Students from Julian entered the contest this year and learned so much! Besides developing writing skills, we experimented with various technology programs and reviewed virtually every subject area. And we learned so much from each other! The awards presentation will be on May 30th at the Huntington Beach Library and Cultural Center. Come see the winners and be inspired to enter next year!
This site is great for learning about the many different reading strategies. This site has a lot of learning activities for beginning readers. Students can listen to stories to learn vowel and consonant sounds, practice their ABC’s and lots more. This site has a variety of popular children’s books read by different actors that students can listen to. It’s a great way to provide students with a chance to be read to by many different people. This is a fun way to learn how to type correctly on a keyboard. This is a fun game where you get to see how many words you can make using a larger word. This game helps you practice spelling different words. This is a great tool to use to create collaborative reading and writing projects and much more. Kids can create and share online stories, greeting cards, pictures and even animated movies with this tool. This site allows you to create your own comics using either your own photos or the clipart and images provided on the site. Students can upload their own writing to this site and read stories uploaded by other students as well. Each month a student story is selected and then turned into an animated movie and featured on the site. This site allows students to create their own online picture books as well as explore books that have been created by other users. You can embed your finished products in different websites and blogs once you are finished. is another tool that allows you to write, publish and embed your on book online. You can also order a print copy of your book for a price. is another online publishing tool with an interesting twist. This site allows you to upload your story or book and then sell it either as a printed book that people order or as a download. They set the publishing price and you decide how much above that price you want to charge. You can actually make money by publishing your writing! This site has a great collection of children’s picture books that you can view in full color online. You can embed the books in your own website or blog and virtually flip through the pages whenever you like. This site allows you to create a virtual bookshelf where you can keep a list of recommended books for others to see. You can see what other people are reading and recommending as well. is an online version of the popular Inspiration tool. The one big difference with this online version is that you can easily collaborate with others to create maps and other graphic organizers. is a tool designed for 1st-4th grade students to help generate ideas for stories and guide them in their writing. when it comes to finding ways to reinforce concepts from across the curriculum. allows you to create your own list of spelling words for your students to use to test and prepare for the ever popular spelling test…or celebration that takes place in elementary classrooms across the country each Friday. has a variety of interactive games to help kids learn and practice reading and writing skills. is one of the many online cartoon/comic strip creation tools that students can use to make their own comic strips about a wide range of topics. is a great tool for helping kids practice different reading skills. Kids get to play a variety of games that feature different PBS characters and you can even track their progress to see what they have accomplished.Here are some sample books embedded from LookyBook and Big Universe.
In this game you have to find the pattern to open the safe. This is a fun adding game. In this game you have to solve the math problem in order to keep the alien spaceship from attacking. This site has different tangram puzzles that you have to solve. This game is like Tic Tac Toe but you have to identify shapes to make 4 in a row. It works best to play with a partner. This site will help you practice counting money. In this game you drag coins to a cup to equal the amount shown. is a series of videos each of which first presents a problem and then goes through the process of solving that problem. has a great selection of resources for math, science and social studies that are geared towards middle and high school students. The material is arranged much like a multimedia textbook with narrative videos, timelines, images and more. from the Fun Brain site is a nice collection of math games for 1st-8th graders.This is a great site to help kids learn about simple machines and be able to identify simple machines in everyday life. is much like Google Earth but it provides images of the moon instead. You can find information about the different Apollo missions that landed on the moon and see pictures that were taken during those missions. allows you to learn more about volcanoes by creating your own volcano and watching it erupt. has an interactive diagram of the rock cycle that you can use to learn more about the different types of rocks and how they are formed. has some neat scientific mysteries for kids to solve that include animations, photos, explanations and more. Check it out and see if you can help Rex the Dino solve some mysteries. provides you with the chance to see what happens to different objects when you heat them up and cool them down. to see a variety of cartoon animations that help to explain solids, liquids and gases and their different properties. is a great site to help students learn more about different types of animals and their various characteristics. Students can design their own animal and even download an image of it to their computer. provides access to a wide range of modules on different science related topics. Each module contains images and videos pertaining to the targeted topic or concept. The modules download as complete Power Point files that you can use and modify as needed. is