Laquimah's Fun Page

Project

2005-04-28T12:05:00.000-04:00

Reflection

2005-04-21T13:43:00.000-04:00

Technology for teachers is a course that has provided me with alternative ways of teaching in the classroom. I think that this class has helped me to help my students understand that the computer can be used for more than just e-mail and games. Initially, I didn’t know what to expect from this course. But this class has shown me great fun ways to making learning more interactive for my students.

I feel very prepared for integrating technology into my daily lessons. This class has provided me great programs such as Inspiration, Power Point, Excel, Access, and Netscape. These programs also help teaching to become much more interactive for the students. It’s a great tool that can step in and provide additional help for a student that may be struggling in a subject. Technology is a great tool for teachers in assisting them with teaching. I think that all of the assignments that we have completed in this course are a great way to help me put it to use once I am in the classroom.

Unfortunately, not all schools have the same level of technology I their schools. I think that after taking this course, the level of technology resources will have an impact one me. I have learned that technology greatly improves learning. No matter what situation I am in, I know that I can adjust. I just think that it would be a disappointment not to have access to great technology.

I think that technology should be used in every classroom throughout every grade level. Our world has fast become a technology world. And I think in order to keep up with the times you have to become knowledgeable about computers and technology. What a better way to do so by teaching them young. Technology is also a great way to teach different material in the classroom. It provides an alternative way of teaching students. It can help the student interact with the lesson being taught. As teachers, it should be a part of our job description to keep up to date with new technology. I world is fast becoming dependent on it.

Blog Reflection

2005-04-21T13:12:00.000-04:00

Before this course I knew nothing about blogs. But know I have learned that blogging is becoming a big deal. I hear about it all the time.
I enjoyed blogging much more than WebCT. When you blog, we were able to view others work as well as give feedback to fellow students.
My evaluation of this program is great. It should definitely be used in future courses.

kikiandjon

2005-04-14T14:35:00.000-04:00

kikiandjon
Originally uploaded by Laquimah.

The Digital Divide Network

2005-04-14T13:19:00.000-04:00

I read the article, "Real-World Research: How do Low-Income Parents Support Their Childrens Educational Development?" by Kallen Tsikalas and Elisabeth Stock. I thought this article was great. It shows how technology can benefit low-income children and their parents by getting both parties more involved with school.
Computers for Youth is a organization that works with middle schools to help place computers in low-income homes. They have helped nearly 5,000 families own computers. Their program has helped increase parent involvement and improved teaching practices. They also provide the families with computer learning classes to further their learning.
The article was great because it sited examples of how Computers for Youth has helped so many families. One mother told her stepson that instead of playing games, she wanted him to use the computer. By doing that he became interested in research and began gather information about China. He stated that he learned things about China that he didn't know.

Bloom

2005-03-24T13:21:00.000-05:00

Knowledge: List all seven continents.
Comprehension: There are alot of countires, states, and cities in the world. Discuss how people from different parts of the world can still experience some of the same things in everyday life.
Application: Classify the different regions of South America.
Analysis: Whne reading about the history of India, I found that different numerous
Synthesis:
Evaluation:

Microsoft Publisher

2005-03-24T12:24:00.000-05:00

Project Name:
Traveling to India!

Description of Learning Goals and Standards:
Grade Level: 5-12. The students will learn how to present information for visiting a particular country by producing a newsletter using Microsoft Publisher. Students will learn how to arrange valuable information about the country that will help someone that is traveling to that country. Students will use technology to produce a newsletter that presents their findings.
QCC’S:
8. Topic: Productivity
Standard: Uses multimedia tools to express ideas.
13. Topic: Research
Standard: Uses basic research techniques with teacher guidance.
17. Topic: Physical Characteristics
Standard: Identifies the physical characteristics of a place. (Land forms, climates)
33. Topic: Cultural Characteristics
Standard: Identifies the cultural characteristics of a region (e.g., South Asia: diversity of languages, Hinduism, Buddhism, the "Indianization of South Asia," Islam, European imperialism, nationalism, partition of India, ethnic conflict, and developing countries).

