Library Visit

Last Friday we visited the SPC library to learn more about researching our field - education.

The librarian was very helpful and very knowledgeable, and was able to give us a great tutorial on how to use the library website to our advantage.

Some of the most useful things I learned were:

1. How to access Ebooks.  It is so easy to Google random articles for a research project, but being able to use books that are available online and are written by actual teachers and published by academic institutions is so much more credible and valuable.  I will deifnitely be using this source for furture research, especially since it is available from home computers simply by logging in.

2. There are books available to Elementary Education teachers.  It might be a small section, but knowing that there are books that can be used for lesson plans, reference and activities for younger children in a college library is an extremely important thing to know.  It is also nice to know that the library is expanding what they have for education students.

3. PRAXIS study material is available.  This was very exciting for me, especially since I am takin the PRAXIS in November.  Buying books can be so expensive, and it's very useful to know that the library provides these study tools.  Can't wait to start looking at them.

Our visit to the library proved to be very productive......... I can't wait to start taking advantage of all the resources available to me.

Effective Questioning

Effective Questioning is an important part of evaluting students' knowledge  and stimulating students to think comprehensively as well as apply their knowledge and experience to what they are reading.  When reading, students should not only be understand how they are reading, but WHAT they are reading.  Why is it important?  Varying the types of questions posed to students is very important if teachers want students to be thorough and disciplined readers and writers.

Effective Questions:
1.  How was Stellaluna separated from her mother?
2.  Describe what happens when Stellaluna first meets Pip, Flitter and Flap.
3.  How is Stellaluna different from the birds?
4.  Have you ever felt different?  How did you deal with it?
5.  Write about the main message you think Stellaluna portrays.

StellaLuna Wordle

I LOVE MAKING WORDLES!!! These are wayyyy to much fun to make.  Even though this was one was aa bit more tedious than the first one we did, I definitely think that it was worth it.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4179195/Stellaluna

Glogster.com

Well, here goes nothing.  I've been working on my Glog all day and I think I finally got it!  It's been tough for me to figure this out, I've never been great with formatting and creating things on the computer and all that, but I definitely found this to be great practice, as well as a great way to learn how to incorporate technology into a lesson.

I got pretty frustrated at times, trying to figure out all the settings and options I could use, but as Dr. Luongo mentioned, this is exactly how students will feel when trying new things, so it was definitely a learning experience.

http://steeniebean.glogster.com/glog-3133-9640/