Week 12 PLE

At Rocky Mountain Elementary the teacher uses a fair amount of technology, but I think more could be used. She used the Elmo for a math lesson. She placed the worksheet that everybody was working on, on top of the Elmo and walked through the problems with the classroom. The students were really excited to see how it worked.

My teacher also used a microphone to have the students read the stories they had written, and when she was talking to the class. It was very helpful because even if she spoke in a whisper which drew the attention of the first graders, she was still audible because of the microphone. She didn’t only use the central sound system with the microphone, but she also used it to plug the TV and the CD player into. The students once a week would watch an episode of Reading Rainbow or Between the Lions. They could hear the TV because it was plugged in.

She used the CD player in a myriad of ways. She played music while they were working, or she played songs that matched the lyrics on a flipchart. The flip chart would focus on “ip” words or “op” words. The kids would listen to the song that stressed words ending in “ip” and a student would follow along pointing to the words on the flipchart. She had another CD player for a listening center. Every morning one group would participate in the listening center where they would read a book while listening to it on CD.

There is room to grow in the use of technology, but the teacher did a pretty good job in my opinion. I think it is hard for younger grade teachers to remember because so much focus is on books, and writing.

Week 11 PLE

In the Bookends of War video the students all seemed to really enjoy the assignments they did using technology. When they were doing the Cyber fair Student web design contest the students seemed like they were really excited because they were creating something that is important. They are creating a website that other people can see! They are doing the types of things adults to, creating websites that will help other kids learn. This technology gives them a chance to become the teacher. Not only that, but it is a project that they can show their family which parts they did to contribute to the project. The project was so well rounded too! They drew, they planned, they worked together, they got information from a WWII Veteran. It seemed like something they would remember for years and years.

In the “Inside Kapunahala” video the students were learning to do a variety of things also. They drew and planned out story boards, they learned how to use cameras, mixing and lighting equipment. Some of them had to overcome their fears. I didn’t have a class like this until my senior year in high school, and because of it I still really enjoy creating videos. I can’t imagine how much better I would be if I had started in elementary school.



Inside Kapanahula: http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/kap/


Bookends of war: http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/bow/

Week 10 PLE

First of all, the narrator dude was talking so fast that it made it really hard for me to concentrate on what was being said. Anyway, as is the case with almost everything in the younger grades, you have to be extremely explicit in your instructions on how to use technology. The Habitats video was a good example of the teacher being very clear on each instruction. I can see this as a potential problem if the students aren’t on task. While the teacher is focusing on helping an individual group I can see the other students being unsure of what to do and getting off task. It worked for her because she had the other groups drawing a bear while she was helping those who had already finished. Another thing that I liked about the Habitat video and technology, is that technology is a great way to SHOW parents that their child is learning. The parents can see that their children used technology that they don’t even know how to use in many instances. Gathering a family together and showing their child’s project is also a fun way that they can show that they are learning. In the Habitat example where the students make the little videos, I noted that the students could have the video they made for the rest of their lives. This world is becoming increasingly technology based, and these videos reaffirmed to me how important it is that we give our students (even at a really young age) access to and practice with technology. It is just like teaching how to read and write is vital to children’s survival in today’s world, teaching how to become proficient in using technology in today’s world is also extremely important if we want to help mold successful individuals

Technology Observation

Rocky Mountain Elementary has a good amount of technology in their school. In the first grade the teachers share a projector for three classrooms. One first grade classroom has a cluster of computers in the back of the classroom that the students use every day as centers. There are microphones in each classroom hooked up to speakers in the class for the teachers to use. These were very helpful in making it so the teachers voice was heard. Students could also read stories they wrote in the microphone which was exciting to them and encouraged their desire to read in front of the class. There was a TV and a CD player that also hooked into the central speaker system of the classroom. This setup really helped with multiple kinds of lessons, especially literacy lessons. The students went to ‘computers’ twice a week. In the first grade technology was not used as much as I think it could be used in the older grades. More of a focus is placed on reading books and writing. The ‘elmo’ was used so the class could work together on a math assignment. At least two of the teachers have purchased little digital camcorders where they can download clips of events that happened during the year and make a video at the end of the year too.