Rationale for Technology: Technology plays an immense role in this activity. Students will get most of their research from the internet, and will use multimedia tools to complete their newsletter. The technology in this lesson helps the student’s finished product have a nice presentation. Using Microsoft Publisher to create their newsletter allows them to format and design their final product. The advantage of using technology in the lesson is the wide range of information that the students can gather about their country and the program that they use to put the information together. I don’t see this goal as a disadvantage because it will help the students learn more about using technology to their advantage.

Description of Lesson Implementation: The lesson would start off with the teacher teaching the basic skills needed for using Microsoft Publisher. This will take about two or three lesson for the students to have a basic understanding of the program. Continuing the students learning about geography and different countries, the students will choose a state, country, region or continent to focus on. They will need to research their place and gather such information as, the history, culture, and the environment, where to stay, and some travel facts. The students will condense their findings and create a newsletter that someone can read. The newsletter should provide important information that someone could use if they are visiting that country in the future. Once completed, the students will make an extra copy of their newsletter. In class, the students will swap newsletter with a partner. Once that partner is done reading the newsletter, they must write a review of the newsletter. The review will state whether or not they thought it provided enough information, what sounds exciting to them about the place they read about, and if they would like to visit that place based on the newsletter they read. The teacher could then publish those critics into a class newsletter and pass it out to the students.

Assessment: In order to measure the students learning of the project, they must make a newsletter that contains three to four pages, at least three pictures, and have articles that contain the history, culture, where to stay, and the environment, and travel facts about their place. The students will also be evaluated on the critic they wrote about a classmate. The critic must answer the questions that were given, and written in a friendly way as no to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Other Places to Use this Solution: The teacher could pair up with another teacher in the same grade level, and have both their classes create newsletters. One teacher could have her class focus on a particular region and its country and the other teacher can focus on the opposite region so that more than one student doesn’t do the same country. Once completed, they can switch newsletter with each other and critic someone’s newsletter from a different class.

References/Resources Used:
A Traveler’s History of India
By: Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda
3rd Edition Copyright 2003

Lonely Planet World Guide
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/indian_subcontinent/india/

History Happenings

2005-03-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

Develop Visual Focused Acitivities

History Happenings
This activity is a great way for students to visualize what they are learning. Instead of them reading about a particular event in history, the students must locate historic photos that deal with the event that they are studying. Once they have located the photos, they will copy and paste them into a powerpoint presentation that they will present to the class. To make it more interesting, each student could focus on a subtopic within the main era the are studying in class.
The Smithsonian is a great website to use inorder to find pictures!

Mid-term Reflection Paper

2005-03-03T13:10:00.000-05:00

When I wrote my initial reflection paper, I had no idea what to expect of the course. Since I missed the first meeting of the class, I wasn’t able to hear about what we would be learning over the course of the semester. I originally thought that Technology for teachers was a course that I hoped would provide me with alternative ways of teaching in the classroom. I thought that this class could help me by helping my students to understand that the computer can be used for more than just e-mail and games. I expected this class to show me great fun ways on how to make learning more interactive for my students. The original expectations I had of the course have far been exceeded.

I thought that we would be learning simple, low-key ways to incorporate technology into the daily lessons by just allowing students to use the internet and some different programs that would provide additional learning. Well there is nothing low-key about creating your own weblog or webpage for students to use in the classroom. Inspiration is also not a low-key program for teachers to use in the classroom. I think Inspiration is a great way of teaching lessons using technology and visuals for students. Never did I think that creating your own webpage or weblog could be easy, hard, fun, and educational all at the same time!

I would say that this course has helped me grow in the sense that I now know more about technology and how to use it to my advantage. Not only have I learned how to use it as an advantage for my teaching, but my future students will also gain use in it. I feel that I have learned more than I expected to. I have gained knowledge of technology that I didn’t even know existed. And I know all of it will be very helpful once I begin teaching.

Although we are half way thru the course, we have had some lengthy assignments. I wouldn’t say that I have better understanding on how to tackle challenges, but I’m sure that as the semester continues along, and the assignments go a lot more in depth, things will get a lot more hectic.

What I did before this course, I wouldn’t even consider that as actually using technology. Before this course I used e-mail, the WORD program for assignments, Internet search tools, and the occasional web games and shopping sites. I look at it as though I have never really used technology to my advantage for my teaching education. Now it’s helping me use a different teaching method in my lessons. I can now incorporate technology into any subject area. My students will now experience learning, hopefully in ways they didn’t before my class.

