Internet Safety Share

For the doing part of the internet safety I talked with my parents. They are pretty up to date when it comes to technology and I wanted to see how much they knew about internet safety. I started by asking them what dangers they thought the internet has and what they do to keep themselves and their family safe from them. I was pretty impressed with how much they knew and what they were currently doing. They have all their computers in open spaces in the house and they don't give out their private information. Even though they no longer have young children of their own they are starting to get grandchildren. I showed them a clip on netsmartz about chat rooms and cyber bullying and then asked what they would do to educate their grandchildren or younger nieces and nephews. They said, "The most important thing is to talk to your children about what's out there and be upfront with them about the real dangers that exist. It's really a balancing act between giving them freedom and keeping them safe. When it comes down to it though all you can do is teach them correct principles and hope they'll make good choices." It was interesting talking to my parents and being able to look back on the precautions they took with me and my siblings growing up. I think they did a pretty good job.

Technology Presentations

The two best ideas I got from viewing the technology integration presentations were using a smart board to teach diphthongs and teaching fractions with a power point. What I really liked about both of these lessons is how interactive they were. They were both relatively simple to put together and they added to the lesson without taking away from the task. The only downside to these lessons is that you do have to have the required technology (smartboard, promethean board) which are not available at all schools.

Internet Safety

Reading:

I chose to read an old Ensign article by Gordon B. Hinckley called, "Opposing Evil" found in the November 1975 Ensign. It was fascinating to read that the same warnings we hear today were given 10 years before I was born! Regardless of the time we live in we have the responsibility to stand up for what's right and to let our voices be heard in a positive way. 

The most important things I learned from the readings is that ultimately the decision comes down to us. We will always be surrounded by bad and dangerous influences but the choice to make them a part of our lives is still ours. There are plenty of good influences left that we can engage in. 

As a teacher and future parent I hope to stand as a good example and be able to inspire the children around me to take part in wholesome activities when it comes to technology. I plan on teaching internet safety to my students and children so they are aware of what's out there for both good and evil. 

I will use what I read to first focus on improving myself and hopefully that will also have an effect on my family and friends. I know that I can't control their choices but I hope my choices will be an influence for good. I also plan on sharing some of the readings with them so that they can be informed and then make their own decisions.

What I learned from viewing other presentations

There were a lot of great lessons done using technology. I learned that it's important to think ahead when using technology and practice going through the lesson beforehand to work out all the kinks. I also learned that there are a lot of great resources available on the internet and through other teachers.

My Slideshare

Katie's Technology Lesson Presentation

View more presentations from nykates85.

Tech Lesson Plan

I am planning on doing the lesson that I described previously if all goes as planned. Sometimes my teacher changes what she wants me to teach but I am planning on doing my technology lesson for my last observation on March 31st. I will be doing other lessons with technology before that such as using a transparency to do math problems together and a small reading group using the promethean board. The lesson I plan on creating the slideshow for is correcting sentences on the promethean board (see previous post).

TPACK idea

My mentor teacher wants me to teach writing while really focusing on conventions such as punctuation, capital letters, etc. My idea is to use the promethean board to have several examples of sentences that contain errors and then have the students come up to underline or circle the errors they can see. I would use the shade tool to show the incorrect sentence and then lower it to reveal how the sentence should look. This would be an improvement because several sentences could be done in a short amount of time and the students' attention could be held longer.

Technology Inventory

There is so much technology at my school! I went to a training for how to use Promethean boards (an interactive whiteboard) and I was amazed at all the things you can do with it. After seeing how it can enhance learning an student participation I can't imagine teaching without one! I was also impressed to see how many computers are in each classroom around the school and how often the students get to use them.

In my classroom the students take reading assessments on the computer. It's great because it varies the tests questions from comprehension to listening, etc. It saves the teacher time on having to grade the tests and the teacher gets a printout of how the students did and what areas they still need to work on. The computers are also used to help the students learn and review skills. There are several fun learning games and lessons for the students to complete on the computer as part of their center time for math or reading. In addition to computer time in the classroom the students also get to have computer lab time twice a week.

Virtual Tour

My virtual tour takes students on a trip around the world to visit four of the world's famous museums including: The Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Hermitage, and The Smithsonian. Each location has activities for the students to do that help them understand art in general and the role museums play. Here is the link to my .kmz file to access the tour!

Virtual Tour

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Paris- The Louvre Museum	Students will look up the general definition of museums and see why they are important to a community. They will also come up with a definition of what art is after viewing some of the pieces found in the Louvre.	3-D building, population, wikipedia, images, http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp
2. New York- The Metropolitain Museum of Art	Students will find out why the Met is located on museum mile. Students will write in their journals about who decides if art is musuem worthy.	3-D building, population, wikipedia, images, www.metmuseum.org
3. St. Petersburg- The State Hermitage Museum	Students will compare and contrast the location of this museum with the others. How does the value of the art differ?	3-D building, population, wikipedia, images, http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html
4. Washington D.C.- The Smithsonian	Students will answer some questions about the Smithsonian and what kind of museum it is. How does this museum reflect American culture?	3-D building, population, wikipedia, images, http://americanart.si.edu
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	I will use a path to connect images I want the students to see and possibly an image overlay.

Content:

I am using standards from Visual Art and Social studies for third-fifth grade:

Standard 4: The student will interpret and apply visual arts in relation to cultures, history, and all learning

Objective 3: Recognize the connection of visual arts to all learning

Standard 2 Students will understand cultural factors that shape a community.

This lesson will be an introduction into helping students form opinions of what is art and how is art valued in a culture. Students will research differnt museums and come up with theories about why different cultures value art.

