Abbey's+Page

Abbey's Reflection Page
Chapters 1-3 Reflection: After reading chapters 1-3 I am excited as we progress into this journey. I already have been incorporating more technology into my lessons and collaborating more with other teachers. A few things that I found especially insightful include: 1.) The list of websites and online resources on pages 38 and 39. It is always one thing to know about resources and another thing to have them at your fingertips and ready to apply the resources. 2.) I also appreciated the Bloom's reference. It is always nice to see "older methods and practices" still relevant to education. There are so many patterns and trends in education it is always nice to see the ones that have lasted the test of time. It was also a good refresher when thinking about the planning stage of our own projects. (pages 46-47) 3.) The Romeo in MySpace reminded me of my teaching last year with a Freshman Class. We also studied //Romeo and Juliet// and as a final project many students chose the option of creating Facebook pages for a character. With multiple students partaking in this task they were also able to "communicate" between characters and scenes, monologue, and dialog throughout the play. 4.) My final observation for these chapters was the list for "Essential Learning Functions". I am a list person, so I find them easy to read and navigate through.
 * Reflection 1**

Looking forward to the rest of our journey and to see our results!

My overall goal for 2nd trimester... -Create a 2-3 week unit on informational literacy. -Use Barb as a resource. -Have students create a mini portfolio of their information and be able to correctly interpret and analyze the information.
 * Reflection 2**

My overall goal for 3rd trimester... -Have literature circles discuss using a blog. -Maybe a wiki? -Generate online discussions that create deeper learning and feedback from students. What I hope to accomplish...

Some Links/Resources: Link to my blogspot for class My Classroom Blog

Link to Delicious Page Delicious Page

A fun song I found for theme, plot, setting, character, and conflict! [|five_things.mov]

A movie clip I used when teaching //Thank You, M'am// media type="custom" key="7280751"

rss url="http://www.mssonnenberg.blogspot.com/" link="true" number="10"

So I finally found my original wiki page that I created last October for a grad class. It was only started, and never really expanded...but I found it! My Original Wiki

After participating and listening to Barb's presentation, it is always amazing how much information is available to us as teachers, students, and humans. With the internet there truly is a wealth of information constantly waiting for us to discover. The tricky part is to access the information when you want and to be able to get exactly what you want. Which is exactly what I think most of us are trying to help teach our students. Let us please move beyond google and wikipedia when the information needs to be a little more reliable and pin-pointed.
 * Reflection 3**
 * 11.16.10**

I thought today's assessment was interesting and I am curious to see my results. Part of me feels like I did know some of the answers and was pretty confident about them, but one never knows! One thought that I shared in class today with a shoulder partner was, "I know some of this information and resources, but am I communicating all of these things to my students? ---Not really all the time... Grrr, it's only slightly frustrating when I realize something on my own and know that I should, can, and will try to fix the problem!


 * Reflection 4**
 * 12.3.10**

After viewing Ted Pink's twenty minute presentation, it is clear he is passionate about three things: 1. Mastery 2. Automony 3. Purpose

Mastery, okay, I know almost all of what I can know about something specific. Preferably something I am really passionate about. Automony: Self-direction. Can I choose what and how I do certain things? Can I have a sense of ownership over my work? Purpose: Why am I doing this? Oh, memories from Mr. Slickman's Algebra and Geometry class are creeping back into my head. "But, Mr. Slickman, what is "x" and why are we trying to figure "x" out?" "Mr. Slickman, could you put this into a real-world word problem?" As soon as poor Mr. Slickman could give me a reason why I was figuring out "x" I could then start to wrap my head around the problem. If we were just solving the problem to solve it and I saw no purpose I had an extremely hard time working the problem.

How are these things present in my classroom? Good question. How can I incorporate days like Google's 20% days or Fedex days? How am I making the purpose clear? I see the value and I appreciate the work we do, but I am at a higher mastery level than my students.


 * Reflection 5**
 * 12.8.10**

First, here is a website that has some great links to technology! []

Thoughts on Fair Use and Copyright rules... It can be confusing, overwhelming, and maybe even frightening. For me, it is still mostly frustrating for a few reasons. As a teacher, I try to model the behaviors I'd like my students to display (honesty, friendly, caring, life long learner, etc.). However, sometimes with Fair Use, Copyright, plagiarism, and proper citations it can get confusing in terms of honesty. Today's presentation helped cleared up some ideas, but also made something even more confusing. I was under the impression that with the proper citation and credit to the author, people could use those things. It was helpful, and a nice reminder, that Fair Use covers education pretty well. I am not overly worried about being sued, but I'd like to do things correctly :) I would like to learn more about repurposing images/photoshop to fall under Fair Use. I also appreciated finding more out on Google Images for use. I definitely like CC!


