Portfolio and Final Project

To be honest, this final project lesson is stressing me out. I changed my lesson plan completely around. at first i wanted to do a kindergarten level lesson and then changed my mind so now I'm going to do a sixth grade social studies lesson. I decided to have each kid do a project on a state in the United States. I want them to find out information such as, state bird, state flower, any tourist attractions that people go to see. national parks. Where it is located in the United States. The capital, the largest city, what the state flag looks like, the population and any other interesting information they may want to share. I would have the kids do a pages project and include all of their information in a formal way, but also have the opportunities to include pictures of the things such as state flag, state bird, flower and maybe a map of the state. This is the activity I'm having the class do when i do my presentation in a couple weeks. the other lesson i was going to have them do is an inspiration connecting all of the information that they have gathered.
my biggest challenge with this was figuring out the PEI's that are aligned with doing this project. i think that is going to be the hardest part of teaching, figuring out what needs to be taught and how it is related to the PEI's.
As for the E portfolio, i think my biggest concern would be, do i have everything we have done in the class included. i know that i won't have a problem relating them tot he steps as long as I'm sure i have included every activity we have done. i don't know if you're willing to do this but i think it would be beneficial for the class if you gave us a handout, with just a list of the activities you're looking for to be in the E portfolio. Other than that, i don't think i have any other concerns, if i do, I'll be sure to email you.

Reluctant Learner

After reading the situation you presented us with I thought for a really long time of what I would do. i also reread and reread the scenario to fully understand what it was. I can't think of a perfect situation of what i would do. it said in the scenario that Renee was good at math. I would go over to their group and see if i could somehow break the story up mathematically. I read Huck Finn so long ago i don't really remember exactly what happened, but if there was a way to make each situation relate to a mathematical equation, Renee may be more open to working on the project. Also, socially, if i was able to find a way for Renee to relate to her group of Liz and Josh she may be more willing to work with them. If i couldn't find a way to get Renee to engage in the project, i would ask her what i could do to get her more interested. No one knows more of what she would want than herself. If she couldn't come up with something i may need to seek help from her speech therapist to see if she had any suggestions of how i could get Renee engaged.

Online Games

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/22/1074732535783.html.

I found this website that supports online game. it also stresses the importance of having a variety of activities for children to do. Kids don't want to just read books, just play sports or just play video games. they need a healthy balance of activities to keep them engaged. i couldn't agree with this more. More often than not, we hear about young kids playing online games, and even xbox or play station games that involve violence with guns and shooting. I don't think these games are healthy to play growing up. Growing up, i don't think kids should be exposed to this kid of game.
There are a lot of beneficial websites on the internet that have educational games on them that are helpful in the development of children.
i liked the part in this article where it mentioned legos. kids have been playing with legos since before i was born. it's a great way to be creative and to have fun. i do think that, even though this isn't an online game it's beneficial to the development of children.
i agreed with the part of this article that stated you don't have to play online games solo, you can play with a friend which does help create good communication skills that you will need for the rest of you life.
overall, i think if a child spends a reasonable amount of time playing a beneficial educational game but is also well rounded with other activities they aren't going to be harmful to the child's education.

"Free Write" blog

this past week i have been thinking what to write about. because i didn't have anythings specific come to mind, i thought that i would brain storm out loud about my final project to see if i have any ideas come to mind. as soon as i heard about our final project being a lesson in technology I've been nervous and confused as to what i should do. when coming to class, i hear all these people giving great ideas, hearing this is really helpful but it also makes me wonder if i have what it takes to become a teacher in today's growing technology schools. I'm used to the "pen and paper" and "reading textbooks". although i have witnessed technology advances in my schools as i was a student i haven't put my mind set into being a teacher with technology yet. I wanted to maybe do a fun interactive activity, such as a jeopardy game but i wouldn't know what to do it on how how to get my fellow classmates information that may be on the game. Then i thought maybe creating an ASL movie. when i was a senior at hampden i took ASL and my final project in class was to sign a poem of my choice in front of the class, i thought i would take this one step further and sign a song, which would require to be faster and i would also tape it, hopefully in one taping, but since not everyone knows ASL i ruled that out. i might go online a create a virtual treasure hunt and ask questions and depending on if someone gets it right they will either get another clue or get asked another question until they get it right. i could do this either as a treasure hunt, or a corn maze type idea. although all of these will be difficult to make, i want to do something that keeps everyone engaged which will be my biggest challenge when it comes to doing my lesson.

