NJAET 2006 Fall Conference

The New Jersey Association for Educational Technology will be holding its annual Fall conference on Monday, October 9th and Tuesday, October, 10th at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey. This year's theme is "Are We There Yet? Digital Immigrants or Digital Natives?"

I will be presenting a session on Tuesday on classroom assessment resources. You can access some of the materials and resources I have gathered for the session by going to Online Resources for Classroom Assessment.

Hope to see you there!

Substitute Teachers: Great Resources

Substitute teacher. That was me for a short time. After becoming a classroom teacher, I was fortunate enough to have two people who often substituted for me who were both caring teachers with a professional attitude. I had a successful working relationship with each person because we worked hard at detailed, two-way communication.

If you are a teacher, the links below will serve as a guide in providing the important information a substitute needs to be effective in your absence. If you are substitute teacher, you will find resources and ideas to help you be well-prepared. These plans will be especially helpful to you for one of those inevitable days when a classroom teacher for one reason or another, does not leave clear or adequate plans for you.

The best place to start is the NEA's website. Six categories of resources for both classroom teachers and substitute teachers are offered on the Substitute Educator's Resources page.

Jefferson County Public Schools' resource page on Creating A Substitute Teacher Packet guides classroom teachers to prepare information for a substitute. Time Fillers, also from Jefferson County Public Schools, offers good ideas for substitute teachers as well as links to other substitute resources. Classroom teachers might find a helpful idea or two in the list as well. As an alternative, Scholastic's simple and straightforward Substitute Teacher Information Sheet can help a teacher provide some of the basic information a substitute needs.

Education World provides substitute teacher resources in their Substitute Survival: Mini Lessons for Unexpected Moments lesson plan article. Suggestions and more general resources for a substitute teacher can also be found at Education World's Substitute Survival: Tools You Can Use page.

Publishers offer free sample chapters from their books written for substitute teachers. Download the National Council of Teachers of English's sample chapter from the Substitute Teachers' Lesson Plans for meaningful writing activities for grades 7-12. These writing activities stand on their own and offer something beyond the busy work sometimes left for older students. For Grades 3-5, download these sample pages from a book for substitute teachers from Scholastic's Substitute Teacher Resource Book (Item # NTS944411).

Do you have any suggestions for substitute teaching? Comments and suggestions are welcome.


Clip art from Discovery School at http://school.discovery.com/

Bulletin Boards and Classroom Displays

Need a few fresh bulletin board ideas? Check out Gigglepotz Bulletin Boards. Another good list of bulletin board ideas comes from Kathy Schrock and can be found at her Discovery School Bulletin Board Ideas page.

Don't miss the long list of creative ideas from Kim at Bulletin Boards from Kim's Korner. Clayton County Public Schools also offers a list of ideas on their Bulletin Board Ideas: School Starts! web page.

Tuck this idea away for the end of the school year: let your class create a "Welcome" Bulletin Board for next year's class. Sounds like a great activity for the last days of the school year!

Do you have any ideas to share about bulletin boards or classroom displays? Comments are most welcome.

Photo Call Number: X-6403 from the Denver Public Library, Colorado Historical Society, and Denver Art Museum

Planning the First Days Back to School

Rural school near Milton, North Dakota, 1913 : Miss Margaret McKay, teacher. Image from the Library of Congress: Digital ID ndfahult b369

If you are already starting to plan the coming school year, or if you want to find some inspiration for something new this year, try some of these "Back to School" ideas:

MiddleWeb's Back to School for The New Middle School Teacher has a long and interesting list of links for The First Days of Middle School. I enjoyed reading through the discussion about the A Million Words... idea that is suggested as "A Wonderful Tool to Connect With Parents."

For younger students, the Responsive Classroom Newsletter features an article by a kindergarten teacher and offers her suggestions for the first days of school. You might also be able to use some of the Back to School Poems and Songs at the CanTeach website.

Education World offers several good resources for the first days. They have a Back to School Index including a list of Icebreakers and another good article with links on Planning for Your First Day at School.

As always, Kathy Schrock offers good Discovery School resources like the ones on the Back to School and End of Year Resources web page. Scholastic also provides Back to School icebreakers, activities and units. Take time to visit this extensive Blackwell's Best Back to School page of links to find templates, ideas, and more.

What are some of your favorite "First Days of School" activities? Please share some of your ideas or links to good resources.

Celebrate the 4th of July!

