Poetry: The Best Part of Me

My Nails

I love my nails

They are so beautiful

They are square and long

And sometimes short

They are painted with pink polish

and have beautiful designs

So what, I have beautiful nails.

M. Brown

A video of illustrator Alix Delinois

Kid-created Biographies

                Ms. Kathleen Lefkowitz 

P.S. 49X Social Studies Teacher.

 

                                My mystery woman

                                         RIDDLE

  My mystery woman likes to wear jeans because they are comfortable.  Her favorite sport is bull riding.

   Have you ever wanted to be child model?  Mrs. Lefkowitz was.

                               Ms. Lefkowitz’ family

  Mrs. Lefkowitz has a small family.  She is married to a man named Jerry.  She has two sons named Benjamin and Logan.  She lives in Riverdale and she is from New York.  Mrs. Lefkowitz lives on a lovely quiet street.  She has no family or relatives in New York.  Mrs. Lefkowitz’ parents were singers.  She has one sister named Heidi. Ms. Lefkowitz parents eventually got broke so they would use the money she made from her modeling job.

                                        Education

   Mrs. Lefkowitz attended seven schools.  One of which was a private professional school for children.  She also attended P.S. 179, P.S. 101, P.S. 181, P.S. 44, The Performing Arts High School and Walton High  School.  When Mrs. Lefkowitz was in seventh grade everyone in the school was scared of her and called her a bully because there was once a girl who was bullying her friend and then when they were on the stairs she accidently pushed her down the stairs.  Ever since then the bully was scared of her and always had her back when someone was bothering her.        

                Mrs. Lefkowitz’ Favorites

           Mrs. Lefkowitz favorite foods are Indian and French foods.  Her favorite sport is bull riding “that’s a weird sport for a woman right?” Mrs. Lefkowitz loves every color in the rainbow.  If you do not know she likes to wear jeans because they are comfortable.  Mrs. Lefkowitz’ favorite music bands are the Lumineers and the Beatles. She likes to model and do ballet dancing.

                                Famous People She Met

                 Mrs. Lefkowitz met the Lumineers, the Beatles, the Temptations and the Ojays. She also met a famous photographer named Phillipe Halsman.  “She sure met a lot of famous people.”

                                            Work Life

             Mrs. Lefkowitz worked as a model when she was just 14 months old. she stopped modeling when she was seven years old.

She then moved on to work as a ballet dancer. When she was7 years old, she had her first performance at the Frederick Douglass Houses. After a while the ballet company decided to shut down and that was when she was 19.  Mrs. Lefkowitz also worked as an art painter.  Mrs. Lefkowitz then started a babysitting club where she had 5 girls working for her. She also worked for a Dutch company.  Now, Mrs. Lefkowitz is a teacher at P.S.49X.  “She sure has had a lot of jobs.”

                 When Mrs. Lefkowitz retires she wants to go back to being a painter in New York.

  

The Illustrator Visit: Alix Delinois

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Fifth grade students were exposed to the real innerworkings of picture making.

Past and Present Book Fairs

The Importance of using a variety of instructional Strategies

ive Blog Guidelines" for directions to complete the following Blog 1 Prompt. Describe the importance of the using a variety of instructional strategies and the value they add to education of students in the 21st century. Evaluate the role technology plays in the implementation of various instructional strategies. How will this impact your teaching of students?

Instructional strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives.

There are several instructional strategies and methods. Lecture, drill & practice, Demonstrations, guided & shared reading. There are interactive instructions such as debates, role-playing, panels, Jigsaw, Brainstorming and Interviewing, problem-solving and Conferencing. It is imperative that we use these different strategies. Howard Gardener has contributed greatly to the awareness that students vary in intelligence, preferences or strengths resulting in a significant impact on their learning. Some students are visual learners while some are verbal or existential learners etc. This leads one to say that differentiated instruction is needed in the 21^st century as we have to cater to the needs and abilities of each student. Today we teach a multicultural society where students background, needs, interest, language are all different. In my school we presently cater to special education students and bilingual students. It is through these engaging strategies that students are prompted to learn. Therefore students will take the world by storm and be able to perform in this global village knowing that they are equipped with the skills to do so.

When teachers incorporate technology in their instructional practices this promote students ability to reason and solve authentic problems.

It should be noted that the appropriate use of technology can reinforce higher cognitive skills, development and complex thinking skills such as problem solving, reasoning, decision-making and scientific inquiry. Teachers can use existing technology to transform classrooms into dynamic centers of purposeful and experiential learning that intuitively move students from awareness to authentic action. When technology is implemented in the classroom, students are impacted in these ways.

Society is currently experiencing a great technological advancement and momentum and has found its way into our classroom and it is there to stay. For some teachers however their instructional practices do not reflect the integration of instructional technologies.

If technology is the agent of change then teachers must be the agents of that change in the classroom.

Then there are other factors that we must take into consideration. Students in the inner city schools do not have the same level of access to resources and experiences to those who live in the wealthy areas.

Reference

The Influence of Teachers’ Technology

Use on Instructional Practice: Glenda C. Rakes, Valerie S. Fields, Karee E. Cox

Journal of Research on Technology in Education 423

Summer 2006, Volume 38 No. 4

Instructional Strategies Online: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/index.html

Instructional Strategies and Technology: TEC538.vior.lz-student.pptx

Collaboration:Public Library

I do community outreach to different organizations to enhance the library programs. e.g. the public library, arts organizations etc . September is library card sign-up month and therefore I encourage my kids to sign up by inviting the childrens librarian over to read stories to them and talk about library card applications. This is a motivating factor for them and their parents.

Author Visit

Author Caron Levis visited our school and gave a wonderful presentation to the kindergarten kids at P.S. 49X.

This is my blog

Awesome.... Am I not a technology wiz overnight.

Instructional strategies