Sunday, May 3, 2015

Final Reflection

Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
1.   Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness. I would use technology for creative and innovative thinking by having the students use Pixie to create stories and charts and using the internet to search for ideas.
2.   Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. In some of my lessons I used online games from educational resources such as abcya.org to engage the students in real-world issues and problem solving. I also would have them research current events online to learn about real-world issues.
3.   Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. In my lessons I used quick writes for reflection. Using technology I would have my students create a blog online or do a video blog on the iPads. I would also have them use MindMup or other mind maps to plan projects.
4.   Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments. I would model collaborative knowledge construction by teaching the students to use technology such as Prezi and MindMup to learn together and create projects even if they are not face to face.
Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
1.   Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. I used various online games and manipulatives in my lessons to promote learning and creativity. One way that I could have used technology to promote learning and creativity was to allow students to create more final projects or presentations using Prezi or Pixie.
2.   Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. I would develop a technology-enriched environment by making sure they have access to iPads and computers as much as possible. I would also make sure that during centers and other hands on learning activities they would have access to the smart board to do learning activities and ways to pursue their curiosity. I would also have the students do their AR testing on the iPads so that they can keep track of their progress and always have access to it.  
3.   Customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. The nice thing about using technology is it is very easy to change the levels to fit the diverse leaning needs. With technology you also are able to cater to visual, auditory and hands-on learners. Technology opens up the world so much wider to students because they can research and learn more then what is just in their community.
4.   Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. I would use technology to allow students to take tests online, write blogs about what they were learning, and creating video blogs or short films on what they are learning. Then I would take this information to determine what we still need to focus our attention on.
Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning 
1.   Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. We used technology to take situations and apply them in a different way. For example in our erosion lesson we showed them erosion in an online simulation and then we actually did an experiment to show it in real life.
2.   Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. I would use academic learning sites such as Brain Pop and abcya.com. I would also use online blogs that multiple students would have access to, online mind maps and Prezi for presentations.
3.   Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. Ways that I would communicate relevant information would be weekly emails home and a class website or blog that would be updated as frequently as needed.
4.   model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning. I would make sure that I follow the trends and see what new technology is being used in classroom settings. I would then use this new technology in my classroom to help my students’ research and learn on their own.
Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
1.   Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. The biggest thing that I would do is start off the class with responsibility on the internet. We would do a project similar to the one we did in this class where we researched what digital citizenship meant and how to be safe on the internet.
2.   Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. I would make sure that my students all had the same access to the different types of technology (computer, iPad, smart board) but make sure that if a student had trouble reading for example the technology would read to the student and help them learn the words.
3.   Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information. I would make sure that our first focus would be that of being kind on the internet just like we are in class. For example we do not make fun of people or bully them online just because they can’t see us. We would also talk about how it is very important not to post personal information online because anyone could have access to it.

4.   Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools. We would research other cultures and see how they use technology and how it is different from the way we use technology. We would have digital pen-pals and learn more about them that way. 

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Erosion Lesson









Grade 2

Erosion

talk about what erosion is, why it happens focusing on water and wind
play some of the erosion games
kids will write about some erosion and draw a picture
we will make them into a class book
kids will research


I. RATIONALE:
This lesson aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards and the Arizona College and career readiness standards for second grade.

II. OVERVIEW
Grade Level: Second Grade
Subject(s): Science
Topic of Study: Erosion
Time Allotment: One hour
Standards:
AZCCRS:
Reading Standards for Informational Text
Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text. (2.RI.3)

Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently. (2.RI.5)

Writing Standards
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section. (2.W.2)
NextGen

2-ESS2-1.
Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.*[Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include different designs of dikes and windbreaks to hold back wind and water, and different designs for using shrubs, grass, and trees to hold back the land.]


