Liz+Atkison



Hey all! I'm Liz Atkison, a senior early childhood education major at Clemson University. After graduation I hope to work with infants or toddlers, possibly in the Early Head Start or Head Start program. I've never been able to imagine doing anything other than working with children. I was born in Chambers, NE, but raised in Wilmington, DE. I came down south partially because my dad's family is from South Carolina, and partially because I love the sun and warm weather. I love to travel and thus far my world travels have consisted of Tokyo and Kenya. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family, my boyfriend, my best friends, and my dog, Riley.

=Liz Atkison's PLN=



The first site that I found is called **Dynamic Lesson Plan**. This teaching blog is written by Damien Riley. He writes all kinds of blog posts, not just posts about lesson planning. However, all of his posts are related to teaching and most of them have very useful tips for the classroom teacher. Also, many of his posts include links to teaching related current event articles from very reliable sources. The Second site that I found is called **The First Grade Parade**. This blog has great ideas for hands on projects to incorporate into a first grade classroom. There are pictures of all of the projects and they are all wonderful ideas. This would be extremely useful if I were teaching first grade. The third site that I found is called **Hello First Grade**. This site is kept by a first grade teacher from North Carolina. Her posts consist of all different kinds of resources. All of the resources posted are things that would be incredibly useful for elementary school teachers. Posts include links to educational websites, clip art, project ideas, online read-alouds, and much more. In result of my PLN, I learned how many great resources I'll be able to draw from when I am teaching. I already knew that I would be able to look up lesson plans on the web, but these blogs will constantly give me new ideas for my classroom. I will definitely use some of these resources when i am teaching!

**Blabberize**
__Site where picture was found__: http://www.strangehistory.net/2011/05/03/black-cats-unlucky-for-some/

__Site where poem was found__: http://bigcsshop.hubpages.com/hub/spookyhalloweenpoemsforkids

media type="custom" key="10824761" This activity would be great to use with my students when I have my own class. I think that the children would enjoy doing this project and getting to choose a picture and using their own voice. The students could use this to write about a historical person (talk as if they were Abe Lincoln for example), write a poem (as shown above), or a variety of other activities. This activity would fulfill ELA standards related to reading (they would read while doing research for what they would write about or read off of a sheet while they were recording their voice) and writing (they would write a poem or a biography of a famous person). This activity would fulfill the following Guiding Principles:

Reading, writing, communication, and research are interdependent.
 * Guiding Principle 3 **

** Guiding Principle 5 **
Oral language and expression is foundational to literacy learning and development.

** Guiding Principle 8 **
An effective English language arts curriculum utilizes all forms of media to prepare students to live in an information-rich society.