1) My first idea is for a first grade classroom. I would do a unit on weather. For this unit the students would each “research” a part of weather of their choice (rain, snow etc.) They would have to find out where their topic comes from or how it is formed, and then they would have to make a poster on it. They would also have to make an IMovie as a class of each of their topics combined.
2) My second idea is for a third grade classroom. The unit would be on the body. They would each research a part of the body and they would have to create a Kidspiration web relating and exhibiting the research they have done on their topic. The web would contain things like function and abilities.
3) My third idea would be for a unit on rocks in a second grade classroom. For this unit, I would have the students outside studying the rocks around the school. They would find a rock that they want to identify and study. The final project would be making a cartoon on Toondoo about the rock that they chose to study.
4) My fourth idea is for a 7th grade classroom. This unit would be on the environment. They would have to come up with the major environmental problems surrounding their area. Their projects would revolve around solutions to these problems. They would have to e-mail biologists and ecologists to find out possible effects of the problems.
5) My last idea is for a fourth grade classroom on energy. The students, in small groups, would research forms of energy. Their jobs would be to 1) make a presentation that shows that form of energy being used and 2) Make individual comics on ComicLife about the form of energy they chose. This is the idea that I will most likely go with.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Blog C
One of the things that I want to instill in my students is that everyone should be accepted. I hope that I will be able to make students comfortable with each other’s disabilities by introducing everyone in the classroom to different types of assistive technology. I hope that I will make my students feel at ease with different tools by introducing their purposes.
The first thing that we were asked to address was the question of: What is Universal Design? After looking at the website, I realized that it is the principle that not all students learn the same way. Because of learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or simply just the way a person’s brain works, all students take in and give out information differently. Because of this, teachers need to provide different tools and ways for students to take in the information they are given. Also, it is really important for teachers to find out what students know and have learned in a variety of ways. The method of one way and one teaching style is quickly becoming extinct as the diversity of students becomes more and more unrevealed.
Next, we were asked to find out what Section 508 was. I found that the Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. (Source) The main point of this act was to make learning and information much more accessible to people with disabilities. Thinking about this act, I imagine that being the parent of a student with disabilities would have been much harder pre-1998.
One of the things that I looked at in the Kalikow center was the Start to Finish books. I thought that this was a great tool for helping students who were maybe struggling with reading. This tool does not seclude students from subjects the rest of the class is learning about just because the text might be too hard. Even though this tool is probably mainly for struggling readers, it can also be used for students with visual impairments and those who feel like listening and not reading. Another tool that I thought could be very helpful was the Boardmaker. This could be utilized in many ways. It could be for me as a teacher, helping students to learn routines. It could be for students so they could make a overview of a story after they read a book. I thought that this was a fairly reasonable tool to keep in my future classroom. A third tool that I looked at was the Lomac tool. This was kind of a dream world tool, because it is probably very expensive. However, it is an absolutely amazing tool for students that would not be able to write with their hands. I also realized that it could be used for just about any student if they did not want to write for that period. A fourth tool that I found online was the page turner (See Here). This enables a student to just push a button to turn the page in the book he/she is reading. This tool could be used for any student that gets hung up on concepts when they have to turn a page. It enables the student to not break their concentration.
Overall, the visit to the Kalikow center was very informative. I don’t think that I had a good idea of all of the different types of technology that were assessable to teachers and even us, as UMF students.
The first thing that we were asked to address was the question of: What is Universal Design? After looking at the website, I realized that it is the principle that not all students learn the same way. Because of learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or simply just the way a person’s brain works, all students take in and give out information differently. Because of this, teachers need to provide different tools and ways for students to take in the information they are given. Also, it is really important for teachers to find out what students know and have learned in a variety of ways. The method of one way and one teaching style is quickly becoming extinct as the diversity of students becomes more and more unrevealed.
Next, we were asked to find out what Section 508 was. I found that the Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. (Source) The main point of this act was to make learning and information much more accessible to people with disabilities. Thinking about this act, I imagine that being the parent of a student with disabilities would have been much harder pre-1998.
