To follow my game plan on Standard 5 – Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. I’m planning on attending a science and math symposium in my Regional Education Center in a couple of week. By attending this symposium I expect to learn new trends and technologies from other colleagues who are expert in the areas of math and science. Since I’m an inclusion teacher I’m interested in learning more about both subjects. I would like to learn about websites and technologies that I could successfully use and implement in my curriculum to make it more engaging and allow for creation of digital projects.
Last week my class started an on-line research of the planets of the solar system to obtain information to later create a PowerPoint. The resources that I used to do my lesson, and for my students to do their research included the use of computers, one per student, and internet. My students were given two sites to start from, one was the Fact Monster at http://www.factmonster.com/ and the other was the NASA Solar System Exploration at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm From there, my students took charge of their learning and visited other sites to find different graphics and more information. The intended outcome of this research will be to create a PowerPoint presentation describing some characteristics of each planet, including a graphic of it.
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Yolanda,
ReplyDeleteThis activity sounds beneficial for both you and your students. I am trying to improve the quality and flexibility my assessments. I was wondering when you assign the PowerPoint, will there be a rubric or other guidelines? If so, what kinds of guidelines will you require? If not, will they be graded according to the demonstration of their growth in the subject compared to what they knew before? I am interested in finding out all I can to make my assessments more authentic. Thanks for sharing!!!
Have a great week!
Daryl
It will be interesting to see if the symposium will focus on technology. It looks like you follow a lot blogs, do you find technology ideas to use in the classroom. I have not become a devote blogger, but is appears that there is a tresure trove on the blogs. I like Cool Cat. She has a lot of links to up-to-date technology. The project you are currently doing with your students may have a webquest available for future use or you can use one in math. Good luck on the symposium.
ReplyDeleteWe just finished our unit on space. I have students complete a technology type project, but they did do research and we used a lot of videos from the web. I did think of having students do a PowerPoint-I wish I had to keep the skills they learned from the one we just completed on the Native Americans-they loved doing it! I did use a rubric for grading and found it very helpful! Good luck at the symposium, I hope they will focus on those things you are expecting.
ReplyDeleteHello Daryl,
ReplyDeleteWhen I assign my students to build any artifact I give them a worksheet listing everything I expect them to include in their project and I might even make a line next to the item for them to check it when completed. For the PowerPoint I required them to include a cover page, a page for the complete solar system with a graphic, a page for each planet, and a reference page. For each planet they were required to include a graphic, their distance from the sun, characteristics and any important facts of their choice. I will be grading this project with a rubric that will match my requirement on their initial paper and overall presentation of their final product. I expect all my students to make a good grade because they are collaborating with each other and that helps them complete their project better as they are checking on each other.
Have great week!
Yolanda
Hello Cathy (cmbrady),
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure how much technology will be included in the symposium but I hope there will be some. Our world is changing and educators know that to engage all our diverse learners technology has to be included. However, technology is not only the use of computer but can also include tools such a CD to help readers follow a story.
In reference to all the blogs that are listed in my blog to be honest with you more than half are from previous classes and I just have not gone back to delete them. Once in a while I read a couple of blogs from classmates I remember were helpful with technology ideas.
You are right, there are many WebQuests about the solar system and it will be great to incorporate one into my lesson for future classes. I like WebQuest because they allow for students to be in charge of their learning and also allows for deeper engaging when finding the information they need to perform their task.
Thank you for your input and have a great week!
Yolanda
Yolanda
ReplyDeleteRebekak,
I actually have finished my planet lesson a few weeks ago but the PowerPoint is more like an extension to do technology integration. I choose the planets even though we had finished the lesson because it is an interesting subject and I can picture their final products completed beautifully. Often I do extension on some of the concepts I think will be neat to create with technology. In addition to using PowerPoint I also use Publisher to create graphical representations like the food chain and life cycles. Since my students are third graders I often have a file for them with multiple graphics to choose from to complete their project. That way when we don’t have much time to do extensive research they can finish their project with all the graphics they need to represent their understanding.
Have a great week!
Yolanda