TPACK Lesson Plans

My three lesson plans

Math--Geometric Shapes

Langauge Arts-- Responses to Music

Science-- Animals Around the World

what is Important

I Agree that using videos, tapes , music, or movies are all a very good way to incorporate audio visual into the classroom. Allowing the students to actually see real life items or actually hear something will always spark their interest a lot more than a boring text book. I think the most important thing is to make technology equipment kid friendly, instead of saying “use your digital camera” the teacher says “okay use your spidercams” This allows students to become more excited in what they are doing for their assignment. Getting their excitement and getting the equipment on their level is very important. I also think that it is important to show students what kind of things they can do with the computer outside of the classroom. This is important because they do not equate computers simply with school and class work. They need to see that technology can be used at home and for fun!

Technology in the Classroom

I am in the elementary education program, and currently doing my first cohort in a second grade classroom at Southland elementary school. In the school as a whole there is not a lot of technology available. There are no computers in the classroom where I am at. Each teacher is given a lab top to use for attendance and other school things but she is the only person with access to a computer. In the classroom there is an over head projector and something similar to an overhead where is magnifies anything put under it. sometimes the teachers use this when they are conducting a shared reading lesson and all students need access to the text, however I have not seen this done so far. the students do go to the computer lab once a week but that class is taught by a different teacher.

I have done both the midcourse evaluation and the informed consent forms.

I thought all of the technology tools that we looked over in class were really cool and I would love to use them in my class room. The Microscope was neat because it lets children see what is really all around them up close and personal. It is also very kid friendly and allows them to take pictures, print them and make videos. I would definitely use this in my classroom when taking about cells and other tiny objects that usually seem so abstract. I thought the thermometers were cool as well because they provide a more hands on approach to learning about temperatures. It is also a fun easy was for students to use graphs and watch their work as the temperatures change. Many of the templates and tools shown in class really bring science to life and make is easy enough for kids to enjoy. I hope to be able to use these sorts of technological tools in my classroom when I am a teacher!

http://tecchelsie.blogspot.com/ Chelsie McCage

http://alyssah287.blogspot.com/ Alyssa Hipps

http://nataleeb.blogspot.com/ Natalee Biggs

For my activity I will be bringing in some different types of leaves and I will bring in pieces of onion skin and other materials that might work. I will then place these objects under the microscope and examine the plant cells. I will also be making slides using paper and tape as described in class to create slides for my materials. I will be taking pictures of my observations using the microscope and computers. From looking into the the microscope and taking pictures I will take notes of the characteristics I can see of the plant cells. For students I will provide worksheet where they can record their observations and draw what they see. They may use color penciles or markers. They will then create a list of characteristics of the plant cells that they see. Not for this class but if I were doing this in real life I would follow up this lesson with a second lesson where I would with my students then explain the different names for the parts of a plant cell. I would then have my students go back and try to identify the different parts of the cells, looking into the microscopes. I would have them draw and lable the parts.

The content I will be focusing on will be to observe and become familiar with the different parts of a plant cell they will also work on their observational skills as they observe and make a list of characterisitcs that they see.

The pedegoy I will be using is a more discovery based lesson or apporach. I believe that science is all baout discovery and drawing inferences on your own. I think that my looking at the cells, drawing pictures and creating characteristic lists they will actually get to be the scientist themselves rather than reading from a book what is what and then just memorizing it. This makes science much more fun in the classroom.

The technology I will be using will be the microscopes that we got to try out in class. This is a good fit because it helps students "see" what is really all around them. Gather their own materials such as leaves and then getting to actually see something so small is something that children would never get to do if it wasn't for technology. Taking pictures and putting them in their journals or on their worksheets is also good because now the students can take home and keep what they were able to observe in class.