Mrs. DuBose’s Class: AdVeNtUrEs iN ScIeNcE

Hey Super Scientist,

It’s BrainPop time. BrainPop is the only website around with over HUNDREDS of animated videos that you can watch to help you learn in reading, science, math, social studies, and more! Mrs. DuBose has a classroom subscription and we will meet Tim and Moby as they take us on adventures in different science topics. We will use the videos to help us introduce new concepts, review at the end of class, open up class discussions, and more. Lastly We will be using the online quizzes to to play quick review games in class to help assess your understanding. BrainPop also offers at-home science experiments, homework help, and much more.

BrainPop has offered some FREE videos that you can watch at home.
Check OUT the VIDEOS BELOW. If you feel like this is something that you want definitely, maybe ask your parents and see what they say. Hmm..you get learning and fun at the same time..What parent wouldn’t love it. Click HERE to check out how much a FAMILY subscription would be. It is quite AFFORDABLE. Of course, before you buy it, TRY the FREE 5 DAY trial. BE WARNED YOU WILL PROBABLY BE HOOKED after the 5 DAYS..

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?