In honor of all the wonderful moms let’s set the blog color selection on pink (see top right) today.
A few of the things we love about the Mom in our home.
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The Mom Song – A Great Laugh
Favorite Children’s Books – A Great Memory
Breast Cancer Awareness – A Great Cause
I first heard this song over a year ago. I’ve listened to it oodles of times since: the kids and I have danced and jammed to it, I’ve sung it while commuting back and forth to work, I’ve hummed along with it at 30,000 feet on multiple occasions, and it has brightened many a dull day in the office. My iPod probably groans with boredom every time I select it and wishes I’d grow weary of it. I love this song – the message and the music. I’m sharing the very difficult to find live version as it’s best.
I enjoyed our recent discussion of favorite children’s books so much that I wanted write a follow-up. A lot of teachers have mentioned that they have already bookmarked it for future reference. This blog exists for exactly that reason – to be a resource for teachers.
My favorite genre of children’s literature is wordless picture books. It’s fun to see kids get swept away in these books. The artwork is usually stellar and the author’s/ illustrator’s work typically invokes our creative interpretations. Wordless picture books can be a great way to encourage higher order thinking, creativity, and self-expression. They can often be used to practice the elements of a story (setting, plot, character, etc.) or to initiate activities in creative writing, art, drama, multi-media, etc. It’s often a good way to level the playing field with regard to student reading levels. Here are a few of my very favorite wordless picture books.
The Silver Pony – One of the very first books I “read” from my elementary school library. This book has many elements that I have always enjoyed: horses, Greek mythology, art, imagination and creativity. I wish I knew how many times I checked out this book. I need to go buy a copy for our family library.
Animalia – Another outstanding work by Graeme Base.
Tuesday – Mostly a wordless picture book about frogs.
Earlier this week I was a parent reader in the class of one of our children. Although I’m an elementary math and science teacher I do really like children’s literature. We read with our mother nearly everyday growing up. One of our grandmothers was an elementary school librarian and she kept us supplied with books, books on tape, magazine subscriptions, and more. I was also blessed with many teachers that loved books. I made a conscious effort to read books to my students because I wanted them to see books being appreciated by a man, a mathematician and a scientist. Now, our home’s bookshelves overflow with children’s books as we enjoy reading to our own children. All that to say, I always have a difficult time selecting the books to read in these types of situations. Here are some of the reasons.
Do you see why I have a bit of trouble deciding what to read? It’s a great delima with which to be faced, though!
Here are some of the books that received strong consideration.
I actually received input from many of this blog’s reader via Twitter. As a result, I thought it would be a useful idea and a lot of fun to mention and discuss your favorite children’s books here on the blog – thus, this post. So,…
What are your favorite children’s books?
UPDATE: Join this closely related discussion.
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Our kids received a new swing for their birthdays. Weather permitting, I will be spending my weekend putting this beast together. Any volunteers to help?!
*DISCLAIMER: I’ve hesitated to share this resource because of the advertising and economics tied to it. I have given it a quick test and think that all of that stuff remains invisible. I’m sharing this resource because, in the right context, I see true potential in its integration with teaching and learning.
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Have you seen Squidoo? I would roughly describe it as a means of mashing up information from a variety of resources into a lens (as in the eye of a giant squid; fancy word for webpage). This is accomplished through customization and pulling together a good number of RSS feeds, favorites, bookmarks, page rankings/voting, etc. Lenses are ranked, money is given to daily winners, etc.* You can actually earn money for charity or for yourself just by using the service.* I have browsed through many of the existing lenses and been impressed by their quality. I am guessing that the whole free market competition model encourages quality effort as those with lenses with the highest use and approval are rewarded. Most of the ones I reviewed were by doctors, therapists, professors, etc. and all seemed well-credentialed. It is likely that you will find some lenses that you can use in your own classroom.
I haven’t completely made up my mind about what I think of Squidoo (I found it very, very late last night) but it has certainly given me some things to consider. Ideas for integrating it with learning and instruction have flooded my mind. In the right context it would be an interesting tool for teachers and learners to use for webquests, research, scavenger hunts, presentations, cooperative learning, online classes, a Web 2.0 activity, etc. Additional ideas and strategies are very end of this post.
There is also a section called Hey Monkey Brain where students can pick, research and debate a topic. Again, in the right context this feature has several positive educational implications.
I joined and threw together my own lens on the topic of educational technology. Take a look…
You can setup your own free account using here.
Integrating Squidoo
I thought it might be helpful to all of us if we brainstormed ways to integrate the use of Squidoo with teaching and learning. Here are some of the ideas (classes, lesson topics, activities) that came to me.
The following story comes from my friend’s blog. It was told to him by his sister-in-law.
The funniest story happened yesterday at church. Our minister [Mike] was preaching…All of a sudden the side door of the auditorium burst open. A little three year old is running and yelling, “No, no, they are after me.”
Mike [the preacher] stops and asks, “Ryan, who is after you?”
“They are after my playdough.”
Mike laughs and yells – “Run, Ryan, Run, here they come. Don’t let them get your playdough. Run to that door over there, that side.”
The little boy takes off squealing, gripping tight to his playdough. The whole congregation breaks out in laughter and applause as Ryan breaks through the side door with his playdough and the embarrassed teacher enters looking for his lost pupil. It was priceless. Ryan was screeching as he broke through the door to freedom.
I wish I had been there! 🙂
Gadberry asks the important question, “Did you change the world today?” So many teachers go into the profession with the genuine intention to positively impact the world. Unfortunately, many of us allow lesson planning, grading, IEP meetings, curriculum standards, meetings, sports, tv, errands, etc. to fill the bulk of our schedules and crowd out any possibility of changing the world. You know exactly what I mean, so I won’t insult you by pontificating on the obvious.
I haven’t positively changed the world today, but I still have about 7.5 hours to work on it. I assure you I will.
Now it’s your turn. Did you change the world today? (Please share in your the Comments below.)
Related Resources
I’ve been pleased to see a resurgence in quality educational television programs recently. Even better is that our kids are choosing to watch these programs over the just-for-entertainment children’s programs. Both the teacher and parent in me would like to take the creators of these shows out for pizza to say thank you. I hope this is a trend that we see continue to grow.
Here are some of the shows that I’m talking about. Be forewarned that the educational value in a couple of these won’t be immediately obvious, so watch the program in it’s entirety.
I know there are probably others, but the kids are all asleep and I can’t ask them for help right now. Please share your comments and suggestions as I’d enjoy the feedback and ideas.