a YouTube style site that is focused on student created science videos. Students can upload their videos, watch and comment on the videos of others and even enter contests with their videos. The site is monitored for appropriate content. is a great tool to use to help middle school students better understand physics. You use a variety of tools to build different contraptions in order to accomplish a pre-determined task. has a great selection of resources for math, science and social studies that are geared towards middle and high school students. The material is arranged much like a multimedia textbook with narrative videos, timelines, images and more. is an alternative to Google Earth that doesn’t need to be downloaded but still allows you to do many of the same things such as search for different locations and view them as a map or satellite image. is a tool you can use to create geography-based quizzes or scavenger hunts for students. You can create clues and tag the answers to different locations on the map or even have students create their own maps. can be used to create virtual tours of different geographical or physical locations. You can upload your own images to use in a tour add comments at each stop of the tour and much more. is an online timeline creation tool that students can use to learn about sequence of events and to create their own timelines. is another online timeline creation tool where you can include images, videos and text in your timeline. You are also able to embed your finished timeline and share authorship with others so that they can add events to is as well. is one more timeline tool to check out. provides many different map and geography based quizzes that you can use with students. simulation allows students to travel along the same trail with the famous explorers and learn about their trip. allows you to create your own online travel journal complete with images and embedded videos. You can plot your route across the map and create a trip representing all sorts of journeys. has a great selection of resources for math, science and social studies that are geared towards middle and high school students. The material is arranged much like a multimedia textbook with narrative videos, timelines, images and more.It seems incredible that I haven’t written since February. Once I got behind, I just couldn’t catch up and I didn’t want to leave anything out. In retrospect, that seems ridiculous. So now we are getting ready to start a new school year and I’m not even going to try to catch up. We’ll just start where we are.
This has been a busy summer for me. I attended the NECC 2008 conference in San Antonio where I was inundated with information and products. I’m still getting floods of calls/emails from vendors that want to sell me something. In spite of all that, it was instructive to see what other educators were doing all over the country. They say 18,000 were there. I believe it! Some sessions were too crowded to get in, but the great thing about this conference is that they archive a lot of the sessions online. So I will continue to learn/attend throughout the year.
NECC 2008 in San Antonio
Then a few weeks after returning from NECC, I attended the Discovery Education National Institute in Silver Springs, MD, just over the river from the capitol. That was an incredible experience. The Discovery people prepared an action-packed week of activities and sessions. I learned so much and am still processing the tips and tricks and figuring out ways to implement the training this year with our students. One thing I am sure of: we have not used Discovery Streaming to its capacity and I want to take advantage of that valuable resource this year. In the coming weeks, I will be passing on as much as I can for you to implement with your children.
Rube Goldberg machine in Discovery lobby
Dinosaur in Discovery lobby
Has your child danced today? Invented something? Painted? This morning I listened to an interesting presentation given in 2006 at the TED conference by Sir Ken Robinson. You can view it here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66. Aside from being very entertaining, this “creativity expert” discusses how schools “educate people out of creativity.” You don’t have to do that to your children! You have a major role in finding your child’s unique talents and cultivating them. Unlike many public school teachers, you and your child have the gift of time. While you may feel the pressure of the curriculum and all you need/want to accomplish by the end of the year, you are in charge! Make time for dancing!
This year there is something new at Julian for parents: Professional Learning Community Forums! I think I talked to you about these at our monthly meetings, but if not, they are meetings grouped around specific topics in our school. They occur every five weeks in Murrieta at the meeting center (and sometimes in San Diego). While this is our staff meeting and the room is filled with EF’s, we are aware that parents are doing the bulk of the teaching and need support. For that reason, the 1:10–2:00 time frame has been opened to you. Sessions have included: educational technology, student motivation, personalized education, an art project a day, keys to success for math, direct instruction for struggling readers. The leadership team at Julian is interested in your reflections on these sessions and is conducting a survey to get your views. You can find it on the school web site. In what areas do you need help? This is your chance to have a voice. Speak up!
A number of Julian teachers recently attended the CUE conference in San Diego and we were able to gather at our staff meeting to talk about those ideas that had the most application to our particular world. Most of you homeschool educators have heard me talk about these ideas, but if you haven’t, just ask! My hope is that next semester I can have a few sessions where you can learn how to use some of the technology tools to make your child’s education more creative and fun. In response to the request of the teachers in this meeting, here is what we discussed.
