Monday, June 11, 2012

Session 1 – Question 2

Select two competition descriptions mentioned in the reading up to page 68 that are in your subject area or grade level.  Go onto their website and discover new information to post in your blog posting i.e. user friendly, graphs, clarity.  Give the page numbers in the book regarding the sites you visited when describing your experiences.

11 comments:

  1. I focused on poetry contests for elementary students. From p.32, Amateur Poetry Contest: ends August 31st. I'm assuming this one begins again on September 1st, but I'd wait to check the website. Also, requires email to enter. For our students, that may be a problem. While they have emails provided through the district, outside emails cannot get to them (at least, with elementary). From their website there were some “poetry tools,” http://poetrycontest.com/navlinks/poetry_tools.html that teachers may find useful.

    From p. 39, Ann Arlys Bowler Poetry Contest: Now called Read Magazine's Poetry Contest – ended Dec. 31. A bit difficult to find on the website. I think it is an annual contest, but it was hard to find information. I found a PDF entry form for last year, but could not find one for this year.

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  3. Site 1: Botball robotics at http://www.botbal.org (p45) Having lived in Oklahoma for 25 years, I was surprised to find Botball is headquartered there! I had heard of other Robotics programs, but was not aware of this one. While I know Hawaii is becoming heavily involved in all forms of robotics, they are well represented in Botball. Teams participate from not just Texas and Oklahoma, but also from California and even Qatar and Austria! I did find it difficult to find the teams, however.
    Gold Star Video of botballs in action easy to access.

    Site 2: BEST Robotics Competition: http://www.bestinc.org (p 44) The site was a little slow when I went there. They may be doing some updates. The site is under construction. I found it a little frustrating. When I went to “FAQ” all I got was “Under Construction” However, the rest of the site seemed complete – just slow. However, don’t try to got to HOW TO ENTER Team Demographics – it totally shut down my machine! However, they do give quite a bit of programming information under MATHWORKS Training

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  4. The first one that I looked at was the Academic Triathlon. I have actually looked into this briefly before and had totally forgotten about it. One of the samples on their site had to do with What if Cartoon Characters met one another. What an intriguing concept!


    The second one that I looked at was the Young Playwrights Festival. I had a hard time finding much information, but what I found sounded amazing! I have a couple of my girls in mind that I know would have totally loved this! I see that they actually develop and produce some of the entries. I am going to spend more time reading about this and seeing how I might be able to use it with my students. One of the reasons that this one caught my eye is also the fact that we generally have so few GT kids in our classes. I think this is something they could develop and work on, still being successful, even without a large group to work with.

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  5. On the Scholastic.com website there is a terrific website/slideshow on the Underground railroad, which is something we study and really sparks our students' interest. The website channels you into other areas of learning about this time period in Amercian History, slavery, Harriet Tubman, etc. critical thinking skills are visited and it also give activities for the students to see and model after or create their own.
    On the Poetrycontest.com website I was very excited to see competitions posted for students to enter at all grade levels. I am a fan of poetry in my classroom and this website gave me ideas about how to excite, particularly my GT students into submitting their work.
    cricketmag.com is also a great venue for finding material for the students to have a vailable in the classroom!

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    1. I am also a fan of poetry in my classroom. I went to the website and I hope that my students can post and gain ideas for their poetry books. I am also glad to find out about the website regarding American history. This site will come in handy throughout the school year.

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    2. I am a big fan of poetry in the classroom. I think there isn't enough creative writing in this area to really stem students ceativeness. The poetry contest website and cricket website got my attention. I think they will be very useful next year for me.

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  6. Option 1: Foundations for life National Essay Program & Contest pg. 64. Their website was easy to navigate it gave the choice to have the information in Spanish, which I like :) Last year with my 2nd grade class we analyzed quotes and put them in our blog, that's why i got so excited that I registered already :)

    Option 2: I also looked into Edventures Robotics Contest pg. 58. I couldn't find any information about the contest online but,I;m planning to keep an eye on this one.

    I was happy to find some for the little ones :)

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  7. After looking at many of the competition activities I choose several to look into. The first one was the Amateur Poetry Contest found on page 32. I really found it interesting since it will allow all poetry styles. I teach a lot of poetry in my classroom and the students create all types of poems. I think this site would be another step the students could use to integrate their poems. It says that poems can be mailed or submitted to the web. This site can be found at www.poetrycontest.com
    The other stategy I choose was the Creative Writing Essay Contest found on page 51. The website is www.modern-woodmen.org - This must be a 500 word essay on a specific subject. Not always ideal but may good practice for writing tests we have to take. The essays are judged on creativity, organization, subject matter and overall effectiveness. All forms and materials are provided by the Modern Woodmen of America for grades 5-8. The website was very busy and takes a little time to find what you are looking for. I do think I will try this with my 5th graders.

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    1. These are great websites and I think you will find them very useful next year. Poetry is so important. I am guessing you can read other students poetry and use them for lesson in the classroom.

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  8. The American Veterans- Americanism Program on p. 39 really caught my eye. I think it is so important for students to understand how wonderful our country is and that not all countries have the freedons we do. This site Encourages all ages to participate, but for my grade level they can design a patriotic poster. How fun would that be for students to create a patriotic poster and then submit it. This would be a wonderful group activity.
    The other was the Cricket League Contest on p. 52. I like this because the children are familiar with this magazine. I like that each entry receives a reply whether or not they win. I think that allows them to understand that some one did read their work and was glad they sent it in. Then students will possibly be encourage to continue to submitting work to them and other magazines.

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