Enrichment Activities:

1. Build fluency skills by choral reading poems.
2. Create a poem about someone you love.
3. Draw and write about a president you admire and appreciate.
4. Share poems with the class.
5. Identify rhyming words in the poems.
6. Locate and expand word families.
7. Practice penmanship by copying the poems in cursive.
8. Read different types of poetry.
9. Recite a poem to the class.
10. Write a response making a personal connection to the poems.

 This  week I continue to work on my game plan.  I have found all of information that I need.  It has been  challenge to schedule use of the smart  board as my campus only has one but my campus technologist has done a great job of accommodating me.  

I am going to work this week on fine tuning my action plan.  I will have to do several small mini lessons with my class until we are comfortable with a whole group lesson using the smart board. Then gradually using the smart board independently in a center.  

So far I have learned that my students are amazing.  I know that I need to set my standards high and give them clear goals to reach them and go beyond my expectations.  

Even though it's January, some of my third and fourth graders still frequently struggle with generating or brainstorming ideas on what to write about.  (We did do a "detour" from Lucy's plan and do expositiory writing for a while.  So, we're just getting back into the swing of narrative writing.)  I know part of the problem is that many of my students have so much to worry about every day that they see many stories in their life as being too old and therefore not relevant.  But I cannot do anything about that.

 In order to carry out my GAME plan, I will need several resources. I have contacted my Campus Technologist and requested assistance with setting up the smartboard in my classroom.  

I am doing a research project to receive my Masters.  The research project on what improves the reading and comprehension of students, particularly elementary school students.  I would appreciate a response to this survey.  Thank you in advance for your help.

What state is your school?

What is your gender?

What grade do you teach?

What is the average age of the students?

The classrooms you teach how many students have learning disabilities?

What are your teaching goals and methods?

What are your students' reading habits?

What are your reading comprehension strategies?

How do you give reading comprehension instruction?

  I am have only been teaching for five years.  The first four years I taught, I was in a first grade classroom.  It was a little easier to put an emphasis on technology when the students were older.   This year I am in Kindergarten classroom and I thought i would have my work cut out for me. After reviewing the National Education Standard for Teachers from the ISTE and have realized that I need to really work on some skill sets set forth in the standards. One area that I will constantly work on is ensuring that modeling digital-age work and learning.

I would like to ask teachers if they could complete this survey for a research class that I am writing a thesis.  Any help would be appreciated.  

Do you think that teaching comprehension strategies is important?

Do you think you have enough time to teach comprehension strategies?

Does your schools influence how you teach comprehension skills?

What comprehension strategy do you use in your classroom?

How effective is the strategy you use in the classroom?

What comprehension strategy or strategies do you find that are not effective?

Student is completely unable to read and understand text independently?  (What strategies or strategy creates this?)

 The Internet is a powerful tool. It can open new worlds, build new relationships, and inspire creativity in students. However, the Internet can also be intimidating.  When teaching Kindergarten students how to research on the internet, it is very important that we lay the foundation now and peak their interest in the world wide web.  The success of even our youngest students has become dependent on their ability to successfully search, navigate, and employ the Internet to fulfill a purpose.

In this course I explored a new, expanded definition of literacy for the 21st century. I evaluated my own 21st century literacy skills and determined how I can infuse the teaching of these skills into my content area curriculum.  

My post observation meeting with our Principal went well. I was a bit more critical of my launch than she was. She was supportive of the content and the way the lesson was launched. I did express my thoughts of possibly having too many teaching points and too long of a launch.