One of the things that I looked at in the Kalikow center was the Start to Finish books. I thought that this was a great tool for helping students who were maybe struggling with reading. This tool does not seclude students from subjects the rest of the class is learning about just because the text might be too hard. Even though this tool is probably mainly for struggling readers, it can also be used for students with visual impairments and those who feel like listening and not reading. Another tool that I thought could be very helpful was the Boardmaker. This could be utilized in many ways. It could be for me as a teacher, helping students to learn routines. It could be for students so they could make a overview of a story after they read a book. I thought that this was a fairly reasonable tool to keep in my future classroom. A third tool that I looked at was the Lomac tool. This was kind of a dream world tool, because it is probably very expensive. However, it is an absolutely amazing tool for students that would not be able to write with their hands. I also realized that it could be used for just about any student if they did not want to write for that period. A fourth tool that I found online was the page turner (See Here). This enables a student to just push a button to turn the page in the book he/she is reading. This tool could be used for any student that gets hung up on concepts when they have to turn a page. It enables the student to not break their concentration.
Overall, the visit to the Kalikow center was very informative. I don’t think that I had a good idea of all of the different types of technology that were assessable to teachers and even us, as UMF students.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Blog B
This series of podcasts is called Driving Questions in Education by Kevin Honeycutt.
The podcast that I chose was Why Should We Use New Tools? In these series of podcasts Kevin Honeycutt drives around talking with educators and finds out the questions that they currently have. In this podcast he interviews Cindi Danner-Kuhn who, at the time of his visit, was doing podcasts with her class. When she was first introduced to podcasts, she was not really interested in them, but now they have grown on her. She can always find ways to use them in her class. She points out that not all of her students have a decent computer, which is why she can not use podcasts more. Overall, like most of us, she finds it very important to integrate new tools into her classroom; she says that it will at least get students hooked.
I think that using podcasts in the classroom is an amazing idea. As time goes on, and students grow, technology advances. As a teacher, it is very important to teach students the new kind of technology that is transforming every day. Plus, teachers are always looking for new activities to do in the classroom. I know that I will be using podcasts or a technology similar to podcasts when I teach. Technology is so versatile, and so as a teacher, it is really important to embrace that. I feel that by embracing technology, you are embracing the learning capacity of your students. You are finding yet another way to keep them on task and engaged with what you are teaching. You are letting the students connect with each other as you have them listen to what the class has recorded, and you are enhancing their communication with the rest of the world.
One of the main ways that podcasts will enhance literary instruction is being able to download books. A lot of students are auditory learners, so it is much easier for them to hear a lesson or a book being read then to only read it. Obviously, as a teacher, one would not want to discourage reading, but podcasts can always be a reading aid. As I have listed below, podcasts can be used to receive and give book reviews and book reports. The possibilities are endless with this form of technology, which is one of the best things about it!
Ways to Use Podcasts In A 4th Grade Classroom:
1) After researching about the human body, each student is assigned a body part. They post a podcast on what their body part does.
2) Podcasts can be used by the classroom as a whole to post what recent activities they are doing.
3) A podcast can be used to do book reviews after the students have completed a novel or short story.
4) Podcasts can be used to teach a foreign language (good for pronunciation practice).
5) Podcasts can be used to explore and share the findings of a science project.
The podcast that I chose was Why Should We Use New Tools? In these series of podcasts Kevin Honeycutt drives around talking with educators and finds out the questions that they currently have. In this podcast he interviews Cindi Danner-Kuhn who, at the time of his visit, was doing podcasts with her class. When she was first introduced to podcasts, she was not really interested in them, but now they have grown on her. She can always find ways to use them in her class. She points out that not all of her students have a decent computer, which is why she can not use podcasts more. Overall, like most of us, she finds it very important to integrate new tools into her classroom; she says that it will at least get students hooked.
I think that using podcasts in the classroom is an amazing idea. As time goes on, and students grow, technology advances. As a teacher, it is very important to teach students the new kind of technology that is transforming every day. Plus, teachers are always looking for new activities to do in the classroom. I know that I will be using podcasts or a technology similar to podcasts when I teach. Technology is so versatile, and so as a teacher, it is really important to embrace that. I feel that by embracing technology, you are embracing the learning capacity of your students. You are finding yet another way to keep them on task and engaged with what you are teaching. You are letting the students connect with each other as you have them listen to what the class has recorded, and you are enhancing their communication with the rest of the world.
One of the main ways that podcasts will enhance literary instruction is being able to download books. A lot of students are auditory learners, so it is much easier for them to hear a lesson or a book being read then to only read it. Obviously, as a teacher, one would not want to discourage reading, but podcasts can always be a reading aid. As I have listed below, podcasts can be used to receive and give book reviews and book reports. The possibilities are endless with this form of technology, which is one of the best things about it!
