Week 14

 

You've Come A Long Way Baby

   When I started this class I was not at all excited to hear it was going to be a technology rich class.  Technology, you've got to be kidding!  I just learned copy and paste and that there is a way to look up a word when using a word doc.  Now you want me to learn google docs and collaborate with other people using this technology. Oh and you're going to use all these web 2.0 tools as well.
    Well I have come a long way, I still am sometimes frustrated by the technology but I keep working through the problems to find a solution or ask someone more tech savvy for advice.  I have realized that the tools available can be very beneficial to me as a teacher, especially google docs.  I am definitely pushing our school to look hard at this technology. 
    I  see that Social Studies can be enhanced through the use of web 2.0 tools and that these tools can differentiate learning for our students.  I also see the world shrinking as we reach out toward other cultures through the use of Skype and ePals.  With these tools we help our students to participate in a two-way exchange that requires building student's knowledge of their differences not merely tolerance of their differences.
    The hardest part about technology is that it is always changing, and just when I get used to one tool another one will be on the horizon that is a little bit better.  I realize that 21st century skills are a necessity to students and I need to be the one to encourage technology use in my classroom with all subjects.  Just today I found myself suggesting that we could Skype a student's uncle who works for NASA.  This is definitely something I would never have thought of five months ago, so thank you Malia for showing me the way.

 

Week 13

As many steps forward I take this semester with technology I always seem to take a few backwards.  I still am having trouble with the Sophia screencast.  I am not sure if I am doing something wrong or it is my computer.  I know that my school's librarian has been creating tutorials on Sophia and not having a lot of trouble.  So I again went with Jing as I did last week.  However I didn't remember how to work it so I had to go back and use the tutorials.  Three hours later, I have a finished product.  I do like how easy it is to use Jing once you get the hang of it and if you forget, the website has great tutorials to help you.  I was also able to try out Dipity, when it is working correctly it is a great tool to work with.  I did look at some other web 2.0 tools for timelines but I really like the ease of using this one.  I found it easy to upload your pictures you would need and simple enough to continue to insert new events.  I like that the timeline can be viewed in different formats such as flipbook and list.  I think this is a tool even my third grade could learn to master.
In reference to my third grade class, Glogster has been quite the challenge for them.  However they all look forward to working on their Glog and are usually asking if it is time for science.  Some students have enjoyed it so much they are working on a Glog at home.  I definitely can see that having students working regularly with technology will be beneficial.

week 12

Active learning is something I have been striving to incorporate into my lessons this year.  We have discussed this aspect of teaching in other classes and I felt it was important to create lessons that students were interested and excited about.  When I taught a weather and climate unit I had students create their own weather forecast just as they see on the Weather Channel.  This was something that they could connect to the real world.  After reading the text I can see many possibilities for creating and planning active instruction in my social studies class. I hope this summer to have more time to plan active learning into that part of my curriculum.

week 11

Well I guess I must be getting better at this technology thing.  I have introduced the science teacher to Prezis and she will be having her 8th grade students create one.  I talked my library/technology teacher into helping me with Glogster, so she is getting my third grade students ready to research and cite it as well. She is even creating her own tutorials on Sophia.  Next we might have all our school on Google Doc, (Sandy is rubbing off on me).  What I really look forward to is the time to integrate more technology into my lesson plans. However just when I will be ready to add more to my instruction my third graders will move onto 4th grade and I start over again next year.  So the wheels of teaching turn.  

Week 10

I am again feeling that technology can be more of a curse that a blessing.  I am frustrated with using Sopia have been trying unsuccessfully to create a tutorial for 3 weeks and something is not going right at my end or on Sophia. However considering every else has completed one, it must be on my end.  I am soooo confused!!!
But on the other hand I like some of the ways you can use google earth, I was able to tie in the global awareness  with science, where we are reading about how humans change the ecosystems.  The Appalachian Mountains have many coals mines and students could see from the pictures that were tagged, just how devastating strip mining can be.   It also had a little information for them to read.
There were several other tools that I thought would be worthwhile investigating when I have a little more time.