“If you’re not networking, you’re not working,” or you are as strong as your strongest link. This has been a revolutionary idea for me. When budget constraints eliminated our professional development funds several years ago, I was very upset as I felt the classes I took really added to my performance as a teacher. While I would still like those funds back and appreciate having the money to take classes or attend conferences, Web 2.0 has changed how I approach professional development. I can frequently learn new tricks by “tuning in” to the movers and shakers of the ed tech world. NECC holds a national conference every year and the handouts from the sessions are archived for a year on their web site. You can learn a lot just by reading the handout! Sites like twitter.com allow you to be proactive. If you don’t know something, ask, and someone will probably answer! Web 1.0 is a powerful resource for teachers and students but the information moves from publisher to consumer, is read only and is not interactive. Web 2.0 makes it as easy to create as to consume. Anyone can publish, share or exchange information.
Free software for creating digital stories or projects is available. Highly recommended is audacity, photostory and moviemaker. All are PC friendly so you can use your work computer. All that is needed is a microphone. A great source for learning these programs is ilife4windows.wikispaces.com.
Google continues to develop new and useful tools for educators. One teacher has developed a site to feature google “lit trips” where a book is studied and the places in the book are “pinned” into googleearth with commentary (googlelittrips.org). Googledocs was discussed as a way to edit documents online with a collaborative group. It saves time and energy.
Both blogging and podcasting were discussed and samples of programs available were displayed. There are a few available on our school web site right now, but wouldn’t it be great if we could see what everybody is doing in our school?
We discussed the virtues of unitedstreaming and developing a way to share our lessons. There is no reason we should duplicate our efforts. Free professional development is also available through unitedstreaming. Becoming a DEN educator is another way of expanding your reach and learning new applications.
For those of you who signed up for The Nutcracker, remember to be at the front of Cerritos Performing Arts Center by 11:05 and gather around the Julian sign. They will not seat us until we are all there, so everybody is depending on you to get there on time. Please review with your student the following so they can better appreciate the performance. Content is taken from the curriculum guide prepared by the Friends of Arts Education at the Cerritos Center.
The story…It is Christmas Eve. Maria and her brother Fritz are anticipating with excitement and impatience the celebration that will take place in their beautiful home in Frankfurt. They are wondering if all their guests will come despite the snow storm. Maria is especially concerned about their godfather, Papa Drosselmeyer. The godfather arrives late and brings with him extraordinary presents among which is an unusual nutcracker that turns out to be a young, handsome prince. Thanks to Nutcracker, Maria is freed of undesirable guests, the mice, and travels to a world of magic and enchantment with her prince. They are greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy, and entertained by acrobats and dancers from all over the world! Was it just a dream? What do you think?
The story of the story…The history of the Nutcracker tale is as rich as the story itself. Nearly two centuries ago, in 1815, the German writer E.T.A. Hoffman published a story called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, telling how a little girl’s love brought to life her cherished Nutcracker, an enchanted Christmas gift from her mysterious godfather. In 1847, the French writer Alexandre Dumas published a retelling of Hoffman’s story. From this adaption, the Russian composers Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and choreographer Lev Ivanov created their ballet, The Nutcracker, which was first performed in St. Petersburg in 1892. Why has The Nutcracker remained so popular throughout the world? As the story explains, “if you love something very much, it is always alive.”
Writing application: Do you have a toy or an object that you love so much you wish it would come to life? If so, describe how you imagine that experience. What conversations would you have with that come-alive object? What in your world would surprise your come-alive object? What would you do on your first day together? (Many of my students (particularly boys) have loved The Indian in the Cupboard books which follow this pattern. ) Non-writers can draw a picture of the object and dictate a story.
