Renzulli, Discovery Ed, Context Clues, and Collaboration

- SmartBoard Context Clues (Used for both of my observations)...
Students are required to go up to the SB and physically decipher an unfamiliar word through the context of the sentence or paragraph it is in. Students circle or highlight the word, and then talk/circle/underline their way through figuring out the meaning. Simple and highly effective.

- Discovery Education (AKA, United Streaming) has been a fantastic resource. Certainly the video segmentation is great, but there are loads of other features and tools that could easily fit into a collective or differentiated framework. You may create video writing prompts, in which students watch segments and then write to a specific question created by you. There are also online activities that could easily translate to your classroom.

- Renzulli - This was an iniative at Hanson and served as a backdrop of several of my lesson plans; the idea is to streamline a bunch of online resources specific for student abilities and learning styles onto one website. Teachers could assign "virtual field trips," online scavenger hunts, and other activities based on student need, interest, and progress. The site helps track student completion and scoring, and provides each student with their own learning profile, which teachers could readily access. While we got a grant at Hanson, the program costs money to run. I thought several of the features were useful (learning profile/Meyers Briggs, accessible email, user friendly), but most are accessible (for free) through other programs and a little time to find the resources.

Still, Renzulli can be fun to explore, and makes finding interesting learning websites a snap.

Collaboration - During the UNITE! PD, there were a lot of wonderful collaboration ideas thrown around regarding Glogster and Voicethread. While I have shared classroom podcasts and the like, the birth of my son in the last few weeks of school managed to wipe any real collaboration efforts with fellow global learners (as well as any consistent sleep patterns!) out the window; I am excited to get back on track in the upcoming pd.

I'm also getting used to the three-hour baby wake-up rule!!!!!!! =)