Before last summer, I had no idea what Excel even was. I started playing with it as a part of my job and when I started working for Dr. Burch again this fall, I became very familiar with the program. and I have experienced first-hand the benefits of using this program for academic purposes. When I think of hours typing numbers in the computer and averaging over and over again, I am so happy that I can now do the same amount of work in less than half the time it used to take.
Excel programs are very beneficial in the classroom for the teacher (saving time) and the students (helping them enjoy numbers and learning exciting technology skills).
Excel is very helpful for the teacher in keeping track of any type of grading system and anything that needs averaging. One idea that I thought would be very helpful is to have the students keep track of their reading on an Excel Worksheet. The students can keep track of the book title, author, number of pages, AR level, and AR test results. Allowing the student to accomplish the task, gives them the opportunity to observe their growing excellence and a sense of achievement. Because the students are keeping track of their books, they can look back at all they have read as a reading log and the teacher can look at the worksheet and assess the students improvement. http://www.microsoft.com/education/read.mspx
Another idea I would like to incorporate into my classroom someday is using Excel to teach my students graphs and how graphs are used in the real world. Because information put into a data spreadsheet can very easily be turned into a graph (and multiple variations of graphs), the students can read their data on the worksheet then correlate that information with what they read on the graph. This type of data compilation is excellent for recording real time and real life data in the classroom. And an asset for students in the 21st century classroom to learn.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/read.mspx
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Digital Cameras in the 21st Century Classroom
Using the digital camera in the elementary classroom has its uses in many different avenues, rather than just for use as integrating technology. Digital cameras can be used for communicating to parents, making lessons exciting, keeping track of class projects, and a variety of other ways. Because students enjoy viewing themselves through a camera lens, projected on a screen, or online, digital cameras are great tools to make the 21st century classroom a fun environment for learning.
Below is a list of ten of my favorite ways to use the digital camera in an elementary classroom:
1. Learning about Colors - As you are studying colors, have the students walk around the classroom, school or outside taking pictures of the color that you are studying. These pictures may be inserted into a PowerPoint Booklet, called for example, "Things That Are Blue". If you don't want many slides, insert more than one picture on the slide. The students may include their voice and tell you what the name of the picture. (http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm)
2. A Book About Me - I use my digital camera to take pictures of my first and second grade special needs students to use in books. First we decide what we want to write, then we take pictures of the children. With lower level children using the digital camera and making their own books is very exciting, for some it is a key difference in learning to read. They love to read books about themselves, especially with their own photos. (http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/lon/lonlinks/digicam/teacher/home.html)
3. Learning about the Senses - Arrange students into groups and assign each group one of the five senses. Have each group photograph the appropriate sensory organ and then have them take pictures of objects that organ might best perceive. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
4. Nouns - Make a Proper Noun--Common Noun publication. The students are to find a picture of something that is a common noun and then find its companion, the proper noun. Place the pictures side by side and label each. This could also be done with nouns or verbs. Make a slide presentation of VERBS in ACTION or NOUNS HANGING AROUND SCHOOL. (http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm)/
5. Draw Youself - Snap a black-and-white headshot of each student, size it to ¼ page, and place a box frame around it. Place a blank box the same size as the framed picture beside it. Have students draw ½-inch to 1-inch gridlines in pencil in both boxes and label the gridlines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on in each direction. Then have students try to duplicate their pictures by drawing only what they see in each grid. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
6. Geometric Shape Walk - Assign pairs of students to walk through the school to find such examples of geometric shapes as circles, triangles, parallel lines, obtuse angles, and so on. Label each photo and create a geometry book. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
7. Symbols in My Town - Would be interesting to create a SYMBOLS publication: stop sign, handicap, flag, American eagle, Ladies(Men)Restroom, etc. How many symbols do we have in our school; our neighborhood, community?(http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm)
8. Portraiture - This was part of a series of portraiture projects. With this particular project, students: 1. used digital cameras to take their pictures 2. brought these pictures into a graphics program where they could manipulate the layout, color, special effects. etc. 3. scanned in or took digital shots of other pictures, poems, objects of meaning to them 4. imported these symbols into their portraits and layered their image with items of meaning to create a collage effect. 5. final products were then uploaded to the Cyberfaces web site at http://www.cyberfaces.org/ 6. final products were also printed on a color banner and placed into a slide show to display at open house, parent-teacher nights, etc. 7. students were then asked to write brief essays about their creation process, explaining their use of color, objects, words, etc. for interpretation.
