adushane's posterous

Setting the Stage- Take 2!

After re-reading my original "Setting the Stage" post I realized that my views haven't changed that much after taking this class. At the beginning of the class I thought it was important for students to have a sense of ownership of their education and that in doing so, they would find more motivation. I also originally thought that changes are coming to the world, and that we need to be prepared so that we can stay competitive. I still feel that way, although I now feel that I am armed with actual tools that will help me to teach in that way! In particular I think that the Generate an Argument model of teaching coupled with the use of technology is going to help make my style of teaching much more effective for my students.

Reflection of D2L Discussion

I noticed from the discussions that most people seem excited about using what we have learned in class. However, I also noticed that a lot of people were concerned that by trying to integrate technology into their current teaching they would lose some effectiveness because the students would view the new technology as a "toy" which would detract from the content. When I read Joshua Dennis' post I liked that he said that this class helped him learn how to turn "toys" into "tools." I think that was the overall message that I got from the various posts that I read and commented on. People are willing to try new things as long as they are adequately informed on how to use them themselves and as long as they set parameters for their classroom use so that the content, not the technology, is the focus.

Finally, my Final Project!!!!

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Week 6 Tools

This week has been challenging! I have been working on my final project, my wiki, and have been trying out tools to see which would be the best way to present the project. I originally thought that I would use Voicethread, but soon realized that it wasn't working. I tried to save a video (using Jing) of me going through the features of my wiki, and then I was going to talk about those features. Voice thread wouldn't let me upload Jing videos, so that didn't work. I then thought that I would take screen shots of different pages from my wiki, then upload them to Voicethread, but that didn't work either because there is a 3 slide maximum on the free edition, and I needed to show more than 3 pages on my wiki! I emailed Dr. Brunsell to find out why, and he suggested Vimeo or Youtube. I checked out Vimeo, but then I thought back to what I wanted to do, and thought that I might be able to use Jing to do everthing that I wanted. I finally figured out how to unmute Jing before you record a video, not after :) and then I was able to complete my project. I am going to upload it next. Fingers crossed!!!

Week 5 Tools

This week I began creating my wiki that will be the product for the final project for this class. I have created several pages that will be relevant to my class this year. I made a home page with an introduction to the class, a notes page and an assignments page. I need to figure out how to list all of the other pages on my home page, with links to the other pages. I am nowhere close to being done creating this wiki! I am planning to add links to simulations, videos, state standards, and a google earth map that the students will be able to add to. One thing that has helped me so far with my wiki is creating a Delicious account. Now that I have one spot where I have saved everything that I think is valuable, I can easily add the links to my wiki. I am feeling a little overwhelmed right at this moment, and am glad that I have two more weeks to work on this wiki (although I am sure to be changing it throughout the year)!

Week 5 Reflection

I was very interested in this week's readings because I have been planning to create either a blog or a wiki for my science class this year. First of all, I needed to understand what the actual difference was between a blog and a wiki. I'm sure this sounds juvenile to many people who are well versed on such things, but I really wasn't sure how they were different. From the Science 2.0 Readings, I think that wikis are interactive sites that allow for quick and easy sharing of information. On the other hand, a blog is more of an online diary that can contain an author's opinions, etc. This is the part where I get a little confused- according to the article sometimes blogs can become interactive when people comment on the author's posts (wouldn't that then make it a wiki?) Based on these definitions, and my research of the links to examples of blogs and wikis, I think that what I hope to create for my class is a wiki. Last year my school district had a very basic webpage for each of the teachers. I would make daily posts of what we did in class each day, and the posts would include the assignments that were given for the day. I want it to be so much more, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted until I saw an amazing example that was a link from the wiki page for our class http://acftscience.wetpaint.com/. The reason that I was so taken with this particular wiki is that it contained so many components that I would like to add to my own wiki. It had links to homework assignments, labs, classroom notes, standards covered, etc. I think that it is a great way to keep students and parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom. I also think that it is a great way to keep a teacher on track. I have found that when I tell my students that I am going to keep something updated (my grades, website, etc) I am more likely to maintain it than if I am doing it for myself. I would like to add a page that would allow students to post their own interesting (but appropriate) science links and have classmates comment on their findings. I really liked one that I saw where someone posted a mythbusters video, and then students commented back and forth on it. I think that this is going to be my final project for the class.

