This week there were a few tools that really stuck out to me as things that I could, and probably even should, be using in my classroom.
The first tool is Simple Wikipedia. What I like about Simple Wikipedia is that it allows students of heterogeneous levels to research and find information that can understand. When students need to look something up, their first stop is usually Wikipedia. Fortunately, the simplified version is a great fit for ESL and EFL students.
I was also very impressed with E-maze. I've seen Avraham use the tool in lessons in the past, but I have not taken the step to use it myself. Now, especially with distance learning, I think that students would appreciate the more exciting and interesting presentation format.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Week 6 - Speaking
Five Tools to Use in Class
This week, I have chosen 5 tools that I am excited to explore further and hope to be able to use in my own classroom this school year.
The first website that caught my eye was the Debate Website: Debatabase, which has a wonderful list of debate topics that can be used in class. At the end of 8th grade, my students start to get an Israeli version of "senioritis". I think that having some debate lessons can help to keep them interested until the end of the school year.
The second website that I was interested in was: Web Tools - Graphic Organizers. I think find myself making Venn Diagrams (for example) by hand and photocopying them for different projects throughout the school year. I think that having tools like this can only help my documents look more professional and legible.
The next site that I enjoyed and have used before is the storybook writer: Story Jumper. The nice thing about this website is that it is easy to use, and makes assignments look like a professional book. It really takes the assignment of writing and allows you to raise the level of student output. Seeing a "book" at the end of a project does a lot for self confidence and is a great way to incorporate nice technology into lesson planning.
On the comic making website: Make Beliefs Comix I found a solution for an idea that I had been kicking around for one of my 6th grade classes. At the end of this coming unit we, the teacher of 6th grade, wanted to make an alternative assessment. We had been kicking around the idea of having the students write a comic strip using the grammar and vocabulary we have learned. Our workbook, The Detectives, has many comic strips that the students really love. This gives me a way to help the students make their comics online!
The Printing Press: Interactive Printing Press, is another great option for alternative assignments and assessments. My school has an English Week theme this year of "English Around the World". I would like my 7th and 8th grade classes to make a travel brochure about an English speaking country. These brochures could be presented along with English Week festivities at the end of the school year.
I'm looking forward to trying out many of these in my classroom!
This week, I have chosen 5 tools that I am excited to explore further and hope to be able to use in my own classroom this school year.
The first website that caught my eye was the Debate Website: Debatabase, which has a wonderful list of debate topics that can be used in class. At the end of 8th grade, my students start to get an Israeli version of "senioritis". I think that having some debate lessons can help to keep them interested until the end of the school year.
The second website that I was interested in was: Web Tools - Graphic Organizers. I think find myself making Venn Diagrams (for example) by hand and photocopying them for different projects throughout the school year. I think that having tools like this can only help my documents look more professional and legible.
The next site that I enjoyed and have used before is the storybook writer: Story Jumper. The nice thing about this website is that it is easy to use, and makes assignments look like a professional book. It really takes the assignment of writing and allows you to raise the level of student output. Seeing a "book" at the end of a project does a lot for self confidence and is a great way to incorporate nice technology into lesson planning.
On the comic making website: Make Beliefs Comix I found a solution for an idea that I had been kicking around for one of my 6th grade classes. At the end of this coming unit we, the teacher of 6th grade, wanted to make an alternative assessment. We had been kicking around the idea of having the students write a comic strip using the grammar and vocabulary we have learned. Our workbook, The Detectives, has many comic strips that the students really love. This gives me a way to help the students make their comics online!
The Printing Press: Interactive Printing Press, is another great option for alternative assignments and assessments. My school has an English Week theme this year of "English Around the World". I would like my 7th and 8th grade classes to make a travel brochure about an English speaking country. These brochures could be presented along with English Week festivities at the end of the school year.
I'm looking forward to trying out many of these in my classroom!
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Week #4
This week I really loved learning about the importance of adding pictures to your lessons (in one way or another). The links and ideas that were given were also very cool and tremendously helpful. I am looking forward to using these links with my own students as soon as I can!
Some of my favorites included:
On the website Scribd there are wonderful links to very practical ESL pictures and clip arts.
Photofunia is a wonderful site that allows you to play with stock pictures, for example by adding your own text like I did with Einstein below.
Pixabay is a website that has a tremendous supply of free, high quality images, like the one below, that could be added to presentations, posters, etc.
Lunapic Editor is a site that allows you to take a photo and use cool editing tools to enhance a picture you currently have.
I am sure that these tools will help to make my presentations and worksheets much more interesting and engaging.
Update: I actually tried Padlet with two of my classes this past week (Vav and Het) and it went over wonderfully well!! Check out our class pages to see the beginning stages of how we are using it.
Sarah's 8th Graders
Sarah's 6th Graders
Some of my favorites included:
On the website Scribd there are wonderful links to very practical ESL pictures and clip arts.
Photofunia is a wonderful site that allows you to play with stock pictures, for example by adding your own text like I did with Einstein below.
Pixabay is a website that has a tremendous supply of free, high quality images, like the one below, that could be added to presentations, posters, etc.
Lunapic Editor is a site that allows you to take a photo and use cool editing tools to enhance a picture you currently have.
I am sure that these tools will help to make my presentations and worksheets much more interesting and engaging.
