Sharks Instructional Architect Project

Shark Instructional Architect Project

Reflection:
This is pretty neat. I think it would be a very useful resource for creating lessons that require the use of the internet. You don't really want kids 'surfing the web' for fear that they'll run into some inappropriate stuff. So if you were able to have a site with links that you could direct them to, along with written instructions for what you need, that would solve that problem. Additionally, from a lesson point of view, it opens up a lot of options.

Comic Life and Geometric Terms

So, the reflection:
This program, Comic life, is fantastic! this would be really fun for all kinds of school projects. It's really easy to use, and you could get kids to create educational comics with pictures. Of course, this would be only for older grades, because younger kids couldn't do it. However; from a teaching perspective, you could always use this program to create handouts or other things for the students. They wouldn't have to use the program itself. In the upper grades, you could use their pictures from home to do a 'getting to know me' page. Or in social studies or science, they could put pictures with captions of information, and label things as part of a presentation. For english, you could use this to create real comics reflecting the plot of a book. You wouldn't even have to fill them in with pictures, just leave the squares blank to be drawn in by the kids.

Website Evaluations

so, the questions to answer regarding website evaluations:

1-forms you like/dislike:
I liked the forms that use simple yes/no evaluations, then left a space for notes. I think rating the website with a number 1-5, and then adding them up to determine how good the website is is unnecessarily complicated. People filling out the evaluations can use the questions as guidelines and things to think about when evaluating the website, rather than as cut and dry necessities.

2-were there any hidden secrets about a website that you discovered by using an evaluation?
No, not on the websites I looked at, but it did make me consider things that make a good website, like graphics and the ease of maneuvering the website.

3-What is the value of using a website evaluation process?
It makes you look at all of the facets of a website that you would normally not think about when going over a website. This way, when you are considering using a website for your class, you are able to ascertain how appropriate and helpful it would be to use.

4-Are there times when you would/would not use a formal evaluation?
As I said, you could use a formal evaluation for when considering a website for your class, but under regular research conditions, i think as long as you determine that the information comes from a reliable source, a formal evaluation is unnecessary.

Google Documents--clever!

On a personal note, anyone interested in politics needs to subscribe to this new blog. It raises some interesting questions about the role of government in modern-day society: right to revolution

Anyway, on to my reflection:
Google documents is pretty cool. For older students, you could use this for rigmural stories like we did in class, or to collaborate on any kind of assignment from the kid's home, assuming they all have internet access of course. It would work much better than trying to get a large group of kids together to work on a project out of the school setting.
I think the great thing about this is from the perspective that you have access to your documents no matter what computer you're on. You don't have to worry about whether your word processing system is compatible with a different computer. And it works the same with excel or powerpoint.
The survey's a pretty cool idea too. But again, the obstacle is internet-access from your students. Anyway, here's my made-up survey that I created:
Jade's get-to-know-you survey

WEBQUEST

I looked for 6th through 8th grade math webquests, and I found this one: Proposal For Your Senior Trip

Part 1: COSTS
Flight: $423.50 per person, round trip
Hotel: $104.97 per person for the four nights
Tickets: $226.75 per person for the four days
Meals: $20 the first day, $32 for each proceeding day. $148 per person total.
Taxes and fees: $162.58

TOTAL: $1065.80

Part 2: ITINERARY

Day 1 (May 18): depart at 12:50 pm
layover 5-7 pm, arrive in Miami at 10:30 pm
Go to grocery store for breakfast foods/snacks, then straight to Hotel for the night
$20 for meals
Day 2 (May 19) All day at park
Meet at 9 am in hotel lobby. Walk to Disneyworld. On your own for meals. Meet at sign at close of park.
$32 for meals
Day 3 (May 20) All day at park, see Day 2
$32 for meals
Day 4 (May 21) All day at park, see Day 2
$32 for meals
Day 5 (May 22): At park, meet at shuttle at 4:00 pm.
depart at 6:45 pm
layover 8:30-9:30, arrive in Salt Lake City at 11:40
$32 for meals

Part 3: SUMMARY
The budget was very easy to stay within, especially as the food prices were set. I thought the hotel would be more expensive, but I was able to find a fairly nice hotel for a reasonable price. The internet was a great asset here. It would have taken me a lot longer than an hour to figure out flights and hotels. I probably would have had to go to a vacation agency in town somewhere. This has really simplified vacation planning. If I could change anything, I wouldn't have given us more options about where to go and what to do on a senior trip. The Disneyworld plan was too rigid.

THE lesson plan

A virus mini-lesson for 6th graders:

Standard 5: Students will understand that microorganisms range from simple to complex, are found almost everywhere, and are both helpful and harmful.

Objective 2a: Develop a hypothesis for a question about microorganisms based on observations and prior knowledge.

Materials: Slide show

*students should have prior knowledge of what the 5 characteristics of living things are.

Prepare a short slide show explaining what viruses are, how they reproduce, etc. Any relevant information.
In groups of about four, have the students discuss whether or not viruses are alive, based on the information presented in the slide show, and what they know about the activities of viruses. After a few minutes, ask the groups to relate what they said and why. As a class, discuss the 5 characteristics of living things and whether or not viruses fulfill these requirements.

I actually did this activity with the sixth graders in my practicum. I searched the UEN website, and couldn't find any practical lesson plans for what I needed to be teaching. In fact, none of them directly addressed basic information about viruses, so I borrowed ideas from these websites:

http://askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Biology/BIO0201.html

http://www.aestheticrealism.net/News-Lesson-Virus-SR.html

I also created the slide show I was going to use on google documents so that I could have access to it on my home computer, as well as on my cooperating teacher's computer. I think you can access it here, but I might have done this wrong, so we'll see:

Jade's virus slide show presentation

The YETC

Wow,
so, I am so surprised at all the stuff that you can do with technology. I was sitting there thinking, 'you could dedicate a whole semester to learning about this stuff--oh wait, we are!'
What's great is that even if something doesn't get covered this semester, we have the YETC-library-guy Nathan to help us out, plus all of these great resources. I got really excited about that video library that he showed us. How would that be for making history come alive? He moved awfully fast though, so I kind of missed where that actually was, but I figure I can always ask later...I hope.
That's one thing about this profession. It encourages pack-ratting stuff away. You don't know what you might need for a lesson. That would explain why my mom (a third grade teacher) has boxes of teaching stuff packed away in our attic.
So this is a completely spastic blog. That's what I get for doing this with sleep-deprivation coupled with a sudden stress-relief. Ha!