Mrs. DuBose’s Class: AdVeNtUrEs iN ScIeNcE

As a teacher, we all have come to the aid of a student who has bullied and seen the hurt, stress, and anxiety that this causes. Even after severe disciplinary actions, sometimes the cycle still continues and we are left wondering what is left. After reading and watching “How to Stop a Bully”, I found the principal’s concept was unique and definitely came to the source of the issue-the bully.   The recent school shooting in Germany is a constant reminder of what can go wrong when bullying is not dealt with.  These were the 14-year old shooters last words

I’ve had enough. I’m fed up of this pointless life. Always the same. Everybody laughs at me. No one sees my potential. I’m serious. I have weapons and I will go to my old school in the morning and have a proper barbecue. Maybe I’ll get away. Listen out. You will hear about me tomorrow….

Check out the “How to Stop a Bully” video BELOW. To read the full article “How to Stop A Bully” click here

LEAVE A COMMENT..Share what do you think??

Hi Fellow Edubloggers,

Isn’t blogging AWESOME but a little frustrating!   Well to help you on your VOYAGE I have assembled some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQS).  The questions are answered from various resources such as Sue Waters the Edublogger, Wordpress FAQ section, and I Learn Technology.   If there is a question that you have that you want to be added to the HELPDESK, please let me know.

1. Choosing the THEME for you BLOG
2. Edublogs Basics
   
3. Difference Between A Post and a Page
4. 5 tips for WRITING POSTS
5. How Do I Upload Documents (.doc, pdf, .ppt)
6. How Do I Upload an Image
7. Uploading Pictures from Your Camera
8. What is a Widget
9. Using the Text Widget
10. Embedding Code into A Post
11. Creating Online Quizzes For Your Students
12. Embedding Video Into Your Blog
13. Adding A Voki to Your Sidebar
14. Adding A Voki to Post/Page
15. Ways to Incorporate Web 2.0 Into Science
16. Embedding Wordles into A Post

Are you a VISUAL LEARNER and need VIDEOS to help you learn better..

PAGE 2 IS FOR YOU!

Do you want your students to be more organized, increase their higher order thinking skills, and to be more engaged in their learning..WELL HERE’S THE ANSWER..
STUDENT INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS. I have been doing a lot of research into interactive notebooks in science. An interactive notebook (INB) allows students to have a personalized DIARY of learning about science. It is their own portfolio of work in ONE convenient spot. The INB also is a great ORGANIZATIONAL tool that gives students permission to be PLAYFUL AND CREATIVE in their responses without “messing up” your notes. The INB is a great model because it allows students to be like a REAL SCIENTIST. hen you will re-organize the information in some way that will help you understand it and remember it.

Setup
Students are given “input” (PLACED ON THE RIGHT SIDE) on from the teacher in the form of teacher guided notes, lab procedure, reading articles, etc and expected to re-organize the information in some way that will help you understand it and remember it. This is called processing. The best part of processing is it allows students to tap into their CREATIVE side. One of the most important part about the “output” (PLACED ON THE LEFT SIDE) on the left side is the use of COLOR which allows students to remember and make connections. To learn more about interactive notebooks click

Resources:
http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/
http://sciencenotebooks.org/

Discussion Question: If you have incorporated INBs in your class, what has your experience been like. Do you have any samples of student work to share?

Do you want a cool way to tell about things that interest you. Here’s mine.  I thought it was pretty fun.  Well, Wordle is a [software program] for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share..(remember though that all information is PUBLIC so do not put anything you DON’T want others to see)

Ways to use in class…

• use as a wordsplash and have students guess what the new unit is about
• give students a Wordle and have them try to ascertain what a news article is about
• as an end of unit review where students choose the most important words
• beginning of the year activity where students create something about themselves
• for literature, have students pick a character and then chose adjectives.  The more prominent character traits would appear BIGGER & BOLDER

These are just a few I could think of….

DISCUSSION:Do you have anymore that you can think of??

While browsing the internet for some parent resources, I came upon an interesting new tool for parents called “Handipoints“.  The basics are that many children like working on computers or in the virtual world. However, many don’t particularly like doing chores.  So here comes Handipoints which is a online virtual world where children can keep chart the completion of chores in a fun and engaging way and parents can track how their kids helped out around the house.  The big kicker is that if the child successfully completes activities (such as cleaning their room, taking out the trash, or even brushing their teeth and eating an apple), they gain either of two types of points: so-called “handipoints” that can be redeemed for real-world items such as Nerf guns and toys; and “bonus points” that can be used to buy virtual goods in the online world. Parents determine which type of point, and how many of them, is rewarded for good behavior.   So if your Johnny or Jamila  hates doing chores but loves the computer, you might want to give Handpoints a shot to give that gentle LOVING nudge.

