Sandy Morrison

                                                                  First graders speaking Spanish with intern from Puerto Rico.

Response to article re. Natives and Immigrants

    I found the article interesting, fascinating, and yet, troubling.  It has been obvious -- even with first and second graders -- that the children need a fast paced, fun-filled, constantly stimulating environment in the classroom.  Many of the children become "bored" very quickly and expect to be interacting with others (or computers) and cannot sustain focus for many thoughtful discussions or activities without quickly mixing it up.  So, reading this article made me more sympathetic and understanding of their needs, but also made me question how much I need to help them develop more of an ability to "think" about things and construct opinions and ideas ...OR should I feed into their needs and try to rework the curriculum so that they can engage with various topics and ideas through games on the computer.  I suspect it's another balancing act of trying to do both.  However, I'm concerned about the far-reaching effects and will be interested to see how our culture continues to change with the growing use of technology such an integral part of our children's lives.  I think there is a lot of good that can come from it, but can't help but worry that there will be a lot lost.

Sandy - Balancing act is right!  I don't think we have to make everything a video game.  Technology offers lots of opportunity for meaningful exploration, control over learning for the child, and team work.

Multiple Intelligences

I read the article about multiple intelligences as defined by Howard Gardner several years ago.  I remember learning about this theory of multiple intelligences and thinking it was "right on!"  I agreed that children learn in such different ways and often have some clear "styles" that make learning either easier or more difficult, and I felt compelled to try to teach in a variety of ways so that all children  could be successful learners.  I was interested to read this article to see where and how technology fit into Mr. Gardner's theory.  I was disappointed that the focus in the article was not to address that, but more to elaborate about the different "intelligences" and the controversial opinions of others regarding the theory. 

In thinking about the theory, I would suspect that technology would be perfect for logical-mathematical learners, linguistic, intrapersonal, and perhaps spatial learners.  I wonder about children who are more interpersonal, musical, bodily kinesthetic, and naturalistic.  Will they just blend into similar styles of learning as they focus on technology more and more?  As more research is done on the brain and the changing neural pathways as technology becomes an integral part of the lives of all children, I wonder if the "intelligences" will become more aligned and there won't be such a difference in the way children (people in general) think and work.  I thought the article might reflect some of that kind of research that might have already been done.  We seem to be moving quickly into a very 'tech oriented" world that is sure to continue to impact our children and the way they think.   We (teachers) are going to have to try to accommodate children's learning styles, but I suspect they may look quite different in the future than Gardner's theory has described. 

 Unfortunately all of the neat sites from KATHY SCHROCK'S wedsite that I entered on Wednesday afternoon were not saved....

Molly has let me copy her list (that she worked on at the same time I worked on mine) so I have a few to use when I want to use them in the fall.

Cool Kathy Schrock sites

use of digital camera in classroom:    k-12.pisd.edu/multimedia/peripherals/camera/camera.htm

monthly activity calendars:  www.enchantedlearning.com/activitycalendars/

diversity calendars:  www3.kumc.edu/diversity/

seasonal activities:  www.theideabox.com/ib.php?web=seasonal

Kathy's holiday list of sites:  school.discovery.com/schrockguide/holidays.html

Kathy's brain booster site:  school.discovery.com/brainboosters/

great anagram fun:  wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

literacy games:  school.discovery.com/schrockguide/arts/artlit.html

bulletin boards:  school.discovery.com/schrockguide/bulletin/index.html

better bulletin boards:  www.gigglepotz.com/bulletin.htm

Equivalent Fractions game:  www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/EquivFractionFinder/

challenging math games (lots!):  www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/

biographies:  www.biography.com/

biographies for kids:  www.biography.com/bio4kids/index.jsp

 6 traits of writing:  www.bham.wednet.edu/BIO/TRAITS.HTM

continents maps:  www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/mapsofcontinents.htm

social studies games:  www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/funandgames.htm

lots of games by age/topic:  www.iknowthat.com