Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
REFLECTION & LINK to INTASC ASSESSMENT
It was really fun to look at a lesson that I had already created and design fun ways to incorporate technology. What ended up happening is that I just completely scrapped the original lesson that I had designed as an Introduction to Volcanoes and now I have an additional lesson (or set of lessons, depending on how far we go with the field trip) to add to my Volcano repertoire. I think that this lesson does three things much better than the original lesson that I had planned:
1. It gives the students a much more comprehensive general overview of the Earth Science aspects of volcanology.
2. It provides more opportunities for both formative and summative assessment in multiple areas.
3. It incorporates technology in a way that will allow me to get a feel for the students' previous experience with computers and their applications and then build on or enhance those skills accordingly.
It is incredibly important that I pursue knowledge just as readily as my students, this is perhaps the most essential modeling that a teacher can do. Hence, I go forth seeking further insight and inspiration for teaching, as well as learning.
1. It gives the students a much more comprehensive general overview of the Earth Science aspects of volcanology.
2. It provides more opportunities for both formative and summative assessment in multiple areas.
3. It incorporates technology in a way that will allow me to get a feel for the students' previous experience with computers and their applications and then build on or enhance those skills accordingly.
It is incredibly important that I pursue knowledge just as readily as my students, this is perhaps the most essential modeling that a teacher can do. Hence, I go forth seeking further insight and inspiration for teaching, as well as learning.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
My First Real Lesson
Friday, May 15, 2009: Volcanoes, 3rd grade, Kelly Swartzentruber's class at McKinley Elementary.
My son said that if he were to score me, on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best lesson he's ever had), I would get a 9.5... just goes to show how much he loves me, not really how good the lesson was.
Anyway, there were several things that became very clear as I was *teaching.* The first was that everything takes twice as long as you expect it to. I thought my lesson would be about an hour long... it was almost 2!! The second is that it is quite possible to overthink what you are doing. I was trying to be so conscientious about calling on everyone equally, that I took rather a long time to choose students.
Kelly was so gracious. She did some conflict management for me . . . as I realized one of the drawbacks of group work: some kids just can't let go of control (in fact, I might have been one of those kids in elementary school) and if you have two of them in a group together, look out!
The students did learn and I think they had fun doing it. I will have the opportunity next week (May 18, 19, or 20) to do the lesson again in the other 3rd grade classroom at McKinley. I will try not to be so nervous and to refine my technique a bit by then.
My son said that if he were to score me, on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best lesson he's ever had), I would get a 9.5... just goes to show how much he loves me, not really how good the lesson was.
Anyway, there were several things that became very clear as I was *teaching.* The first was that everything takes twice as long as you expect it to. I thought my lesson would be about an hour long... it was almost 2!! The second is that it is quite possible to overthink what you are doing. I was trying to be so conscientious about calling on everyone equally, that I took rather a long time to choose students.
Kelly was so gracious. She did some conflict management for me . . . as I realized one of the drawbacks of group work: some kids just can't let go of control (in fact, I might have been one of those kids in elementary school) and if you have two of them in a group together, look out!
The students did learn and I think they had fun doing it. I will have the opportunity next week (May 18, 19, or 20) to do the lesson again in the other 3rd grade classroom at McKinley. I will try not to be so nervous and to refine my technique a bit by then.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Smartboards (Promethean Boards) Are Amazing!
Wow! Tom, Nick, and I really enjoyed our adventure to St. Paul where Chris was kind enough to demonstrate some of the exciting things that you can do with a "Smartboard." Chris teaches high school math and so he was demonstrating some of the functions that are especially useful to him. However, I am already thinking up different ways that a Smartboard could be especially helpful in teaching ELL students, as well as doing collaborative writing projects with middle school English students, and mulling applications that would assist students with reading difficulties.
Currently, I am working on my SIOP lesson plans and I was thinking about how much fun it would be to have a Smartboard for my volcanoes lessons.... This piece of equipment would be useful and fun to have in the classroom.
Watch our videos introducing & showing off some of the features of Chris'
Promethean Board:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GCY2JCOukE
Currently, I am working on my SIOP lesson plans and I was thinking about how much fun it would be to have a Smartboard for my volcanoes lessons.... This piece of equipment would be useful and fun to have in the classroom.
Watch our videos introducing & showing off some of the features of Chris'
Promethean Board:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GCY2JCOukE
Monday, April 27, 2009
Oregon Educational Technology Standards
One thing that I noticed right away when I was looking at the new Oregon Diploma: 2012 Essential Skills, is that many of the items (1-5, 7-9) could actually incorporate the technological aspect (#6), as well. If you look at it this way, then meeting this vast array of technology standards seems considerably more doable. We must find ways to integrate technology into more activities at the various grade levels. I am exploring technological applications from a wide scope: Middle school English, Social Studies, & Theater, as well as elementary grades 3-6.
1. Communication & Collaboration/Creativity & Innovation: Students at the middle school level studying population trends might work collaboratively to create graphs based on the population trends for specific countries/continents. They could then compare the graphs and make predictions about the challenges that each of these countries might face in the coming years.
2. Research & Information Fluency: We are so lucky to live in a time when such a wide variety of information is right at our fingertips (my husband has actually become a bit of an information junkie-clicking on link after link of Wikipedia connections.) It would be exciting the have students write research papers about obscure topics. Have them pick from a list of topics that would be difficult to find information on in a typical library (the New Zealand endangered bird the Takahe.) In this way you could teach them methods for web research while also hitting the middle school research paper head on.
3. Students could also use one of the various Web 2.0 recording tools to make videos of themselves giving speeches or reciting monologues. Speeches could be written about relevant issues and then e-mailed to state congress-people ... thus incorporating civic and community engagement.
In my observations I have noticed that some students actually take the initiative for themselves to incorporate their knowledge of technology into projects and assignments. As long as we are open and not closed to the idea of technology in the classroom, these standards will probably be easier to meet than we think.
1. Communication & Collaboration/Creativity & Innovation: Students at the middle school level studying population trends might work collaboratively to create graphs based on the population trends for specific countries/continents. They could then compare the graphs and make predictions about the challenges that each of these countries might face in the coming years.
2. Research & Information Fluency: We are so lucky to live in a time when such a wide variety of information is right at our fingertips (my husband has actually become a bit of an information junkie-clicking on link after link of Wikipedia connections.) It would be exciting the have students write research papers about obscure topics. Have them pick from a list of topics that would be difficult to find information on in a typical library (the New Zealand endangered bird the Takahe.) In this way you could teach them methods for web research while also hitting the middle school research paper head on.
3. Students could also use one of the various Web 2.0 recording tools to make videos of themselves giving speeches or reciting monologues. Speeches could be written about relevant issues and then e-mailed to state congress-people ... thus incorporating civic and community engagement.
In my observations I have noticed that some students actually take the initiative for themselves to incorporate their knowledge of technology into projects and assignments. As long as we are open and not closed to the idea of technology in the classroom, these standards will probably be easier to meet than we think.
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