Blog Post #10 - What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

Sir Ken Robinson's speech, Bring on the Learning Revolution, was very inspiring to me. He says that instead of education evolution, it should be a revolution. Changes need to be made in education and the way we teach our students. Educational systems are being reformed, where they are fixing broken models. Instead of fixing what is broken, it needs to be completely changed and improved. As teachers, we need to accommodate the needs of our students by recognizing their talents and passions. The school system needs to be moved from being standardized to being customized for each student's needs.

A successful teacher should not just be a teacher to have a job, it should be a job that they are passionate about. When you are passionate about a job, you love doing it. If you are constantly looking forward to the weekend, then you are not passionate about it. When a teacher absolutely loves their job, it becomes easier for them to teach and their teaching is more effective for the students.

This video by Sir Ken Robinson was very interesting to watch and inspiring. I learned a lot from watching it and I agree with many of his points that he brought up. Our education system needs to be changed to better improve how children learn. We need to nourish each student's need and passions to make learning more enjoyable for them so that they will be excited about becoming successful in whatever career they choose.

Project #15 - Project Based Learning Plan 3

Project 15 - Lesson Plan

Project #12 Part A - Smart Board Tools

Blog Post #9 - What Can We Learn From Mrs. Cassidy?

Ms. Cassidy posted a video titled Little Kids...Big Potential, it showed how her first grade class used technology in their classroom. They used blogs, classroom webpages, wikis, video makers, Skype, and they even used their Nintendo DS's in the classroom to help them learn. She has had a classroom webpage for over 10 years and has incorporated technology into her classroom.

Ms. Cassidy feels that technology is very important and it is not going away. College students today that are studying to become teachers should realize how important technology is and how big of a role it plays in schools today. We need to learn how to use technology now because no matter what age we teach or where we teach, we will always be faced with modern technology and we will have to use it everyday. She also talks about how important it is to have a PLN (Personal Learning Network) and to use it to our benefit. Twitter is a great resource to find people to connect with and share ideas with.

Ms. Cassidy also talks about how she keeps her students safe when it comes to the internet. She tells her students to never put their last name on anything they post online, not to post pictures of themselves, and also to be positive when commenting on other students' work. She puts safe sources on the class webpage for the students to navigate to when they need to. She also teaches them what they should do when they come across something that they know they shouldn't see. It is all about education and teaching them what to do, even on the internet too.

I really enjoyed watching and listening to Ms. Cassidy talk about technology. I learned quite a bit about how it should be used correctly in the classroom and how to keep the students safe from the dangers of the internet. I learned that technology is very important in any classroom and it will always play a role in a student's learning from here on. Technology is always changing and always advancing, so as teachers we need to keep up with it to ensure our students get the best possible learning environment they can get.

Blog Post #8 - 21st Century Learning an Communicating Tools

With technology playing a bigger role in the classroom, teachers have began turning to online teaching tools to help teach, plan lessons, make assessments, and do many other classroom tasks. Online tools makes it easier to organize your work while saving paper and space at the same time. I have researched a few useful teaching tools that will help me when I become an elementary teacher.

The first tool I found was e-learning for kids. It is a global, nonprofit foundation dedicated to fun and free learning on the internet for children ages 5-12. It has courseware in math, science, reading and keyboarding. Students can do an interactive lesson to get more engaged in what they are learning.

Another useful tool I found was GoEd Online Elementary. The goal of this tool is to spread affordable digital content to classrooms around the world. It provides English, Science, Social Studies, and World Language teachers with more access to technology. The downside to this tool is that is costs money to download activities, ebooks, games, lessons, etc.; but in the long run, I think it would be worth it to help your students succeed.

Also, I found KidsClick to be a very useful tool for students. It is a search engine designed solely for students to use the internet to search safely and get kid-friendly results. It was designed for kids by librarians. I think search engines like this are a great tool to use in schools today because the internet has endless amounts of information that may not be useful to students or are highly inappropriate for children. I think all teachers should incorporate safe search engines onto their classroom computers rather than using Google or Yahoo.

