Thursday, January 29, 2009
That's what I'm talking about!
This article demonstrates the drive, innovation, initiative required by teachers to bring technology to students. These people persevered through theft, indifference, lack of compensation, and (from personal experience) an inattentive and insensitive technical staff to impart technical knowledge to their students! Kudos to them!!!!!!
That's what I'm talking about!
This article demonstrates the drive, innovation, initiative required by teachers to bring technology to students. These people persevered through theft, indifference, lack of compensation, and (from personal experience) an inattentive and insensitive technical staff to impart technical knowledge to their students! Kudos to them!!!!!!
That's what I'm talking about!
This article demonstrates the drive, innovation, initiative required by teachers to bring technology to students. These people persevered through theft, indifference, lack of compensation, and (from personal experience) an inattentive and insensitive technical staff to impart technical knowledge to their students! Kudos to them!!!!!!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Free books! International Children's Digital Library
Need an activity to keep your quickest learners occupied? How about a book? But instead of keeping a print library in your computer lab that you constantly have to update with new books, why not allow students access to a digital library such as the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)?
Monday, January 12, 2009
Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Day
As part of my efforts to document lesson plans for U.S. holidays, here are links with great activities to celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.
Sample Lesson Plans
- King-Raleigh: read Why We Honor Dr. Martin Luther King to understand the reason for the holiday
- A to Z Teacher Stuff: a great lesson that demonstrates the effects of prejudice (any age, esp. lower elementary)
- The Seattle Times: interactive quiz to test knowledge of African American history and Dr. King, explore website on Dr. King (upper elementary)
- The Teacher's Corner: coloring pages, crossword puzzles & other printables (lower elementary)
- EdSiteMent: upper level lesson plan about Dr. King's life, speeches, and history
- U.S. Facts & Fun: 4 pages of printables (lower elementary)
- Educator's Reference Desk: a great lesson plan (upper elementary and beyond)
- Education World:
- Elementary Education @ About.com:
- Google Book Search: use to search for books and magazines that mention Dr. King
(photo credit: www.education-world.com)
Friday, December 26, 2008
Holiday Lesson Ideas
Computers are an interesting conundrum: we either love the technology but don't emphasize the learning or we emphasize the learning but minimize the technology. December is a great month to teach about tradition, religion and cultures because there are 4 major holidays in this one month: Christmas (Christian), Hanukkah (Jewish), Eid-al-Adha & Al-Hijira (Muslim), and Kwanzaa (African-American).
This year my students worked on Christmas cards and making a Christmas list with pictures to help their parents :). After participating in an online discussion it occurred to me that we could have done a web search on different celebrations in December, created a calendar for the next year, in a more tolerant district found music from different traditions, and learned about the traditions of the 4 major holidays. These are simple ways to infuse technology with learning.
Continuing in this vein, we can make up for this oversight by creating a 2009 calendar using the myriad holidays featured in Family Crafts at About.com.
Another thought I just had is the battle between teaching to standards vs. creating educated and involved world citizens, so of course the ultimate is to tie these ideas to your standards so both goals are met!
This year my students worked on Christmas cards and making a Christmas list with pictures to help their parents :). After participating in an online discussion it occurred to me that we could have done a web search on different celebrations in December, created a calendar for the next year, in a more tolerant district found music from different traditions, and learned about the traditions of the 4 major holidays. These are simple ways to infuse technology with learning.
Continuing in this vein, we can make up for this oversight by creating a 2009 calendar using the myriad holidays featured in Family Crafts at About.com.
Another thought I just had is the battle between teaching to standards vs. creating educated and involved world citizens, so of course the ultimate is to tie these ideas to your standards so both goals are met!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Stages of Cognitive Development in using computers
We have observed evidence of Piaget's stages of cognitive development and decided to split the curriculum into grade levels K-1, 2, and 3-5 in observance of Stage 2 Preoperational and Stage 3 Concrete Operational.
K-1 students come into the computer lab and immediately begin clicking all icons without regard for the day's lesson plan. Even when given direct instruction they tend to want to do their own discovery and I as the teacher have to physically open the software or web page I want them to work on to keep them on task. The 1st graders are then able to stay on task but the Kindergartners still have difficulty staying on task. Part of the problem is they work from 8am to 5pm without much of a break, and they are not yet trained on the expectation of following directions.
Second graders have introductory computer skills but their academic level is still developing. For example there are issues with vocabulary, grammar, math skills, etc., so they require a slightly different curriculum that is more tech-oriented than the K-1's and geared toward their grade level and skill building.
With third through fifth graders I am able to provide the task which they are able to follow (able, not necessarily willing :) and so have had not as many technical problems. I have run into students whose reading skills need improvement before they will be fully independent on the computer; fortunately there are many websites and computer aided software to assist with this task. Once I'm comfortable that some students are improving the life skills then we can address the tech skills.
K-1 students come into the computer lab and immediately begin clicking all icons without regard for the day's lesson plan. Even when given direct instruction they tend to want to do their own discovery and I as the teacher have to physically open the software or web page I want them to work on to keep them on task. The 1st graders are then able to stay on task but the Kindergartners still have difficulty staying on task. Part of the problem is they work from 8am to 5pm without much of a break, and they are not yet trained on the expectation of following directions.
Second graders have introductory computer skills but their academic level is still developing. For example there are issues with vocabulary, grammar, math skills, etc., so they require a slightly different curriculum that is more tech-oriented than the K-1's and geared toward their grade level and skill building.
With third through fifth graders I am able to provide the task which they are able to follow (able, not necessarily willing :) and so have had not as many technical problems. I have run into students whose reading skills need improvement before they will be fully independent on the computer; fortunately there are many websites and computer aided software to assist with this task. Once I'm comfortable that some students are improving the life skills then we can address the tech skills.
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