Luddite No Longer

What is guided reading? Very simply, guided reading is small group literacy instruction. It's purpose it to provided  guided  instruction to students at their level with a focus on their specific needs. Like other centers, grouping is done based on an individual students needs at the moment, meaning groupings are fluid and constantly changing. The students I work with in my Blue Group on Fiction may not be in the same group when I switch to Nonfiction. How do you decide who is it what group? A variety of strategies can be used to determine who goes in what group. Primarily, I use the F&P levels as determined by the Benchmark Assessment (BAS) to determine my students reading levels. Next I think about other specific strengths and weaknesses: who reads independently, who works well together, what skills do we need to improve, what tools and strategies are missing in their toolboxes. I then use those strengths and weaknesses to build my centers for the week. What center

What is a digital native? A digital immigrant? In his article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1 , Marc Prensky identifies the new generation of students as "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games, and the internet. Prensky labels those of us who were not born into the digital world but have dabbled in it as digital immigrants. His article explains that teachers, as digital immigrants, have to adjust in order to teach their digital native students. This is not the first time I have heard of the digital immigrant vs. digital native argument, as a teacher of mostly K-3 graders I am significantly more advanced in years. My students were born in a different time, things have certainly changed since I was a Kindergartner. Students are now required to use technology at younger ages. Often times we assume they come to us with knowledge of technology and computers that they don't have. Yes, they maybe be digital natives but that doesn'

Today you are in for a real treat. I dabbled in podcasting and have created my first ever podcast! I know, I know, you are thrilled that you can now look forward to hearing my voice on yet another platform. I am pretty excited about podcasting and my new friend Audacity which helped me eliminate my stammering. Not sure about podcasting on a regular basis, but for a first attempt, it's not too bad. Enjoy! Khan and Bock:Talking about Videos in the Flipped Classroom

Hallo! Heute werde ich über Podcasting schreiben. This week I explored Podcasting and it's benefits and uses in the classroom. Podcasts are simply a series of episodes that you can stream or download. More often than not they are audio files but occasionally there are videos or documents to accompany the audio. Podcasts are commonly subscribed to and listed to on a weekly basis. Podcasts are a part of my daily life. As a commuter I spend three hours of my day in my car. Podcasts help the time go bye quickly and also help me stay up-to-date on what's going on in the world. Some of the podcasts I subscribe to are: Pop Culture Happy Hour , TEDTalks Education , Unqualified , and the one we will be discussing today: Coffee Break German . One of the harder parts of learning German is the grammar as it differs greatly from English. Verb placement and verb conjugation tend to be extremely difficult. Haben and sein , the verbs for to have and to be are particularly challeng