The last few weeks I have been frothing around in the technology world. The last weekend in October was “Trick or Tech” in OC sponsored by Discovery Education and then the San Diego CUE conference the next weekend. So much to know…so little time. As a digital immigrant, I am trying to make the leap into what is natural for the natives that are your children. There are so many fun projects that can enliven your child’s education and promote creativity–blogs, podcasts, wiki’s, collaborative writing! Have you thought of your child making a movie about what he is learning in social studies? What about a podcast from the ancient Roman community you are covering? What about a book club where your child can interact with other students studying the same book? The publishing piece put in your child’s writing will push it to the next level! Let me know if you need help establishing a learnerblog to connect with this site so your child’s work can be viewed by the world!
Another thing I’ve been thinking about the last few days is an article I read regarding the Google culture and some of the aspects that make it unique. Today I can’t put my hands on that article, but here are some of their company principles taken from their web site:
I’ve been thinking about this in connection with homeschooling. My hope is your student has time to explore the ideas he/she is passionate about. While there is a place for textbooks, please don’t neglect following your child’s interest. Some of the best learning may happen outside of what you plan. Some of my most memorable moments in teaching were when my students led me “off topic” and we explored some area that interested all of us. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to follow those interests. So…enjoy your time with your student and take advantage of the gift of time.
This morning I checked out again the web site run by one of the mothers in the K co-op created by a visionary group of kindergarten homeschooling moms. If you haven’t seen it yet, visit soon! (www.nowkids.blogspot.com) The group meets once a week for social studies and is studying “Nations of the World.” The moms take turns presenting a country to the kids, including the flag, native plants and animals, a craft and any other interesting, identifying information associated with that place. Each child creates pages in their large scrapbook that describes the country and helps them remember. In traveling from home to home it is apparent the kids are retaining what they are learning with the prompt of their scrapbook. They are excited about what they are learning! One parent that presented the United States gave each child a great alphabet picture book about the states and a packet on one state containing material from state tourism bureaus. So not only are these kindergarteners getting a sense of the countries of the world, but all their different packets on the states illustrated the wide diversity of land forms, plants and animals across the United States. Another parent teacher brought money from the country so each child could mount it in their scrapbooks.
Speaking of this co-op, I am happy to report that three are active in my little world. I love the idea of parents taking charge of their children’s education and a co-op gives you the opportunity for complete ownership of the curriculum. You also get the advantage of many teachers. “Many hands make light work” and it is great to have your work load shared. The creativity of a group of minds always notches a classroom up; team teaching with like-minded instructors always works. It is also beneficial for your kids to have other eyes on them. Different eyes notice different gifts. Anyway, I salute you! You are doing a great job and bringing another dimension to homeschooling.
Since many of you are starting out with astronomy studies this year, I thought I would mention star parties. When I taught in Alaska, star parties were a popular part of the astronomy curriculum. Since in the winter it was dusky by 3:00 and pitch black by 4:30, you didn’t have to stay up late to have a star party. We also lived where there were fewer artificial lights to compete with the heavenly lights. The downside was the cold. We’d stage the star party near a warm house holding popcorn and steaming hot chocolate inside, so you could look for a while and then run inside and get warm.
All of that aside, there is a star party happening tonight at UCI, and you could have one in your backyard if you want to get up at midnight. Tonight there is going to be a total lunar eclipse. There is no better way to talk about an event like this than when it is happening and the kids get to see it. Worried about school tomorrow? If you do school at midnight, they can sleep in tomorrow! You can read all about it here: http://www.ocregister.com/news/moon-says-earth-1822563-color-comes. Also featured in this article is the meteor shower coming on Saturday. If your student does experience either one of these events, make sure you have him write about it the next day! And if all of this just sounds too “out there” for you, schedule a time to visit the Griffith Observatory this year. It has just reopened after a massive refurbishment program.
Another fun resource online is the NASA site: http://www.nasa.gov/. Look at both the “for kids” and “for teachers” pages for ideas for your astronomy study. I’ve also told many of my families about the book “Next Stop Neptune: Experiencing the Solar System.” Near the beginning of the book, the author, Alvin Jenkins, plots out a scaled solar system for you if the sun was the size of a basketball. “At this scale, the solar system is almost a mile and a half across, and all of its planets could be held in the palm of your hand.” One year the Brea co-op did a walk where parents had mapped out the relative distances of the planets from the sun. Those kids had a graphic picture in their heads that came from the ground up.
So…don’t call me early in the morning. I’ll be star partying tonight!
