My
name is Susan Tancock, and I am a professor at Ball State University
in the Department of Elementary Education. I have been working with
the creative staff at Paws, Inc. to bring you these wonderful resources
on the Professor Garfield site. I am a former elementary school reading
teacher as well as a Reading Recovery teacher. At Ball State, I teach
literacy methods courses and do research related to how technology
can enhance the reading process for children, so Professor Garfield
offers a great opportunity for me to combine these two professional
interests. I will serve as the moderator for the “Creative Applications” thread
in the Discussion
Forum.
If you haven’t already done so, please visit
the Discussion Forum where teachers and parents can have ongoing
dialogue 24/7. In
this part of the Teachers' Lounge we will showcase some innovative
and creative teaching ideas using Professor Garfield content suggested
by educators around the globe. We will highlight suggestions collected
from the Feedback Form and the Creative Applications thread in the
Discussion Forum. I will monitor this area of the discussion forum
to find out all the cool things that are happening with Professor
Garfield materials when they are in the hands of educators and will
post the best of these ideas on this page.
Since we are just getting started, I’ve come
up with a few ideas of my own for how you might use the Professor
Garfield content
with children. You've been sharing teaching concepts for many years
as a professional educator, and now you have a great place where
you can showcase some of the more creative ideas. I can’t wait
to see your ideas, so send them in via the Feedback
Form or post
them on the Discussion
forum as soon as possible.
- If you have only a few students who need work on
sight vocabulary, make personal word walls for individual students.
Reduce the size
of the Garfield alphabet and sight words and make one page
for each letter of the alphabet with room to glue on the words.
Staple or
bind the 26 pages into a booklet for each student. Introduce
the word-wall words just as you would for the whole class, but
in this
case the students in your small group glue the words into their
personal word walls instead. They have this great little resource
to use as
they do their writing throughout the day. Convene your small
group for a few minutes each day to review the words. Reviewing
the word-wall words would be a great use of parent volunteers,
and students get the individual help they need.
- Use Knowledge Box as a learning
center for Language Arts, Science, Social Studies,
or Math. Create a checklist or punch card
that students
can use as they complete each activity. Let children
collect a Gum Award for completing all the activities. Click Here
to get the Gum Awards PDF
- Make a graph that contains the categories of questions
contained in the G-Cubed game: Literature, Science, Pop Culture,
News, and
Miscellaneous. As students play the game, have them color in
a square for each category of question they answer correctly. Over
time they
will be able to see which are their strong areas of background
knowledge and on which areas they need to brush up.
- Use Professor Garfield to
improve your professional development. Visit the Educational Links
and print a copy of each set of links.
Each day when you get to school, visit one link and review
the information. Check off the site on your printed list. Start a
list of bookmarks
or favorites on your computer in each category. When you run
across
something really great, share what you have found with other
teachers via e-mail. Include appropriate links in your parent newsletter.
We promise to keep the links updated with new and late-breaking
sites as they become available, so there will always be some new information
to explore.
