EDT+650+Assignments

Assignment Number 4: Technology Lesson Number One: [] Technology Lesson Number Two: [] Technology Lesson Number Three-Fast Food Fun: []


 * __Grade Level__: Any __Title__: Daily Sites -In this lesson you use the internet in the morning as part of the day's "start-up". You check the weather, wind speed and direction and other statistics about the weather. I like how that promotes practical usage of the internet each day.


 * __Grade Level__: Any __Title__: Creating a Poetry Collection - In this lesson you actually download a program where the children can record their own voices while they read poetry. Then they can listen and see how they sound as they read it. It sounds awesome and I plan to try it in my classroom. I do a poetry read every Friday, and teach traits of fluency in Readers Workshop so it'd be great to try to work it all in together.


 * __Grade Level__: Any __Title__: Fast Food Fun - In this third lesson you jump onto different websites that help you determine which types of fast food have the most calories. I teach a health unit and would like the students to do some research on different types of foods. You even use excel to collect data! I currently have a 4 week old happy meal that we are "aging" to see if it will decompose (so far, no mold or anything!) to see how long it will take.

Assignment Number 5:

[] This article talks about what a blog is and how it is fairly easy to use them (you do not need to be incredibly technical). There are four main uses for them being used in the classroom: **//Classroom Management, Collaboration, Discussions, Student Portfolios.//** It also talks about how there are certain risks with blog usage in the classroom. Since they are public, students have to be trained about privacy and what is appropriate to post.

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This article from the New York times highlights a recent study on the use of blogs and online learning. Apparently test scores are 59th percentile with those students who use some form of online learning compared to 50th percentile who are in the regular classroom. Most online learning is taking place at the college level in this study. However, the thought to increase usage of online tools is being pursued.

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This article talks about the pros and cons of using blogs for writing in the classroom. It talked about different classes at different levels, and the different subjects that they were used for. Some teachers love the blogs as a way to get students writing because they focus on content instead of grammar. Other teachers criticize blogs for use in a writing class because they think that student lack focus and should be worried about grammar. The balanced side to it is getting students to realize their audience in any kind of situation.

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This article explains the main way to use a blog is to help students write with a real audience. There are several different types of blogs they suggest using: Blogger, LiveJournal, Kidzblog and Thingamablog. For people who are wary of putting kids online, they could use a website called think.com which needs to be approved by an administrator. This website allows for students to have a "closed" type of environment where they only see pages that their classmates create and maintain.

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This article explains how to create a blog. It suggests using it as a communication tool for parents to put up a lunch menu, daily assignments or other various things. It is what inspired me to create my own blog because it suggests putting up sites that parents can have student do at home. I am definitely going to use it this way so that they can use math games at home that I show at school.

So...Here is the link to my blog. Even though I cannot use it at school (because of our filters) I will be updating it periodically for parents to check at home.

[|http://polarbearpridesmith.blogspot.com/]

Assignment Number 7: Here are my three favorite website:

[] - You make word "clouds" that look like a doodle. We start by making a class one, and then I let the kids make their own to print. It is easy to do and easy to help them make it unique on their own.

[] This is one of my favorite sites because I have a Smart Board in my classroom. The kids love the games because they are big, bold and very fun. They are a great supplement for my math class.

[] While I like to show my students many authors sites, this one is by far my favorite. It instantly draws students in with the music, but it also has great interactive parts to it. We end up going on different author sites in the computer lab shortly after I show this on my Smart Board as it gets them interested in other author sites.

Assignment Number 8: This website teaches financial literacy to children. We made anonymous accounts and worked through all the missions: []