I Am In The Current ~ The stream is digital.

It feels good to be blogging again. I haven’t published anything since November 11th. I think I became overloaded between report cards and online pd.

Do you know about Quizlet? Is it an online tool that you have integrated into your practice? Quizlet was created by Andrew Sutherland. Andrew is the high school student that started Quizlet in October 2005, at the age of 15. Kyle, Alec and I sat down together to record a podcast. We briefly discussed Andrew and Quizlet. I find it very relevent that somebody wise has understood the system and knows how to play the game. Interestingly, Andrew’s philosophy on learning definitions is very similar to Dr Lee Jenkins.

I have offered a Quizlet set to my families to help students work on the vocabulary for our FLA unit from Mile Mots. The statistics for the page are quite poor. It’s obvious nobody is using it from my class or from the network. Cami has integrated Quizlet into her final lesson of the 2007 semester. She will be working on an introduction to multiplication with my students. Her set can be viewed here.

In my FLA program, I am in need of a opportunity for my students to continue working with the grammar component. I have created a Quizlet set for the ‘er’ verbs in the present tense. I am observing a wide range of ability within my students again this year. I have written a little jingle for my students that is intended to access the multiple intelligences within my classroom. I will record it this week and post it in a blog.

It is rewarding to see students who are able to see the patterns and apply it with a certain consistency in authentic writing. Others score well but have a great deal of difficulty applying it authentically. I also have students who are having limited success. Last year I prepared my writing program and prepared my students for the year end writing benchmark to the best of my ability. I made some observations and modified certain elements of my writing program for the current year. I look forward to seeing how my students score this year. The measure is to have students write a two page dissertation at the end of grade 4. They must exhibit all the stages of the writing process. There is much work to be done from the moment the students enter the classroom on the first day.

What are your thoughts on sites like Quizlet and short-term memorization?