Morning Meetings

I have learned about the responsive classroom many time and I have to say I love the morning meetings. This idea is so creative and wonderful. Not only do you get to know your students, but you get to observe how productive they may be in class today based on their actions and attitude, make them feel accepted in the classroom, and to provide an overall positive relationship between you and the student.

When I was on my latest observation at an elementary school, the teacher incorperated morning meeting into her Kindergarden classroom. She asked a few children what was one thing they did when they got home from school yesturday. She then proceded with the morning interactive song. Here the students sang along, made hand gestures that went along with the lyrics, and each child was to shake hands with at least everyone in the classroom while singing.... "Rise and Shine, Welcome to school today". I thought this song was very appropriate and wonderful. It made me happy and want to incorperate this into my class.

Here is an example of a Responsive Classroom morning meeting.



Did you nowtice after she demontrated and told the studetn's what to look for she had them repeat them back to her? Did you see the students reactions to each other?
I found this particular one to be a good example on how a morning meeting, such as this one, and build a strong relationships in the classroom community.

So tell me what did you see that the student's learned or experienced in this activity?

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Tools to use in the classroom

My fellow classmates and I got to experience some new technology tools that can be Incorporated into the classroom.  One tool that I thought was really cool was poplet.  This can be used as a unique discussion board and unlike Prezi you can embed links within the poplet. 

Storyjumper is another cool educational tool that I find to be my favorite so far.  With this tool it is done on-line where you can make a 16 page book on whatever you would like.  To top it off you can order a hard copy of the book you made.

Another tool i can see me using in the classroom is called wordle.  Wordle is a cluster of words and the words you choose or type more often are bigger in size.  I can see using this in an Elementary classroom for sight words or respect poster (for an example).

MuseumBox is another tool that I would love to use in my classroom.  It's basically a 3D PowerPoint, but you can make a whole lesson developed into one drawer of boxes composed of power points.

Brain Gym

The brain gym helps stimulate the two hemispheres by a series of exercises.

• drink water
• brain button
• cross crawl
• hook ups
• thinking caps

When doing these exercises students become alert, aware, have positive attitudes, and are energetic for learning.  A lot of educators have found this activity to improve the students attention in the classroom.  I can definitely see myself doing this in my class before a test.
http://esl.about.com/od/englishlessonplans/a/braingym.htm

Another tool that I found interesting and more to do with technology is BrainPOP.  www.brainpop.com is a really cool site that is free to educators.  On this site there are activities, quizzes, and movies involved in the subject matter.  Kids can use this site to learn more on subjects.  This web site "creates animated, curriculum-based content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement".  Topics that are provided are Arts and Music, Engineering and Tech, Social Studies, Science, English, Math, and Health.  The activities are available in English or Spanish, for children K-3, and for ESL or ELL students.