Project #14 - Project Based Learning Plan #2

Project Based Learning Lesson Plan
Grade Level: Second Grade
Subject: Science
Title of Project: Honey, Where Are My Bees?
Project Idea: The students will be investigating why the honey bee population has declined and how it impacts them and the people in their town. Students will work in collaborative groups of four to create a multimedia project. Each group will choose one of five creative presentations (Television News Program, Commercial (recorded on a Video DVD), Oral Report with Visuals (original artwork, digital images, collage, etc.), Dramatic Play with Costumes, Giant Book (with student created pictures and sentences). They will direct their presentations to their families, peers, and the principal. Local beekeepers will be invited as special guests.
Performance Objectives:
Know:
-Knowledge of Honey bee
-How to Work Cooperatively with Others
-Critical Thinking Skills
-Technology Skills
-Presentation Skills
Do:
-Use a Digital Microscope
-Draw, Label, and Describe the Functions of a Honey Bee’s Body
-Create a Poster (life cycle, comb, workers)
-Write in a Journal
-Create a 3-D Labeled Model of a Honey Bee
-Compare/Contrast Your Body to a Bee’s Body Parts
-Develop a Multi-media Group Presentation
-Write a 2-3 Page Report and Six Question Interview
Skills:
-Information and Communication Skills
-Thinking and Reasoning Skills
-Personal and Workplace Skills
Driving Question: How does the disappearance of honey bees affect me, my town, and local beekeepers, and what can I do to help the honey bees?

Day One:
-Divide students into groups of four and determine each student’s role in the group (team leader, materials manager, writer, and artist)
-Explain the five choices they can use (Television News Program, Commercial on DVD, Oral Report with Visuals, Dramatic Play with Costumes, Giant Book with Pictures and Sentences
Day Two:
-Plan entry event
-Have a beekeeper come in and visit the classroom
-He will explain bee biology
-Students can ask questions and have hands-on experiences using the beekeeping equipment and viewing the observation hive
Day Three:
-Students will brainstorm a class list of ways to work successfully in collaborative groups
-Write the list on a poster and take photographs of the students illustrating those qualities to display around the poster
-Students will sign their names at the bottom of the poster
Day Four:
-Students will write on small pieces of paper what they know (K) about honey bees, and what they want (W) to know about honey bees and place their papers on the chart as they read them aloud to their classmates
-Refer to the chart during the entire PBL process to guide student inquiry
-At the end of the honey bee PBL, the students will write under the L what they have learned about honey bees
Day Five:
-Students will watch a magnified video of a honey bee colony or take a field trip to see a local beekeeper
Day Six:
-Students will create a poster that sequences the four stages of the honey bee life cycle, and write three sentences about the queen, drones, and worker bees.
Day Seven:
-Students will view the structure of a flower using a digital microscope and draw and label the flower’s parts. Students will also read The Honey Makers and write one paragraph that explains pollination and the relationships necessary with bees for pollination to occur.
Day Eight:
-Students will view an expired honey bee under a digital microscope, draw and label the bee’s anatomy, and write sentences to explain the functions of some of the bee’s body parts
-Identify that plants and animals have different structures
Day Nine:
-Place a variety of scrap materials and art supplies on a table to spark imagination for constructing bees
-Students will draw designs of their group’s 3-D model of a honey bee and discuss types of materials that could be used for the bee body parts
-Students will collaborate in small groups to construct a 3-D labeled model of a honeybee using scrap materials
Day Ten:
-Students will draw pictures to illustrate the likenesses and differences between their bodies and a honeybee’s body
-Students will write two paragraphs that compare and contrast their bodies to a bee’s body
Day Eleven:
-Students will interview a honey bee expert by writing six in-depth questions that will help the student research why honey bees are dying and how the bees can be helped
-Before the students talk to a bee expert, model proper interview etiquette
-Students will practice interviewing each other before contacting a honey bee expert
Day Twelve:
-Students will complete more research by reading honey bee books and Internet articles
-Students will answer the driving question by writing a two to three page report
-Model writing the outlines, paraphrasing, report organization, proofreading, etc. to ensure students understand their tasks
-Provide the students approximately three weeks for researching the driving question, discussing their findings, and creating a written report
Day Thirteen:
-Students will present all of their honey bee knowledge gained from their research. This will be a creative way for students to answer the driving question of why honey bees are dying, how it affects the community, and how bees can be helped