"Name, Location, and Climate"

2005-03-03T13:08:00.000-05:00

Project Name: “Name, Location, and Climate.” Grade Levels 3-5.

Description of Learning Goals and Standards: Students will learn how to name a country, its location, and climate. They will learn how to use a word and picture bank to complete the activity. These goals are important because the students will gain help in learning different countries. They will learn about their location, climate and the different terms and pictures that can be used to describe them.

QCC: Technology Integration: Basic Skills
5 Topic: Basic Skills
Standard: Operates basic technology tools and applications.

QCC: Social Studies: Geography
18 Topic: Location

Rationale of Technology: This lesson could easily be converted into a standard fill in the blank worksheet. By using the program Inspiration, it allows the students to get more interactive with the lesson and completing the activity. It helps achieve the goal of the overall lesson by allowing the students to visualize the connection of the countries to their location and the climate. Inspiration also allows them to use pictures when showing the relationship between a country’s location and climate. They will learn how to describe answers not just in words but by using visuals as well. The advantages of using this technology would be that it presents what would be a simple lesson in a more interactive fun learning way. One disadvantage of the lesson is that the students would be working independently and some students might not do as well in completing the activity correctly and in a timely matter.

Description of Lesson Implementation: This lesson combines teacher instruction and individual work. Depending on the grade level, it can be modified for younger children by just using teacher instruction and class participation. The teacher would select five countries in different parts of the world. They could be countries that the students have never heard of or have already studied. The teacher would give terms for the students to learn such as, equator, prime meridian, climate, and hemisphere. The teacher will give a lesson about theses different terms for the students to become familiar with. When setting this lesson up, you could go through the Inspiration activity as a class. In order for the students to do it individually, there would have to be a computer available for every student in the class. Seeing as though that may be a problem for most teachers, you could rotate the use of the computers to complete the activity.

Assessment: The actual activity will be an assessment. Teacher observation would also be an assessment. The teacher will observe that the students are correctly typing in the web address for the webpage to access the Inspiration graph. This will assess the QCC standard of basic computer skills. A continued assessment would be a test the students would complete to show what they have learned.

Other Places to Use this Solution: I don’t think that this activity would be good for the students to use at home. If the teacher printed the activity and gave it to the students they could fill it in at home. But doing this would take out the interactive technology of the lesson.

What I learned and what I would improve for next time: I would improve the lesson by presenting the activity first and by having the students fill it out based on prior knowledge. I would teach the lesson to them as planned and have them complete the activity again. The students could then compare their initial responses to their responses after they heard the lesson.

References/Resources Used:
www.socialstudiesforkids.com
www.images.google.com

Documentaion for Webpage Activity

2005-02-23T23:33:00.000-05:00

Project Name
“Discovering a Tropical Paradise in South America”
Grade Level: 5-6

Description of Learning Goals and Standards
Students will learn basic information about Brazil such as location, population, and culture. Students will gain a better understanding of Brazil’s ecosystems and influences on Brazilian food. Students will learn how to use Internet links to obtain the needed information to complete the assignment.
QCC’S:
5. Topic: Basic Skills
Standard: Operates basic technology tools and applications.

14. Topic: Problem Solving/Decision Making
Standard: Identifies and uses technology tools to solve problems with teacher assistance.

Rationale for Technology
Using technology for this lesson is a great way to allow students to interact with the information and for them to see actual pictures of Brazil on the Internet. Integrating technology into this lesson gives students a better perceptive of another country’s culture through varies Internet sites. Integrating technology into the lesson allows students to use their basic computer skills as well as practicing with Internet resource links. Those Internet links help me to provide simplified information about Brazil and helps me to present to the students the sites I think will offer sufficient information. The advantages of this technology allows a lesson to be presented in a different format, the students get a sense of independent learning, and they can work at their own pace. A disadvantage of this lesson would be the teacher-student relationship. Instead of the student receiving information directly from the teacher, they are receiving it from the Internet and processing it on their own.

