Paige's PLE

Saturday, March 28, 2009

SlideShare PowerPoint

After looking at other students' power points I realized any lesson at all can include technology and become more interesting to the students. Even making words and things that are not complete lessons can incorporate technology in some way and greatly benefit the lesson.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Technology Enhanced Lesson

I have already done one lesson that used technology in my classroom. I have been put in charge of one of the guided reading groups in my class. For one of the guided reading lessons I had a book on Astronauts. My lesson plan was to introduce and teach new vocabulary words about space. To begin this lesson I wanted to let the students become familiar with the vocabulary words. I made a powerpoint with the vocabulary words as pictures. This way the students could connect the word with an image they may have seen before. I showed the powerpoint to introduce the vocabulary words, and then we read the book. At the end of the lesson I put up the powerpoint again to review the new words they learned. I will also use this powerpoint in a few days to review the new vocabulary and see if the students remember the words.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Week 10

While being in the classroom everyday, I realized I have access to an overhead with a pull down screen. This screen covers the white board and is visible by the whole class while they are at their seats. An idea to enhance a lesson with technology is to use the overhead while teaching a math lesson. In second grade they deal with two digit addition and subtraction. I can use the overhead to display regrouping and borrowing. There are colored chips to put on the overhead and they can symbolize the tens and ones separately. The students can help place chips on the overhead, and solve problems for the whole class to see. Not only is this good because it uses technology, but it also uses manipulatives. Anytime a student can have a hands on experience, they are usually more excited and can understand the concept better. Using technology and manipulatives will always be a great asset to my math lessons

Monday, March 9, 2009

Classroom Technology Inventory

As I begin my Cohort 1 experience in a second grade classroom I am amazed at how much there is to learn. It is interesting to see what is available to students and the school as a whole. I am in a non-rural school that is fairly nice, but has been around for 30 years. My cooperating teacher has her MacBook, laptop, everyday where she enters students grades and other personal information. The teachers all have access to wireless internet. My classroom has one computer in it, used most specifically for students to take AR tests. I have only seen the students get on the computer to take these tests, and nothing else. The office can contact the teacher through an interactive intercom. The teacher can simply talk back and communicate. My school, Sprucewood Elementary, has one computer lab with about 35 computers (only about 30 workat any given time). We have two mobile labs with 15 computers on each set.Some software that is available in the computer lab is Pages (which is kindof like Word), Kid Pix, Graph Club, Garage Band, Graph Master, Kidspiration,and Inspiration. The students at the school each have a 30 minute time once a week in the computer lab. There is a little bit of open time in the lab that teachers can sign up. Other digital technology at Sprucewood are digital projectors in every room except the portables, 3 document cameras, 6ELMO machines (like a flex cam), several digital cameras, a digital videocamera, blue clickers, overhead graphing calculators. Sprucewood's technical support is one 17-hour a week computer lab assistant. I am excited to get into the classroom and actually have my own students and use what is available to me. There are so many options with technology today, and I am anxious to try new things as a "tech savvy teacher."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Over the River Movie

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

TPACK Virtual Tour

What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?

The content that I will be using for my lesson is found in the Utah state core curriculum for 4th grade. It is under Standard 3, Objective 1, c which states "Sort rocks by appearance according to the three basic types: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic (e.g., sedimentary–rounded-appearing mineral and rock particles that are cemented together, often in layers; igneous–with or without observable crystals that are not in layers or with or without air holes or glasslike; metamorphic –crystals/minerals, often in layers)." As a freshman in elementary education I took a physical science class where we had to memorize 40 sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. I do not remember learning these when I was in elementary school, and it was difficult for me to do well with the rocks. I believe this lesson will make it more meaningful and memorable to young fourth graders.

What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?

I am using good pedagogy by selecting content, classifying rocks, that is normally hard to understand and unclear why it is important to learn. This lesson plan is very engaging and exciting, and I know students will have fun learning about rocks. The students will not be bored learning about rocks, which is normally not a favorite subject. Making science fun is always a plus, and a skill teachers need to aquire. I made a lesson plan that includes very up to date technology which is what students will need to know how to do. I know my students will be on computers even more than I am now, when they are in college and in a profession. My students need to be computer savvy and know how to do many computer programs.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

The technology I will be using for this lesson is Google Earth. This program is a perfect fit for the content to enable students to see real examples of each type of rock, on the earth. Students can see what it is like in every country, and recognize the similarities between them. Google Earth allows me to zoom in on any country, city, or landmark, and also see what it would look like from a "street view." There is no other tool that allows you to look at locations all across the globe with such precision and detail. This technology is great for my pedagogy because this program lets kids explore individually. Each student works at a different pace, therefore it is helpful for them to explore and learn on their own. Google Earth is great for many reasons, and it can also allow students to easily find locations they need, and become aware of additional information concerning a location, or country.

Hooray for Google Earth!

Google Earth Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Picture
1. Japan, Hokkaido, Mount Rausu (igneous)	Briefly introduce the rock cycle and explain that they will see places where all 3 parts occur. Have students reach the location on GoogleEarth. Ask the students what type of rock is formed at the volcano they see at Mount Rausu; discuss what happens in forming igneous rocks. Then have them watch the igneous rock video at http://activities.macmillanmh.com/science/ca/scienceinmotion/Common/SIM.html?Module=../Grade4/Chapter3-IgneousRockFormation/ Then have the students look at pictures of various igneous rocks.
2. Grand Canyon, Arizona(sedimentary)	Have students reach the location on GoogleEarth. Teacher will explain process of forming sedimentary rocks. Have them watch the sedimentary rock video at http://activities.macmillanmh.com/science/ca/scienceinmotion/Common/SIM.html?Module=../Grade4/Chapter3-IgneousRockFormation/ Have students look at pictures of various sedimentary rocks
3. Manualoa, Hawaii (metamorphic)	Have students reach the location on GoogleEarth. Teacher will explain process of forming metamorphic rocks. Have them watch the metamorphic rock video at http://activities.macmillanmh.com/science/ca/scienceinmotion/Common/SIM.html?Module=../Grade4/Chapter3-IgneousRockFormation/ Have students look at pictures of various metamorphic rock
4. Karnataka, India (sedimentary)	Have students reach the location on GoogleEarth. Have students explore this area using the zoom features and others available to identify at least one type of rock in the area. Once students identified one rock formation have students explore other locations and the rocks there.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	In our Google tour we used the Geographic web features of Panoramio. We also used the terrain feature, and labels so the students would know what they were actually looking at. Our tour began at Mount Rausu, Japan, it then went to the Grand Canyon, Arizona, next it went to Manualoa, Hawaii, and finally to Karnataka, India. The path shows the travel route to each location, visually.