Meredith's Resource

Reading Rockets: First Year Teacher Program

This is a great resource for all of us and our first year of teaching. It has everything you need from lesson plans, other websites for reference, and a teacher toolbox with what to expect during your first year teaching. It mostly focuses on teaching reading and gives strategies for how to develop your students into effective and skillful readers. There's also a "Diary of a First Year Teacher" where you can read about a teachers real-life experiences and learn a lot from them. The resource page gives many different places that teachers can go to get ideas for lessons and also provides places these new educators can go for support. Overall, I believe this is a great website and resource for all of us especially during our first few years of teaching. Enjoy exploring the site!

http://www.readingrockets.org/firstyear/

Brittney's Resource.

 

A really good resource that I have found is Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site. Throughout this site you can find many reviews on good text sets for children. You always as an educator was discover ideas of how to else these books within your classroom. You also could use this site to learn about authors, where you can search by the author and find specific books they have published and some biographical information. I love the fact that this site is free to viewers and an excellent resource for educators of all ages!

The Site: http://www.carolhurst.com/

Enjoy your new discoveries!

Courtney's Book

I would like to share the book Faster, Daddy by Milissa Cameron. I heard about this book through my little brother and sister's school, Geist Elementary. My sister, at the time the book was published, was in Mrs. Cameron's first grade class, while I was taking part in the Cadet Teaching program with another Geist teacher. Not only was it exceptionally neat to have read a book that someone I know wrote, but it was also an exceptionally good book! The book is about a little girl growing up with her family, especially her dad. It is a book about growing up and the love that will always be shared. My favorite part of the book would have to be the illustrations. I love how they are friendly and nothing more than they need to be. In fact, the illustrations were done by a child (I cannot remember if it was one of her daughters or her students at the time). I think it is neat how she incorporated a child's work into the book. Overall, I love how simple and meaningful this book is and I would reccomend it to anyone!

Billy Smyser's Resource: Indianapolis Public Library-Central Branch

The resource I would like to share is the Central Branch of the Indianapolis Public library. If you have not been to the "new library downtown" then I highly recommend taking the time to visit this fantastic work of architecture. Not only is the building beautiful, but there is a wealth of literary resources available inside. Multiple floors are filled with books, movies and dvd's. The children's literature section is on the first floor that has plenty of room and seating for families to relax and enjoy a book of their choosing. Not only are there books and movies, but there is even a stage where special events take place at various times or is available for the use of the public. If you have not been, the next time you have extra time while visiting IUPUI's campus try to head over and check out this wonderful facility. The Central Branch is located off of St. Claire in between Meridian and Pennsylvania. The address is 40 E. St. Claire St.

A Good Resource

A resource that I have found helpful and educational when trying to find good children’s books is www.parents.com.  This site has many helpful resources for many different topics, but books for all different ages are on there as well.  I found the books by clicking on the family fun tab, then scrolling down to the bottom and clicking on Children’s Book Gallery.  This takes you to some of the best children’s books by age.  The site provides books for babies, preschoolers, toddlers, big kids, teens, and even books for parents.  Each book has a short summary of the story as well as comments from other people around the world stating their opinions on the books.  Also, if you want to purchase this book for yourself or a friend, the site provides a link to amazon.com available for purchasing.  You could spend much time looking around this website, not only just searching for good books.  This site provides tips for parents on toddlers and preschoolers about how to start early for them to be an active reader!  This site can be really helpful; I think you should check it out!  I know it was helpful for me in discovering different children’s books, how can it be helpful for you?

http://www.parents.com/fun/book-gallery/

Random House Resource

A website that I always found helpful when selecting books for my study buddy in Block I was Kids@Random, created by book publisher Random House. It is a website that provides elementary aged children, teenagers, and teachers with a variety of book suggestions, literature-based games for kids, and information about many authors. The most useful part of the website is the one for teachers, called Teachers@Random. It gives literature guides that teachers can use based on grades, themes, and even specific time periods (Civil Rights Era, WWII, etc). In addition, it gives lists of books that have earned literature awards and are top-rated by teachers in every state in the country. One of my favorite sections of the website gives teachers instructions on getting reading programs started in their schools and classrooms. Overall, this website has just endless ways to help improve a teacher's knowledge of children's literature, thus creating a richer classroom experience for his or her students.

Melissa's Book Share

My first book is Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, by Eileen Christelow.  The foremost reason I chose this book is due to its popularity in both elementary and preschool classrooms.  I believe the appeal of the book is because it is repetitive; therefore emerging readers have confidence in reading.  When children can memorize the story and “read” it to everyone, they build their esteem and their excitement for reading.  I have seen teachers in preschools and elementary schools that I have volunteered in use monkey finger puppets.  The children love to “be a monkey” while the other children tell the story. 

I have recently found a book that will be very helpful teaching children with emotional disabilities.  I had never read the book When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry, by Molly Bang before.  The book has earned the Caldecott Honor Book award. I’m confident many teaching professionals keep this book in their collection.  I am getting a dual licensure in special education.  I love how this book educates children about, even though someone can get really really angry, they will calm down and then they will feel happy and loved again.  This is an important lesson for us to know, because I can assure you we will all have children in our classroom that will not be able to handle their social emotions.  In many cases, when the child stops being angry, adults are affected by the situation for hours; the children may not even remember it just moments later.