to review and practice specific grammar skills
10:05 - 10:50 Specials
- This gives me time to glance through students' journals or wiki comments (or leave my own comments)
11:00 - 12:25 Reading Workshop
- Small group focus skill (using level books, social studies biographies, science level books, Harcourt stories, or other reading materials)
- Independent Reading (I use resources from The Daily Five, Reading Workshop, and Literature Circles)
- Rotate students through online resources for skill practice and review (set up like work stations)
- Other offline reading activities include: plays, build-a-word, word-of-the-day, Mountain Language, Daily Oral Language, Daily editing practice
12:25 - 12:55 Lunch
- Time to set up anything for Science or Social Studies
1:00 - 1:50 Science or Social Studies
- Video from Discovery Educators Network
- Flipchart and ActivSlate
- Online resources aligned with textbook
- Interactive PowerPoints
- Online activities: blog response, timeline or graphic organizer, webquest, Renzulli Learning
- Student created PowerPoint, movie, brochure, wiki page, digital story
1:50 - 2:10 Recess

Start building your own lessons for the beginning of school

Some Suggestions to help you get started:

Create a welcome to the class powerpoint (you can add pictures, sounds, and other features to welcome your students and to teach them the routines and expectations for the classroom)
Create an introduction post for your students to respond to on the class blog
Create a "How I spent my summer vacation" assignment on the class wiki
Create lessons to introduce the blog, wiki, or specific websites (you will have to model how to access and use these resources)
Create PowerPoint flash cards to review skills from previous year (these are great for transitions or short periods)
Create a webquest to have students learn to work cooperatively (you might want to use the class or school website for students to navigate)
- TEAM building - a back to school trivia hunt
Use the digital camera to take pictures of places or people that your students will need to know (these can be used in a PowerPoint, on the class website, wiki, or blog
Plan an "All About Me" page on the wiki (students can work on this the first couple of weeks, including pictures or links to things they like)
Create a survey on the blog to get student's responses for preferences for activities
Create a folder in your class wiki for each letter of the alphabet, students can add words as they come across them (they could receive a treat for the longest word, the most unusual word, the word with the most vowels, the most consonants, etc). This could continue all year long and will work for any grade
Create resource folders in the wiki for your different subjects (no excuse words, writing rubrics, math facts, subject-area vocabulary words). You can have students add pages to the folders as they learn new skills.
Start working on your differentiated spelling lists for www.spellingcity.com