Final Portfolio

Here's the link to my portfolio

Good Sportsmanship

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AVFBPbHNSod2ZGhuczRuN2dfMzNkNzRia3NnOA&hl=en

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.

Evaluating Web Pages

All About Explorers

In evaluating the 'All About Explorers' web page, I found a site designed specifically to teach middleschool students that not all information on the internet is reliable. Although it ended with '.com', it was not commercial at all. This web page includes a webquest, lesson plans for teachers, and information about the qualifications of the authors and contributors to the site. By researching genuine explorers, students are given false resources (created by the authors) and legitimate resources to compare differences. Students are given topics to research along with an evaluation rubric. They are instructed to work in groups, organize and analyze their information, and prepare a power point presentation regarding the reliability and unreliability of internet web sites. I believe this site is informative, geared appropriately to the age level, and would be a great way to include this in the curriculum.

The only thing I didn't see on the webquest was the cso's that this webquest met. While the site was recently updated(withing the past few months), several of the websites students were directed to, did not work. Overall, I thought Mr. Aungst (Curriculum Specialist) and Ms. Zucker (Research & Content Specialist) created a reliable and useful site to help students locate good information and evaluate web sites.

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Survey Graphic

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Web 2.0 Educational Technologies

One of my first Web 2.0 bookmarks is for a well known resource called Teacher Tube. This website has lots of video's, presentations, and other resources that are used to present a lesson. For example, if I need to prepare a lesson on bullying, there are videos available (for various grade levels) that can be used as a starting point to introduce the topic. With additional activities / written assignments, etc., Teacher Tube can help me round out the lesson. It's also a great place to go for ideas about how to present a topic. As a teacher, I would use this as a resource and is one of my top choices as a bookmark on Delicious.

WebQuest Artifact

What Would Socrates Say?

According to Mr. Cookson's article, Socrates "believed that we learn best by asking essential questions and testing tentative answers against reason and fact in a continual and virtuous circle of honest debate". It would seem that today's availability of information would make that task so much easier and faster. One minute we could be wondering why something in nature is the way it is, and the next minute, we could be finding on the internet that someone just figured it out! And that there are 150 responses with their own personal hypotheses.

I think that Socrates would find a webquest very useful in resesarching the "fact" part of his circle of debate. He might see it as a valuable tool to be used to further our understanding and knowledge. But he might also be perceptive of the enormous amount of disinformation, misuse of information, and lack of reason that is very prevalent online. I think he would approve of undertaking steps to ensure that students with impressionable minds, be permitted to use only those formats that provide an opportunity to "ask essential questions and test tentative answers against reason and fact".

Socrates would approve of the webquest "Enthusiastic About Edison" because of its design to engage students in thinking about why Edison was a great scientist and how his influence has been felt worldwide. It was designed as a "compilation task" in which students were required to gather factual information, analyze and organize it, draw a conclusion, and present their findings to the class. They were to gather information from different formats (websites, books, online photographs) and compile it into a presentation (a photostory). They were also required to make decisions about what information was to be included in the presentation.

In conclusion, Socrates would favor those webquests that invoke investigation of facts, and the use of logic/reason to ask important questions such as, "What does this mean for us?".

Sherri Gallagher Webquest

Making my desired changes to this webquest was a little trickier than I expected. However, I think I was able to accomplish most if not all of the planned changes.

You may see the new webquest here.
SG

WebQuest Link

Click here to view my webquest:

WebQuest Adaptations

Although I thought the "Enthusiastic About Edison" webquest was really interesting and engaging, there are a few changes that could be made. Because I was searching for something appropriate for younger students, I decided to scale back the site to a third grade level from a fourth - sixth grade level. The majority of changes would be made in the area of Overall Visual Appeal. From the Fine Points check list, I would adjust:

Fine Point 2.) Some paragraphs tended to be somewhat wordy for third graders. I hope to simplify those by shortening them.

Fine Point 5.) The reading level was a little above third graders in some places. I hope to simplify those instances so that students have a better understanding of the text.

Fine Point 10.) The black back ground and and colorful text provided too much of a contrast to be easily read. I hope to change the "look" to decrease that interference.

A second area of adjustment would involve the Cognitive Level of the Task. The given tasks were great for the stated age range, however, they seemed burdensome for younger students.

Rather than researching 15 important facts about Edison, I would like to decrease the number of facts required and simplify the questions requiring students to use critical thinking. For example: rather than asking students how Edison's inventions have impacted society, I would ask them which of his inventions have they used, and how? What would their lives be like without some of his inventions? What do they think is the most important of Edison's inventions?

These are the changes I hope to make for this webquest. See you in class!

WebQuest Choice

The webquest I chose to work on is: Enthusiastic About Edison.

http://questgarden.com/41/48/7/061112165309/process.htm

I liked the topic and hope to make it more appropriate for a third grade level.