WOW! I really have a lot of mixed feelings about this first lesson. I am very excited to learn more about Digital Storytelling and how I can use it in my classroom. I am especially excited to do the first group assignment, which is to make a list of 15 sites that have copyright free audio, video, graphics, and pictures. I am always looking for sites that I can direct my students to for using copyright free materials in their presentations. I do talk to my third graders about copyright, and I have often wished that I just had a list of resources to point them to when doing their own projects and presentations. Now I will have that; very exciting!
The reason for my mixed feelings is the amount of work for each week. I'm having a hard time fitting it all in this week, and I am just coming off a four day weekend. I'm wondering how I will ever get it done with a full week of work! I am really learning a lot, I'm just really feeling stressed about getting all this done in a week.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Week 5 Post
Reading the textbook for this class has definitely helped me become a better teacher, as it has given me heightened awareness about using each of these very important strategies in my classroom on a daily basis. The first, and definitely easiest, thing I've done, is to start using A LOT more stickers and stamps on my students' work to reinforce their effort. It's amazing how much that little token means to them, and the fact that I can praise their effort, even if they didn't succeed with the highest grade they would have liked to get. Considering the fact that Identifying Similarities and Differences showed such measurable improvements in test scores, I have recently been giving that strategy a lot of attention also. I use any chance I can get to call attention to similarities and differences in every subject I am teaching, and therefore teach the students to do the same. I have also taken a new approach to Providing Feedback to my students. I used to simply give a "Good Job" or "Great" on an assignment for feedback. I have recently been making more of an effort to give specific feedback when I'm walking around helping students, and also putting more specific comments on their papers.
The main thing that excites me about incorporating more of these strategies is integrating them with technology. I have picked up SO MANY great technology ideas and sites through this class, that each Thursday I can't wait to get to school and try them with my students! Just having the interaction with other professionals who are using the same text and taking the same class has been very beneficial to me. The collaboration is awesome! I have learned way more from my classmates than I would have learned if I had simply read this book on my own! Thanks everyone!
The main thing that excites me about incorporating more of these strategies is integrating them with technology. I have picked up SO MANY great technology ideas and sites through this class, that each Thursday I can't wait to get to school and try them with my students! Just having the interaction with other professionals who are using the same text and taking the same class has been very beneficial to me. The collaboration is awesome! I have learned way more from my classmates than I would have learned if I had simply read this book on my own! Thanks everyone!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Week 4 Strategies
Identifying Similarities and Differences
Identifying Similarities and Differences is very important for getting students to apply the knowledge we have taught them to real situations. I did an activity for this the first week of school this year in order to get to know my students better. I asked each of my students during Morning Meeting what their favorite foods were. After collecting all the data, we organized our foods by category and put them into Venn diagrams to identify the similarities and differences between all the foods. I used the Notebook software for my SMARTBoard to create the diagrams. I thought the lesson went very well and my students picked up the Venn diagram very quickly.
When I was reading about this strategy this week, I came across so many great ideas for how I could use this strategy in my classroom. I would like to start entering some of our data in Microsoft Excel and then make graphs to incorporate Identifying Similarities and Differences between our data sets. We do a Sunrise and Sunset chart for Everyday Math, and I think it would be great to put that data into Microsoft Excel like they mentioned in the book so the kids can see how the length of day changes and make note of the patterns.
Homework and Practice
The purpose of Homework and Practice is for students to apply and continue practicing what we have taught them in the classroom. When I first got my SMARTBoard, I created a Powerpoint game for my students to practice naming the continents and oceans of the world. Students had to drag the name of the continent or ocean onto the correct spot on the world map. When they were finished, they would click on each item they had named, and the hidden answer would be revealed so they could check their work. We always start out doing this game as a class on the SMARTBoard first, then I link the Powerpoint game to my class website so my students can go back and practice it whenever they have time. I thought this game turned out very well, and it helped my students to practice and apply what I was teaching them in Social Studies.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
When students generate and test hypotheses, they are using higher level thinking skills and applying all of the facts and vocabulary we have taught them. I often have my students make and test hypotheses in the Science units I teach for third grade. During our rock unit I have students look at rocks, list their characteristics, and generate and test hypotheses about what each type of rock might be. We have only been using our new Sciece program for two years, so I haven't had a lot of time to incorporate technology, but I would really like to make the time to do that this year. One of my goals for my students this year was to get them to use Microsoft Excel, and I think creating spreadsheets would be an excellent activity for charting their hypotheses as they test them, instead of having them do it on paper like we have done in the past.
Identifying Similarities and Differences is very important for getting students to apply the knowledge we have taught them to real situations. I did an activity for this the first week of school this year in order to get to know my students better. I asked each of my students during Morning Meeting what their favorite foods were. After collecting all the data, we organized our foods by category and put them into Venn diagrams to identify the similarities and differences between all the foods. I used the Notebook software for my SMARTBoard to create the diagrams. I thought the lesson went very well and my students picked up the Venn diagram very quickly.
When I was reading about this strategy this week, I came across so many great ideas for how I could use this strategy in my classroom. I would like to start entering some of our data in Microsoft Excel and then make graphs to incorporate Identifying Similarities and Differences between our data sets. We do a Sunrise and Sunset chart for Everyday Math, and I think it would be great to put that data into Microsoft Excel like they mentioned in the book so the kids can see how the length of day changes and make note of the patterns.
Homework and Practice
The purpose of Homework and Practice is for students to apply and continue practicing what we have taught them in the classroom. When I first got my SMARTBoard, I created a Powerpoint game for my students to practice naming the continents and oceans of the world. Students had to drag the name of the continent or ocean onto the correct spot on the world map. When they were finished, they would click on each item they had named, and the hidden answer would be revealed so they could check their work. We always start out doing this game as a class on the SMARTBoard first, then I link the Powerpoint game to my class website so my students can go back and practice it whenever they have time. I thought this game turned out very well, and it helped my students to practice and apply what I was teaching them in Social Studies.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
When students generate and test hypotheses, they are using higher level thinking skills and applying all of the facts and vocabulary we have taught them. I often have my students make and test hypotheses in the Science units I teach for third grade. During our rock unit I have students look at rocks, list their characteristics, and generate and test hypotheses about what each type of rock might be. We have only been using our new Sciece program for two years, so I haven't had a lot of time to incorporate technology, but I would really like to make the time to do that this year. One of my goals for my students this year was to get them to use Microsoft Excel, and I think creating spreadsheets would be an excellent activity for charting their hypotheses as they test them, instead of having them do it on paper like we have done in the past.
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