Melissa+G's+Bio

Assignment #1

I've been teaching for nine years. Most of these years have been in Belmont Public Schools. I've taught kindergarten, third grade and have been a second grade teacher for five years now! I love to incorporate technology into my instruction and look forward to learning more ways to do this through this course. I am taking this course for credit and have already submitted the paperwork.

Assignment #2

One of our Social Studies units in second grade focuses on Alaska. As part of the unit, I require my students research and write a report on an arctic animal of their choice. I think that Google Squared would be really helpful to show my students when we’re kicking off this assignment. Typically I provide my students with a simple list of animals that live in Alaska and they make their chose from that. Using Google Squared would allow my students to make a more educated decision on which animals they’re most interested in learning more about. It would also come in handy when my students work on their research both in school and at home. It’s very helpful to be able to add and subtract “squares” or columns based on the topics that are most important for my second graders to research (ie habitat, diet, weight, length, etc.)

[|http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=arctic+animals#]

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[|Melissa G's] Map of 2nd Grade Field Trip Melissa - This should be embedded, Not linked.

Assignment #4

I would use "Go Animate 4 Schools" as a fun way tMeo remind students about addition and subtraction shortcuts. Even though I go over these during math lessons and model them often, I find that students often stick with whichever strategy they've always used. Oftentimes for my weaker math students, this strategy is counting with their fingers or depending solely on a Hundreds Chart. I'd use "Go Animate 4 Schools" to make short, funny cartoons to remind students of these shortcut strategies so that they can hopefully refer to them more often when working independently and think back to the cartoon!

-Students would be provided with several addition and subtraction problems to solve. -Students would "turn and tell a neighbor" what strategies they used to solve these problems. -Together as a class, we'd watch the shortcut strategy animated cartoons I created. -We'd discuss and review these strategies together. -Students would be provided with additional problems to solve and would have to try the shortcuts on at least one of the problems.

[|Go Animate 4 School]

Assignment #5

I would use "Read Please" to help some of my lower readers access text on websites like Scholastic, Time for Kids and National Geographic for Kids. I've discovered that sometimes text on even the most kid-friendly websites can be too advanced for some of my students or just too overwhelming. The "Read Please" software would allow students to listen to the text as it's being read out loud to them.

"Read Print" also looks like a fantastic resource to allow students to use during silent reading time. This website is free and contains thousands of books, from fiction, non-fiction, plays to poetry, students would have a larger selection of books to choose from beyond my classroom library.

"Bubble Timer" would be especially useful for those students who tend to need more support and guidance with time management. It enables kids and teachers refer to a clear visual to track time on task.

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