Homeschool News & Tips

Electronic Portfolios

Electronic portfolios can take a variety of formats: word processing documents, multimedia slide shows, databases, and Web pages. They can be used for a variety of purposes: for assessment, for reflection, and for admission to special programs. Whatever the format or purpose, electronic portfolios are emerging as a way to increase student involvement and motivation. Below, you'll find links on a variety of topics related to electronic portfolios.

Dr. Helen Barrett's Electronic Portfolio Site
http://electronicportfolios.com/
Dr. Barrett is a highly regarded expert on using electronic portfolios in K-12 instruction and pre-service teacher training. Her Web site includes a huge number of resources, including listservs, handouts and transcripts from her many talks, and white papers.

Mr. Lambert's Third and Fourth Grade Class: Electronic Portfolios
http://dragonnet.hkis.edu.hk/up/Clusters/Grade34A/Lambert/ElectPort.htm
An elementary teacher has helped students gather and publish samples for their electronic portfolios. Check out the links, going back three years, to see examples of effective portfolios.

Tammy Worcester's Electronic Portfolios
http://www.essdack.org/port/index.html
This computer teacher's Web site will give you lots of background on the whys and hows of electronic portfolios. She includes a useful rubric for assessing student work.

Sarah's Electronic Portfolio
http://www.k12.hi.us/~jholokai/tethree/learning/eschool/portfoliohomepage.htm
Browse through this sixth grader's portfolio to see an excellent example of an electronic portfolio published to the Web. Her reflection pieces are quite interesting.

Electronic Portfolio Planning and Design Guide
http://amby.com/kimeldorf/portfolio/p_mk-08.html
This is an essential resource for teachers making the leap to electronic portfolios. It will walk you through the planning phase of the project with lesson and activities.

Electric Teacher: Online Portfolios
http://www.electricteacher.com/onlineportfolio/index.htm
An Oregon teacher has put together this guide to electronic portfolios, including helpful tips on technical matters like using a scanner and how to create and resize graphics.

Training Tip

To help students focus on research and learning when they log on to computers, set their browser's home page to the Research Center of your Community Education Gateway. The Research Center is a valuable collection of links to online encyclopedias, dictionaries, and search engines. It's an excellent starting point for students, and using it as a home page for browsers will help them get started right away on their research tasks.

You'll find the Research Center by going to the main page of your CEG and clicking Research Center in the Students tab. Visit the following Web sites for instructions on changing your browser's home page: 

    Internet Explorer users:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/customizing/prsonalizehmpg.mspx         
    Netscape users:
http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/help/nav_help.jsp#cust_startpage

June Calendar

June 3, 1880
Alexander Graham Bell Transmitted First Telephone Message
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jun03.html

June 8
World Oceans Day
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow8/dec98/main.html

June 12, 1929
Anne Frank's Birthday
http://www.annefrank.com/

June 17
Eat Your Fruits (and Vegetables) Day
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/5aday/

June 19
Juneteenth
http://www.juneteenth.com/

June 21
Summer Solstice
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/SummerSolstice.html

June 24
Take Your Dog to Work Day
http://www.petsit.com/dogday/

 Tips

To restore dried out markers, try dipping the point in water for 5 seconds and put the cap on for 24 hours. Additionally, tie a string around the top of the marker  or tape a string to the marker (not at the point, but at the opposite end). Then, swing the marker in a circle in the air. The centrifugal force is supposed to bring the liquid to the tip. Keep in mind that if the marker is too dried out, nothing will give it new life.

If you have tips to save time and money for homeschool teachers, please email me and I will add your tips to this page and give you credit.

Vinegar

Chewing gum dissolver - saturate the area with vinegar. If the vinegar is heated, it will work faster.

White vinegar is also a solvent for most glues. To dissolve any unwanted glue bonds, simply apply vinegar to the glued area and let sit until the bond becomes weak (how long depends on what kind of glue and how much was applied).

Stain remover - for stains caused by grass, coffee, tea, fruits and berries. Soak clothing in full strength vinegar.

Vinegar makes excellent fabric/leather glue: 1 sachet clear gellatin, 3 tablespoons of white vinegar, 3-4 tablespoons of water, 1 teaspoon of glycerine. Melt the gellatin and water on low fire,then add the other ingredients and mix well. The glue has to be applied wen warm. Store the remaining glue in a small plastic or glass jar. Warm it up next time before use. Cheap, efficient, and clear glue for fabrics and leather.

