Ideas for Science Fair

If you are having trouble thinking of an experiment look online and see what other things people have done in the past. I have many books in the room that also have some fun experiments. Think of what you find is interesting and what to learn more about as a starting point. This will make the activity more enjoyable for you!

Homework for 2/28

Don't forget to bring library books for tomorrow.
Study for Vocabulary test.
Start getting ideas for science fair next month.

Information Literacy Assignment

I decided to search for weather activities for elementary students because this is a common subjects that needs to be taught. When I just typed in weather activities there were a lot of sites but once I typed in classroom activities on weather I got some better sites. One that seemed to be especially good was http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/teacher_resources/activity.html This site seemed to have information on a lot of different weather related topics. It also gives explanations for the teacher and has fun hands on activities for students. It also gives the national standards that it teaches.
This lesson helped me learn to be more specific when I search and also how to use quotation marks and plus and minus signs and what their purpose is.

Rss Feeds

I think that Rss feeds can be very helpful in a classroom. Not only can I use them for myself to gain new information about teaching strategies but I can also use then to keep my students up to date on current news. I can have my students subscribe to a feed like BBC and have them do assignments on certain stories or just to bring them in to discuss them. I can also have a feed myself to keep students up to date about what we are doing in class when they are home or if I have posted something new. This will also help parents who don't have time to go to a website or read their email. I could use it as a quick reminder for students and parents about assignment, or upcoming events.
I think some RSS feeds that are important for me to have as an educator would be something like the NY times education section in order to stay up to date about breaking education news and also the RSS feed for my school district so I would know what was happening. Also a feed from science sites could be helpful as well.

Social Bookmarking

I looked at Furl and compared it to Delicious. It seemed to be pretty much the same. They both allow you to save articles and to group them so you can easily find them. In Frul you can comment on a article and also just clip a certain portion of a website. One cool thing is being able to rate a site or article. You can also get an RSS feed about other people and what they are bookmarking. I think it is really cool that you can comment on others articles too.
I think this could be a good tool for the classroom but it would take a lot of time to put it all together. If you need students to look at particular websites then they can see the ones you choose for them. For younger students that is a great feature because you can limit what they are seeing and make sure they are getting the information you want them to know. This is also a good way to assign research for homework. Students can see what you want them to look at and not waste time looking at bad sites that are too complicated or too simple. I also think this is a good tool to use as a professional because I can bookmark lesson plans I find even if I can not use that particular plan at that time. I can also get feedback from other educators.