Week 9

The one phrase stressed throughout our classes has been that no longer is the teacher the “sage on the stage”. With that in my mind, I found it interesting to read a whole chapter devoted to direct instruction, or teacher –centered instruction.  As a teaching approach, I can see the benefit especially when active student learning is included.  When you can teach material that reflects the interest of the student, they are more willing to be engaged in the learning. I thought several of the lessons suggested would have that appeal. One I connected to was the Fountain of Youth; I could see a tie in to my community.  We have a park that is located on a spring that was said to have healing powers, even Native Americans had thought of the water this way.  First learning more about who were the First People that lived in our community and then continuing to the white settlers then the development of the water.  Students could debate the possibility of the water being a health aid and questions whether it could still be one today would be interesting.  I also like the idea of storytelling, as was mentioned in an earlier chapter.  Young elementary students enjoy a good story and it helps them to relate to the subject more easily. 

Week 8

Multicultural education is incredibly important as we continue to become a global community.  Already students are reaching across continents through the internet, engaging in social situations, whether they are playing a multi-player game or commenting on a project created by another student.  However, not all students have these opportunities.  Even though many homes and schools are technology rich there are still places that are not plugged in.  The teacher needs to be aware of these needs and address them.

 The school where I teach is a homogeneous setting so I need to make sure that I include information about other cultural traditions in my lessons.  The curriculum used at our school includes several lessons about different cultures whether it is learning about holidays in different countries or a lesson on the Native American’s way of life.  Younger elementary students are especially interested in learning how students their age study, sports they play and what they do in their free time.

I liked the idea of using the calendar as a lesson to understand different cultures and finding out why different people use different calendars.  I actually did not realize that there were four different ones, so I would have to build my background knowledge first.

Virtual Field trip

Decoding History: a virtual field trip to Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Hosted by David Baldacci author of the latest 39 Clues book.

http://decodinghistory.scholastic.com/?cid=STG/e/20130304///39Webcast-Reminder/Header///RET/1467043/&ym_MID=1467043&ym_rid=19096395

 

This virtual field trip took students on a behind -the- scenes look at important artifacts from U.S. history.  The tour focused on four artifacts; Lewis and Clark’s compass, the Star Spangled Banner, pottery from David Drake, and President Lincoln’s pocket watch.

Full scoop on this virtual tour on my wiki, social studies page.

Week 7

I remember learning about wikis in our technology class first semester. I really did not understand why you would need to create one, however revisiting them now I can see the value in having your own wiki.  I have already been adding resources to my wiki pages and I find it to be a great way to organize these sites.  You can add the main idea of the website to your page so it is easier to find when you are in need of them.  Our school is just beginning to embrace technology so I think that creating a wiki for my classroom would be a great opportunity for me to share information with my students and their families.  Maybe a few other teachers will join too.
As for the web 2.0 resources it is again overwhelming there are so many tools out there to choose from.  I enjoyed searching for practical ones for my classroom, I did find some but the time it takes to check them out limits the amount I can look at.  I understand the benefits of technology but I am still concerned about the amount time and energy it consumes.

Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

I feel this class is like a roller coaster of ups and downs.  I become slightly optomistic towards using technology and  then I become discouraged when I have trouble working with it.  This past lesson Pete and I decided to create a Prezi. It was a lot of fun playing with the website and it was easy to use.  You can really be very creative.  Then came the part of creating the flip video.  Sophia was not as easy to work with, even after watching the video on how to use Sophia, I felt completely lost.  But I did not give up, I rewatched the video again and this time it made a little more sense.  Then after I downloaded Java I could start.  Many restarts later I had a finished product, unfortunately I think I didn't work the microphone quite right so you have to turn your speakers up and I messed up the frame so the edit path part of Prezi is off the screen. So I'm back to square one again. 
UP and DOWN I go on this rollercoaster ride called TECHNOLOGY.