I watched and commented on

Laila's
Aubrianne's
and Krysta's Voicethread


The up sides of using Stellarium are as we explained in our voicethread: The students have control which makes their learning more enjoyable. They can see the stars even when it is cloudy. They can see what the stars look like on any given night.

The down sides of using Stellarium, is that it is a bit complicated. It would take some time to help the students navigate so they could do it effectively and make the assignment worthwhile.

Science Project

Science Lesson

USOE Core Curriculum Standard

6th Grade Science

Standard 4, Objective 2: Describe the appearance and apparent motion of groups of stars in the night sky relative to Earth and how various cultures have understood and used them.

1. Locate and identify stars that are grouped in patterns in the night sky.
2. Identify ways people have historically grouped stars in the night sky.
3. Recognize that stars in a constellation are not all the same distance from Earth.
4. Relate the seasonal change in the appearance of the night sky to Earth's position.



1. Activity

* Explain to students that they are going to study the stars like astronomers. Introduce the computer program Stellarium, which allows students to explore what the night sky and constellations look like from any position on Earth on any date. While students open Stellarium at their own computers, tell students to enter a location of their choice and look for patterns in the stars of the night sky. (to do this on the taskbar on the left hand side click on the "Location Window" (F6) When the window opens, click on the magnifying glass and search for the city where the students are from.) Next have the students click on the Date/Time and change the hour to 21:00:00 (9 o' clock) so it is night time. Explain to the children that what they are seeing is what the sky is going to look like tonight at 9 o' clock. After they have navigated for a bit, have the students stop their activity and watch you demonstrate how to find the constellations in the sky (click on Constellation Labels, then Constellation Lines, and explain how people have seen pictures in the sky like a dot-to-dot). Now click on Constellation Art to show the students the pictures of the constellations. Have students explore with these tools on their computers for a couple minutes. Regain student attention to demonstrate how to find constellations from other cultures. Click on Sky and Viewing Options, then Star Lore. Do a choral read with the information about Western star lore that pulls up by default, and then have students work within groups to select a culture other than “Western” and explore the constellations of their chosen cultures. (utilize google and wikipedia) Students will need to check box that says “Use associated language for sky labeling.” As students explore their culture’s constellations, have them zoom in on one constellation and click on each of the stars that make up the constellation; clicking on the stars will show students how many light years each star is away from Earth. Have students draw and label their chosen constellation with the stars and label the distance of each of the stars in the constellation. Finally, have students click Day/Time Window and pick a month in another season. Have students discuss with their groups the changes they observe in the positions of the constellations, particularly the one they illustrated. (Variation: Have students move month by month and observe the gradual position changes. They can also see how Summer Constellations aren't visible in the winter, and Winter Constellations aren't visible in the Summer)



2. TPACK

* Content
1. Locate and identify stars that are grouped in patterns in the night sky.
2. Identify ways people have historically grouped stars in the night sky.
3. Recognize that stars in a constellation are not all the same distance from Earth.
4. Relate the seasonal change in the appearance of the night sky to Earth's position.
* Pedagogy

This activity follows a guided learning format, in which the lesson and learning is focused mainly on the activity. Students learn content by structured experimentation with a teaching tool (Stellarium in this case). This is a conceptual knowledge building activity type because students are exploring, analyzing data, and making connections between their findings and science.

* Technology

Stellarium fits perfectly with the content and pedagogy because students learn the concepts about constellations (cultures, distance of stars, seasonal changes in appearance, etc.) by directly observing and interacting with a program that allows them to explore innumerable aspects of astronomy and constellations.

* Representation

Students learn by interaction with and analysis of the information available about stars through Stellarium. Students better understand the content (constellations) because they are teaching themselves through observation instead of passively learning the information through a lecture. Because this is a hands-on activity, student learning is more meaningful and permanent.

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