 * Reflection 6**
 * 12.9.10**

I am really excited about our second trimester project. I am doing an informational literacy unit for three weeks. Next week I am meeting with Barb to go over some resources and what she has taught in the past. I know she will have a wealth of information to share! I am also working with the Erika who teachs writing in the seventh grade. We are developing the unit together to really incorporate the reading and writing. As part of the unit, students will be asked to analyze a chart or a similar graphic which reinforces what most of them have already covered in math. With this unit, I am really trying hard to make it cross-curricular and work with the other seventh grade team members. In fact, science is covered as the topic for some student's project. For the topic of research, reading, and writing I am thinking of having students research people in the categories of: inventors, activists, leaders, scientists, and Olympians.

If anyone has any further ideas or comments I'd love to hear them!


 * Reflection 7**
 * From 1.7.11**

Today (Thursday) Barb Romersheuser came into the classroom to help teach my 7th graders what tools are available to them from the library's website and Destiny. She did a great job showing what the different databases, websites, and subscriptions can all do for their research projects. Tammi Wiemer was also in for the presentations (she works in our library). After watching the presentation I was excited for the students to start their research. Some of the websites that I really enjoyed was www.loc.gov and the Marshall Cavendish Database. These two resources are great source for primary sources, pictures, and movie clips. The handouts Barb gave out were helpful as well because they gave the login information for accessing these resource from home.


 * Reflection 8**
 * From the week of 1.10.11-1.14.11**

This week the students were in the library researching their person. They were able to use the computer as a source of information as well as the reference and biography books in the library. I noticed a few things from their research. Barb directed them to first consult an encyclopedia to gather general information, which students did. Then, I found they were hesitant to go further and get "deeper" information. Here is where I stepped in and directed them to sites like Time.com and NPR.org. Some of the students were able to find interviews and cover stories of their people, so they were pretty excited.

Another thing I noticed was the difficulty some of the students had with MLA and citing their sources. Many of the online databases give the correct citation for the page. Meaning, the student just had to copy down that information. Instead, some of the students were searching the website for the individual components and then putting it into their notes. They were making it harder for themselves! When my mentor was observing me she asked if we taught how to cite or if we just let them copy the MLA citation (if given). In response, I explained that if the citation is given I encourage students to use that information, but we also briefly cover the format and the resources to use when it is required of you to make the citation. My reasoning behind this was MLA changes from year to year and depending on the resources and how you access the resources varies the format. To me it is like a recipe, you don't need to memorize a recipe if it is written!


 * Reflection 9**
 * From 1.18.11**

Today I was observed by our Master Teacher and the lesson pertained to making oral presentations. The focus was around the new standard 1 for Reading and Writing (Oral Expression and Listening). The students were given their rubric and then on the flip side of the paper they put the highest level of the rubric into their own words. They did this after watching a short clip on how not to present. They enjoyed the clip and worked well with the rubric. I'm anxious to see their presentations. For a visual aid the students are creating a Glog. We are exploring options other than powerpoint!

And exhale.....this unit is over! The students presented yesterday and today. Overall, I am impressed by their understanding of their topic and their oral presentations. The writing teacher and I are in the process of reading their reports and so far, so good! The students ended this unit with a self reflection using Survey Monkey and evaluating a peer using a Peer Scoring Guide during an oral presentation. The rubric I used for their oral presentations worked well. I taped some of the presentations with a flip camera and I am going to try to post one of the presentations. I look forward to doing this unit again. I am also excited to see the students improve their presenting skills. For their first formal assessment I am impressed by their skills! One suggestion/ thing I learned is to ask around the school for help gathering information, adapting the lesson, etc. I worked with Barb, our Library TA, the writing teacher, and with the Master Teacher to adopt the unit for the special ed students and advanced students, and my mentor to bounce ideas back and forth! It proved to be helpful!I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions from anyone! Or, if you have any questions!
 * Reflection 10**
 * 1.25.11**

New unit! Online literature Circles :) Check out our wiki page for my 7th grade reading class at EVMS. [|www.readingissocial.ecs.wikispaces.net] The students have really been engaged, interested in their novels, and interacting with their peer online! We'll see how it goes, but so far it's going well.
 * Reflection 11**
 * Week of 4.11.11**

The first week has passed and I'm pretty happy with the progress and the success the students have been having. Their book pages are coming along and the discussion boards seem to be on fire. Today, their task was to post a higher level question for their peers to answer and then respond/answer one of their peers. While we're in class it is fun to hear them answering their own questions, reading posts, and seeing the development of the wiki.
 * Reflection 12**
 * 4.15.11**