Helpful Classroom Websites

Boom writer: "engage students like never before" Teachers create a "story start" and students complete the story with their own twist, endings, etc. The students then submit their work and the teacher either approves or ask them to complete revisions. Once the story is finished, the students submit the story to the rating stage. Students are able to then access each others anonymous work and rate the stories. After voting, winners are announced and stories are then built upon to ultimately create books that can be read online or even purchased in soft cover form. This will encourage star students to perfect their writing, while engaging struggling students in writing creatively and independently. The site is free and available for all ages.

Classtell is a website designed especially for individual classes to create their own space. When accessing the site, students can check their homework or foresee future assignments. Students can even subscribe to the site, so that each time you make a post, they are notified via email. There is a blog, discussion form, calendar, place to upload documents, etc. If desired the teacher may even require a password to access the site so that people uninvited cannot see what is posted. This site is designed to make it especially easy for teachers to create a page for their individual class. The service is free with up to 1 GB of  space.

Boy Culture

Boys' culture isn't working in schools today. We have this stereotype of what we believe genders should be and are most interested in. The 100 girls statistics compare the number of girls with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, and behavioral problems to that of boys. The number of boys with each of these issues was consistently and significantly higher than the number of girls with the same problems. Why are boys facing these issues in staggering number compared to girls? First off, teachers seem to have a "zero tolerance" policy that doesn't allow boys to express themselves in ways that most interest them. Teachers seem to believe that boys interest in blowing things up, rough housing, and guns deems them to be inappropriate and in dire need of psychological help. Secondly, there aren't any men teaching elementary school children. Boys do not see men in their classrooms and ultimately conclude that it must not be a place for boys. Lastly, we have a compression of curriculum that requires students to learn in Kindergarten what they used to learn in second grade. The pressure that is placed on teachers doesn't allow active students to express themselves....at all. So what can we as future teachers to help this crisis? We need to throw ourselves into boys culture! First, we can design better games that will rival those that boys are interested in. We need to change our zero tolerance policy and allow boys to be boys in order for them to not lose interest in classwork. Gaming shouldn't be looked down on by educators, but embraced and used as a tool instead. As educators, we should do everything in our power to reengage boys in school, and to do so, we MUST embrace boy culture...and not ignore, deny, or belittle it for one more second.

Movie Maker

When I read the directions for our Movie Maker project and discovered that we were supposed to tell a story, I decided to share a little bit about my short lived career as a pet groomer. While the process isn't rocket science, it is an art form that requires an essential order of things. Secondly, I'm sure that most girls in my class have a dog and half of them probably have their dog groomed, so here is a sneak peek of what your pampered pooch will endure at each visit to the doggy groomer. Enjoy!

Webpage

https://sites.google.com/site/msrushings1stgradeclass/home

Cyberbullying

In today's society it is far to easy for people to cowardly sit behind a computer screen and "diss" other people online. Being able to bully someone without consequence has become easier than setting up the account in order to do so. While there is so much emphasis placed on blocking children from online social networking sites, there is little attention paid to teaching them how to use such sites appropriately. While cyber bullying, children may not understand how negatively their comments may be effecting others. They should be shown stories of tragedies that have taken place simply because of this new way of bullying. Without being held accountable or shown why cyber bullying is such a terrible thing to do, children will unfortunately continue to bully and be bullied online.

Voki

Weather Concept Map

Weather

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-clouds.htm

I. Temperature

•You can tell the temperature by counting the clicks a cricket makes in 15 seconds and adding 37!

A. Celsius

B. Fahrenheit

II. Clouds

A. Cumulus

Clouds that appear to be convective to one another when they are formed in the sky. These clouds appear circular and are one of the 2 main types of clouds. Cumulus are puffy mid-level white clouds made of water and ice, usually associated with fair weather.

B. Stratus

Clouds that appear to be layered when they are formed in the sky. This is one of the 2 main types of clouds. These consist of water droplets and cover most of the sky with an even, gray color similar to a fog, which can signal light rain.

III. Wind

http://www.kids.esdb.bg/wind.html

A. Heats up the earths surface

Sun heats up the air, which produces wind that heats mostly the air closest to the earth's surface.

B. Makes Electricity

1. Wind Turbine

Best way to produce energy using the wind. It is made of propellers and attached to a tall tower. Just one can create enough energy for a single house. They are good because they are pollution free but some people find their loud noise unappealing.

2. Wind Pumps

A windmill that pumps water into various sources. It can be used to create clean water for drinking or to irrigate farm land. 

IV. Air

A. Stratosphere

15 km 50 km above the earth. This is where jet planes fly and there is no way to breathe here. That is why jets are sealed closed and filled with air so that passengers can breathe.

B.  Troposphere

The lower layer of the atmosphere and is 15 km high. This is where the clouds are formed and it is very difficult to breathe here because the air is so thin. Example- the top of Mount Everest.

V. Rain

A. Fun Facts

There is so much water in the air that if it all fell as rain at the same time, it could fill enough buckets to reach from the earth to the sun 57 million times!

•One inch of rain over one square mile equals to 17.4 million gallons of water.

The weight of one inch of water over one square mile equals over 145 million pounds.

B. How Forms

Water droplets form from warm air. As the warm air rises in the sky it cools. Water vapor (invisible water in the air) always exists in our air. Warm air holds quite a bit of water. When enough of these droplets collect together, we see them as clouds. If the clouds are big enough and have enough water droplets, the droplets bang together and form even bigger drops. When the drops get heavy, they fall because of gravity, and you see and feel rain. Since its often hot and humid in the summertime, it rains more then.