Flat Stanley Project

My lesson plan was designed into two parts, Part 1: From Saipan To (The Destination) to be completed by the students and sent with Stanley, and Part 2: From (The Destination) to Saipan, to be completed by the recipient and be sent back with Stanley to Saipan. After I had the students be introduced to Stanley by reading the book Flat Stanley, I walked through each step of completing the Part 1 section with the students. On the first day, I explained to the students the general purpose and layout of the project, and we started to work on filling out Question and Answers sheet about Stanley, assigned homework to take Stanley around for a day and keep a time log of what you did with Stanley the whole day, and created our Stanleys. On the second day, we completed our Stanley workbook by filling out the journal log, writing a friendly letter to the recipient and sealing our envelopes! The students were extremely hard workers and we were able to get everything done in two 90 minute class periods!:)

I absolutely adored the small yet talented 6th grade class of Ladera, and all in all we had a blast together making our Stanleys, interviewing each other, taking pictures and sending him out. The class also created a life-size Stanley (by tracing a first grade student on a big construction paper!) and hung it beautifully outside the classroom door (the first scene of the video). The students were very welcoming to me as "Ms. Judy," and although it was a very short time that we spent together, the small classroom environment made me feel like I was at home. So a quick shoutout of Thanks! and I miss you! to the wonderful 6th grade class at Ladera!

The next time in planning and guiding a Flat Stanley Project, I hope I can get to set aside a special time for the project all throughout the semester. Although we were able to get Stanley made and sent out in just two class periods, I feel that I could have integrated more Language Arts into the project in reading and writing about Stanley and his travels, and also would like to have sent Stanley to several different parts of the world.

Wow- I learned so much from this experience that I really don't know where to start! I think this Service Learning project ties in perfectly with the class as it deals with using technology directly in taking a log in your classroom, and I learned so much about video clips, YouTube, blogging, and other components related to this project through this Service Learning. I was only able to use a few, but I highly recommend for future students to integrate as much software and technology you can in completing this Service Learning project for a richer experience with technology for both you and your students. The Flat Stanley project itself is phoneminal - the idea of sending Stanley all over the world and having him sent back with letters, logs and pictures of his travels is a great way to get the students connected with the world, even from the tiny island of Saipan. This project definitely takes penpals to a next level, and I hope more schools will be able to join the project and help the students of the CNMI explore the world!:)

Click here to see pictures from the Flat Stanley Project.
The following is a video collaboration of the project.

My Weebly Portfolio

Here's the link to my first ever Weebly Portfolio!

judykim.weebly.com

Teachback: The Use of Digital Video and Media to Enhance Classroom Learning

Media Literacy is the key to success and survival in the 21st century, and as teachers of the Net Generation, we should all be very well be aware of the importance of Media Literacy. I placed the main focus of my presentation on the definition and highlights of Media Literacy based on information I was able to find on Center for Media Literacy website, an organization I found through using the MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource For Learning and Online Teaching) search engine. On enhancing classroom learning through digital video and media, I believe that if the teacher has a strong understanding of Media Literacy and has mastered different integrated ways to ensure his/her students are media literate, it will enhance learning in all classrooms.

In using SlideShare, I found it to be pretty convenient and self-explanatory. I first had some troubles uploading my PowerPoint Presentation due to its size, but after I was able to resize the Power Point, the process went very smoothly. There won't be anything in particular that I would want to do differently using this program in the future.

In a classroom curriculum, SlideShare will be very convenient in getting every student's Power Point Presentation available to all the students in the classroom even at home. Students can also access the teacher's Power Point slides on the daily lessons posted on SlideShare conveniently from their homes.

| View | Upload your own

Rubric Assessment Tool - Flat Stanley Project

The most important criteria for grading my students for their participation in this project is the friendly-letter writing part of the Flat Stanley Project, in which the students had to choose at least 5 different topics to discuss in the letter while also explaining the purpose of the Flat Stanley Project to the recipient. I hope that through this project, my students were able to gain a further understanding in the planning, writing & mailing process of a friendly letter, since the Net Gen students are no longer used to the proper use of snail mail after the traditional postal service has been replaced by e-mail.

Using a rubric is an excellent source in assessing students' work since it provides a clear, detailed explanation of what is expected from the students in the assignment. If the rubric is presented to the students in the beginning of the project, it will also act as an effective guideline for the students to follow as they are planning and completing the project. As for the teachers, the clear descriptions provided in a rubric will help the them stay focused on what they are looking for in the students, and not use any biases and/or mistakes in assessing their students' work.

I used Rubistar to create my rubric, and the website was extremely user friendly and convenient. It already had the basic criterias laid out for me to use, in my case letter-writing,

and it also made it available for me to make changes in the descriptions that they've provided to better suite our class project. One flaw in the website could be that the limited number of formats available online, but teachers can always create their own rubric using the format that is available on the website.

Flat Stanley Crossword Assignment

As future educators, we all know that the lowest level of retention in Bloom's Taxonomy is knowledge while the highest level of retention is evaluation. In learning the Excel program, retention at the knowledge level consists of arranging, defining, duplicating, recognizing, relating, and recalling the basic tools used in Excel - a form of teaching that can be easily found in any computer class. Yet, when Excel is taught in the context of teaching subject areas, teachers will choose and compare different tools, select the tools that they want to use, and plan the lessons based on predictios of the results of the lesson being taught. In another words, by implying Excel skills with the context of teaching subject areas, teachers will acquire the knowledge of Excel at the highest retention level, evaluation.

