Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday--Day Three
Tours and information overload. Breathe and relax. Let's keep the unit revamp simple--tell us what lesson you are thinking of for integrating technology. What is the lesson about and what technology will help you teach it more effectively? Researching bees and making a glogster? Researching bees and using photos of bees to make an animoto with text? Or other ideas?
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I'm not sure yet about where to incorporate the technology but am leaning toward Excel spreadsheet graphing of lab data. We would normally collect lab data and handgraph it. I still want the students to do this to become familiar with the requirements of a good graph. However, once the principles are down, the graphing capability of the spreadsheet is far more professional looking than any hand graph. The lesson will probably be within a unit on energy transfer where we gather data in a lab on radiation and another on conduction. The labs require graphing two dependent variables against time and would lend themselves well to spreadsheet graphing.
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ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to think more about my government unit and how to incorporate technology into it. Right now I have nothing in the unit that uses technology! It's the perfect unit for me to focus on.
ReplyDeleteMy tour this morning at American Family Insurance was very informative. Their facility was beautiful and our guides were super friendly. The information that resonated the most for me was that the 'soft skills' (accountability, ability to make a plan, execute, AND achieve results, maximizing customer experience, flexibility) are just as important as the 'hard skills' (knowledge of math, science, and technology.) An applicant can have all the hard skills in the world, but without soft skills, s/he isn't that big of an asset to the team. We often think of the corporate 'ladder' (heading in one direction - UP), but these days it's more about the corporate 'lattice' (the ability to move not just up, but down, left, right, diagonal) to adapt to whatever is best for the company/team. I like this new way of thinking and can see myself using this analogy with my students. They need to be able to problem-solve with passion rather that with pessimism, sometimes need to take a long-winding road to find an answer. For now, those are the thoughts that are on my mind.
I have recently started teaching a General Chemistry course that is non-math based. This has been very eye-opening for me, because I love math and have always taught college bound chemistry with lots of math. The General Chem focuses more on the societal questions that revolve around chemistry, enticing the student to then become interested enough to tolerate some math based chemistry.
ReplyDeleteOne of the units is about PETROLEUM. This unit has so many interesting discussions, but comes at a time of year where there is not often time to get everything in. Rather than chop out chunks of this unit, I could allow kids some flexibility to investigate topics of interest in groups, but then have them present in a more efficient fashion. I think Animoto would be a great tool for presentations of this type. Kids could elaborate with slides, yet keep the presentation time efficient. Because of the novelty of this type of presentation (compared to the typical power point)I am guessing that students would buy into this project quickly and have audience buy into presentations immediately as well. Pluse the added music would certainly liven up any chemistry classroom :)
My project will help me get a start on the next school year. With 10 iPads sitting in my library and waiting for me, my project needs to be my implementation plan. There have been so many wonderful resources highlighted during the last 3 days. (I feel like I have a week’s worth of information spinning in my brain.) My next step is to map out a plan to help teachers understand the tool, be comfortable using it and help them dream how it can and will transform their classroom. The student plan will be simpler, they don’t need to be taught how to be comfortable with the technology they will need to be introduced to this as a learning tool (in addition to being a really COOL gadget). Connecting the use of iPads to the curriculum will provide the teachers with a comfortable way for it to be introduced to their students. Teaching the students and the teacher at the same time is always a win-win situation! All staff meetings will include the iPads with the app of the day. With any great plan, it will probably be revised after the first month of school, but it will be a wonderful resource to start the school year with a plan.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to use Glogster to have students in the upper grades (4-5)make informational and advertising posters for our recycling program at school. I will have the classes compete with each other (by showing good behavior-earning tickets) each week to decide which class will work with me to empty the recycle bins around the school. This is a project I did with my third grade class each week on Fridays and it was VERY motivating for them. They had to have work done and show appropriate behavior to earn the privilage of helping out. I also taught my students the process that paper, aluminum, etc. goes through to be recycled. Where garbage goes in landfills and how it affects the environment. We made a worm farm to bury items to find out a month later what the worms would eat (biodegradable). We drew maps of the container, where we buried various items made of plastic, wood, cloth, paper, food scraps, etc. and students predicted what the worms would eat on their maps.
ReplyDeleteI envision a whole unit here using Animoto, Glogster and other things I haven't found yet to incorporate into this unit.
My thought is to have students make a 3-D story book using Zooburst.com. I am still thinking about what the topic would be and exactly how I would implement it. Hopefully, I'll have it figured out by tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteThe tour at WISC-TV was great! It was interesting to hear the presentations and see the TV studio. I also learned a lot about how much technology they use and what type of education they are looking for when hiring new employees.
I have a short poetry unit that I teach the 8th graders, and the only technology I use is word processing and an overhead projector w/the trusty vis-a-vis marker. :-) I intro the unit by having students write a poem about themselves that follows a structured format. In the past, it was up to the students to handwrite or type a final draft. I'm now going to have them use Glogster to create the final draft.
ReplyDeleteBack to the overhead projector, I am supposed to get a ceiling-mounted projector that is hooked to my computer thsi school year. Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations on a program for presenting notes ... specifically terms w/definitions?
Tour: Mansanto was very interesting. There was one scientist in particular who would be a great speaker for high school students in ag/science. I can't recall his name ... Richard? Maybe Ken remembers.
I went to WISC - Channel 3. I enjoyed and found the trip informative. Neil Heinen (sp) was one of our speakers and I learned the view he has on issues are not his own. He is just the spokesman for a board that decides on what point of view he will represent.
ReplyDeleteThe project I want to complete at school is my Google site for the LMC. I am going to take pictures of the LMC and include various pictures of different activities in the LMC and make a movie with Animoto