Literacy Centers

In one of my classes, we are required to do a project on some aspect of reading for children.  I have been constantly thinking of what I wanted to do and research because there are so many directions I could go.  But, I think I have finally found a topic.  When I started I was originally thinking something to do with special needs, then I moved on to phonological awareness, but I have settled on literacy centers.  I centered in on this because the children in a class I observe seem so bored during their reading time.  They do read to self, read to something, etc., but they aren’t engaged at all.  I am excited to explore this idea more and to learn some engaging literacy centers I could use in my future classroom.  I will be posting my findings later this week, but for now, Happy Thanksgiving!

Reflection on NCTM Illuminations website

NCTM Illuminations     http://illuminations.nctm.org/

The purpose of this web resource is to give educators access to different activities and lessons for different age groups.  This website could use some visual updating, but other than that I find it is a very helpful resource.  It is well organized with different links to activities or lessons based on the grade levels and different subjects.  This is one of my favorite math blogs that I have come across because it is simple and easy to navigate, which saves a lot of time.  This web resource allows teacher to browse through different ways and strategies to teach different subjects that you might not have thought about before.  This web resource gives me more knowledge through applying different strategies and saying why it worked or why they are doing a specific thing.  I also think that when you try out different ways of teaching, other than just your own, you learn new things about yourself and the students.