Parades, picnics, and fireworks! Catching a few fireflies in a jar and eventually letting them go. That's what I remember about celebrating the 4th in the small Midwestern farm town where I grew up. Find out more about the historical significance of our celebration of the 4th by taking a tour of these great online resources:

A Capitol Fourth - America's Independence Day Celebration from PBS is worth some exploration. Learn about the history, test your knowledge,and more. Have fun in the Fireworks and Fun section where you can find suggestions for how to take better fireworks photos and create a little fireworks animation with music. The Library of Congress offers us both Today in History: July 4th and the history of patriotic songs, lyrics, audio recordings, and links to more information about each of 27 songs at Patriotic Melodies.

To study and learn more about The Declaration of Independence, visit the Our Documents website The Declaration of Independence and NARA's website The Charters of Freedom: A New World is at Hand. To read more information on the signers, a history of the document, a timeline, and more, go to the US History.org site The Declaration.

For an important historical perspective by one of our country's most influential thinkers, read through a hard-hitting speech given by Frederick Douglass in 1852 called "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?".

The Read Write Think website offers the Myth or Truth: Independence Day Lesson Plan for Grades 3-5, and their Calendar Activity Page for all grades called "It’s Independence Day! Or is it?"

For a visual treat, see a terrific collection of old 4th of July postcards from an American University website.

A Few Summer Reading Resources

Bridge the summer reading gap with these websites packed with ideas to stimulate summer reading:

The Read Write Think website is a good place to start with their Calendar page of Summer Reading Ideas and Links. The Reading Rockets website offers some great ideas for parents in their 10 Weeks of Summer Reading Adventures for You and Your Kids.

Summer Fun from Education World includes links to Reading Lists, Activities to Keep Kids' Brains Active, and more. The Activities to Keep Kids' Brains Active suggests sending their list of interesting ideas to parents. It's an idea that you could use to keep in touch with your students and their parents during the summer. Or modify the idea by sending your own list of suggestions, websites, or reading list. PBS also offers suggestions to parents and links to resources for summer reading towards the end of the article.

Scholastic's Web Sitings: Summer Reading offers links to several libraries and other organizations, including a link to a large collection of Children's Books Online.

Gardens

Walk through a garden for inspiration, or visit one of these websites to find classroom ideas and resources with a garden theme:

The Harvest of History website from The Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, NY is packed with information about the history of farming and the sources of our food. The site is aimed at 4th grade students and has fascinating primary documents, video, and a video-maker.

The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens offers Garden Lesson Plans grouped by four categories: Reading Plants, Japanese Garden, Discovering Plants, and Seeds & Sprouts. Grade levels are suggested.

The Garden, an interactive section of National Geographic's Xpedition Hall, helps students understand the impact of industry on Japan's environment. Use this interactive experience and the four associated K-12 lesson plans and resources to teach how human actions modify the environment.

April is National Garden Month according to The National Gardening Association. Sample lessons plans and activity ideas from Math in the Garden are part of the Kids Garden News at KidsGardening.

How Does My Garden Grow?, a Grade K-2 lesson plan from Read Write Think uses interactive tools to give students experience writing in science journals.

Test Prep

Scholastic's No Pain, No Gain article offers good advice on how to prepare students for standardized tests. Find Reading and Math strategies, teaching tips, and ideas to reduce test-taking anxiety.

Check into The National Center for Education Statistics website to find National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) sample items by subject area. Click on a subject area, then click on the link for "sample items" found under "How the Assessment Works."

Internet4Teachers' Assessment page provides links for Pre-K to Grade 12. Organized by grade level, easy to use, and many resources for each grade level.

Glencoe Middle-school Mathematics Online Study Tools is organized by state. Click on your state, choose a textbook/subject area and course, and click on a quiz or test in the pop-up menu.

Houghton-Mifflin's Education Place presents kid-friendly test-taking practice for Math Grades 1-6. For Language Arts, Education Place also has Power Proof-Reading for Grades 2-8 and Grammar Blast for Grades 2-5

Use Time for Kids online for Reading Comprehension practice. Links to current or past issues for your grade level are just under the main title of the Time for Kids Teacher Page. Use the teacher guide to find follow-up activities for each issue. Look for the weekly quiz link for each issue. The quiz is ready to print, and can be "personalized" by changing the last two questions. Time for kids also offers these test prep materials

Test Prep with TFK 2005

Another Test Prep with TFK 2005

**Please note that although these two pages look similar when you open them, they have different materials linked to each page.

The National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy provides links to state assessment sites. Find your state's asssement site and search for "released items" from previous tests to provide additional practice for your students.

Photograph Credits: Elementary School Children Writing in Classroom. ARC Identifier 594263. National Archives & Records Administration. http://arcweb.archives.gov