Week 5

Week 5

I am somewhat optimistic about the use of  technology in my classroom. While navigating the Prezi website I am feeling excited  to learn a new form of presenting information. I don’t think I will be creating a Prezi as elaborate as some I explored, but it has been fun playing around with this technology.  I am  not sure I would consider implementing this into my classroom this year but I could see tackling Glogster with my students.   

The chapter on inquiry reminded me of our class in literacy, the teacher talked about using visuals to start discussions  and get the students to ask questions or recognize the dilemmas inherent in the picture.  An inquiry allows students to develop those higher order thinking questions that will nurture their interest in the subjects and lead to a deeper understanding of the subject matter.  I have not used this method in my classroom as much as I would like to but I hope to in the future.

Week 4

A reflective lesson plan is structured without closing avenues to possible alterations in the plan, Lee, p.43 (2008). This is something I strive for in my lessons; yes, I start out with my plan but if a question arises that needs to be addressed we take the time as a class to pursue that direction of thought.  I look at these times as teachable moments and hopefully this leads students to a deeper meaning of the subject. Another section of the chapter I related to was the reflection after instruction. I don't write  a paragraph but keep sticky notes of what went really well in the lessons that day and make notes of where I could try to tweak it to make the lesson better.  

Week 3

 

The last class period I had talked about storytelling as having great potential for engaging students. I can also see that deliberation is an approach that can appeal and excite students.  Just today, my students were studying Native Americans and a question came up about the Trail of Tears, several students had the misconception  that other Native American tribes had caused  the Cherokee to leave.  I explained  it was the American Government who forced the tribe on this march.  This started quite the uproar in my classroom. Many students were troubled by this fact and it lead to a lot of discussion of the why and how of European settlement.  I had not thought about using this teaching strategy for third graders, I felt it might not interest them, however after hearing the passion in their voices  towards the injustice done I think it will be a lesson I would incorporate into my unit. 

Week 2 Reflection

The vastness of the web can be overwhelming, Lee, p.371 (2008) I think I can agree with that statement.  The effective use of technology in my classroom is going to take my becoming more comfortable with navigating the internet.  Third grade students are moving from learning to read to reading to learn.  Therefore, as the classroom teacher, I will need to find the resources and have them available on a wiki site or other site so they can look for pre-assigned information.

One area that may be easier to incorporate into classroom learning would be the visual dimension.  I have been on National Geographic’s website for science but not for social studies.  I found under history tab bibliographies of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. as well as a video on Native Americans.  These could be a nice introduction into a study on these subjects as well as an assessment for students’ background knowledge. 

People and places was another tab that would be useful for comparing and contrasting cultures.  I found links to a China Elementary School and Diwali: Festival of Lights both would make students aware of differing cultures. Homework help has a link to interactive maps that would be very good for learning their geography and I believe they can actually create their own maps.  

The Gutenberg Project while interesting would not be a valuable resource for my grade level.  Most of the books seemed to be at high school level or above.

Voicethread and glogster are both interesting tools that could be incorporated into the third grade classroom but at a minimal level.  I do not have a technology specialist at my school to collaborate with, nor do we have enough devices in our classroom.  It would be something I would integrate slowly.

Reflection 1

Well I am finally posting after coaching from Malia. I went through periods of frustration and feelings of being overwhelmed before I got to this point.  I have to say I am very ambivalent toward technology.  I am a digital immigrant and quite often I can't read the road signs and therefore I become lost on the endless web highway.  Yes, there is some interesting information out there on the web but I do not have the time or skill to sift through everything to get the information I need.  I am concerned that this class is more technology rich than other courses. 

I am looking forward to the idea of a flipped classroom, for young adults and adults I think it can support a greater depth of understanding toward the subject matter.  However, for the grade I currently teach, third grade, I am not sure if it is feasible.

I do hope to broaden my understanding of methods that are useful to reach students with multiple intelligences and create learning experiences that engage the student.  I want them to be excited about learning Social Studies.