Trip to Hawaii

Prompt: Describe what you found most interesting during our trip to Hawaii.

At the beginning of the first video I really enjoyed how you got us all ready to go on the flight. I found it engaging that you went into detail and explained the order of events and preparation of our class "going" to Hawaii. During the second video, I found that the variety of examples of graphic oragnizers explained was thorough and engaging. I use a lot f graphic organizers in my room for every subject (being Type A) and I liked that it reminded us (teachers) to introduce these organizers creatively. I think that teaching students about graphic organizers for both narraitve and expository texts allows the students to begin to construst their answers.  The oragnizers are merely a skeleton.  I had never heard of the Frayer Model and found it to be a wonderful resource. I think that using words and pictures together really helps students understand and make a connection with a new vocabulary word. I found it interesting to see that all of these graphic organizers throughout the grades all include higher level thinking skills (Bloom's). This is what learning is all about. These organizers are not rote learning and allow the students to be engaged but not overwhelmed with the amount of material.  I often use charts before a lesson and during a mini lesson to teach the students the type of thinking I want them to do on their own. I think that remembering to use graphic organizers at the end of a lesson would be a great way to recap and review what was taught.  The most important take away from our trip is: match the tool to the text! Pinterest has so many wonderful charts, organizers, and graphs right at our fingertips! :)