Discussion Question:Which side are you on..Do you think it is a great idea and helps kids develop responsibility or do you think it teaches kids that they have to get a reward in order to do something? 

Through MiddleSchoolScience Yahoo! Group one of our members sent us a link to this great post.  While on there I found two great post that have great use in the classroom..

50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers

By Alisa Miller

Blogging is becoming more and more popular in the classroom. Teachers can blog to stay in touch with parents and students or they can incorporate blogs from all of the students as a learning tool. The beauty of the student blog is that children from Kindergarten to high school can blog. No matter how you use blogs in your classroom, these tools will help you get started, enhance your experience, or bring the students into the fun.

50 Ways to Go Green in the Classroom

By Heather Johnson

Most of you teachers are wrapping up the school year, but we have an important homework assignment for the summer. Can you think of 50 different ways to go green in your classroom starting this fall? Don’t worry: we really want you to enjoy your time off, so we came up with this little cheat sheet to help you and your students make a pact to make more eco-conscious choices and take real steps to saving our planet.

How would you use any of these IDEAS in your classroom? Please share..

An excerpt from the blog

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, an independent private foundation in North Carolina, will support $25,000 in inquiry-based science and mathematics projects through DonorsChoose.org during the 2008 / 2009 school year.

These funds are only available to North Carolina teachers, so take advantage of this opportunity and submit your project today! All eligible projects will automatically be considered. See the sticky-notes below for a few project ideas that would qualify for Burroughs Wellcome Fund support.

Have fun requesting creative, hands-on resources to support your math and/or science instruction!

This summer I have really been focusing on improving my understanding of inquiry in the science classroom. I found an awesome NSF resource:  Inquiry Thoughts, Views, and Strategies for the K-5 Classroom.  I found a particular section of the article very interesting below is an excerpt for the article.

A number of years ago, the Exploratorium Institute for Inquiry created an activity designed to help teachers identify the characteristics of different types of hands-on science instruction. Using a simple, readily available material-soap foam-we created three activities intended to give teachers a feeling for three different methods of hands-on instruction:

• a guided worksheet activity,
• a challenge activity, and
• open exploration activity.

After reading the article, I was quite amazed at how my classroom mimiced the guided worksheet activity (basically) the cookie cutter labs.  I vividly remember hearing students saying “what result should we be looking for”, “well let’s just try to hurry along”, or talking about off topics not related to the science topic.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, my student had fun and enjoyed the lab but basically they were doing cookie cutter lab that required very little thought.  They learned just how to do the lab and get the results.My question to my fellow science teacher is to READ the article and tell me what type of classroom do you think you have and share your comments

I originally found this on the Middle School Science Yahoo Group website and was so amazed by it.  It is SO cool.  My husband couldn’t see it.  Jackie looked at and I asked her if anything was moving and she said no..she’s only 18 months  The power of optics is so cool. Enjoy.  I still can’t believe this isn’t moving.  To see more optical illusions go to Might Optical Illusions (awesome site).  Teachers this would be a cool site to talk about the importance of not always trusting our eyes

I love Teacher Tube because it’s just like Youtube except free of all the BAD stuff (totally educational). If your school blocks Youtube because of the adult content, then this is your solution.

As stated by Jason Smith (the founder of Teacher Tube )

TeacherTube’s goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

With TeacherTube, community members can:

• Upload, tag and share videos worldwide.
• Upload Support Files to attach your educational Actvities, Assessments, Lesson Plans, Notes, and Other file formats to your video.
• Browse hundreds of videos uploaded by community members.
• Find, join and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests.
• Customize the experience by subscribing to member videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists.
• Integrate TeacherTube videos on websites using video embeds or APIs.
• Make videos public or private – users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with those they invite.

Most importantly, TeacherTube community members are a major part of the evolution of the site. Members are encouraged to not only upload educationally relevant videos, but also to make constructive comments and use the rating system to show appreciation for videos of value to one as an educator or learner. TeacherTube is truly an example of Web2.0

Have you used the Teacher Tube in an interesting and purposeful way for SCIENCE?