Book Review Project #9

C4T#2

In Angela Maiers' blog post, Self-Awareness: What Makes You…YOU?, she discusses self-awareness and how it can affect our growth in knowledge about ourselves. We must first fully get to know ourselves (our limits, traits, interests, strengths and weaknesses) before we can make life decisions. She provides a series of questions that you can ask yourself to become more aware of these things. Also, this little survey is good to give your students to make them more aware and become independent and thoughtful learners. I really enjoyed her blog post and I found it very interesting. I intend to keep her ideas in mind to improve myself and my students as successful learners.

In Maiers' blog post, Persevere for Learning Power!, she talks about how Dr. Seuss was a struggling writer at first. He had trouble getting his work published, but he persevered and never gave up. "Perseverance is the cornerstone of any successful endeavor, but it develops over time and with practice." Maiers presents a list of reflections to give to your students to help them realize how to persevere. I found this post very inspiring to me. Perseverance is key in learning. As a student, it helped me throughout school to become a better learner and to succeed. As a teacher, it is important to ensure that students understand how to persevere and how it can greatly affect their lives.

Project #13- Project Based Learning Lesson Plan 1

Project Based Learning Lesson Plan

Grade Level: First Grade
Subject: Social Studies
Title of Project: Caution! Dangerous Situations Ahead!
ACCRS Standard: CCSS RI.1.6 - distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in an informational text.
Project Idea: Students will interview community helpers, do online research with a fifth grade buddy, read and view various other forms of media to complete an investigation of appropriate safe behaviors to exhibit, rules to follow and safety helper to contact when in dangerous situations. Findings will be shared with kindergarten and preschool students as our “experts” endeavor to keep others safe.
Performance Objectives:
Know:
-Behavior to exhibit in dangerous situations (e.g., fire, poison, traffic, strangers, drugs)
-Rules to follow in dangerous situations
-Person to contact in dangerous situations
-Information can be gathered from more than one source
Do:
-Create text
-Insert graphics
-Save, open, and close a file
-Print
-Clean up work area
-Demonstrate appropriate behaviors in dangerous situations
Skills:
-Information and Communication Skills
-Thinking and Reasoning Skills
-Personal and Workplace Skills
Driving Question: How can we stay safe in “potentially” dangerous situations?

Day One:
-Set up the classroom with safety items/decorations
-Ask students what they think these items have in common
-Brainstorm a list of possible situations and what behaviors we should exhibit
-Give the students the opportunity to choose the situation they would like to research
-Explain to students that they will have the opportunity to interview community helper experts and that they will need to conduct online research for their chosen topic
-Arrange for the students to interview their fifth grade buddies to practice interviewing an individual (review internet safety with both first and fifth graders)
Day Two-Four:
-Students will watch/listen to presentations done by safety helpers
-Students should complete an entry in their daily reflection log each day
-Students will work with their fifth grade buddy to research the predetermined websites
Day Five-Eight:
-Using the information gathered during safety presentations, interviews and websites students will create a page or section of the class book listing safe behaviors, rules to follow and whom to contact in dangerous situations.
-In their small group, students will write a script for a skit for a “potentially dangerous” situation and what safe behaviors should be exhibited, what rules should be followed and who should be contacted
-Students will also decide who is responsible for making or bringing any props needed for their skit
Day Ten:
-Practice role-plays.
-Videotape role-plays create a movie.
-Preview movie.
Day Eleven:
-Present movie to Kindergarten and Preschool