Description of Lesson Implementation
I plan to make this assignment individual. The teacher would read the instructions with the class. The students would then complete the assignment by themselves. I would most likely discover that there aren’t enough computers for everyone to do individual work. So I would give another assignment and rotate between activities since this would be a fifth grade class level, they could handle the situation. Some of the students may not catch on fast to using the Internet resource links and may require additional help.

Assessment
Students will answer questions I complete sentences. Students will write ate least one paragraph that answers the Big Question. All work must be typed when handed in.

Other Places to Use this Solution
Web resources can be used in all grade levels and subject areas. It is a great way to get students to learn on their own without direction.

What I Learned and What I would improve Next Time
Creating the web page for this activity wasn’t hard at all. I had fun playing around with the font, color, and background. To make the activity a little more challenging, I would ask more in depth questions about Brazil. I would also expand on the web page by adding some initial information for the students before they began the activity.

References/Resources Used
v Brazil Travel ~This site offers tons of information about Brazil's history, culture, etc.

v Brazilian Ecosystems ~This site talks about the rainforest in Brazil.

v South American Melting Pot ~This site talks about the history of Brazilian food.

Chapter 6: Scenario 1, Phase 5

2005-02-17T11:15:00.000-05:00

S1.1- In order to improve this outcome, after the students have collected the data they need on the countries and have organized it, they could present their information to the class and discuss their findings. As a class they can discuss the similarities and differences of the countries to America or even to other countries.

S1.2- In order to keep track of the students progress, at the end of every week or after everytime they work on the project, Mia should write down the progress of the class in certain areas. She could keep track of how long they use the technology, how long they work on the final product, etc.

S1.3- One way to find out would be to have a talk with those two groups to see what problems they had. You could also look at what areas they did well on such as research and look at the areas they didn't do well on such as maybe putting they information together.

S1.4- I'm sure the students would like for their final products to look professional, but I would prefer for the students to complete them themselves.

Integrating the Internet and other Distance Resources

2005-02-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

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The internet and its related resources (e.g., e-mail, instant messaging, listservs) have become such fixtures of modern life that it is difficult to remember when we didn't rely on them. It makes sense that resources that permeate so many activities in our society should also be integrated into students' learning experiences.

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This quote was taken from chapter 10 inM.D Roblyer's book, "Educational Technology in Action." This is the first statement in the chapter and the one I can relate to. I can't remember life before the internet! How would I get my news, chat with friends, plan a vacation, etc. Technology has become such a big part of our daily lives, that most of us wouldn't be able to function without it. As a teacher, technology plays a major part in teaching the curriculum. Using technology is a great way to make learning more interactive and fun for the students.

Following the above statement in the book is a list of benefits that the internet brings to education. What ways can you integrate technology and the internet into your daily curriculum?

Learning Environment Lessons

2005-02-08T11:39:00.000-05:00

Lesson Plan 1:
By Kyle Yamnitz

Title of lesson: Which Continent is next?

Description of lesson (Summary):
Grade Level: 3-5, Geography
Materials: Index cards, encyclopedias, online encyclopedias, and other reference materials.
Performance Expectation: Students' awareness of basic geographic and demographic data will increase and students will learn the ordering of continents based upon certain criteria.
Directions: Lead a brief review of the continents with the students, writing the names of the continents on the board in alphabetical order. Ask how they were ordered and follow this by requesting other ways that the list could be ordered, recording them on the board.
Now ask students to predict the order of the continents in terms of total land area. Allow each student to represent a continent and to order themselves by area. After they get in order, provide them with index cards with the actual areas on them and ask them to rearrange themselves. Repeat this process for other categories such as population, population density, annual growth, etc. The actual statistics for these criteria can be found in Grolier's New Electronic Encyclopedia and other similar CD-ROM resources, not to mention internet resources and atlases or almanacs.

Description of Lesson Goals and Standards: Students will begin by guessing what order they think the continents go in based on population, land mass, growth, etc. The students will work in groups and research a particular continent using reference and online resources. Once they gather the information for the different categories/criteria for their continent, they will share with the class and put the continents in order based on their research.
QCC: Social Studies: Geography
18 Topic: Location
Standard: Names the Earth's seven continents, four hemispheres, and four oceans.
QCC: Technology Integration: Basic Skills
5 Topic: Basic Skills
Standard: Operates basic technology tools and applications.

