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!

The lesson plan project

So, I'm really excited to do this lesson plan. I'm a little overwhelmed by this in addition to all of the other assignments that I need to accomplish, but I want to do it. I'm a little confused about exactly how our lesson plan is supposed to relate to technology... I don't know, maybe it doesn't? It doesn't have to 'teach' technology and we shouldn't use it when non-technology would work better.

I couldn't fall asleep last night because I got so worked up about my practicum and thinking about how I was going to come up with a cool science lesson plan--what subject I need to introduce and when, and whether a hands-on lesson would turn the normally comatose 6th graders into unruly hellions.
I've decided from this whole experience that I really like 6th graders, and I have picked the right emphasis. I wonder how I can use knowledge of technology to help teach them...

blogging as educational technology

So how will I use this principle of technology in my classroom? Honestly, I like the idea of a blog, and even though I don't see its elementary-educational relevance, I'm glad to acquaint myself with it. I may be showing my pocket-protectors here, but I've always kind of wanted to know how to create one, so I'm glad that this class has introduced it. I guess I could see how it might be worthwhile in the upper grades for something--although i can't possibly think for what--I'm glad to be familiar with it so that option is available to me.

The Test Blog

This is a test run... Testing Testing 1 2 3 Testing

The source of all knowledge

"Conform and be dull."

~J. Frank Noble

"The truth is more important than the facts."

~Frank Lloyd Wright