Ways to Use Podcasts In A 4th Grade Classroom:
1) After researching about the human body, each student is assigned a body part. They post a podcast on what their body part does.
2) Podcasts can be used by the classroom as a whole to post what recent activities they are doing.
3) A podcast can be used to do book reviews after the students have completed a novel or short story.
4) Podcasts can be used to teach a foreign language (good for pronunciation practice).
5) Podcasts can be used to explore and share the findings of a science project.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
My Top Five Unit Choices
Option 1: My first choice would to focus my unit on the Culture of Spain. During these lessons, the students would not only learn about the typical dances and types of food that people eat, but they would also use the internet to have a pen pal with another student (of the same age) from Spain. If we could not find an English speaking class to be pen pals with, the students from both classes would still have to convey ideas through the use of digital pictures and simple vocabulary. The pen pals would focus on the “every-day” things in their life. This unit would focus on grades 5 to 6.
Option 2: This unit will focus on fourth grade language arts. The students will each pick a famous poet and learn a piece of that poet’s work. They will use IMovie to produce a 3-5 minute video. This video will include a vast number of possibilities. They will not only be required to memorize and “perform” a poem by their chosen author, but they will be graded on creativity of performance and clarity of speech. They will also be required to give the viewer background information on their poet. This information will also be turned in as a hard copy.
Option 3: In my third option, I would make use of Blogs. This unit would focus on second graders and learning basic graphs. The students would design their own simple surveys (Ex: who has a younger brother?) and then graph the answers from the class. The students will establish a class Blog to explain their surveys or experiments. Each student will post an explanation of their survey and then attach a picture of their graphed results. The site will be accessible to parents and others who want to see the student’s work.
Option 4: My fourth option will also focus on fourth grade. In this unit the students will be learning about the Incan culture. They will each find a part of the culture that they want to specifically focus on, and then they will establish a collaborative podcast about that culture. They will not only be graded on their information presented, but they will also be graded on the collaborative efforts in the project. They will all be expected to produce a podcast that flows nicely between topics, is coherent and sensible.
Option 5: My last option, also for fourth grade, is to concentrate on science inventions. The students will have to research current inventions, and create one of their own. The invention must be plausible and equipped with full explanations. They will create a powerpoint to show their process of “building” their invention. This could be as simple as a catapult for marshmallow throwing. In the powerpoint they must include the sites and areas that they pulled information off of for their invention.
Option 2: This unit will focus on fourth grade language arts. The students will each pick a famous poet and learn a piece of that poet’s work. They will use IMovie to produce a 3-5 minute video. This video will include a vast number of possibilities. They will not only be required to memorize and “perform” a poem by their chosen author, but they will be graded on creativity of performance and clarity of speech. They will also be required to give the viewer background information on their poet. This information will also be turned in as a hard copy.
Option 3: In my third option, I would make use of Blogs. This unit would focus on second graders and learning basic graphs. The students would design their own simple surveys (Ex: who has a younger brother?) and then graph the answers from the class. The students will establish a class Blog to explain their surveys or experiments. Each student will post an explanation of their survey and then attach a picture of their graphed results. The site will be accessible to parents and others who want to see the student’s work.
Option 4: My fourth option will also focus on fourth grade. In this unit the students will be learning about the Incan culture. They will each find a part of the culture that they want to specifically focus on, and then they will establish a collaborative podcast about that culture. They will not only be graded on their information presented, but they will also be graded on the collaborative efforts in the project. They will all be expected to produce a podcast that flows nicely between topics, is coherent and sensible.
Option 5: My last option, also for fourth grade, is to concentrate on science inventions. The students will have to research current inventions, and create one of their own. The invention must be plausible and equipped with full explanations. They will create a powerpoint to show their process of “building” their invention. This could be as simple as a catapult for marshmallow throwing. In the powerpoint they must include the sites and areas that they pulled information off of for their invention.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Technology and Things Continued
I believe that technology does belong in education. I think that it can greatly help the learning process in the schools, and I think that there is no way that education can escape technology. I like to try to imagine when the majority of people did not have T.V.s. They either thought that they did not need them, or they did not want them. I am sure that slowly raidio talk shows began to be taken off of the radio, and there was not as many stations to hear the news on. I think that it was then when people started switching over to watching T.V. instead of listening to the radio. I think that this will be the same way with technology in education. There may be some people who think it does not belong in the classroom at all, but slowly, the tables will turn, and teachers will not be able to survive without it.