It is very important to keep parents well-informed with the latest updates of what is going on in the classroom because the parents should be as involved in classroom activities, environment, and student progression as much as their children are. Not only that, but sending weekly newsletters will allow the parents to be heads up on upcoming events and give them the adequate amount of time to plan with their children for these events. It's yet another usage would be in promoting good parent-teacher communication routes, allowing the parents to stay connected and in touch with the teacher on a regular basis without having to go visit them every week.

On the basis that students will be only required to fill out the crossword puzzle instead of creating one on Excel, I'm sure the students will be able to accomplish mastering the use of basic tools and commands on Excel, such as copy/pasting and typing in the type bar on top of the page. On vocabulary learning, the Flat Stanley project was a very weak source in providing challenging vocabulary words to the students, but if more challenging words is used in creating another puzzle, the Excel crossword puzzle will be an excellent source in assisting students learn their vocabulary words.

As I've said earlier, I would use harder, more relavant vocabulary words taken from the class history or science texts, and also connect the activity with a brief lesson on Excel and/or other activities dealing with the vocabulary.

Engrade / EditGrid

First of all, Engrade was definitely not a user-friendly program.
Not only did it not allow for me to sign up, but they were not responsive to the questions I've inquired about the problems I had in signing up. Although as a student, I found Engrade to be extremely useful in providing grades for the class. As for Edit Grid, it was very easy for me to use this Web 2.0 program as it is exactly like Microsoft Excel.

I think it will be great if Engrade was more efficient in providing the help and support their users might have, responding to feedbacks of its users.

When it does work, Engrade will be a very useful way for teachers to keep an accurate track of their students' grades, also an easy way for students to find out grades on a daily basis. Edit Grid is a convenient tool for teachers that may need a program like Excel that they can access anywhere, anytime.

If Engrade does not improve the efficiency of the user sign up process, there won't be much teacher/student users of the program left. On the other hand, Edit Grid is extremely easy to use as it is similar to Microsoft Excel, with easy accessibility from anywhere with Internet access.

Webquest Project

So, here's the Webquest Project!

http://instantprojects.org/webquest/webquest.php?AuthorID=12091

Carlynn and I had so much fun learning to use Webquest and also stretching our imaginations to create a fun, interactive, and educational Webquest Project for our students:)

In thinking of ideas for the theme of our project, we came across Carlynn's copy of Kid's World Almanac that had tons of exciting information available for children. After flipping through the pages, one section caught our attention - planets! And one of the greatest news in the planet section was the fact that since last year, Pluto is not an official planet!

We decided to choose Planets as our theme in order to guide our students in researching and gaining more detailed information about the planets, especially with the still not widely known recent updates of Pluto's ellimination from the planet group.

In following the detailed instructions and in researching for the answers to solve this Webquest, students will enhance their learning in aspects of gathering, analyzing, and presenting information using technology as their main source of the project.

I think the most important lesson I learned from this activity was in creating the Webquest to be an informative yet challenging learning tool for the students. Creating a Webquest just to get your students on a computer is what I would consider as a "time waste" for both the teacher and the students, therefore through this experience, I really learned the importance of hard work in creating create a fun, interesting, exciting, informative, yet challenging Webquest for my students.

I liked using the Webquest tool because it was very simply laid out for teachers to use, but on the other hand, I found it to be quite confusing in trying to embellish the layout of the Webpage it self. I sorta wished it had been more like the Blogger we use, where we can choose a template design for the Webpage and not have to stick to the basics.

The next time I create a Webquest, I think I would do a more thorough research on the topic of my Webquest to really challenge the thinking skills of my students; a Webquest something more on the lines of the DaVinci code Webquest, where students are really pushed to use the full extent of their knowledge and imagination.

Mind-Mapping: Getting Ready for School

The learning objective of this mind-map is to help first grade students sequence and organize their daily morning routines in getting ready for school. I decided to create my mind-map on "Getting Ready for School" because some first grade students might not quite understand what they are expected to do after they get out of bed, and could also easily forget important steps such as checking to see if they have their homework and supplies in their backpacks before heading out the door. I've numbered the steps in order from the moment they get out of bed until they wait for the school bus (or parents' car), and placed them in clockwise direction to make it easier for first graders to read and understand the mind-map. With this mind-map, I hope my first grade students will be able to fully understand, organize, and remember each step in getting ready for school by literally mapping out the mind-map in their minds.



I think the most important lesson I learned in this activity is realizing how simple mind-maps can be used as effective tools in teaching valuable lessons to students. The only mind-maps I've used in the past were for purposes in the writing process, but learning to use the mind-maps as a teaching tool was a fun, new way of adding more ideas to my teacher memory bank!:)

The Inspiration software is extremely user-friendly and has numerous colorful, creative templates, designs and ideas that anyone can easily use, but I found the web-based online mapping tools to be quite confusing in signing up and downloading. I got scared at first at the idea of having to learn to use a new software, but I'm so glad I didn't stick with my original plan of using Microsoft Word in creating this mind-map.

The next time I use Inspiration to create more mind-maps and other diagrams for my classroom, I would like to explore more with advanced editing and designing tools so my students and I can easily outline even the hardest, most complex topics like....rocket science!:)

Hello Everyone :)

Hi everyone!
Welcome to Ms. Judy's Blog!

I'm so excited to share all my fun teaching adventures with you online!

One of the first things I'd like to share with you is this picture of me and the two greatest inspirations in my life -

So-young Yang, the brave and humble 23 year old missionary in Kenya, Africa
&
Jung Hwan Ku, aka "Mr. Ku," who had the heart, the soul, and the passion of a true teacher.

God has blessed me tremendously with many, many best friends in life, and I dedicate this blog, my passion for teaching, and my life as a teacher to all my best friends that have become a part of who I am today - Ms. Judy :)