Objectives: Students will be able to explain how water and wind erosion have affected the earths surface.
What do the students need to know prior to the lesson? The students don’t need much prior knowledge before because we go over it all in the lesson. We do a quick write at the beginning to see what they know so we can form the lesson around that knowledge.
How will prior knowledge and experience be assessed? Prior knowledge is assessed through a 3 minute quick write at the beginning of the lesson.
How will you use this information in the planning process? We will use the information to determine how much time we need to spend on the games and what information we need to focus on.
Why should the content of this lesson be taught at this grade level? At this grade level they are more aware of their surroundings and things that are going on in the environment.
When will the lesson be taught in the course of the school year? Why? The time of the lesson does not matter due to the things we are talking about.


III. IMPLEMENTATION
Procedure: Students will do a quick write on what they think erosion might be.
Watch Bill Nye Erosion video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ULcVdeqgE
Discuss key terms and ideas (students will read an online article and pull out some key facts to share)
we will then write the key terms and ideas on the smartboard
sugar cube experiment
play some of the online games
Students will write 2-3 paragraphs explaining erosion.

Technology Integration:Watch Bill Nye video, play erosion games, read erosion articles online.

Why are you using the instructional methods you have described? These instructional methods are very hands on and gives them lots of time to practice and learn the material.
How do the instructional methods align with what you know about best practices (think about your methods classes)? They align with the best practices by using hands on activities and give them more control over their learning.

IV. ASSESSMENT
Procedure: have the students email the 2-3 paragraphs that they wrote
have a few students read their paragraphs
play erosion jeopardy and keep score, give the winning team extra points.
Instruments: http://www.regentsearthscience.com/jeopardy/erosion/jeopardy.htm


IIV. MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
In this section include any examples you have created for the students, resources (software, web links, books, crafting items, etc.) and other necessary items

Computers to explore electronic research and activities.
Paper
Sugar cubes
Bill Nye video
Water

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Phase 2 of time lesson

Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9): 
A lot went well in this lesson, the students were engaged the entire time and they learned the material very well. With the online game they actually went farther than we did in the actual lesson. This was one of the things that didn’t go as well, the game introduced so terms that we hadn’t gone over in the lesson because they weren’t in the first grade standards. Other than this slight detail the alignment to the standards was maintained very well. The modification I made during the lesson was ending the online game at the level before it started introducing the terms we had not discussed.
Mechanics:
The technologies that I used was an online clock manipulative at the beginning of the lesson to introduce the main concepts and then I used an online game about telling time to use as a mini assessment. The technologies were used by myself and by my students. My lesson was in the correct time frame because I slowed down my teaching and gave my students more time to practice. We also used more time at the end of the lesson to review the terms.
What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities.

I learned that time can be a really difficult concept to explain to younger student but that if you explain it correctly they will start to understand it. One thing I will change is using more time at the beginning to really go over the important concepts. I will also give more time for the lesson and more time for individual and group practice.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Telling Time First Grade Lesson

Rationale
Students need to be able to tell time for a variety of reasons. We expect people to be on time to things which means they need to be able to know how to read a clock.


Overview
Grade Level: first grade
Subject: math
Topic of Study: telling time
Time Allotment: an hour
Standards: 1.MD.B.3 Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks.
Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to accurately tell time in hours, half-hours and quarter-hours on an analog clock.


Implementation
Procedure: I will begin the lesson by asking students why it is important to be able to tell time.
We will then have a discussion of different reason why we need to be able to tell time (school, recess, lunch, dinner, bedtime, etc.)
Then I would show the students a clock manipulative, either a physical one or one on the computer.
I would show them that the small hand is what tells the hour and the big hand tells the minutes. I would also tell them that the red hand tells the seconds but that we won’t be using that.
I would set up different times on the clock and show the students how to read the time. The thing that I really want to stress is that the little hand is not always directly on the number. This can be confusing for many students so I would want to introduce it early.
Then they would practice telling time on their own, I will put a time on the clock and they have to tell me what it is.
Then we will practice backwards, I will tell them a time and they will move the hands on their clock to show me.
Then they will go on to the website and play the games and at the end of each level they will send me a screenshot of their progress.