Technology in Kindergarten

While watching this video it shocked me at the technology that was used in the kindergarten because even people my age didn't have that stuff when we were in kindergarten. it just shows how much technology has grown since we were that young. The kids had access to the internet and books to look at maps of Brazil, to figure out how they could get there and they knew they needed the map otherwise they wouldn't be able to get there because they wouldn't know where to go. The teachers expressed that Critical thinking and problem solving were very important when it came to successfully completely projects. They also expressed that learning how to socialize and communicate successful is one of the most important things you can learn because it will serve you for the rest of your life. The way kids read and write gives the teachers an idea of where they are in the development of things which is why they have discovered the "Smart Boards" are so important because if the kids are struggling with reading and writing they can go up to the board and figure out exactly what they are struggling with and how they can overcome their troubles. I thought the most important part of this was the fact that the kids being able to see pictures, information and video clips on the while board helps keep them engaged and on topic. this is important because kids have small attention spans and if you can find something interesting and intriguing for them to watch or do it will help keep them focused and they might learn more.

Creativity

I think there are some things that Ken Robinson said that i agree with but there are certainly others that i disagree with. I know that many teachers hate it when kids sit on the fence when it comes to stands such as this, but this is one case where i can't decide completely how i feel. There was one point in his speech where he said "If you're not prepared to be wrong by the time you're adults, you've completely lost that capacity". i think he makes a good point. some kids have such high standards set either by themselves or someone else. I think kids are sometimes scared to be wrong when they are little and therefore don't allow themselves to be wrong. If they aren't willing to be wrong when they are younger how are they going to face the real world when they get older? He also made several points about how the top things school's teach are mathematics, and languages and the bottom things were the arts, and dance. But there are people in the world who have to "move to think" and if they aren't allowed this they are simply diagnosed with something such as ADD or ADHD, which may not be the case all. He said that in school's we need to educate the "whole" being, not just the minds, which i can agree with. As for the part where he says we grow out of creativity, or rather "educate out of it". I would say this is a pretty radical statement. I think when kids are little we are all creative and teachers do allow that, but as we get older the teachers expect more of the kids because they are the ages where they know right from wrong and the fact that they can't be goofy all the time. however, in school's we encourage kids to be their own person, because if we were all the same, life would be boring, there wouldn't be anything to look forward to, or live for. I have never been that creative of a person, arts wise, but i love to sing and dance. I'm probably the worst singer in the world, but there are songs that i can relate to, that i will burst out in tune with. As for dancing i'm actually a fairly skilled dancer and dance any chance i can get. I'm not into artsy things because i've never been good at that kid of stuff but i show my creativity through scrap books and the music i listen to and the movies that i watch. i also think the family and friends that i hang out with say a lot about me as a person because i tend to hang out with people that are fairly similar to myself, not because i don't want to hang out with others but because this is who i feel most comfortable with. As teachers i do think we need to allow kids to get creative, but there is also a boundary and a place where they can take advantage of us doing that, and that is something that we definitely need to be aware of.

Experiences with Technology

as I touched base on a little bit in my last journal i grew up in a small town and didn't really have access the high tech computers. there were about 25 kids in my class all the way up through elementary school. in the computer lab there were about 8 computers that we had to share between all of us. this didn't allow for much time for all of us to get used to working on computers. in elementary school we did learn the basic learning how to type correctly and tying out rhyming sentences. we also learned how to use tools such as art and paint. In middle school when i entered seventh grade my grade was the first to get our own lap tops to take to and from school every day. With access of our own lap tops our teachers had us do journals and take notes on them if we wanted, they encouraged it. In science, we digitally dissected a frog before we manually did one. we also made webs and power point projects. doing these sorts of things gave me the opportunity to do things that i didn't have the chance to do in elementary school. in high school there were "COWS" or "Computer on wheels" in every class, we didn't have our own but we had access to use them whenever wanted, along with a computer lab and library with access to computers. our teachers still assigned us a lot of work to do on computers and they expected us to be able to do this with no problem. Now that i am in college and have access to my own personal lap top my teaches expect everything to be done on there. my English teachers want fresh copies of papers due the very next day and expects us to have no problem getting it done. Even though I'm not as tech savvy as i should be, I'm learning and I'll need to learn quick because technology is advancing and i'll need to keep up with it so i can teach it to the upcoming generations.