Update: I actually tried Padlet with two of my classes this past week (Vav and Het) and it went over wonderfully well!! Check out our class pages to see the beginning stages of how we are using it.
Sarah's 8th Graders
Sarah's 6th Graders
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Week #3
This week I explored new and exciting resources that were suggested through my teacher, Avraham Roos. The resources that we discussed in this chapter were both practical and useful. I particularly liked the text compactor tool . I chose this tool because of an issue that came up while teaching this week.
My 6th graders had an upcoming text in their workbooks that was very long. My weak students were immediately intimidated and refused to even try to read despite my attempt to use a jigsaw activity. I think that an abridged copy of the text for weaker students would have helped them feel that they could participate in the lesson. The tool is as simple as plugging in a text from a workbook lesson that I need to give in the coming week. I was able to get an abridged copy for my weaker students. My 6th grade class has weak students that are unmotivated and even a bit anti-English this year. I think that being able to include them in lessons in a meaningful way would offer great opportunities of language learning.
A few of the other fun tools that I look forward to trying in various ways include:
Simple Wikipedia for research projects.
Crossword Puzzle Maker for fun ways to play with and reinforce vocabulary.
Word Cloud for vocabulary acquisition and reinforcement.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Week #2
This week I began reading about the 3 Tech blogs that I chose.
In the blog, Emerging Ed Tech, this week's article was entitled, "In Today's Digital World, Industries of all Types Must Transform in Order to Thrive". What I found the most interesting was what this blogger viewed to be the future of higher education. Universities and colleges are encouraged to move towards the future and develop new dynamic and compelling programs embracing technology. Smaller "micro-degrees" and more opportunities for online learning could open the path towards a future with a better handle on technological advances.
A part that I agree with was the statement on digital fluency. Many school are incorporating a focus on digital literacy, but the best school are making fluency part of the their school's outcome process.
The blog, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning gave names of recommended apps in the areas of Math, Social Studies, Science and Coding. This week, the school in which I work is conducting pedagogical meetings. I find this quite relevant because a lot of discussion was placed on projects including more than one subject. For example, in 5th grade, I will be working with the Science teacher on creating a class project that includes both of our subjects. Any of the Science apps listed could be used to enrich both of our lessons. Perhaps something involving the app called "Night Sky" to explore astronomy or "Explorium: Space for Kids" to learn about planets could lead to an interesting project.
At a glance I was a bit disappointed in the first suggestion from Free Tech for Teachers. The blogger discusses Padlet as a tool for mapping. Initially I thought that I had chosen poorly since this was a suggestion that I didn't think I needed. Once I opened the website and started exploring examples on my own, I discovered the wealth of possibilities that come with Padlet. (See examples on their Padlet Blog Page.) The great thing about Padlet is that you're not just making maps, you can also make boards, webpages, and other documents that are user friendly and easy to contribute to.
In the blog, Emerging Ed Tech, this week's article was entitled, "In Today's Digital World, Industries of all Types Must Transform in Order to Thrive". What I found the most interesting was what this blogger viewed to be the future of higher education. Universities and colleges are encouraged to move towards the future and develop new dynamic and compelling programs embracing technology. Smaller "micro-degrees" and more opportunities for online learning could open the path towards a future with a better handle on technological advances.
A part that I agree with was the statement on digital fluency. Many school are incorporating a focus on digital literacy, but the best school are making fluency part of the their school's outcome process.
The blog, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning gave names of recommended apps in the areas of Math, Social Studies, Science and Coding. This week, the school in which I work is conducting pedagogical meetings. I find this quite relevant because a lot of discussion was placed on projects including more than one subject. For example, in 5th grade, I will be working with the Science teacher on creating a class project that includes both of our subjects. Any of the Science apps listed could be used to enrich both of our lessons. Perhaps something involving the app called "Night Sky" to explore astronomy or "Explorium: Space for Kids" to learn about planets could lead to an interesting project.
At a glance I was a bit disappointed in the first suggestion from Free Tech for Teachers. The blogger discusses Padlet as a tool for mapping. Initially I thought that I had chosen poorly since this was a suggestion that I didn't think I needed. Once I opened the website and started exploring examples on my own, I discovered the wealth of possibilities that come with Padlet. (See examples on their Padlet Blog Page.) The great thing about Padlet is that you're not just making maps, you can also make boards, webpages, and other documents that are user friendly and easy to contribute to.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
About Me
My name is Sarah Ceaser. I am an English teacher at Echai Tekoa Elementary and Junior High School. I have been teaching for 6 years, and this is the beginning of my third year running my school's English department. I made alliya from California in 2011, straight to Tekoa. I married my husband, Nickoma, in 2015. I gave birth to our first daughter, Siikwan, in 2018. Both my husband and daughter have names which stem from Native American language and heritage.
I believe that it is our duty as teachers to rise to the challenges of 21st century learners. Our students are immersed in a world of technology. It is part of our responsibility as teachers to teach them how to use it effectively. I look forward to learning how to put this into practice.
I believe that it is our duty as teachers to rise to the challenges of 21st century learners. Our students are immersed in a world of technology. It is part of our responsibility as teachers to teach them how to use it effectively. I look forward to learning how to put this into practice.
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