Rationale for Technology: The technology for this lesson uses the internet as a research tool for the students. Students will have to choose keywords that will help narrow the search for the information they need. This lesson also helps students use more than one research tool. It combines online and book research. The advantage of the technology in this lesson is that is provides a wide range of information. It also presents the disadvantage to the students of trying to sort out the information that can help them and the material that can’t.

Description of Lesson Implementation: This information combines class participation as well as group work. The steps of the lesson are straightforward. The teacher must decide what criteria she wants the class to focus on when putting the continents in order. One problem that may arise in the lesson is how long it will take for the students to gather the information. Another problem may be the lack of computers for the students to use.

Assessment: I wouldn’t have an individual assessment. But if the teacher wanted to, she could determine how well a student worked with other and their help on gathering the information. A teacher could even quiz the student on the information they heard from the other groups about their continent. To assess the class, the teacher should already have a correct order the continents go in based on the different criteria.

Other Places to Use this Solution: This lesson can be used for grades three thru fifth with some modifications.

What I Learned and What I Would Improve Next Time: I like this lesson because it allows the students to guess what they think, and then allows them to gather information that may prove or disprove their original guess. Maybe next time I could improve the length of the lesson.

References/ Resources Used: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Geography2.htm

Evaluation: The activity helps to carry out the objective of the lesson very well. I feel that after the students complete the activity, they will have a better understanding about the continents of the world. Not just based on knowing the names and location, but they will have learned the population, growth, and many other key factors that classify continents.
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Lesson Plan 2:
By - Jim Knight

Title of lesson: Traveling The World

Description of lesson (Summary): Grade Level: 1-4, Geography

Each month the teacher will pick a country out. Have a map of the world on a bulletin board and for each month have a string that is attached to your hometown and stretch it to the country you are visiting. For that month have that as a "theme" and you are able to incorporate science, social studies, and language arts into the lesson. Once a week have that as a specific topic to talk about and then at the end of the month have a "small" cultural party and then at the beginning of the next month leave that country and travel to a new country. Example: France Language Arts: Have students write about pictures and observations they have seen in the picture. You can have the students read a book about the country or something that has to do with the country for example: Madeline. Science: You can take a look at the landscape the earth features in France. Social Studies: Look at the culture, the map and areas of France. *Also you can make the students make a "passport" at the start of this lesson with their picture and at the beginning of the month make them go through "customs" and get their passport stamped.

Description of Learning Goals and Standards: Each month the students will learn about a different country. They will learn about its culture, population, landscape, etc. This will help students become more aware of other countries.
QCC: Social Studies Geography
20 Topic: Physical Characteristics
Standard: Uses physical characteristics to describe regions (e.g., Europe, which may include Eastern Europe: climate zones, mountain ranges, Great European Plain, peninsulas, river systems, and natural resources).
QCC: Social Studies Geography
22 Topic: Cultural Characteristics
Standard: Identifies the cultural characteristics of a region (e.g., Central Eurasia: Slavic; Turkic languages; Orthodox Christianity; Islam; Russian Empire; Soviet Empire; communism; modernization;, and nationalism).
QCC: Technology Integration: Basic Skills
5 Topic: Basic Skills
Standard: Operates basic technology tools and applications.

Rationale for Technology: The technology for this lesson can play a big part. Students can not only use the internet for information about the country, but they can also look at pictures of the country instead of just reading about it.

Description of Lesson Implementation: The lesson itself is very board. The teacher would have to determine what lessons to use to help the students learn about the country. To begin the activity, the teacher will allow the students to make their own passports. Every time they study a new country the teacher can stamp the students passports as if they visited the country. Some problems that may arise is determining what countries to study, what important facts the students should know about the country, how to limit the number of countries, etc.

Assessment: At the end of each country studied, the students should have a test to assess their understanding of the country. They should know things such as the countries flag, population, capital, location, etc.

Other Places to Use this Solution: This lesson can be used for a number of grades.

What I Learned and What I would Improve Next Time: I would limit this lesson to four or five countries and are in different parts of the world. I would also clearly state what facts about the country the students will learn.

