Final Checklist

I took my final and have completed steps 2-4!!!

Thanks for the great semester :)

Kristen

Internet Safety

1. I chose to read "Fighting Internet Filth" by Mario Hipol because it clearly listed internet dangers and preemptive steps we can take to avoid encountering problems. This was actually my favorite of any of the articles I've read in the last few days.

2. I watched several movies. My favorite ones were the ones on netsmartz. I liked those because they told them from the person's point of view and it shows how things can happen to children. I also had never before heard of the internet being used by children in such vicious ways. And the scary thing is, if they made a resource video to address it, it must be a problem. I also watched some interenet safety issues movies on pbs.com. These were good, but not as engaging as the movies posted on netsmartz.

3. My most important take-away is that children need guidance. You can't blindly assume that they will be safe and protectedon the internet. They need adults to take active involvement in educating them about dangers and to have relationships of trust so a child doesn't feel the need to surf the internet chat rooms to find someone to connect with. Trust is also important because it opens the door of communication if a child encounters a problem on the internet so they can turn to a parent for help. Parents should also take steps to help internet safety. Suggestions include: placing the computer in a high-traffic area, installing filters, and setting boundaries as a family for how the computer should be used.

4. When I asked the youth if I could talk to them about internet safety, I began my asking them what they knew about safety on the internet. They tol d me that you shouldn't give out personal information. Despite knowing this we viewed their facebook profile together and found many items of listed personal information. Sure they didn't give any information to people who specifically asked; instead they supplied it in ready form!
We talked about security filters for allowing only safe, friends access to seeing certain information. We talked about how they spend their time on the internet. Fortunately, this youth is very directed in their time. They do not spend much time surfing (unless it's on facebook, but they only view other close friends' profiles) but rather use the internet for specific purposes.
We talked about how the computer is set up in their home and we talked about the great things their parents have set up. The computer is in a high traffic area, there are filters that block some unwanted material, and their parents run security scans to scan for spyware and viruses.
In regard to email, the youth deletes any unwanted email without opening it. We talked about why this is important (some emails contain pornography, unsubscribing tells spammers they have a real email address, viruses are often found in attachments from unknown people).

The youth seems well-informed for their age and hopefully are talk will fortify her continual efforts to have safe internet habits.

TPACK Report :)

3 Lesson Plans

Hello!

Here are my three lesson plans. I decided to implement the Language Arts lesson plan using PhotoStory to have the students publish a book that way. Hope you enjoy!

Language Arts Lesson Plan

Science Lesson Plan

Math Lesson Plan

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Technology Clips

I enjoyed watching the balance between teacher and student efforts in integrating technology in the classroom. I think it is wonderful that those teachers decided to use so much technology with such young children. I like how students were able to have a chance to take their own pictures of spiders in the first clip. One could tell in watching the clip, that they were really trying hard to explore and make great discoveries. The teacher gave them the responisbility to take the pictures, but she coached them along the way. In the other clips, it was evident that the teachers had to coach step by step how to draw and make presentations on the computer. But how great is it that next time, they probably won't need as much help and the kids will be able to probably add even more great effects to their presentations. We are a technology-driven generation and I think it is great that these teachers were willing to be brave and help their students learn new technology skills!

Technology Observations

Hello!

My initial impression of my classrrom was impressed. I wish the schools I attended in elementary could have had at least half of what my assigned school has. My teacher integrates the technology in such clever ways. They have an audio and speaker system so she gives her students the chance to share their work by speaking with the microphone. It sounds so professional and the students take their presentations very seriously. The class also has a document camera, which allows the teacher to project worksheets and draw right on them. She says they also use it for science experiments because the document camera will take pictures and store them so they can compare pictures of their project they set on it. With the document camera, my teacher uses a projector that is mounted to the ceiling to project to a screen in front of the classroom. This helps the teacher present information in a way that allows all students throughout the classroom to see. In addition to this, they also have a TV in the front corner of the room, but they hardly use it because they can show DVD's with the projector.
The students also have a lab with new PC's. Next to this, is a lab of older computers, but this one is small than the newer lab.
I am in awe of all the technology my classroom has to offer. I hope I work in one like it one day!

ps. I have completed both parts 2 and 3 of this week's assignment.

Look at this Voicethread!!!! So cool :)

Science Challenge!

