Posts Tagged teaching

Reading Aloud and Taking Notes

Feb 15

Posted by John Howell in literacy | No Comments

I love experimenting during my read aloud time. It gives me a chance to introduce a variety of genres to kids that they may not have otherwise picked on their own. In most cases, read aloud is one of the favorite times of the day for the students and it is for me too!

Today we started reading Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. We have a copy of this book on tape and I thought I would play the story and have the kids follow along with their copies of the book in hand.

In the midst of listening to the opening pages I grabbed a pen from the Smartboard tray and began taking notes. I drew boxes and bubbles to highlight the setting, and made lists of characters and added details to each as we discovered them.

Modeling this process and how I organized the main ideas and details of the story will certainly help my students do the same. The notes will provide a visual to help facilitate discussions, ask or answer questions, clarify misunderstanding, and strengthen their own understanding of the story.

One unintended consequence that just occurred to me is now I will have the ability to quickly review these notes each day before reading again.

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Tags: elementary, Mildred D. Taylor, Read Aloud, reading, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, teaching

Playing with the Smart Senteo

Sep 21

Posted by John Howell in smartboard, teaching | No Comments

Together we are smarter! After many discussions with fellow colleagues here is what I am up to with the Smartboard Senteo Response, which I like to call “clickers.”

Here is how it will work:

As the students enter the classroom they will find a 10 question assessment of the content we have been working with on their desk. Yes, it will be a paper copy. (More on that later) The remotes will also be on their desk so they can input their responses to the corresponding questions. I will have the assessment started on the Smartboard but students will not have to go through the questions one at a time as a class because they have the paper copy on their desk.

After all the students have finished we will look at the responses that were given using the beautiful graphs that are embedded into the Smartboard software. I can’t wait to see how it works.

I guess we need to add one more remote in this bunch.

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Tags: senteo, smartboard, teaching

Stopping by the Creek on a Sunny Day

Aug 4

Posted by John Howell in family | 1 Comment

“Gavin, do you want to go on an adventure in our creek?” I asked my 5 year old son with a great deal of enthusiasm.

“Yeah, we are going to the creek, we are going to the creek. I will get my old shoes so I can walk in the water,” he replied with an obvious abundance of joy.

Summer vacation for a teacher is that time to walk a bit slower, take random naps, travel to far off lands, and spend quality time with the family. Today was just another day on my summer vacation where we made our own fun around the house. Take a peek at some of our footage of Gavin and I documenting our adventure in the creek behind our house.

Come along follow me…

On our way to the creek Gavin spotted a white caterpillar so we stopped to investigate

Gavin was full of questions once we were down in the creek and I am so glad I brought the camera to document his enthusiasm. Here he was wondering why some parts of the creek were deeper than others and he grabbed a stick to measure the depth. Watch his accuracy when he measured the depth and then notice him counting out the inches to himself. Pretty cool

A visit to the creek would not be complete without crayfish.

The teacher in me kept asking questions and pointing out the small details of the fossilized rocks, the eroding banks, and the plants but I really didn’t have to do much but listen, really listen to Gavin and spend time taking note of those things he found interesting. However, there was one moment where I spotted a fern and thought I would help Gavin compare its leaves to the plants surrounding it, but he was obviously not interested. There was a large rock formation on the other side of the creek that was far more interesting. Kinda funny ~ the kids keep us real.