http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org Alice Mercer Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:08:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Civil and Human Rights are a social science standard in California schools, and December has Human Rights Day, so I did a quick unit with grades 4-6 about this important topic. It would foreshadow discussions of inalienable rights that fifth graders would have later in the school year when studying ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2008/04/10/examples-human-rights-unit/ Open Court, the language arts program in my district, uses a construct to tie together ideas from reading selections in a unit called the Concept and Question board. Mathew Needleman describes this as a "second cousin twice removed" to the K-W-L chart. I prefer to call it a Question and ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2008/04/10/examples-exploring-ideas/ My goal in this school year has been to take our school's computer lab to the next level. Here is a video I did about what happened in lab in the first half of the school year... Download Video: Posted by mizmercer at TeacherTube.com. http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2008/04/06/professional-skills-2008/ This year in computer lab, I changed how computer labs for teacher prep periods have been run at my school site. I have communicated with and sought input from the regular classroom teachers to align what I am teaching with their goals and themes. Below is the front page of the ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2008/03/19/professional-theory-2008/ I am a computer lab teacher at elementary level in Sacramento, CA. I teach students from Kindergarten to sixth grade. I see most classes in 45-minute periods two-times a week. The curriculum in my lab is directly tied to the grade level standards, and the inquiry themes they are studying ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2008/03/18/professional-experience-2008/ I participate in a number of professional development communities. In some, I'm a participant, in some I'm a facilitator, in most I play both roles. I participate in a semi-monthly Webcast (online radio show) at Ed Tech Talk, called It's Elementary. The show features four elementary educators discussing a topic on ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2008/03/15/professional-development/ At my current school, there is a pattern. Back to School night, because it is at the beginning of the school year, tends to be teacher directed. Open House is more kid driven. Here is what we did: First, we worked as a class to make this video: [swf width="400" height="320"]http://mizmercer.vodpod.com/widget/v/56686[/swf] [youtube]pFVRFeoFWko[/youtube] The students ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2007/04/21/open-house/ Not all curriculum comes from a textbook. I work in a district with no science text, but my students (fifth graders) are tested on this subject by the state. I have a number of resources (workbooks, science kits, online resources), but I have to bring it all together into a ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2007/04/09/sample-unit/ I use the curriculum and text provided by my school district, but my instructional goals are to follow the state standards, which the texts alone do not always meet. This means that I supplement the texts by asking more deeper questions. I also pay attention to the feedback I'm getting ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2007/04/08/basic-instructional-methods/ Much of my work in this area is built on personal relationships that I build with, and between my students. While technology assists me with this, it is grounded in relationships that are built face-to-face. First, I always work to have clear expectations and guidelines. These rules and procedures are taught ... http://amercerportfolio.edublogs.org/2007/04/08/building-a-positive-classroom-environment/