Alana Dixon
Hahira Elementary School
Early Intervention Teacher
I feel as though I should begin by
sharing that I am an Early Intervention Teacher at my school. Every day I teach, remediate, and accelerate
kindergarten through fifth grade students in the subjects of math and
reading. In reading I teach in small
group and try to pull reading materials that support the science and social
studies curriculum presented in the “regular” classroom. I also incorporate trade books as much as
possible with my math instruction. I
felt I should share this because I did not want you to feel as though I was
being dishonest when I share ways I could use such a broad range of skills with
my students on so many grade levels.
Collette Bell
Hands on Geometry
The webinar presented by Colette
Bell dispelled several misconceptions of math in the early childhood
setting. She began the webinar speaking
of one of the major problems we are facing in education today. Many children enter our classrooms with a negative
outlook on math. This is often learned
at home. I feel like we are seeing this
more than ever with the implementation of the Common Core Curriculum. Many parents do not understand why “we” have
chosen to teach new strategies and mathematical thinking. I feel we must begin by educating parents and
being positive and encouraging when communicating these new ways of
mathematical thinking. We must then make
our classroom a safe place for discovery and understanding. There were a couple of activities that this
presenter shared that I feel would be beneficial with my students. The popsicle stick angles would be a great
assessment tool with my third graders and quick review with my fourth graders. I loved the velcro tip and plan on applying this
in the coming school year. Transparency
paper is a must when teaching geometry.
Lines of symmetry, flips, slides, and turns are much easier to
comprehend when the students can manipulate the shape. She had some wonderful ideas with the
transparency paper. At the end of the
school year I always try to introduce coordinate planes to my fourth
graders. The neighborhood map activity
would be a wonderful way to relate coordinate planes to concepts they are
familiar with. The use of the alphabet
to remember the order and placement of the X and Y axis is also a useful
tip. The was a great seminar with ideas
relative to the children I teach.
John Roberts
Properties of Heat and
Conductivity
Electrivity and Magnetism
This webinar followed closely with
third grade standards. Heat is one of
the shortest and in my opinion weakest units in the Georgia Third Grade Science
Framework. The presenter shared several
wonderful activities to demonstrate conduction, convention, and radiation. My favorite was the cotton string in boiling
water. This gives the students a
wonderful visual of the movement of heat through boiling water. I also loved his connection with heat and
weather patterns in our atmosphere. This
is a wonderful extension and great way to deepen the student’s
understanding. The homemade thermometer
is sure to be a hit with students because they can see a reaction to their very
own body heat. The balloon activity is
also very visible and a “big” change can be observed and I find that many times
it takes “big” changes and reactions to keep their attention and interest level
high. I cannot wait to try the penny
experiment with my kids. I will be
looking at literature to help tie it into my reading remediation and
acceleration. As always Mr. Roberts was
an outstanding presenter with wonderful ideas for keeping students excited
about science!
Eugenio M. Gant
Student’s Misconceptions
About Space Activities
Mr. Gant is
a wonderful presenter I was super excited to see that he was a presenter in the
webinar series! However, I have one complaint….
I was not able to participate in the make and take! J His flipbook about the seasons and the moon phases
was great. I also love the notes section
that he provided on the flipbook. I
loved that he used videos and handmade graphics to relay the concept of moon
phases and the Earth’s axis and how this affects the seasons. The lamp and styrofoam ball was great
concrete evidence of the moon’s phases. I
plan on locating a nonfiction trade book dealing with these topics and using
the flipbook as a way to organize the information within. This is a fourth grade standard so I am
excited about implementing.
Jacqueline Burns
The Progression of Fractions
It is
always a pleasure to attend one of Ms. Burn’s learning sessions. She has an amazing knowledge of content
standards and wonderful grade level appropriate ideas for implementation.
Fractions are a major component of the third grade math curriculum. Many of the students that I serve lack the
concrete understanding of what a fraction is.
The use of colored bars and tiles, number line (imperative for
understanding decimals in the fourth and fifth grade), and linking cubes were
great for developing understanding at the concrete level. I love that she allowed the students to come
to their own independent conclusion and then allowed them to explain their
thinking. This is so very important with
the rigor of math content today. I
firmly believe that if students can talk about and defend their thinking they
will gain a deeper understanding of the content at hand. In order for students to feel comfortable
sharing and defending their conclusions or answers, the classroom must be safe
and encouraging. This is one area that I
work very hard. Most of my students
struggle to grasp and master many of the basic skills in math and need to be
“built up” when they enter my room. They
need to be heard and they need to know that I value their opinions and
reasoning behind their thinking. I love
that she allows time for exploring where NO ONE is wrong. I could apply the activities Ms. Burns shared
to several grade levels by simply taking them to deeper levels as the intensity
of the standards and grade level increase.
This was a wonderful webinar!
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