Pedagogy:

I will be having students record their answers and observations in journals becuase in this activity most of the answers will be opinions and personal ideas of the students. This fits with the content because there aren't many clear cut answers when it comes to art and why cultures value different things.

Technology:

Students will use Google Earth and the internet to see the location of several world famous art museums. They will use the 3-D building layer to see what the museums actually look like and where they are located. They will use the population tool to compare each museum location to the others to determine if population plays a role in where museums are located. They will also use the internet to visit the museum websites and take part in some of the online activities that are offered for students.

My digital story

This is my poem interpretation of Shel Silverstein's poem, "The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt." This was created using photostory, which is such a user friendly program that it would be great for students to use! It is a great way for students to bring literature to life while participating in technology and the arts!

TPACK in digital story

What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?

The standards I am focusing on are:

• Standard 1-Oral Language-Students develop language for the purpose of effectively communicating through listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting.
• Objective 2-Develop language through viewing media and presenting.

Students will develop language skills by interpreting a poem. They will come up with an idea of what the poem communicates to them and then they will make a photo story to present their ideas.

What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?

This lesson focuses on the students' ideas and their ability to express what they believe. This is a good fit with the content because with poem interpretations there are no right or wrong answers. Students are able to experience the ways language can be communicated clearly or unclearly. I think a good teaching practice is allowing students freedom when it comes to creative projects. Guidelines are important but allowing students to have success while using their own ideas is important to foster a love of learning. This project also provides opportunities for students to use higher-level thinking because they have to analyze a poem and come up with how they would present it visually.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

The technology I'll be using is Photostory or imovie. This is good fit with both content and pedagogy because it is something all students will be able to participate in doing. It provides creative freedom because students can chose to use claymations, photos, or do their own illustrations. It also gives students an opportunity to develop language regardless of their writing abilities.

Storyboards

These are my storyboards for my poem interpretation of
Shel Silverstein's, "The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt"

TPACK in science lesson

CONTENT

The content our lesson is based on is being able to follow scientific procedures including making predictions, observing and collecting data, and drawing conclusions. Depending on how you use the lesson it could include content on physical change or on characterisitics of rocks and minerals.

PEDAGOGY

We use hands-on activities as part of the learning process which helps to engage students and increases comprehension. Other practices would include tying the material into the students' everyday lives so that they are more likely to remember it. This could be done by having the students identify common foods they eat that contain visible salt or sugar, like pretzels, sour patch kids, etc and then comparing them to foods that contain salt or sugar that cannot be seen.

TECHNOLOGY

This lesson wouldn't be possible without the digitial microscope. It would be really difficult for everyone to be able to view salt and sugar being dissolved in water without being able to record it happening. It took a few tries to get it right because it happens so quickly. The digital microscope is a great technology for classrooms that may have limited supplies because it allows all the students to see what's going on.

Tech Savvy Teacher

The digital microscope is a great tool to use in the classroom. It allows the teacher to capture video or pictures of an object as it is being observed. A digital microscope is a great tool because it allows every student to have a front row seat to what's being viewed under the microscope without needing a microscope for every student! You can take pictures of every slide to provide examples of each stage of the experiment. This is an example of an experiment that was done using the digital microscope.

Comparing Sugar and Salt and How They Dissolve

This experiment is designed for a 4th grade science class that is learning about rocks and minerals. It could also be used as a demonstration of physical change.

1. We predicted what we thought the salt would look like under the microscope.

2. We predicted what the sugar would look like under the microscope.

3. We predicted whether the salt or the sugar would dissolve first when mixed with water.

4. We observed salt under the microscope.

5.We observed sugar under the microscope.

6. We noted the difference between the sugar and salt crystals

7. We added warm water to the salt and observed it dissolving.

8.We added warm water to the sugar and observed it dissolving.

9. We compared the difference in how fast the salt dissolved and how fast the sugar dissolved.

10. We looked at our predictions and compared it to our observations.






You wouldn't think that comparing salt and sugar would be a very exciting science lesson but with the aid of technology it becomes an engaging lesson that students will be sad to finish!

TPACK and other cool stuff

This week I learned about TPACK, which is the combination of technical, pedagogical, and content knowledge. When you have a lot of content knowledge you know a lot about a particular subject. Pedagogical knowledge is knowing how to teach and what methods work best to help students learn. Technological knowledge is knowing how to use technology to increase or enhance knowledge. When all three are intertwined you get effective teaching. It's important for teachers to know and use TPACK because effective teachers are constantly learning how to improve themselves and if lessons meet the criteria for TPACK then the lessons will be effective.

I also learned about some really neat and useful science tools. My favorites were stellarium and the microscope. It was amazing to be able to have a microscope that hooks up to the computer so that everyone can see what's going on. What an amazing way to have the benefits of using a microscope for science without having to have a microscope for every few students.

RSS and Web 2.0

Well I don't know if I would say the RSS is "really simple" but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It is actually something I can see myself using if I found sites that were valuable to my class. It would be neat to have a daily update on sites pertaining to what we are learning about. For me to actually use it the site would have to be really interesting and relevant.
Now delicious and goodreads are both sites that I will use. I really liked goodreads because it is an easy way to keep track of books that I want to recommend to students and books that teachers may recommend to me. Delicious would be an easy way to keep track of sites that I knew were safe and valuable resources for students and parents to visit. Plus, it will help me keep track of where I find good things on the web.

My tech background

Hey I created a blog! So my history with technology is basic...I can do the essentials on the computer and internet. I can navigate my way around technology but to be honest it kind of overwhelms me and I find it somewhat scary at times. I'm excited to learn more about being tech saavy!