The ISTE standards for teachers state that, "Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments." The student standards state that, "Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology." I feel that the project my students are working on currently encompass these skills.
The project my 5th graders are currently working on is researching a college that is participating in March Madness and creating a PowerPoint presentation that includes the information that they have gathered, which will eventually be presented to the class. Research is one of the standards listed, which is a huge piece of my students' projects. As teachers, we underestimate the amount of scaffolding and lessons that could be taught to show students how to research on the internet effectively, such as key word searches, looking for reliable sources, navigating pages that have multiple tabs, and paraphrasing the information they are looking up. All of these are pertinent skills they will need as they get older.
Even though this project is individualized for the students and not very collaborative, I can see how students are helping each other when they come across a problem or need help looking up a certain piece of information. They are even learning from each other when trying out the different applications on PowerPoint, such as designs, transitions, and uploading pictures.
This was our first time doing this project, which is why we wanted to keep it simple with a PowerPoint presentation. In the future, I can see myself giving students options for how they want to present their information...whether it be through a picture book on Story Jumper, or using interactive online resources such as Glogster or Prezi. Students would learn so much from trying out different ways to present their information with technology.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
Graphic Organizers
Teaching Writing Using Traditional & New Literacies:
The article we read gave me great insight on how I can help my students brainstorm, add detail, and narrate the stories they write. In the article, there is a little blue inset toward the end that says Take Action! and I feel that trying out any of those strategies would benefit my students. One strategy I do already use is having students talk with their writing partner about what they are going to write about. I could take this one step further and continue to teach students ways (phrases/questions) in which to give each other constructive feedback, thinking of ways to help their partner strengthen their writing.
When thinking of our writing units, I think it would be great to have students draw out pictures that go along with their narratives, as well as record themselves telling the story. This gives them an opportunity to reflect and make sure they included all of the important parts. They will also be able to remember it better and come back to it if need be, rather than telling their partner then forgetting parts later on.
As we begin to do research in fourth quarter, I think it would be beneficial to tie in graphic organizers and mind maps to help students organize their information and notes they take along the way. 5th grade will be researching a university participating in March Madness, so using webs would help them keep track of their information, which will later be turned into a presentation.
Evaluated App: Popplet Lite (*Limits 5 popplets made before upgrade$$)
Ease of creation: Each popple has icons around it to edit it. There is a ? in the corner that explains them all. You can resize objects by using arrows and can move around popples by just clicking on them and sliding them around. The export option is great-allows you to email in different formats or save.
Clarity: Everything is easy to read.
Insert pictures: You can use pictures from your computer's library, but it doesn't allow you to get any from the web, which I would want my students to do.
Age level: I can see this being used by students ranging 1st-5th with instruction of how to use it ahead of time. It is also nice because it is an app and a website.
The article we read gave me great insight on how I can help my students brainstorm, add detail, and narrate the stories they write. In the article, there is a little blue inset toward the end that says Take Action! and I feel that trying out any of those strategies would benefit my students. One strategy I do already use is having students talk with their writing partner about what they are going to write about. I could take this one step further and continue to teach students ways (phrases/questions) in which to give each other constructive feedback, thinking of ways to help their partner strengthen their writing.
When thinking of our writing units, I think it would be great to have students draw out pictures that go along with their narratives, as well as record themselves telling the story. This gives them an opportunity to reflect and make sure they included all of the important parts. They will also be able to remember it better and come back to it if need be, rather than telling their partner then forgetting parts later on.
As we begin to do research in fourth quarter, I think it would be beneficial to tie in graphic organizers and mind maps to help students organize their information and notes they take along the way. 5th grade will be researching a university participating in March Madness, so using webs would help them keep track of their information, which will later be turned into a presentation.
Evaluated App: Popplet Lite (*Limits 5 popplets made before upgrade$$)
Ease of creation: Each popple has icons around it to edit it. There is a ? in the corner that explains them all. You can resize objects by using arrows and can move around popples by just clicking on them and sliding them around. The export option is great-allows you to email in different formats or save.
Clarity: Everything is easy to read.
Insert pictures: You can use pictures from your computer's library, but it doesn't allow you to get any from the web, which I would want my students to do.
Age level: I can see this being used by students ranging 1st-5th with instruction of how to use it ahead of time. It is also nice because it is an app and a website.
Screencast
When looking into the various websites to use for setting up a flipped classroom, I could definitely see myself using a few of them for various subjects. If I were to try a flipped classroom, I would pick content from lessons that I feel would help build students understanding, making them more engaged by watching a video of my instruction or a video where they have to answer questions. I like the idea of having students learn about the content ahead of time and then discussing it in class and taking it one step further with guided practice, etc.
Here are a few examples of how I could use this in my own classroom:
Here is a link to my lesson:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/adjectives-lesson/30088790/?s=CpUheZ&ref=appemail
Concerns with Educreations: I couldn't figure out if you could listen to your recording before you saved your lesson and wasn't sure if after you saved your lesson if you could go back in and edit it at all. I think it is a great resource, but I wonder if this will be even more work for the teacher to prepare for ahead of time! That's why I can see myself using it in moderation.
Here are a few examples of how I could use this in my own classroom:
- The eduCanon, Teachem, and Blubbr websites would be great to use for our science curriculum, especially when reviewing for NESA. I could look up videos that review weathering, deposition, erosion (Bill Nye) and type up questions that go along with it as students watch the video.
- Educreations would be a great tool to use with math lessons that have multiple steps, such as long division, or even lessons where drawing out pictures would help students' understanding (for example when we learn about polygons, angles, and types of lines.)
Here is a link to my lesson:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/adjectives-lesson/30088790/?s=CpUheZ&ref=appemail
Concerns with Educreations: I couldn't figure out if you could listen to your recording before you saved your lesson and wasn't sure if after you saved your lesson if you could go back in and edit it at all. I think it is a great resource, but I wonder if this will be even more work for the teacher to prepare for ahead of time! That's why I can see myself using it in moderation.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Twitter Experience
For my first Twitter Chat experience, I decided to get on and watch #sunchat, which happened to be discussing snow days various schools have, as well as ways in which schools make up for those snow days. I learned some great ideas that I would like to look into for when we have snow days here at LPS, which include giving students a reading challenge, providing students with a "Chilly Day List of Activities," as well as continuing assignments online with Google Classroom.
As I got ready for the chat, I was nervous I wouldn't know how to navigate Twitter and respond correctly to whatever people were tweeting. For a first time user, it was very overwhelming. I knew I could click on "view conversation" to see how tweets were connected to each other, but I wish I understood a little better about how that works and if there is an easier way to filter the topic/conversation you are looking at. It amazes me how fast it updates and how many people tweet at a time. I was able to comment on a few tweets, but I think I messed up on one because I didn't add the #sunchat at the end....so not sure if the person saw it or not. I definitely need more practice and need to learn more about how to use Twitter!!
As I got ready for the chat, I was nervous I wouldn't know how to navigate Twitter and respond correctly to whatever people were tweeting. For a first time user, it was very overwhelming. I knew I could click on "view conversation" to see how tweets were connected to each other, but I wish I understood a little better about how that works and if there is an easier way to filter the topic/conversation you are looking at. It amazes me how fast it updates and how many people tweet at a time. I was able to comment on a few tweets, but I think I messed up on one because I didn't add the #sunchat at the end....so not sure if the person saw it or not. I definitely need more practice and need to learn more about how to use Twitter!!
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