To clean the school microwave,  put 1 Tablespoon of vinegar, one cup of warm water & 1 or 2 drops of dish soap in a small microwave safe bowl. Put it in the microwave on high for 3-4 minutes and let stand for 15 minutes. Then wipe the microwave out with a damp sponge. The steam & use of vinegar loosens up the build up in the microwave.

Vinegar works great to remove tempera paint. Sponge vinegar over paint then wipe off finish removing residual with paper toweling.

Nail polish will go on smoother, and stay longer if you clean your finger nails with white vinegar before applying nail polish.

Keep a solution of vinegar and water - 1-2 TBLSP in a 4 oz bottle of water for cleaning eyeglasses or cleaning glass on photocopier.

 To save some money, laminate everything you buy. It's more expensive initially. In the long run, laminated items do not need to be replaced as frequently.

For storage, you can ask for the boxes that folders come in at discount stores.  Cover them with contact paper and use them to store my different portfolios, records, etc. Also, use a lot of milk crates to hold  books. Use dishpans from the dollar store to hold your classroom library. Because the dishpans don't have holes like baskets, the corners of the books will not be destroyed.

When designing the bulletin boards, use things that students/children make. By doing this, your walls reflect the creativity of your children/students. Pre-made bulletin board sets are expensive. When you make letters for your bulletin board, use gift-wrap. Be sure to make extra vowels.  Also, try a science board occasionally. Just cover the board with paper, staple to the wall and decorate.

Go to your local library during book sales. You can often get ten books for a dollar. Also, join the book order clubs (Scholastic, Trumpet, etc.). They have really good deals every month and you earn points if you or your students purchase books. I also do a "three for free" trade in with my students. If they bring in three used books for the classroom, I will give them a book from the book order. (I use the bonus points for this.) Spread the word to your family and friends that you want books. Take the books to a used bookstore and trade them in for credit. Use this credit for children's books.

Sometimes you can get great deals at resale shops. Goodwill and most charity stores sale used books at reasonable prices. Even they are 50% off days.

Yard Sale Bargains

If you have little ones in diapers or know anyone who does, empty wipe containers are a cheap way to organize small things such as pencils, crayons, markers, or craft supplies. They can be stacked on shelves or in cabinets and labeled with permanent markers. Some stack together like blocks.

Also, check out yard sales for stacking letter trays. These are great for organizing handouts by class. You should be able to get these trays for 25 cents each at yard sales. In fact, yard sales are great places to get all kinds of inexpensive teaching supplies. You can stock the classroom library, and purchase classroom supplies.

Cute Clutter Busters

To store items,  use a clear shoe holder, hang it on a cabinet door and put necessary items in the numerous pockets. It even holds my large packaging tape dispenser.

Another idea is to use a skirt hanger that is designed to hang numerous skirts on. On each clip, put a large resealable bag that you can use to store manipulatives, etc. and they are ready for you when you need them! Hang these on mountable coat hangers.

Cover Clutter with Curtains

Hang a decorative shower curtain between a wall and a large art cabinet if you have one and store all kinds of things behind it! Go from floor to the top of the curtain with items in boxes that are labeled with the contents.

Use short curtain to cover shelves or take some fabric, hem and gather-stitched it. Mount it onto the shelves with hook and loop tape (e.g. Velcro). The curtains dressed up the room as well as hid the clutter on the shelves. 

Instant Confetti and Reuable Gift Tissue

If you have ever wondered what to do with leftover wrapping paper, this is for you! Just take that paper and put it through a paper shredder to make instant confetti. You won't have to buy that expensive colored stuff to put in boxes or inside a gift bag. You'll have lots of patterns and colors to choose from. You can store each kind of confetti in a recycled grocery bag.
 

 News

Online Field Trips Boost Reading Scores
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5671
Showing that technology interventions increase student learning has been a difficult task for researchers. But a new study from Maryland Public Television shows that middle school students who used a set of free online field trips improved their reading performance on state tests.

Websites of Interest: WebQuests 

• Cyberchase Web Adventures: PBS Kids
  http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/web_adventures.html
• Math WebQuests
  http://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/NCTM99/
• WebQuest Portal
  http://webquest.org/
• Web-Based Projects
  http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/

Other Webquests: