Lesson Plans

Most teachers I talk to about lesson plans, eventhough they don't enjoy the process of doing them, they understand the importance of why they should be done. Having a good lesson plan is a great way to promote confidence in teaching. I feel that if you know you planned the right way for the classroom, following through and teaching the lesson will be more effective. It is much easier to teach after thinking about the topics and planning them out, instead of just walking into the classroom and trying to wing it.

special education and social networking

Providing special needs students with another opportunity to express themselves, besides basic communication, is a wonderful idea. There are times when not only special needs students, but all students respond better dealing with technology. This idea that the women in the video came up with showed how the students really got into the activities. The assignments they were working on and creating revealed a lot of happy faces. Allowing students to use their creativity is one of the best ways to keep them engaged, and sometimes finding this activities is the hardest part. Using projects like the ones from this video is a great way to special education students on the right path to social networking.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

I'm stealing the idea from Smitty. Sharing the history of St. Patrick's Day is a great idea. What a great time of year and with so many good times going on, I think it's important to spread the word why we're having these good times.

web page

Getting started the day we met was great because of the fact that were able to bounce ideas back and forth off each other. I wouldn't have set mine up as something for my golf team to use, which now that I've decided to do, should work out great. After mentioning it my team, they all seemed to enjoy the idea of being able to access the things I post without having to get in touch me. I think this project is going a little smoother because I enjoy the process of this more so than the webquest. Hopefully it works out in the end and I'll be able to utalize this in the years to come.

adventure education online

While in college I learned a lot about the benefits of implementing adventure education into school curriculums. I've been trying to get some of my PE classes involved with a few basic activities during class. They haven't taken to it well and I was thinking about giving them an assignment that will have them go onto www.pa.org and www.adventure-education.comand then write down their thoughts and opinions. Hopefully the students reading through these sites on their own, they will open up to taking part in the various activities in class.

Webquest

Before watching the videos, I was not too sure what to expect for this assignment. The videos were great because it talked you through all the important parts to cover and also provided the viewer with examples to utalize. This definitely helped me get my webquest going. Once I was able to go back and forth between the examples, putting together my webquest became much easier. I'm looking foward to finishing it up soon and seeing the final product. Next fall I'll teach drivers ed again and hopefully I can use it for my classes.

NJCCCS

While in college, I first learned about the CCCS. While there, all of my professors continualy mentioned the importance of them, especially when the topics of lesson plans came up.

I truly understood the importance of the NJCCCS when I had to re-write the K-5 Health and PE curriculum. It made the process much easier and more efficeint. Knowing what material to use and when is extremely important. The standards help with that and will allow teachers to keep the students on the right track.

Having standards will also provide teachers with a resource to keep them all on the same page. As long as teachers follow the standards, they will be able to rely on one another for help and ideas throughout the year.