Hello-

For my science challenge I decided I will tackle Objective 1 of Standard 1 in the third grade core curriculum.

Objective 1: Describe the shape of earth and the moon as spherical.
List the differences in the physical appearance of Earth and the moon as viewed from space.

Using Google Earth and Moon, students will explore the appearance of both the Earth and the Moon. They will answer a series of questions:
1. What shape is the earth? What shape is the moon? What are other objects you see in life that are this same shape?

2. Looking at the earth so that the equator is running horizontal across the middle of the screen, what colors do you see?

3. Looking at the moon using google moon, what colors can you see?

4. While still on google moon, zoom in to the following three sites: Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 14. These are the places where those spaceships landed. List three descriptions of each site of what you see. Be sure to include any landforms you see.

5. Using Google Earth, zoom in to three different places of your choice. Write what places you visit and three descriptions of what you see. Be sure to include any landforms you might see.

6. Rotate views on both Google Earth and Google Moon. Compare and contrast what you see with 3 descriptions in each column for similarities and differences.

7. Draw and color a picture of the moon and a picture of the earth. Label at least five characteristics on each.

Content: Students will learn Standard 1, Objective 1 in the third grade core. They will learn that the earth and the moon are both spherical and that their appearance has both similarities and differences.
Pedagogy: I will ask the students what they have observed about the moon before. After we discuss this, I will excitedly inform them that are computers have a program that allows us to explore the surface of the moon like we have explored the earth before on Google Earth. The students will have about ten minutes to explore the moon as they wish to acquaint themselves with the technology. Then, I will pass out a worksheet with the questions above that will guide them in their explorations and observations. They will conclude the activity by drawing and coloring a picture that shows some of the observations they have made of the earth and the moon using Google Earth.
Technology: I will be using Google Earth and its special Google Moon abilities to explore the surfaces of those two spheres.

Exploring Other Tours

Hello! I just finished exploring my classmate's tours. I now have some great new ideas!

For instance, in Malorie Walton's tour, I saw how she had her students study what they saw and answer a question before they went to another area of the classroom to complete an activity. Thus, her students not only got a Google Earth tour, but a classroom tour as well!

In Ashley Howden's tour I learned that the layer's features can be great for helping students to make many different kinds of observations. And the students learn more about the technology's capabilities!

In Stephanie Anderson's tour I saw how fun it was to have the places spread out around the world so that the kids get to have a fun search while they look for them.

Everyone's tours look great!

My Tour!

Click HERE to go to my original tour.

Landforms!

Plan for helping students to understand the land features in an environment. Specifically. they will look at a volcano, canyon, glacier, and a mountain.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Mt. Vesuveus	Students will observe and record characteristics of the Volcano.	Students will measure the mouth of the volcano at its widest point.
2. Grand Canyon	Students will explore the canyon and make an estimation about how many layers they think they can see in the canyon's sides.	Students will measure canyon from North to South Rim
3. Hubbard Glacier	Students will observe and record observations about the glacier	Students will observe the glacier from the lowest elevation possible. Students will measure thickness of glacier above water.
4. Mt. Fuji	Students will observe and record observations about the glacier	Students will see an overlay image of the mountain. They will zoom into google earth for a closer look

I will be teaching of different landforms that are found in various environments. After we have learned the definitions of various landforms, I will have my class go onto computers to take this tour to see real-life examples in a fun and multi-dimensioual way.

Students will have a travel journal in which they will record their observatious of all the places they visit. Then, after we meet back as a class for discussion, the students will take turns telling about their "trip."

Utilizing Google Earth is perfect for this project because it will give my students to see more than just a picture of places they might not be able to go to personally. The three-dimensioual setting of the software allows children to not only observe a specific place, but they get to see it in context and how it compares to everything around it. Google Earth is a great tool because the view can always be zoomed out so that you can see the whole shape of the earth- reminding us that all the places found on our planet are in fact connected to us.

My Movie: A Family Story

This is an example of a family story movie that I would show my class before I required them to create a video to tell me a story they have written about their family! Enjoy!

Friend's Videos I Watched and What I Learned

These are the six classmates that I found that had videos posted to their blogs. It was fun to explore the different projects and see how everyone really made different but wonderful products. I feel like if I made another video, it would turn out even better because I have so many more ideas! (This was my first video attempt)

1. Ashley Daley
I learned that it could be fun to have someone else narrate the movie, because it can make it more fun- the narrator was great- very enthusiastic. (I also learned that there are probably better microphones for me to use because the one I used was very difficult to keep a consistent level of volume going)

2. Rachael Hamilton
I liked how the music credit was read aloud at the end. I think since she only had one reference, this was a good way to do it.

