September 7
SlideShare
This is a great presentation that I would use in my first grade classroom. There are real pictures and a very detailed account of raising monarchs. There are many extra details in this presentation including determining the gender of the butterflies.
The presentation above is about the same life cycle of a monarch. This presentation is not high quality because the interactive buttons do not all work. The design is not of quality since some text runs on the pictures and there are words spelled incorrectly. I would not use this in my classroom.
Taking Learning Seriously:
After reading Taking Learning Seriously, I found that many times as a student in college and high school, I would forget much of the information I was learning simply because I had to memorize facts. I had " amnesia." Many times I would cram studying for tests the night before, trying to take in all of the information. After the test came and went, I would forget everything. I try not to do this as a teacher. I teach first grade, therefore much of what my students are learning is put into practical application. Much of what I teach is how to read and how to write. Naturally, students can practice this everyday in their world around them.
Another pathology this article discussed is we are unable to use what we learned, or "inertia." I would agree with this in my college education. I took many classes in the general education portion of my degree that I do not even remember. These classes were part of my degree that made me a "well rounded" learner, but I really didn't take much from the courses. Teaching first grade is the foundation of a student's education. The curriculum is very basic and concepts a student will take with them throughout their lifetime. I feel that most students will be using everything they learned from my classroom since first grade is the basics of education.
The last pathology this article discussed is "fantasia," or we don't understand something. This reminds me of seeing the blank look in my students' eyes when they don't understand something I am teaching. This is what we never want to see as educators. This blank looks allows us to adjust lessons. I try to relate the material I am teaching to my students' lives, allowing a better connection to the material that I am teaching. Not understanding something always frustrated me as a learner. I am the type of person that wants to get something the first time around. Not understanding something made me into a student who asked a lot of questions because I wanted to understand concepts.
I feel that technology can be used to enhance what I am teaching and really have a lasting effect on my students. I use links on the SmartBoard and Wiki page to reinforce different concepts I teach. This helps students remember the material and hopefully not have amnesia. I show short movie clips to relate the material I teach to the real world. I also feel that showing movie clips helps teach the material in a different way. Technology offers an endless way to enhance the curriculum I teach.
September 13
The project I am planning to create is a unit on patterning. This is part of the math curriculum for first grade. The lessons will be based off of the Math Lands program. The audience of my project will be to my class of nineteen first graders. There are ten boys and nine girls. Two students receive special education support. Support will not be provided during my math lessons in this project. I am going to plan my unit to include hands-on interactive lessons that include using the SmartBoard in my classroom. My lessons will be approximately thirty minutes in length due to the shorter attention span of the students I am teaching.
September 22
Making it Happen
After reading the book "Making it Happen," I found that being a project manager requires first knowing what a project is. I don't think it matters that you may not have much experience in managing projects like Will did in the novel. I think Will made the initial right move in seeking out his "consultant" Martha. Will first had to understand that a project is a plan and he went from there with his team.
I think Will made the right move in the story when he involved his sponsor, Ralph, in this project. This made me think of the case study I read in class about Karen Cole and the lack of involvement of her sponsor. Having Ralph directly sign off on each stage of the project was important so that a timeline was understood and how and what the funds were being spent.
I think Will did a good job planning out each step of the wind sailor project with his team and each step was specifically planned out so that his team was in agreement with Will. Each member of the project team also had their own role within the project. Will got into a little trouble with the timing of the first stage of the project because his timeline was based off of a guess. Will later understood this while he consulted with Martha.
As the project continued, I liked how Will dealt with the speed bumps along the way. Time and schedule was something that Will had to continually address. Will realized how the relationship among scope, cost, quality and schedule worked after his consulting with Martha. Will successfully completed the project with success do to his continual reevaluation of his plan with his team. I liked how Will wrote a short, simple survival manual for project managers after he reflected upon his project management of the Wind Sailor. I think this really summed up the book.
Overall, I liked how the novel was written as a story and not a how-to guide. I think readers will have a better understanding of how project management is handled because the book was written as a real-life story.
Content Analysis
The unit I am teaching to my first graders has been introduced to them in Kindergarten. The concepts in patterning are concrete. I do not think my students will have a difficult time understanding the concepts since we will be building the patterns with manipulatives.. The main goal of the unit for students to copy and extend patterns and to name the rule of a pattern. The lessons I teach will be break down the main concepts into smaller lessons and concepts. The unit will span over a month's worth of time. I plan on focusing the first two weeks to copy and extend patterns. The next two weeks will focus on naming the rules of patterns. This tends to be a little more difficult for students to do. I plan on teaching this concept after students are comfortable with copying and extending patterns. In this unit I also plan on relating patterns to the real world. I feel that it's important for students to see how patterns are all around them,
Task Analysis
When teaching my first graders about patterns, I plan on planning the unit to sequentially build upon each lesson. I plan on starting the unit with very simple AB patterns and repeating this. I then plan on introducing the new concept on building a third variable into the pattern, C. I plan on using other ways to identify patterns such as numbers, colors and sounds. This unit is important to teach in sequential order because students will be first introduced to very simple patterns and then build to more complex patterns as my students' concepts and skills of patterning increase.
September 27 Frustrations of Everyday Things Prezi Presentation
October 5
The learning strategies that stood out for me in the text were Social Media learning, Peer Editing, Chunking, Problem Based Learning and Instant Messaging. These five stood out for me because they are mostly strategies I have never used before in my classroom. Some I have heard of but never found the opportunity to try.
Social Media Learning: I have kept a blog for my EDT classes as well as a Wiki site. I use a wiki site for my class to keep parents informed of what students are learning in the classroom. I have not used the site for my students to post comments because of their age.
Peer Editing: I like how peer editing puts students in charge of each other's learning. I would like to use this in the spring when my students learn how to edit stories they write. First I would like students to edit their own work and eventually each other's.
Chunking: I have heard of this term before in relation to how words appear on a poster, presentation or word document from EDT 501. I have never used this as a memory tool in my teaching. One way to use this is memorizing how to spell trick sight words that do not spell the way they phonetically sound.
Problem-Based Learning: I like how this approach to learning poses students with a real-life problem for students to solve. I would like to use this during math.
Instant Messaging: I thought this was interesting to read how this works in the workplace. I think that this would not work because of the confidential student information that is shared in schools.
October 12
Story Telling: I find that when I tell stories with my first graders, their ears perk up and even the most difficult students are fully paying attention. I find that students remember the point I am trying to make when I tell stories.
Chunking: I learned about chunking in EDT 501. Less is more with chunking. The key is to break up words/letters to make it more meaningful. This can be applied to breaking up a sentence/paragraph on the screen to make the words more meaningful.
Coherence: When using a presentation tool, use only the information that you need on the slide. When there is too much, the audience will not be focused. Do not use too much text, transitions, or graphics. Remember to stay on point and your audience will too.
Typography: Typography refers to the text in any given presentation. Be sure to use a font that is readable for you audience. Also use a font that relates to the subject you are presenting about. Be aware of the color contrast of the font against the background as well.
October 19
Summative Assessment:
~ First I plan giving my students a pre-assessment on the unit for patterns (baseline data). This will have questions similar to what the final assessment will have.
~ From this data, I plan to plan my lessons teaching to the needs of my students as well as the objectives I set for each lessons as well as the unit.
~Final Assessment: I will give my students a final assessment after my unit is complete. This will assess all the learning my students have done over the course of the unit.
