Week 4 Reflection, Course 5364

Week 4 Reflection:

For week four much of the readings and videos focused on collaborative project learning. The project subject matter spans several different subjects. This innovative way of teaching gives students longer amounts of school hours to immerse themselves in a project. For example you could have students working on a project of reflection and refraction; they learn about the basic terms and identify it with their science teacher. Then when they start working with their art teacher, they continue working on their project of reflection and fraction in art class.

The key is that teachers work together to communicate with each other what they will be addressing with the class during their time with them and have a timeline so that everyone involved knows when what portion of the project is due when.

I found a couple of web resources that could help http://www.edmodo.com/ is a website that allows teachers to communicate with each other and their students. The platform allows teachers to keep student work private from the general public.

Another useful site is http://wikieducator.org that has resources for educators to learn how to use web 2.0 tools and collaborate with each other.

I would have liked to have collaborative project based learning projects when I was a student in K-12.

Thanks!
Sandra Villarreal

References

Edomo Home page (2009). Retrieved on December 11, 2009, from http://www.edmodo.com/

Wiki Educator Home page (2009). Retrieved on December 11, 2009, from http://wikieducator.org

Week_3_Creating a Learning Unit

In week 3, I used the UDL Lesson Template to make a template on Energy in action for 5th grade science.

In my lesson plan I addressed the three UDL networks; recognition, strategic and affective.

There is a vocabulary web book that allows the students to gather facts, by reading definitions. This is followed up by tips from the web book coach character that provides insight on the definitions and examples that helps with recognition tasks that are associated with the recognition network. There is adaptability for each of the assignments that appeal to each student’s learning style and learning or physical disability.

In my lesson plan students can write an essay about their daily experiences with reflective surfaces. They can make clay models or drawings for some of the portions of the lesson this addresses the strategic network and allows for adaptability for each student, as they have a choice in tools available to complete the tasks.

I address the affective networks by asking students to be creative and encourage them to ask questions. I also ask them to present their writings, models, computer drawings or actual drawings in class to other classmates. This should keep them motivated and engaged knowing that other students will see their work.

I liked using the template because it made it clear to me what portions needed to be filled out. This was my first time writing a lesson as I am not an educator. However, I found it a very interesting assignment and I felt that it helped me build up my own internal knowledge framework.

Thanks!

Sandra Villarreal

Week 3 Reflection, Course 5364

Week 3 Reflection, Course 5364

This week many of the videos we watched were on the subject matter of how students use technology. A couple of the students that were profiled participated in after school technology programs. These programs focused on tiered mentoring.

This got me wondering if our school district had any of these programs. I did an internet search and found a webpage from Duke University that runs a K-12 Technology Mentor program, the site can be found at http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/. It has many examples of technology use in the classroom. That includes completed class projects and how to use a wiki.

The most interesting for me was the example of a project that was created by a Kindergarten class learning about the life cycle of Frogs. They created several presentations using Pixie2 http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/category/projects/ . The pictures show the students reading about frogs. The students used laptop computers and created the narration for the presentations. The teaching staff wrote down the students’ narration on the white board so that the students could read it back into the microphone. The students also selected the music for the presentation. I was very impressed at how professional these five year olds sounded reading out loud during the presentation. I am sure if the Kindergarten teachers in my district saw this example project then they would be inspired to create a collaborative projects utilizing technology.

Thanks!
Sandra Villarreal

References

Duke University: K-12 Technology Mentor Program (2009). Retrieved on December 3, 2009, from http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/

Duke University: What I learned about Tadpoles from Ms. Bethea’s Kindergarteners (2009). Retrieved on December 3, 2009, from http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/category/projects/