Technology


Assessment
The screenshot of their progress on the website that they send me. We also will go to the whiteboard where I have drawn clocks and I will first draw times and ask each student to tell me the time, then we will discuss the answer as a group. Then I will just have the blank clocks and tell the student a time and have them draw it and then we will discuss the answer as a group. I will assess them on how well they are able to answer the questions on the board.

Phase 1 Reflection
What do the students need to know prior to the lesson? The main prior knowledge that the students need are what a clock looks like.
How will prior knowledge and experience be assessed? Asking them to identify a clock and ask them where they have seen them before.
How will you use this information in the planning process? I will use it to see how much we need to focus on what the clock looks like and what the numbers mean before actually going into telling time.
Why should the content of this lesson be taught at this grade level? The content should be taught at this grade level because the students need to start learning to tell time and at this point in their education and this gives them lots of practice.
How do the objectives that you have for the lesson align with the standards? The objective align perfectly with the standards for this grade level.
When will the lesson be taught in the course of the school year? Why? I would teach this near the beginning of the year so there is lots of time to practice throughout the school year.
Why are you using the instructional methods you have described? The online games help the students learn because they are interesting and hands-on. With a topic like telling time students really need to learn through doing and not just being told.
How do the instructional methods align with what you know about best practices (think about your methods classes)? The teaching is all hands on and they get lots of time to practice telling time.

Why are you using the instructional methods you have described? I am using these methods because students respond well to these methods because they are engaged throughout the lesson.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Phase 2

Reflections on Lesson Implementation

  1. Instructional Decisions/Teaching
Overall I feel that I did well on the lesson. My thoughts were somewhat scattered which made my transitions rough but they were not horrible. I also should have had some of my information off of the computer because I was relying too much on the computer. I think it would have worked better if I had used the smartboard because then I could have written the words and the definitions down for the students to see. The different activities that we did worked really well and helped the students learn. I also should have done more informal assessment throughout the lesson to make sure they were really understanding the information. The alignment to the objectives and standards were maintained very well. By the end of the lesson the students were able to identify the major parts of the digestive and respiratory systems. They were even able to describe some of the parts which is more than the standards expected for this grade level. I did not really make any modifications during the lesson, the only change I really made was not going over the diagram of the body as much initially. The videos that we watched explained it better than I would have so I didn’t feel I needed to keep explaining. What I should have done was watch the movie and then have the students point out the parts before moving on to the other activities.
  1. Mechanics
The only technology I really used was the computer. However, on the computer we did a few different things. We first used it to watch a video about the system and then talked about the main parts. Then we went to an academic website to take a play some games and take a quiz. Something that I should have done was have the students take a screenshot of the quiz after they took it, then I could have used it as part of the assessment. My lesson was too short because at the beginning I thought I was taking too much time so then I rushed through part of it. I think I would have been better in the correct time frame if I had set specific times for how long we would be on each of the websites. This way I would have also been able to give the students more time to go back to the parts that they needed help on.
  1. Assessment of Learning
For the diagrams at the bottom of this section I would just point to a part and the students would tell me what the part was. Another way I could have done it would have been to print out the pages and have them label the parts. My students had a great level of success in achieving the standards for this lesson. However I think if they were actually second graders they would not have had such a high level of success. Based on my reflections and my classmates comments my lesson was solid but it could have had a lot more support. We went through the lesson quicker than I thought we would and I was not prepared for that. I also rushed over some of the explanations because I knew that they already knew the parts of the system. I had a lot of good activities and information but I rushed through it all.
digestive.png

For Fpfrespiratory-system-template-example.jpg

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Second Grade Lesson Plan

Taylor Bradley


Second Grade Science
Strand 4: Life Science
Concept 1: Characteristics of Organisms
PO 2. Identify the following major parts of:
the digestive system- mouth, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines


respiratory system- nose, trachea, lungs, diaphragm


Rationale
These two systems of the human body are very important. They are easier to understand than some of the other systems. The digestive system and the respiratory system are ones that the students can actually feel work. They also are somewhat controllable compared to the circulatory system. This lesson also meets the common core standard for second grade life science.


