Presentation Assignment

For my presentation, I'd like to feature a lesson on Good Sportsmanship for a K-3rd grade age group. I hope to help children see that we can use good sportsmanship in areas other than just sports.

Scratch | Project | Odd-Even[1]

Here's my new Scratch!

Scratch Project Odd-Even[1]

Thoughts About Blogging With Fifth Graders

This activity was one of my favorites so far. I really enjoyed being able to communicate with the students and get an impression about how 5th graders 'blog'. It confirmed for me that students enjoy "writing" on the computer much more than with pencil and paper! Why not? It's not nearly as boring because it is way more visual, it's more creative, and much faster! This activity reminded me that kids love to talk about themselves and I saw how much they enjoyed communicating with one another. One concern I had was the lack of spelling skills. I think that digital media can help with this. Rather than using the spell checker, students can be taught to proof read their material first. Not having to deal with the penmanship issue could aid in making spelling corrections, and students would learn editing skills at the same time. Blogging is definitely something that I would like to incorporate as an instructional activity with future students.

Redesigning A Scratch

Today I chose to redesign the Scratch in which students identify odd numbers. I will modify it to have students identify rational/ irrational numbers. You can find the scratch here:

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/jboyer/350005

The following is the content standard I hope to meet:

M.S.7.1
Number and Operations Through communication, representation, reasoning and proof, problem solving, and making connections within and beyond the field of mathematics, students will

· demonstrate understanding of numbers, ways of representing numbers, and relationships among numbers and number systems,

· demonstrate meanings of operations and how they relate to one another, and

· compute fluently and make reasonable estimates

Scratch | Project | Odd-Even

Scratch is very new to me. I'm still trying to imagine how it would be used in the classroom, whether for young students to learn from, or for students to learn by creating. I chose this scratch because I thought it was a good way to reinforce with students the idea of odd and even numbers. But this could also be used with vowels/ consonants. If you'd like, you can take a look at it too.

Scratch | Project | Odd-Even

Think Aloud

Would you like to view my Think Aloud?

New Media Literacy - Henry Jenkins

According to Dr. Jenkins, convergence culture is the intersection of two types of media oriented cultures: the commercial culture (selling a product, idea, or information), and the amateur culture. Amateur culture is a grass roots media phenomena in which people form "knowlege communities", identify things they care about, and let others know about it though social networking. Not surprisingly, teenagers are the biggest producers of content in this type of culture. (Think about how many kids have put videos of themselves and/or friends on You Tube). This has good and bad implications for Education. Kids want to spend most of their free time (and time at school),social networking, texting,etc. Some have abused this type of communication through cyberbullying, threats, etc. So schools have established rules that limit student access in order to control negative behavior. These steps block certain sites or activities so that students cannot gain access. They may limit the amount of time students can use the internet while at school. I find these steps appropriate. But there is also a great opportunity for students and teachers to use "good" content in the learning process. For example, teachers can let their students watch an "amateur" video on why bullying is bad. Overall, I think that student school access to websites, social networks, etc, is profitable when monitored closely by teachers and administrators, when it is limited to academic activities, and tied directly to learning. It is also necessary to teach students how to identify good/bad information so that they can make good judgments about what they view now and in the future.