Instruction

One way of **communicating with students** and **engaging students in learning** is to use technology. By using technology, students are likely to stay focused on what you have to say.

 * Children are excited to perform reader's theaters, so this Power Point helped keep them focused on preliminary instructions.
 * I created these suffix and prefix Power Points to help keep the children focus as they prepared for this PSSA skill.
 * Students need to know what is expected of them. I created this Power Point to review the expectation, then I printed a copy of it and hung it near their rReading Workshop Binders.

[|Study Island] is computer based program which allows the students to review a skill which I have previously taught and allows me to assess them while doing so. It has taken two months for our class to able to walk into the computer lab and have every student successfully log in on their own.

[|Accelerated Reading] through Renaissance Learning is one way I found to increase the motivation of my students to read. They read picture or chapter books form our school Library and collect points while doing so. This program allows me to collect data on the students such as the the average reading level they are reading on and the percent of questions they got correct. Then I can suggest books to the students based on their performance.

====A creative way to **ask questions and get answers**, without embarrassing anyone, is by using ABCD cards like this. Each student clips a paper clip the answer and holds the card up in the air. This is one of the ways I learned to differentiate instruction from Dr. Gent in SPED500. Since the students answer without speaking, the rest of the class does not know who got the answer right or wrong.====

A good subject that permits engaging students in learning is in science. This was a video of fish from a hands on Ecosystem System science project.
media type="file" key="Erin's fish 001.mpg" width="242" height="242"

Using technology is a great **technique to engage students in learning**.
====This is an example of a student acting out a vocabulary word. Because the student is actively engaged as opposed to using rote memorization, the definition becomes more meaningful. Each week a small group creates a Power Point of the week's vocabulary words. It is presented to the rest of the class for them to guess the word. Can you guess this word? (Meditate)====

====Another way to use technology to engage students in learning is to use electronic games. The students can't wait for their turn to practice this skill; elapsed time. While one student is working on the computer, all other students are doing the work at their seat. To encourage students to do their best, they may take a basketball shot for an extra point if they get the correct answer.====