Overview
Grade level: second grade
Subject: life science
Topic of study: digestive and respiratory systems
Time allotment: two days (one for each system)
Standards: 2.S.2 identify the following major parts of the digestive system (mouth, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines) and the respiratory system (nose, trachea, lungs, and diaphragm).
Objective: Students will be able to identify the main parts of the digestive system on a blank worksheet with 100% accuracy.
Students will be able to identify the main parts of the respiratory system on a blank worksheet with 100% accuracy.

Methods
To start off the lesson I would pull up a diagram of the human body on the computer. We would first talk about the digestive system. I would ask the students what they know about the digestive system and would write them down. I would then pull up a short video on the digestive system for the students to watch. Then on the diagram of the human body I would pull up the digestive system to go more indepth on the parts and where they are.
I would then point out and explain the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine. The mouth is the beginning of the digestive system, the teeth grind the food into smaller parts which make it easier to digest and allows the enzyme-filled saliva to start breaking down the food. The esophagus is what connects the throat to the stomach, after you chew and swallow food it travels down the esophagus to reach the stomach. In the stomach the swallowed food is mixed with digestive juices and sent to the small intestine. In the small intestine the food passes through 20 feet of organ while the body is absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. Finally in the large intestine the body absorbs the water from the indigestible food before it gets expelled from the body.  I would explain to the students that there are more parts to the digestive system but we are just focusing on the major parts.
Then I would have the students come up to the smartboard where there would be a human body with the parts of the digestive system off to the side. They will put the parts in the right area of the human body. The interactive tells the students if they have put the part in the right spot so they instantly know if they are right or wrong. We would then have a discussion to make sure that all the students understand the parts of the system and where they are. Each student would then complete a worksheet that they will turn into me.
digestive.png
This part of the lesson will be similar to the part about the digestive system. I will put the diagram back on the computer but this time we would only focus on the respiratory system. I would ask the students what they know about the respiratory system and would write them down. I would then pull up a short video on the respiratory system for the students to watch. Then on the diagram of the human body I would pull up the respiratory system to go more indepth on the parts and where they are.
I would then point out and explain the nose, trachea, lungs and diaphragm. The nose is where air enters the body. it also filters the air to remove dirt and makes the air an appropriate temperature. The trachea, also known as the windpipe, takes the air your breath into your lungs. The lungs take in the air and pushes it into the air sacs where it is then picked up by the red blood cells and circulated through your body. The diaphragm is the main breathing muscle that expands the lungs when it contracts. This forces air into the lungs so you can breathe.
Then I would have the students come up to the smartboard where there would be a human body with the parts of the respiratory system off to the side. They will put the parts in the right area of the human body. The interactive tells the students if they have put the part in the right spot so they instantly know if they are right or wrong. We would then have a discussion to make sure that all the students understand the parts of the system and where they are. Each student would then complete a worksheet that they will turn into me.

Assessment
I will give each student the set of worksheets to complete at the end of the lesson. They will fill in the parts of each system and turn the worksheets into me. I will know that they understand the systems if they get 95%-100% on the worksheets.

respiratory-system-template-example.jpg
Phase 1 reflection
What do the students need to know prior to the lesson? The students need to know that we all have a digestive and respiratory system and without them we would not be alive.
How will prior knowledge and experience be assessed? Students will be asked a variety of questions prior to the beginning of the lesson.
How will you use this information in the planning process? I will use it to determine what system we need to focus more on.
Why should the content of this lesson be taught at this grade level? They are starting to be more aware and this is a more complex idea that they will better be able to understand in the second grade.
How do the objectives that you have for the lesson align with the standards? The objectives are based directly off of the standards.
Why are you using the instructional methods you have described? I am using the instructional methods that I described because I feel that they are hands on enough to keep the students engaged and they are able to learn in an interesting way.
How do the instructional methods align with what you know about best practices (think about your methods classes)? They align with the best practices because the students are not just sitting there being talked to, they are participating in the learning in a way that makes sense to them.