3. Katie Matthews
I loved how creative she was with her adventure story! Instead of just having children illustrate their fiction stories, I think it would be wonderful to offer another choice to children to create a movie if they wanted to. I felt like I was watching Reading Rainbow :)

4. Sabrina Huyett
She was brilliant on how well she timed the music. The movie did make me think, that I need to remember to be very careful when I add music to make sure that I can still hear the narration. Or perhaps I could use words written on those slides? Just some ideas,,,

5, Becky Edmonds
This made ne realize that even if I don't assign movies for my students to make, I should really utilize the movie-making tool so as a teaching aid. She made an ABC video that would be great to help children learn their ABC's.

6. Whitney Lethcoe
She really explored animation. I loved how the letters entered on the title page. I also liked the story she told- how she told us about all of her family. This would be a great video for the beginning of the year!

This is my Print Screen of my storyboard assignment for this week. I decided to do a family story using family pictures to illustrate how my parents met, moved to Mexico City, returned to the states when they lost everything in the bad Mexican economy and now travel the world!

Week 2: Pictures & Reflections

This week was a busy week in IP&T 287. One of the most interesting things things I created was my new wiki website. It may be found with the below link:

http://misskris.pbworks.com/

This last week opened up a whole figurative hall of doors for me as I learned about web 2.0. Web 2.0 are programs and websites that allow for interaction on the internet. This could include chats, blogs, wikis, etc... I learned that these sites could help make a classroom more organized and fun if used. For example, I built a wiki on which I posted an edited picture, a google map, a calendar and many other things that could be useful to a class!

I learned that creating a wiki isn't as hard as I thought it would be! Since I am used to blogger, there were some differences I had to acquaint myself with and adjust to, but for the most part, it was simple to create easy, accessible pages.

This week, I also signed up for an account and explored Goodreads. I had never even heard of Goodreads before, but I am glad I have heard of it now. It's a social networking tool so people can rate, compare and discuss books. I joined the Early Childhood and Elementary Education Books group and even added a book to the bookshelf and started a discussion. Below is a screenshot of my comment in the discussion:

In addition to this, I created an account on Diigo. This is a tool that helps people organize their favorite websites and findings on the internet. I added some of my favorite bookmarks onto my account. Here is a screenshot:


In addition to this, I also added a new blog to my Google Reader- a tool that helps one to read the various posts of all the blogs one follows. Since I have many friends with blogs, I had done this before so this was the easiest part of the assignment I had to do. I 'starred' one of the entries on this educational blog. Below is the screenshot:

I think the most difficult thing I had to do was when I had to figure out Diigo. I signed up for an account but I had to wait for an email confirmation registration from them. I waited a while, but I didn't realize that it had gone to my junk account, so I sat for a long time thinking that it had never come. But once I checked that and started working with it, everything else flowed smoothly.

I think the most useful thing I learned was how to create a wiki and embed information in it. I had seen people do this before and I had always wanted to know how they did it! I know I will definitely create such a website when I am a teacher.

I learned so much about web 2.0 and loved it, I just had to tell a friend. So this morning I called my cousin, who is a high school teacher, and told her all the new possibilities I now know are available to us! Below is a screenshot of our google chat:

As you can see, this was a great week!

I Love Education

I love education because I really consider learning to be one of life's greatest adventures! For instance, this summer I watched Planet Earth and it humbled me to realize how much there is around me that I don't know or understand. But it didn't discourage me; it just helped motivate me to search for more answers to all the new questions I began to have.
That is what education is about. It's about finding new knowledge so you can have a better understanding of your world. It's about developing a curious mind that demands to grow.
Moreover, I have found that most of the things I fear in life are the things that I don't know or understand. Education helps me to have more confidence and love for everything and everyone around me. Learning brings me peace.
I have a passion for learning and that is why I want to be a teacher. Not because I have a list of goals or standards that I want to check off as I teach, but because I want to inspire a curiosity that will continue beyond my classroom. I hope to show my children some of the wonders that can be found, in hope that when they leave, they too will always hunger to search for more.