Week 4- Online Simulations

I really love online simulations. Sometimes there just isn’t a better way to show students how something works. I believe that simulations can’t take the place of other types of instruction, but should be used to enhance instruction. A few of my favorite simulations that I discovered this week are

#1- Balancing Chemical Equations

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and

#2- Virtual Periodic Table

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I have often noticed that students have a difficult time with balancing chemical equations. I like that this simulation shows the individual elements on each side of the “yields” sign. I think that it is easier for students to see what needs to be added this way. I also liked the virtual Periodic Table because it shows what the elements look like. I think that it is easier for students to remember properties of the individual elements this way. I explored other simulations as well, such as the atom builder, but I was unable to get some of the other simulations to load.

Week 4- Google Earth

This week I worked on created a google map for my classes next year. I am planning on creating a map with a pin on our school. I am going to have the students mark where they went over summer vacation, and then they will have to find the distance from the school to where they went. I am going to do this as part of my section on position. I think the students will like it because it will be about them!! I made an example map with the starting point my house, and then marked all of the places that my family went over last year’s summer vacation. Here is that map:

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Week 4 Reflection

I am really interested in the “Generate An Argument” Instructional Model that we focused on this week. I really do believe that students learn subjects more thoroughly when they have to discover information instead of having it spoon fed to them. That is why I try to incorporate a lot of lab activities into my teaching. Students get a better grasp of the information by “doing” instead of “seeing” and I think that there is more interest generated in the topic as well. Every time that I take my class to the lab for a lab activity I get asked repeatedly when we will be going back.

When I was working on BTSA to clear my credential in California, I used action research to determine if hands on (lab) activities actually ended up with measurable improvements in student understanding of content. I chose two classes with similar makeup (similar amounts of students and class averages), and taught them about acids and bases in two different ways. One class read the section in the book as a class, took their own notes, did a worksheet, and was then given a quiz. The other class read the section in the book, participated in a lab activity where they found the pH of several liquids in order to determine which liquids were acids and which were bases, and then they were given a quiz. I graded all of the quizzes, and omitted any exceptional learners and found that the class that participated in the lab activity performed better on the quiz than the other class.

However, even with proof that lab activities enhance learning, collecting data in the lab is a somewhat time consuming activity. I can see where using the data sets that can be found online could be a wonderful time saver. I also like that there are so many varying sets of data out there. That variety gives teachers the ability to pose questions to their classes that it would not be possible to do otherwise.

I also really like the idea of the writing activity at the end of “Generate An Argument.” I know that the 8th Grade ELA teacher at my school has talked to me about not having time for students to write very many papers throughout the course of the school year. I was thinking about creating my own activity for this class and then talking to the ELA teacher about perhaps using it as a collaborative activity between ELA and science. In my class I require students to write in complete sentences and to use correct spelling, etc. I often hear, “Why do we have to do this? It isn’t ELA!” I think by actively working together with the ELA teacher the students will become more accustomed to using ELA skills in science, and hopefully I will meet with less resistance in the future!!!

Week 3 Tools

This week I have been learning how to do screen captures and embed videos onto my blog. These were things that I previously knew that I wanted to do in my class, but had no idea what they were called! I started exploring these tools by thinking about how I would use them in my class. I decided to go to YouTube and take a screenshot of the video list that came up when I typed “sunspots” into the search engine. Here is what that screen looked like:

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I chose the video that I found to be most informative, and decided to embed it here:

Then I started to think that it would be cool to create a screenshot/video of my creation of a GoMotion graph. I hope that I am sharing the video here:

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I hope that these features work! I don’t seem to have the preview option that the instructional video showed, so I am going to have to hope for the best. If it doesn’t work, I will be making a new post later when I figure out how to actually do what I want!!!

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