Technology and Things - Blog A
Because so much was brought up in each of these sites, I think that I will respond to them separately.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
In this first video, I was really surprised to see the breakdown of college kids’ lives. I had never thought about my day or year in terms of numbers. After watching this video, I had to think: how many hours a day do I spend on the internet between Facebooking, AIM, and checking my mail? For me, it was too impossible to figure out because every time I look at Facebook it may just be a couple minutes here and a couple minutes there. The video also made me realize how much technology affects my life compared to how it affected my mother’s life when she was in college. Times change so rapidly: the majority of students own laptops now; twenty or thirty years ago, everything was still hand written or typed on a type writer.
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=84
This video did an amazing job showing just how flexible technology is. It really used technology (not just the video production) but physically computers to demonstrate its flexibility and versatility. One discrete point that the video brought up was “The machine is using us.” It is really scary to think that a program, a machine is learning from us as humans like a robot. For me, that just seems like such a huge step in the history of humans. It is a program that stops needing programming (to a certain extent). I think that it is a crazy idea, but obviously plausible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw&feature=related
As a future teacher, this website really applied to me. I guess because our generation is so digital, I would automatically assume that I will use the internet and new technology in my classroom. One part I really didn’t think was feasible was the clip about using text messaging for so many things. I guess that because you (or the student’s family) has to pay for cell phones, it would not be that great to make them pay for school assignments that could also be completed with instant messenger. Overall, this video would be great for teachers that have not fully explored all of the possibilities of technology.
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/03/itm-6-and-walls-came-tumbling-down.html
I understand that Myspace seems like a great tool, but I, as a teacher, would not recommend it. It used to be really great and innovative, but now, it is relatively unsafe. If I was going to have my students use anything, it would most likely be blogs and Facebook and the other tools that he listed. Myspace has become filled with spam.
http://everyonelearns.blogspot.com/2006/04/do-something-disruptive.html
This article might have had good content, but I think that it was a little too hard to read for the point that was trying to be made. After reading it, I did think that it was a little behind the times. Schools ARE implementing technology, and very rapidly are they doing so. Even when I was in 7th grade, we were using sites like Google for research. And now, in my practicum placement, they are using even more technology!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
In this first video, I was really surprised to see the breakdown of college kids’ lives. I had never thought about my day or year in terms of numbers. After watching this video, I had to think: how many hours a day do I spend on the internet between Facebooking, AIM, and checking my mail? For me, it was too impossible to figure out because every time I look at Facebook it may just be a couple minutes here and a couple minutes there. The video also made me realize how much technology affects my life compared to how it affected my mother’s life when she was in college. Times change so rapidly: the majority of students own laptops now; twenty or thirty years ago, everything was still hand written or typed on a type writer.
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=84
This video did an amazing job showing just how flexible technology is. It really used technology (not just the video production) but physically computers to demonstrate its flexibility and versatility. One discrete point that the video brought up was “The machine is using us.” It is really scary to think that a program, a machine is learning from us as humans like a robot. For me, that just seems like such a huge step in the history of humans. It is a program that stops needing programming (to a certain extent). I think that it is a crazy idea, but obviously plausible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw&feature=related
As a future teacher, this website really applied to me. I guess because our generation is so digital, I would automatically assume that I will use the internet and new technology in my classroom. One part I really didn’t think was feasible was the clip about using text messaging for so many things. I guess that because you (or the student’s family) has to pay for cell phones, it would not be that great to make them pay for school assignments that could also be completed with instant messenger. Overall, this video would be great for teachers that have not fully explored all of the possibilities of technology.
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/03/itm-6-and-walls-came-tumbling-down.html
I understand that Myspace seems like a great tool, but I, as a teacher, would not recommend it. It used to be really great and innovative, but now, it is relatively unsafe. If I was going to have my students use anything, it would most likely be blogs and Facebook and the other tools that he listed. Myspace has become filled with spam.
http://everyonelearns.blogspot.com/2006/04/do-something-disruptive.html
This article might have had good content, but I think that it was a little too hard to read for the point that was trying to be made. After reading it, I did think that it was a little behind the times. Schools ARE implementing technology, and very rapidly are they doing so. Even when I was in 7th grade, we were using sites like Google for research. And now, in my practicum placement, they are using even more technology!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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