March 8-21 (Week 9)

Alabama Learning Exchange or ALEX is a project of the Alabama Department of Education, and designed to index and share many types of educational materials and information." As a teacher, I like having the Alabama State Board of Education's courses of study link available online so that I can share it with my parents. I teach at a private school and we do not have courses of study "printed in manuals" readily available to pull from a shelf, but ALEX allows me to have access 24/7. ALEX provides courses of study for all subjects and grade levels as well as a few lesson plans for each standard.

The lesson plans can prove to be useful for beginning teachers. The Web Links offer great ideas for teachers. I really enjoyed looking through the Book Units section. The thematic listing of events, holidays, and topics could prove to be a time saver for new and experienced teachers. Teachers should always strive to find new ideas to help supplement our course of study. I realize that many of us still have to teach the text, but there are many, exciting, and hands-on activities that we can use in our classroom to accomplish our goal. We need to take advantage of our resources that are at our fingertips and are only a "click" away.

Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide or ACCESS has a vision statement: "The State of Alabama will provide equal access to high quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning." This program is directed toward high school students and educators. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education. I teach Kindergarten and did not feel that this website would be beneficial to me as a teacher. It may be useful to me as a parent who may be exploring options for my own children.

Comments 4Kids
This week I viewed Mr. McClung's Science video, "Making Noise". A student, Patrick, used a pitch fork to make a wave. This experiment was an excellent example of "hands-on learning". Yes, learning can be fun!