Adam Chiocca shares and blogs here.

Shocking I know! Seriously though, it deserves mentioning because we are currently in the middle of a novel, and with students of mixed ELL levels all together in my classes, I have found the Interent, my laptop and a projector to be vital to student understanding. For students who have fewer English language skills, multi-media lessons help me to make sure all of our kids are understanding the elements of the story; that being the elements of literature, setting, plot, characters and theme. I like using power points, but I embed video and images that help me to explain more than I can with words. And in case you're new to ELL, a picture is really worth a thousand words! Be well, Mr. Chiocca

Howdy, After my last blog post, I was feeling like a blogger with no readers. How sad..., yes, I know. A dear friend and colleague commented that I must continue to blog. If I may embelish his comments, it was like he was saying - "Yes, Mr. Chiocca." "Please blog - we need your insight, your wisdom, your guidance." Cue the giggles. Yes, I want you to laugh a little. Ok, so I realize that my blog may only get a few readers from time to time, but let me share an honest hope and goal. For some reason, I would like to build a blog that may hopefully someday be a leader in ESL dialogue, a trailblazer if you will! So, might you, my dear reader be willing to stick around and visit us from time to time. I sure would appreciate your loyal reading and patronage. Ok, well, I'm not selling anything, but you get the point. Cheers, Mr. Chiocca

Hi, Is anyone reading this...? Really...? (crickets...) You see... I don't mean to sound so lame, but I'm torn. I feel like I'm supposed to contribute to the educational blogosphere, and yet I have three followers. Please... cue giggle (Yes, I want you to smile and giggle). I had these ideal thoughts about what it may be like to blog and learn from others online, and yet - I feel quite unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Yes, there must be 2 billion blogs out there, and everyone is pretty busy with life, so should I continue to blog? Please - somebody leave a comment...! And say, Yes, Mr. Chiocca, please contribute. Education and the future of public education depends on people like you, who care and want our kids to learn as much as they can in each grade level. Thanks for reading! Mr. Chiocca

Well, I can't take credit for this initiative, but I volunteered for our building's 1:1 I Pad Implementation Team, since it's all very exciting. You can learn more about how we're doing this on my principal's blog. There's a link to his blog (Patrick Larkin) just to the side. During a recent meeting on going 1:1, I was able to lead a small team. Rather than just talk and listen, I knew I should find some videos on the topic. Check out this 2-year old!!

In class today, I asked students to write in their journals about their February vacations, and asked about what they did. I also asked the question, "What happened in the Mid-East? (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, etc.)" Not everyone had watched the news though, so we watched this clip in class, from 60 minutes. Please leave a comment. Thanks, Mr. Chiocca

Hi, and welcome back. I am so glad that my teachers instilled in me a love of learning. I'm happy to tell you that I have started taking graduate classes again, and wanted to post a picture of me with some fellow classmates! If graduate work or night school is too expensive, I encourage you to inquire with local community colleges regarding "Community-Adult Courses." Also, if you visit your local library, you can borrow "Books on Tape," or "CDs on Tape," of many college courses and lectures, taught by award-winning professors. I recently finished three college lectures ("CDs on Tape", from my local library) on the topics of Evolution & Darwin, Linguistics and The History of Language, and A History of the Sciences. Give it a try!

Have you heard about an RSS ... or an RSS feed ? Have you heard about Google Reader , but didn't know what it was? Please click on the above title of this post to watch a short video. See ya, Mr. Chiocca