Evaluation of lesson: This lesson is a great way to incorporate different cultures and countries into your everyday lesson. The students are learning the basics with added interest. Although this lessons objectives, and the activities are board, you can expand on the idea in any direction you want.

Helpful Hints/Internet Actvity

2005-02-03T13:21:00.000-05:00

Basic help for completing my Learning Environment:

Helpful links for comparing search engines for Learning Environment.
Requirements for Learning Environment E-Portfolio & Presentation.
Sample student projects that will help me gain ideas on how to do my project.
Sample projects that I like: Women's Rights , The Manhattan Project , Dinosaurs .

Initial Learning Environment Plan

2005-01-31T10:51:00.000-05:00

Member(s) of the Design Team:
Laquimah Bush

Metaphor/Theme being used in the Learning Environment:
Geography

Targeted grade level for the Learning Environment:
Third Grade

Initial idea of the overall goal for creating the Learning Environment:
Students will have an increased learning about the geography of Earth and increased Map and Globe skills.

Sample QCC’s to be addressed in the Learning Environment:

v 12 Topic: Map and Globe Skills
Standard: Determines the purpose of a map by examining title and content.

v 15 Topic: Map and Globe Skills
Standard: Explains the purpose of a map scale; and calculates distance between points using map scale.

v 18 Topic: Location
Standard: Names the Earth's seven continents, four hemispheres, and four oceans.

Initial ideas 4 Activities:

v Students will explore the use of map scales after putting together their own map. They will work in groups to assemble a large map and use the map scale at the bottom to determine the distance between points on the map. The groups will share their answers and the teacher will record students' responses on a class chart on the overhead.

v Students will be introduced to the concept of map scales and will measure using centimeters and inches to determine the distance from one place to another on two maps. They will then create their own map and questions for a classmate to solve.

v Students will work within a group to research each of the seven continents using resources in the Media Center. They will then write a "chapter" in a book about their continents and put their chapters together to create their own Social Studies textbook about the continents.

v Students will learn the meanings of the terms hemisphere, equator, continent, and ocean through an online picture dictionary. They will then demonstrate what they've learned as they label a world map and locate where coastal communities can be found.

Initial Reflection Paper

2005-01-27T13:42:00.000-05:00

Technology for teachers is a course that I hope will provide me with alternative ways of teaching in the classroom. I think that this class can help me help my students to understand that the computer can be used for more than just e-mail and games. I expect this class to show me great fun ways to making learning more interactive for my students.

I consider myself to be very knowledgeable about computers. I have a lot of experience with the internet of course, but I also have a lot of experience with PowerPoint and Microsoft Word. I’m not very skilled with Excel. So I would definitely want to learn more about that program. When it comes to technology in the classroom, I would have to say that I don’t know that much about the different programs that are used in today’s classrooms. There was a program that Mrs. Davis showed on Thursday that looked like a great way to display notes to the class while teaching. I can’t wait to learn more about that program because I have never seen it before and it looked vary helpful. I had also never heard of web logs before Thursday. But after creating my own and responding to the fifth graders post, I can see that it is a great and useful way to use technology in the classroom.

I would miss topics that show us how to use the technology in a fun and informative way for the students. But I’m not familiar with this course, so I really can’t say what topics I would miss if they weren’t covered. I guess I would miss anything that was important in improving my technology skills that can help my future students in learning.
Technology can be used in the classroom for so many different things. There are programs that help students learn how to read, some help them complete math problems, and etc. It’s a great tool that can step in and provide additional help for a student that may be struggling in a subject. Technology is a great tool for teachers in assisting them with teaching.

I think that technology should be used in every classroom throughout every grade level. I world has fast become a technology world. And I think in order to keep up with the times you have to become knowledgeable about computers and technology. What a better way to do so by teaching them young. Technology is also a great way to teach different material in the classroom. It provides an alternative way of teaching students. It can help the student interact with the lesson being taught.

What I learned from a fifth grade student:

2005-01-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

Today I read advice from a fifth grader named Maria. Maria gave great advice for teacher's-to-be. Maria said that you should respect the student and they will respect you. You should also be a friend to your students and help them in anyway that you can. I thought Maria's advice was very good and i'm glad she shared that with me.

My Frist Post

2005-01-20T13:27:00.000-05:00

This is my first post in my IT 3210 class.