Elementary MC Observation
I was finally able to spend some time observing in an Elementary school. I really enjoyed seeing the children. The MS is someone that I know from my son attending this Elementary school and I already knew the kids loved to visit the MC because of this welcoming and caring MS. The MS is the epitome of what an elementary MS needs to aspire. Classes were steadily streaming into the MC throughout the morning hours. The MS read aloud to several classes - 3rd grade and up he read a chapter book and the younger students were treated to an excellent picture book. The set-up of an elementary MC is quite different from a middle or high-school MC. Because of the differing ability levels in an elementary school, there is a need for different sections - particularly a primary and secondary section which is further broken down into sections. Other than that difference, the day-to-day administrative duties of an elementary MS are similar to those of the other levels and that is to focus on the needs of the students! This was a great experience and one I highly enjoyed. The atmosphere was welcoming and friendly and I could tell the students and teacher genuinely felt welcome at this MC.
Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010 (7.5 hrs) - Running Total: 260.5 Hours
Practicum Observation
I was very excited today to present my UBD lesson to a group of 8th graders as we begin a unit on GA Authors. Of course, I get excited anytime I get to use technology to teach a lesson! I stumbled a little with some technical difficulties when a movie clip from NSteens.org could not be heard over the projection speakers (we are still trying to figure out what happened to our sound system!). I began the unit teaching students about the district's AUP policy. I wasn't surprised when 95% of the students had no clue that they had ever seen or signed an agreement dealing with the use of technology at school. I used a Prezi to present Doug Johnson's 3P's of Internet safety - Privacy, Property, and aPpropriate Use. The students then completed a Internet Behavior Survey. The entire unit can be located in my online Portfolio on the Instructional Partner wiki page. The students ended the session by playing in the 'sandbox' on the wiki I set up for this Unit. The students were very responsive and I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with the 8th grade reading teacher. This experience has given me the confidence to continue collaboration efforts with other teachers who may at first be skeptical.
I was very excited today to present my UBD lesson to a group of 8th graders as we begin a unit on GA Authors. Of course, I get excited anytime I get to use technology to teach a lesson! I stumbled a little with some technical difficulties when a movie clip from NSteens.org could not be heard over the projection speakers (we are still trying to figure out what happened to our sound system!). I began the unit teaching students about the district's AUP policy. I wasn't surprised when 95% of the students had no clue that they had ever seen or signed an agreement dealing with the use of technology at school. I used a Prezi to present Doug Johnson's 3P's of Internet safety - Privacy, Property, and aPpropriate Use. The students then completed a Internet Behavior Survey. The entire unit can be located in my online Portfolio on the Instructional Partner wiki page. The students ended the session by playing in the 'sandbox' on the wiki I set up for this Unit. The students were very responsive and I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with the 8th grade reading teacher. This experience has given me the confidence to continue collaboration efforts with other teachers who may at first be skeptical.
GAETC Conference
The three concurrent sessions I attended were quite different. The first session was about creativity and how to use the Internet's resources to spark creativity. The information from that presenter can be found at www.drhowie.com. The 2nd session was about blogging - kind of what I am doing now! I did learn how to send images directly to my blog from my Iphone via email (see picture of my conference badge above). I also learned about some new features of blogger which were very helpful. The presenter for the Google blog was Tammy Worcester and her website with tons of information is found at www.tammyworcester.com. The final concurrent session I attended was about Googlebots and the new tools available by Google. There was a wealth of information, but I felt as though I wanted more connections to educational instruction. The presenter for the Googlebots session was Patrick Crispin and his information can be found at http://netsquirrel.com/.
Nov. 2, 2010 (3.5 hrs) - Running Total: 253 Hours
Busy...
Today was a busy day in the MC. We had sixth graders coming in to check out books, 7th graders working on book wordles, and 8th graders working on their group debate projects. I worked hard for those 3.5 hours! I love a busy MC and today was one of those days. I did make an observation today about the 'digital divide'. In one class, we had several students who were completely capable of the wordle activity which included a mult-step process - all on the computer with screenshots, powerpoint, uploading into Google docs...etc. On the other hand, we had several students who were barely able to remember how to open and save word documents. I can certainly see the challenge involved with bridging that divide; frankly, I am surprised the divide was as big as it was in this particular school/demographic area!
Today was a busy day in the MC. We had sixth graders coming in to check out books, 7th graders working on book wordles, and 8th graders working on their group debate projects. I worked hard for those 3.5 hours! I love a busy MC and today was one of those days. I did make an observation today about the 'digital divide'. In one class, we had several students who were completely capable of the wordle activity which included a mult-step process - all on the computer with screenshots, powerpoint, uploading into Google docs...etc. On the other hand, we had several students who were barely able to remember how to open and save word documents. I can certainly see the challenge involved with bridging that divide; frankly, I am surprised the divide was as big as it was in this particular school/demographic area!
Monday, Nov. 1, 2010 (7.5 hrs.) - Running Total: 249.5 Hours
Final Preparation for MS as Instructional Partner
The morning portion of the day was spent repairing books. Those book repair piles sure do stack up quick! I also assisted the MS in a teaching lesson using Wordle. The kids really seemed to enjoy this lesson. They used wordle to post information about the current book they were reading. The words that made up the wordle included the title, author, plot, characters, quotes, favorite words, and genre. The wordles from each student will be combined in a presentation that will run on the media center's Mac.
In the afternoon, I went into the 8th grade classes I will be teaching for my MS as Instructional Partner unit. I conducted some pre-grouping of students so that I could get the entered into the wiki for usernames and passwords.
The morning portion of the day was spent repairing books. Those book repair piles sure do stack up quick! I also assisted the MS in a teaching lesson using Wordle. The kids really seemed to enjoy this lesson. They used wordle to post information about the current book they were reading. The words that made up the wordle included the title, author, plot, characters, quotes, favorite words, and genre. The wordles from each student will be combined in a presentation that will run on the media center's Mac.
In the afternoon, I went into the 8th grade classes I will be teaching for my MS as Instructional Partner unit. I conducted some pre-grouping of students so that I could get the entered into the wiki for usernames and passwords.
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