This could very well evolve into part of an interdisciplinary unit.(http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/lon/lonlinks/digicam/teacher/home.html)
9. When I Grow Up - Photograph students dressed up as what they want to be when they grow up and use the pictures to illustrate career reports. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
10. Class Reminders - Take pictures of class procedures and display them in the classroom as a reminder. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
Below is a list of ten of my favorite ways to use the digital camera in an elementary classroom:
1. Learning about Colors - As you are studying colors, have the students walk around the classroom, school or outside taking pictures of the color that you are studying. These pictures may be inserted into a PowerPoint Booklet, called for example, "Things That Are Blue". If you don't want many slides, insert more than one picture on the slide. The students may include their voice and tell you what the name of the picture. (http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm)
2. A Book About Me - I use my digital camera to take pictures of my first and second grade special needs students to use in books. First we decide what we want to write, then we take pictures of the children. With lower level children using the digital camera and making their own books is very exciting, for some it is a key difference in learning to read. They love to read books about themselves, especially with their own photos. (http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/lon/lonlinks/digicam/teacher/home.html)
3. Learning about the Senses - Arrange students into groups and assign each group one of the five senses. Have each group photograph the appropriate sensory organ and then have them take pictures of objects that organ might best perceive. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
4. Nouns - Make a Proper Noun--Common Noun publication. The students are to find a picture of something that is a common noun and then find its companion, the proper noun. Place the pictures side by side and label each. This could also be done with nouns or verbs. Make a slide presentation of VERBS in ACTION or NOUNS HANGING AROUND SCHOOL. (http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm)/
5. Draw Youself - Snap a black-and-white headshot of each student, size it to ¼ page, and place a box frame around it. Place a blank box the same size as the framed picture beside it. Have students draw ½-inch to 1-inch gridlines in pencil in both boxes and label the gridlines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on in each direction. Then have students try to duplicate their pictures by drawing only what they see in each grid. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
6. Geometric Shape Walk - Assign pairs of students to walk through the school to find such examples of geometric shapes as circles, triangles, parallel lines, obtuse angles, and so on. Label each photo and create a geometry book. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
7. Symbols in My Town - Would be interesting to create a SYMBOLS publication: stop sign, handicap, flag, American eagle, Ladies(Men)Restroom, etc. How many symbols do we have in our school; our neighborhood, community?(http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm)
8. Portraiture - This was part of a series of portraiture projects. With this particular project, students: 1. used digital cameras to take their pictures 2. brought these pictures into a graphics program where they could manipulate the layout, color, special effects. etc. 3. scanned in or took digital shots of other pictures, poems, objects of meaning to them 4. imported these symbols into their portraits and layered their image with items of meaning to create a collage effect. 5. final products were then uploaded to the Cyberfaces web site at http://www.cyberfaces.org/ 6. final products were also printed on a color banner and placed into a slide show to display at open house, parent-teacher nights, etc. 7. students were then asked to write brief essays about their creation process, explaining their use of color, objects, words, etc. for interpretation.
This could very well evolve into part of an interdisciplinary unit.(http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/lon/lonlinks/digicam/teacher/home.html)
9. When I Grow Up - Photograph students dressed up as what they want to be when they grow up and use the pictures to illustrate career reports. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
10. Class Reminders - Take pictures of class procedures and display them in the classroom as a reminder. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml)
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Integrating Technology
Integrating technology into the daily classroom does not seem as intimidating to me as it once did. Looking through the 21st century skills and technology standards, many of the skills that the students must learn and practice go hand-in hand with the State Standard Objectives. I think there are many ways to integrate technology into any classroom. The teacher simply needs to equip the students with the knowledge they need to complete the tasks (and understand why they are completing the task) and the teacher needs to be well equipped herself/himself. The way the West Virginia State Department set up the technology standards makes it quite easy for the teacher to integrate technology into the lesson. Plus, several technology standards can fir into one lesson or unit plan.
As a teacher in the 21st century, I know that I will desire my students to have access to computers on a daily basis. I realize that in some schools this is not possible, but to make the classroom as much like a real-world situation, using the internet or Word processing on a daily basis is very realistic. I would like my students to have the opportunity to collaborate with students in another classroom. Even if this mens that my students communicate with the class next door or on the other side of the world.
Because I desire my students to be exposed to technology on a daily basis, this means that I may have to have several small projects goin on at the same time. In the las blog, I posted about the learner-active, technology-infused classroom. In such classrooms, the students do not necessarily complete the project in one day or one week, however, several of the projects spanned months or the entire school year. Now these activities would have to be pretty exciting for the students to stay interested that long, but when the students are using technology and working together, the activities usually are pretty exciting!
As for lesson plans that integrate technology; I imagine that I will need to be very clear where I desire my students to focus on technology and where pencil and paper will suffice. Though technology is a large part of our lives today, there is still room for good old work sheets and seat-work. From the lesson plans I have already written that integrate technology, writing the lesson plan with the integration is not that difficult, but actually applying that integration in clear step-by step process will be very important.
As a teacher in the 21st century, I know that I will desire my students to have access to computers on a daily basis. I realize that in some schools this is not possible, but to make the classroom as much like a real-world situation, using the internet or Word processing on a daily basis is very realistic. I would like my students to have the opportunity to collaborate with students in another classroom. Even if this mens that my students communicate with the class next door or on the other side of the world.
Because I desire my students to be exposed to technology on a daily basis, this means that I may have to have several small projects goin on at the same time. In the las blog, I posted about the learner-active, technology-infused classroom. In such classrooms, the students do not necessarily complete the project in one day or one week, however, several of the projects spanned months or the entire school year. Now these activities would have to be pretty exciting for the students to stay interested that long, but when the students are using technology and working together, the activities usually are pretty exciting!
As for lesson plans that integrate technology; I imagine that I will need to be very clear where I desire my students to focus on technology and where pencil and paper will suffice. Though technology is a large part of our lives today, there is still room for good old work sheets and seat-work. From the lesson plans I have already written that integrate technology, writing the lesson plan with the integration is not that difficult, but actually applying that integration in clear step-by step process will be very important.
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