Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets is an excellent site dedicated to teaching children to read and helping struggling readers. It is loaded with resources for parents, teachers, principals, librarians, and other professionals including multimedia such as videos and podcasts. The Reading Rockets program also includes TV programs on PBS. My favorite feature of this site is the video interviews of authors of popular children's books. What a great way for students to connect to the creators of the books they're reading. Meeting the author takes the book to a personal level, which often can make a huge difference in a student's motivation to read a book, especially if they can somehow identify with the author. The site also includes ideas for how to use the interviews in the classroom. There are book lists specifically for ELLs, including books specifically about refugee experiences. Wow! I just noticed that when I clicked on the Multicultural book list I was actually taken to an associated site called Colorín Colorado!--a bilingual site for ELLs. Although the books aren't free, there are many many book suggestions and short blurbs about them. This is a fantastic resource for finding ideas for books to use in the classroom. As a teacher, I would absolutely use this site for ideas and guidance.

Schoology

I really like how this learning management system incorporates popular social media--specifically facebook--into its platform. Although I can see how this might be controversial, I personally think that this feature would serve to motivate students and, in a way, trick them into learning. Schoology's facebook appearance is immediately appealing to adolescents, however it is free of any adds or features such as personal messaging that my cause educators concern. In addition, Schoology seems user friendly and intuitive, which is very important to me and I'm sure helpful for students as well. It's very easy to see assignments and when they're due. And I like that you can read assignments and grade them all within the software without even downloading the document and uploading it again. This is a real time saver and the less hassle the better. Although I admit that I would be resistant to going paperless in the management of my classroom, Schoology would definitely be a software that I'd try and potentially even feel comfortable enough with to use to its fullest.

Online Math Practice for Kids

This site (http://www.ixl.com/) provides excellent supplemental math material and practice for pre-k up through eighth grade. It provides reports that show "which problems students missed, where students' trouble spots lie, how they've progressed over time, how much knowledge they truly understood and retained." They also show how long a student took to complete each problem. This is valuable information for a teacher. The site also provides feedback to students so that they understand why they got an answer wrong. For example, when I answered incorrectly that n = 8 in the equation n x 7 = 49, the site walks me through how to solve the problem using inverse equations. However, I do think it might be more valuable for a student to get a reminder about inverse equations then to be given the opportunity to attempt the problem again. Also, although I though so at first, after I had completed a bunch of problems, I got a message saying that I reached my maximum daily limit and that if I wanted to continue, I would have to become a member, which costs $9.95/month. I suppose this isn't horribly expensive, but these small costs certainly add up. I think that a school would have to make the decision about whether or not they want to invest in a technology such as this. It wouldn't be fair to ask parents as some would have the means and others most likely would not. This would create an unfair and uncomfortable situation.

Maya & Miguel

I've already given a brief review of the pbs.org site for kids. In general, the PBS Kids website is a fun and educational site for kids in a broad age range and the shows represented on the site are racially/ethnically diverse, which I believe is very important. For this post I will focus on one show: Maya and Miguel. The majority of the characters in this show are Spanish speaking—they are Dominican and a mix of Mexican and Puerto Rican. The remaining characters include an African American, a Caucasian (who is disabled), and a Chinese American. The site can be accessed in both English and Spanish. The site is fun and interactive. It is easy to navigate and is full of culturally educational games and activities and full episodes of the show are available. The characters speak slowly and clearly, which makes the language accessible to ELLs. I am conflicted as to whether or not I would use this site, however. First, the characters have a Bratz-like appearance which I find extremely artificial and unrealistic and harmful to kids’ self image. Second, this site and the accompanying show are not free of stereotypes. For example, Paco the parrot has a stereotypical Mexican accent and Theo, the one African American, is a great athlete. Additionally, from the full episode I watched of the show (which is available on the site), the girls seem to care a bit too much for shopping and romance and not enough about engaging in the educational opportunity of the museum they are visiting while the boys, initially apathetic, quickly gained interest. Although this part of the pbs.org site could be fun for ELLs to explore, I don't think I would use it.

TIME for Kids

This site (http://www.timeforkids.com/around-the-world) gives kids a glimpse into the cultures of a broad range of countries. It features 8 African, 10 Asian, 9 European, 2 Middle Eastern, 2 Central American, and 6 South American. Also included are the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It teaches about the most popular places to visit in each country/state/commonwealth, its history, its native language, and what a day in the life of a 9–12 year old kid from each country/state/commonwealth looks like. The information is substantial and significant. Although I would absolutely use this site in my own teaching or recommend it to somebody else, I don’t think that the aesthetics of the site are great—the advertising is very distracting and it isn’t set up in a very navigationally friendly way.

The features Native Lingo and A Day in the Life are especially useful in creating connections and a starting point for discussing similarities and differences. Providing kids with an outline of what another kid’s day-to day life entails, such as the way they communicate and their daily routine, is very relatable and potentially eye opening. Language and daily routines are such fundamental and basic elements of everybody’s lives that it is sometimes hard to imagine how distinct these elements can be elsewhere. TIME for Kids certainly is a good start. I wish I were able to find another similar site with kids’ profiles. It would be wonderful to find a free site that combines the idea of the Native Lingo and A Day in the Life features on TIME for Kids with the information and beautiful layout of Dorling Kindersley’s Eyewitness book, Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World.