Week 12 website assignment

My website shows two examples from science projects that we did this past week. For my gadgets, I included another Peep experiment youtube video, and another sample of my teaching using Google Drive. https://sites.google.com/site/assignmentweek12/home

Life stages of a butterfly lesson

This is a concept map that I would use in a classroom of young children. We will be doing a butterfly unit, which includes raising butterflies and reading several trade books on the topic. While my students are too young to do a map like this themselves, it would provide some novelty as we learn about the life cycles.

embed mapping

Butterfly garden mapping

Screencast explanation

The screencast that I did was an explanation of the calendar of events in South Haven, Michigan.  I live there, and love the town. It is a great place to live and visit, especially in the summer. In the screencast I pointed out a few of the most popular events in our town. You should visit soon!

screencast 3

jing test

Laura Ingalls Wilder trail map explanation

I designed a map similar to one that I would expect a class of middle schoolers to create after studying Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was a writer, born on the frontier in 1867. Wilder lived a rough life of a frontier family in several towns, suffering the hardships and misfortunes that most people had in those conditions, including deaths, illness, and terrible winters.

With the help of her daughter, she began recording her stories about growing up on the prairie. She published several books that have become classic children's literature. Fascination with Wilder and her life grew throughout the years and a trail was created so people could experience where she lived and thrived. She died in 1957 a very famous writer.

I thought it may be interesting and educational for students to create a google map showing the destinations on the trail. In place of the standard google map markers, I used pictures of Wilder's actual homes.

Laura Ingalls Wilder destination trail map

Lake Michigan map

Educational podcasting

TED talks

TED talks are from a non-profit organization devoted to spreading ideas. They began in 1984, using the initials T (technology), E (entertainment), D (design). They cover all topics, ranging from science to business to global issues. They are short, powerful talks which are 18 minutes or less, presented by experts and professionals in their field.

The podcasts I have linked can be found on itunes, and are very informative, covering many different aspects of education. My favorite so far is one by Rita Pierson called "Every Kid Needs a Champion."

Week 7 Insert Google map assignment

Week 7 Embed YouTube video assignment

Week 7 Insert image assignment

Instagram assignment

See my photos here

Social bookmarking assignment

delicious

My wiki site assignment

I have summarized a section of the O'Reilly article regarding harnessing collective intelligence on my wiki. Read it here.

Reflection January 16, 2015

This is my first reflection piece after reading “Beyond Technology Integration: The Case for Technology Transformation” and “Of Luddites, Learning, and Life.”  I found that I both agreed and disagreed with comments from each.

     In the Transformation article, a couple of points caught my attention. The first was the assertation that in our current educational system, we divide students into large groups and teach the same content in the same amount of time in order to sort them into laborers and managers. I would disagree with this. The biggest reason I see to teach large groups at the same time is for efficiency. In my experience of classroom teaching (group) and 15 years of homeschooling (individual), it is much more time effective, for example, to teach 30 students how to do double-digit addition at once rather than one at a time.  I would, however, agree with their opinion that we should hold achievement constant at the mastery level, by allowing children as much time as they need to reach those standards. In over 25 years of teaching, it has never ceased to amaze me how teaching the same concept is learned so differently by students. There are always those who pick it up the first time, those who take a few practice rounds, and those who continue to struggle unless there is time-consuming, repeated exposure and intervention.

     In the Luddite article, again, I found myself both agreeing and disagreeing with the author. On one hand, I concur with his belief that sometimes because the technologies are there, we often invent problems to justify using them.  Several years ago, I was discussing with my principal how much a smartboard would add to my teaching. Now mind you, I had taught those same concepts successfully for years without one, but just knowing that they were available made me feel as if I needed one. On the other hand, it felt slightly like an affront when the author claimed that the information-giving function of schools was rendered obsolete long ago. Really? Had the author’s child been sitting in my classroom this morning learning about topics ranging from phonics decoding skills to how to multiply, I think he may have felt differently.

First post 1/12/15

This is my first blog post!