EDU 629 In Class Activities

Bio Poem
Graphic Org.
Lesson Cover Page
Lesson Plan
Rubric
Student activity

Dialogue Poem

My dialogue poem with Lindsay.

I think for complex texts students definitely need explicit instruction and many opportunities to practice using taught comprehension strategies. As the article states these texts require unbroken focus to decipher and analyze what is being read. My students will often read a text not fully understand it but continue reading. They do not independently consider using strategies such as re-reading, visualizing or using context clues. It seems that if students can't read or understand the material quickly and easily, they just give up and lose interest.

Students seem to pick up digital and multi-tasking activities without a lot of direct instruction at least from teachers. They are very interested in the technology and use it frequently in their daily life. I have 2 nieces ages 6 and 8 that go from the cell phone games to the ipad to the tv. If not engaged at all times they claim to bored.  I think the ending discussion today that centered around "balance" summed it up pretty well. Students (kids) should have time to engage in the various technologies but also they then need to unplug and focus when that is required. Technology such as videos can also be used to help build background knowledge so that students may be more interested in reading about it later.

Website Evaluations

Name: Cool Math Games
Address: www.coolmath.com
Category: Student Interactive
Audience: PK-12
Subject Area: Math
Description: Free online math games for kids. All games are non- violent and many require critical thinking skills.



Name: Multiplication.com
Address: www.multiplication.com
Category: Student Interactive Games
Audience: Students
Grade level: 2-6
Subject Area: Math
Description: Free interactive math site that helps students learn multiplication facts by trying to complete games by racing against the clock.


Name: Between the Lions
Address: www.pbskids.org/lions
Category: Student Interactive
Audience: Students
Grade Level: PK-5
Subject Area: Language Arts
Description: Free site that has stories, games, printables, and songs that help to teach language arts skills.


Name: Super Teacher
Address: www.superteacherworksheets.com
Category: Teacher Resources
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: K-5
Subject Area: All
Description: Fee based site that has many worksheets on all subject areas. Site also gives teachers access to Smartboard Jeopardy games that can be searched by skills being addressed.



Name: PBS
Address: www.pbs.org/teachers
Category: Teacher Resources
Audience: teachers
Grade Level: K-12
Subject Area: All
Description: Free website that offers educational resources for teachers. Resources are tied to PBS programming and correlated to national standards.


Name: Teacher Vision
Address: www.teachervision.fen.com
Category: Teacher Resources
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: K-12
Subject Area: All
Description: Fee based site that offers lesson plans, graphic organizers, and printables across all subject areas.


Name: Funbrain
Address: www.funbrain.com
Category: Student Interactive
Audience: Students
Grade Level; PK-8
Subject Area: Math & Reading
Description: Free site that has math and reading games for students. The site also has high interest books and comic books to encourage reluctant readers.


Name: Thinkfinity
Address: www.thinkfinity.org/games
Category: Student Interactive
Audience: students
Grade level: PK-12
Subject Area: All
Description: Free interactive website with games and activities for all subject areas. This site also offers a lot of teacher resources as well.




Name: Kids.USA.Gov
Address: www.kids.usa.gov/money
Category: Information/Interactive Site
Audience: Students, teachers, parents
Grade Level: K-12, teachers, parents
Subject Area: Money/Government
Description: Free website that explains the history, creation, and uses for money. This site also has links to how government works, and how presidents are elected.


Name: Lesson Plans. com
Address: www.lessonplans.com
Category: Teacher Lesson Plans
Audience: Teachers
Grade Level: K-12
Subject Area: All
Description: Free website that has many lesson plans. The plans are organized by both grade and topic. Many of the plans have been submitted by members of the site.



Multiplication.com

Wordle Bio Poem

First and foremost I learned a lot about Wikipedia. I was not aware that it was so malleable.  Upon learning that, I looked upon it as a foe. I teach younger grades in Special Education and they sincerely believe everything they see on the Internet to be true, They lack the critical thinking skills and the ability to draw their own conclusions as to whether the information is factual.  If information was wild inaccurate, it is unlikely that they would  possess the needed background knowledge to know it when using Wikipedi as a source.  Given the limited amount of time in the day to actually conduct research, I would rather direct them to a few sites that are deemed credible and student friendly. It's also likely that many of my students could download information from Wikipedia and not fully understand the text due to their generally lower reading levels.

I could see myself teaching my students about the nature of Wikipedia and how they should not just gravitate towards it because it appears at the top after a search. The example given during the discussion today and in the book would be a good activity. After conducting research or reading a biography the information could be compared to a Wikipedia posting to see if anything is different or left out. In general though, I would probably just avoid Wikipedia. I don't have the time to investigate the information myself and only want to present my students with factual information. I liked the idea about directing the students to 2-3 appropriate sites for research.

I think that technologies are inventions that make things in your life simpler and more efficient. My earliest memory of technology was getting a digital watch in the 5th grade. It was just invented and I was the among the first people I knew that owned one. It was silver with a red face and you had to push a button to display the time or date. The next significant  technological invention I recall was cable TV.  In its original form a long wire ran from the tv to the cable remote. Prior to this you had to maneuver the rabbit ears antennas every time you changed channels. Of couse at that time tv's were big and heavy with small screens.

My father provided my first introduction to a computer. He brought home the IBM cards with holes punched because for some reason my siblings and I like to play with them. In high school I remember learning how to use the cards to create computer programs. It was a tedious and time consuming task to get the computer to perform any operation. The computer was so large that it took up the majority of a classroom.  Friends of mine were fascinated by it, but filling out those cards held little interest for me.  The next invention related to computers was the word processor. This had a huge impact upon me both in high school and college for as a poor typist I no longer had to use "whiteout" to correct my typing mistakes.

In the mid 1980's when I was in college my family bought our first VCR. It was such a novelty to be able to select the movie you wanted to watch or record a program, if you could figure out how to complete the many steps required. Now when I consider my home we have 4 flat screen tv's , 2 DVR's, 2 computers, 4 I-phones, 3 Ipods, and an IPad. If you want to record a show you just have to highlight it and push one button.  In school I have several computers and a Smartboard.  Also technology has invaded my golf game. I have a GPS unit/range finder that has every couse in North America and South America loaded into it. My playing partner has a watch with many of the same features.

I think being technologically literate means being very comfortable with all the various technologies and easily incorporating them into your home and work. In my life my children and my wife are very technologically literate. I turn to them for assistance often when doing school assignments. I consider my principal to be the most technologically literate person in my life. Although he is not much younger than me, he has really embraced all that technology has to offer. He tweets, blogs, uses the Ipad for everything, and is a great resource for the Smartboard. He is largely responsible for pushing many of the established teachers in my school to get on board with the latest technologies.

In the future, I hope to become more comfortable with and embrace new technologies. The students are interested in it and I want to use it to better reach them and impact learning.