Lesson 2

Here is my lesson plan 2! It's a week long series that involves students using photo editing to create an "old" image of themselves and then create an essay about it.

Lesson 2

My Website

My Cross Country Website

For this assignment, I felt that creating a website for my teammates would be the most authentic assignment I could produce at this time. This page will serve as a quick reference to everyone, parents included to everyday information. Being a team without much structure and a coach who teaches full time, getting information about upcoming workouts can be difficult, but with this site, I can upload the weekly running plan for everyone to see. That is what I envision the primary use of this site for.

Movie Editing

NASCAR IS...

This iMovie edit is very similar to the Prezi show I created, as i used the same videos. What's different in these is that I added music that adds a little more entertainment to a topic that I'm assuming most of my readers here do not care for. I have been experiencing difficulties with my iMovie, and it would force close whenever I would add a text element, but in order to have something posted with some editing practice, I did this without words. Aside from my program not working correctly, I found this tool very easy to figure out and use. Like most tools it took a little getting used to, but once the basics are learned, the whole process comes very natural. I feel its probably too complicated to have young elementary students using it for assignments, but many of them could still probably figure it out anyway. This would be most useful when compiling class wide event videos such as a carnival. I could easily put pictures, videos, and other items in this and print off a DVD copy for every student to keep at fairly minimal costs.

Meet my new Nephew

For my Animoto project, I chose to make a quick slide show of my nephew, Sawyer Rowdy. I was amazed at how easy and fast it took to create this project and how it would be used to introduce myself to my future students and their parents.

Video Tools

I watched "A Vision of Students Today" from the 7 videos every teacher should watch list, and felt that I could relate very well with the message of the students. As a college student, especially this year, I have felt like I need 30-hour days to keep up with work, similar to the students who conducted the study. That being said, I feel like that more applies to secondary school students rather than primary aged students who I will be teaching. Yes, teachers must do more than put information on the black board, but I feel like it is easier to do this when your able to have your students attention for the entire day.  Most of the complaints in the video were from a lack of communication between the teachers-students and the teachers-teachers. A simple fix is to make sure as teachers we are always communicating and listening to others around us including our students.

When looking at the other tools listed in this lesson, I chose to write about one I liked and one I didn't like. Starting positively, I felt like the "Math A Tube" would be a great resource to offer parents. Many times they want to help, but are rusty when it comes to math that they haven't had to do in several years, This site gives examples, practice problems, and much more.

The Site I didn't care too much for was the History Channel site. Don't get me wrong, I love the History Channel for entertainment, but anymore the shows they create have little historical or educational value. Because of this, their website serves as an advertising tool to see these shows and their merchandise and therefore I did not find it as an educational tool.

Dr. Dolittle Preview

The book I will be introducing is Dr. Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting. I feel like this book would be appropriate for students in grades 3 or 4, as it as an easy to read text and occasional illustrations to support the text. Although fictional, it does offer some insight to reasons for resentment of white explorers in Africa, as the king explains how he was mistreated by past explorers. I would also like to read in as a setting up tool for a compare and contrast essay between this and the movie. The differences in the two are drastically different and serve as a great lead off point as students new to comparing and contrasting will be able to see clear differences. 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

  

Voice Thread for Literacy and Writing

Black Star Bright Dawn Sequel

For this Voice Tread project, I created it with my 4th grade literacy group in mind. As a group, we read the book Black Star, Bright Dawn. Now that the book is done, I thought it would be neat to create a writing assignment where they write a mini sequel to the book with a specific focus and direction. We will use Voice Thread to post, discuss, and brainstorm possible ideas to write about. I feel like Voice Thread is a great tool for this because it allows real class dialog outside of the classroom. Students can get feed back from multiple people that time in class doesn't always allow for. 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.5 Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

Lesson Plan

"What Season Is It?" LP

Above is a link to my WebQuest lesson plan. The lesson is a weather lesson that I did with my first grade students that involved them making observations and discussions about what they wear in different seasons. The lesson helps students explore the differences between the four seasons that we experience in Indiana. I thought WebQuest was easy to learn and use. It offered examples and everything is very easy to find.

Audio Podcast

For this podcast assignment, I chose to read off the back cover of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. The reason for doing this is because I'm co-chair of our campus's Kappa Delta Pi chapter, and as part of our literacy project is to create a library in Riley's Oncology center 'Teen Room.' All of the members selected books to read, then we created trailers to motivate the teens to read the books. I thought this would be another tool we could use, if they were too ill to watch a video trailer for fear of getting nauseous, having an audio only file would be a nice substitute. I could get the rest of the chapter to make these podcasts and have them in one location for the kids to locate them as they choose a new book.  

Alternatives to Power Point

As an alternative to presenting information through the standard Power Point liner slide format, you can now get creative using Prezi.com to present your information in a whole new way. Although difficult to get the hang of initially, once mastered Prezi offers countless formats to get information to various audiences. The example I am posting is from a persuasive argument where I took common misconceptions about the sport of NASCAR and addressed them with a video clip that disproves the stated misconception.  

Here is a link to my Prezi Presentation.

Teaching Sportsmanship through Comics

In many classrooms, life skills are represented around the classroom via posters that say the word, maybe a definition, and that is about it. They are there to serve as a reminder, but what good is the reminder if they are never taught? I chose to make a comic from pixton.com that serves as a visual model to help teach sportsmanship in and out of the classroom. I chose to make it of running because that is what my background is in, and as I get close to my future students they too will know this and relate to the example easier. After teaching this, I could hang in next to the more common reminder posters I referenced earlier giving students multiple forms to see and use the life skill. 

Picture Editing in the Classroom

This photograph I found from David Roberts Photography is a perfect representation of how to use worn out pictures from the past and add new life to them through creative writing assignments within the classroom. In this picture, we "know" is that there are two people in front of a camera. The task then for students would be to create life to the image by creating back stories for both the man and woman, add a setting, what ever it takes to make this the starting point to a great piece of creative writing. The problem however is that is doesn't seem right to use photos found on the internet, but that problem as been alleviated by the photo editing tool picfull.com. It is a free and very easy to use photo editing tool that can turn any photo vintage, or any other effects you may choose.

This is a photo taken of me in Greece on a trip back in 2011, however in less than five minutes it was transformed into a vintage photograph waiting for a background to be added by students. 

I was able to effortlessly transform my photo so that it looked old and out of focus, which i could to to many other photos so that every student had a different story to write. Because it took such little effort and time to create, I feel it is one of the best photo editors out there for educators given that no extra photography knowledge is needed and the final products can instantly saved to computers or e-mailed so that they can be used over and over again.

 This video posted above is a TED posting from former Secretary of State Collin Powell where he addresses an audience of the importance of structure in children's lives. He delivers an powerful message rooted on the belief that, "it ain't where you start in life, it's what you do with life, that determines where you end up in life." He offered past experiences as well as some data to further emphasize is message.

That being said, as powerful of a message as this was, I do not feel that it is a strong example of an effective presentation. The only visual aids was one picture that remained on the screen behind him the entire speech. It was an effective image that he lead into and referred to effectively, it just never changed. For me this was not an issue as I am a strong auditory learner, however this would be a hard speech for a strictly kinesthetic or visual learner to follow. Items that Powell could potentially change or alter would be additional visual aids to help support what he is saying. Not much should be added because I would not want any of the visuals to take away from the already near perfect delivery and message.