Well. I am going to focus my writing on Moodle. Our district has offered for a few years now, the availability of moodle for us. Most of the students are familiar with it by now and it seems as though the newness has warn off. I envision this as a good thing. The students have moved past the idea that they get to click around and play on a computer and have now settled in on learning why we are using online experiences!
With regards to content, it allows me to teach any content that I can find and post on my moodle page. Currently, I have all of my homework assignments, screencasts of lectures and calenders posted there. Not to mention the many neat enrichment websites, flash games, review simulations, and videos posted also. My moodle is a one-stop shop for information regarding our class. I have posted podcasts for my students there as well.
I have also taken advantage of the quizzing function which allows the students instant feedback on their assessments. I have used this function for pretest inquiry to see where the students are with new information. I have used it as informal summative assessment (exit slips). I have also used it as formal assessment of content.
Moodle also has a journal function in which I have the student create online journals of their bellwork and other questions I pose.
It also has a forum feature that the students are able to pose questions to each other as well as to me. This allows for collaboration and discussion among students which is key to student success.
Moodle has also cut out the excuse that "I forgot it at school". Everything is online. Even my book is linked to moodle. It's absolutely fantastic! This is the first year that I have used moodle and I am sure as I continue to use it, I am going to see a whole lot more possibilities!
Because its an online management system, a teacher can incorporate almost any pedagogical strategy and tie it to this system. For instance, I could create an inquiry webquest where the students are inductively learning or I could create a webquest in which they are reviewing deductively topics that we have covered. Collaboration, discussion, and reflection occurs with and between students.
As much as I would love to either create an RSS page for my classes or have them create one, I envision it being difficult to manage. How much time do I allocate to making it? How much time is allocated for searching for topics to write about? Are the kids going to find science information to keep updated on? Do the sites work due to filters? Do they have availability to a computer daily? For all of these reasons, I would find it difficult to incorporate RSS pages into my science classroom.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Wikispaces and Wikipedia + MACUL Tips Post
Click here to access my Wikispace page.
Below is the tip I added to the MACUL tips and trick Jing
Learning Styles
When dissecting learning using the more physical approach (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic style) I have to say that I am a mix between all three style with a large emphasis on visual and secondly on auditory. When looking back on college and reflecting on my different professors, I can say that the least effective teaching was listening to a monotone profession talk for 50 minutes without a PowerPoint or any visuals to help. The most effective professors were ones that had great visual aids to guide you through their engaging lectures and then demonstrations or examples of what their expectations were for the homework or problem. Do I enjoy to read? Not really. But, do I learn best by watching and listening to a professor or video and taking notes, absolutely. But if the professor is monotone and disengaging, with no visual stimulation, then I'm done. So what does that make me? A hybrid? A visitory learner?
I knew kids that would show up on the day of a test and Ace it having never set foot in the room prior to that. Now, this was either because they were geniuses...(doubtful) or the fact that they could learn what they needed to know by simply reading the book. That ain't me! I benefited tremendously from going to lecture, doing the homework, and holding group study sessions.
I think teaching strategies need to be picked in conjunction with what content you are covering. It doesn't make much sense to simply talk about "evidence of chemical changes" without having the kids get in there and create some of their own chemical changes. but it also doesn't do much good to have the students create 3D sculptures of the layers of earth because that concept is better taught showing images and videos.
As long as teachers don't forget that kids learn in different ways, we will continue to try and incorporate each learning style into everything we teach.
Instead of focusing our energy on differentiating each lesson, we should instead focus on differentiating each "topic/unit". For example, if it's going to take a week to cover plate tectonics, then within that week, I need to create lessons, assignments, and discussions that allow each learning style to succeed in learning the information. Does that mean that I need to touch each learning style everyday? No. But instead, touch each of them throughout the unit. I also believe giving students choices within assignments also lends itself to be helpful for each student and their different learning styles. Within an assignment, allowing a student to choose how they wish to complete the assignment will yield greater results than forcing them to stick to one style of your choosing.
.
I knew kids that would show up on the day of a test and Ace it having never set foot in the room prior to that. Now, this was either because they were geniuses...(doubtful) or the fact that they could learn what they needed to know by simply reading the book. That ain't me! I benefited tremendously from going to lecture, doing the homework, and holding group study sessions.
I think teaching strategies need to be picked in conjunction with what content you are covering. It doesn't make much sense to simply talk about "evidence of chemical changes" without having the kids get in there and create some of their own chemical changes. but it also doesn't do much good to have the students create 3D sculptures of the layers of earth because that concept is better taught showing images and videos.
As long as teachers don't forget that kids learn in different ways, we will continue to try and incorporate each learning style into everything we teach.
Instead of focusing our energy on differentiating each lesson, we should instead focus on differentiating each "topic/unit". For example, if it's going to take a week to cover plate tectonics, then within that week, I need to create lessons, assignments, and discussions that allow each learning style to succeed in learning the information. Does that mean that I need to touch each learning style everyday? No. But instead, touch each of them throughout the unit. I also believe giving students choices within assignments also lends itself to be helpful for each student and their different learning styles. Within an assignment, allowing a student to choose how they wish to complete the assignment will yield greater results than forcing them to stick to one style of your choosing.
.
How to properly site an image using CC
Photo Attribution:
Original Image: "pool"
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2357/2931901190_e80ae421a5.jpg
By: Wolfgang Staudt
Released under Attribution-Non-commercial
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en
This image shows great hot spots within Yellowstone National Park where hot magma heats the water underground and tremendous amounts of mineral deposits from evaporating water provide these brilliant colors. As I teach plate tectonics and layers of the earth, this picture provides excellent proof of the theory of plate tectonics.
My flickr Account
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Using my RSS Page
After Creating my RSS page and searching for feeds that I thought would be entertaining to follow, I found myself adding more pages that would be more appropriate for me to follow as an educator. Two such sites that I have added to my RSS page are a feed to MACUL tips and tricks to using technology in the classroom and Everyone's Blog and Classroom 2.0 website. Both of those site are constantly being updated on educational information and I have found myself on those feeds numerous times throughout the past few weeks. One post that I added to MACUL was a trick about using Polleverywhere.com. To screen shot is below.
Over the next couple of days I read posts about using powerschool (our school uses this), Using Pearson, (we just moved over to pearson inform)...globster, Meetmeatthecorner.org, and many other sites I see being useful in my science classroom.
He has some interesting perspectives on different topics and has many people that follow and comment. The things in this blog are hit or miss whether I can use them is class or not. if nothing else, it's is personally interesting to read.
I also have been following a healthy eating blog which has not played out to what I thought it might be, but has still been interesting to follow. A few posts have been regarding Weight Watchers and how they say that diets don't work; a change in your lifestyle is the only thing that will help you lose weight. This site has also given some good/different recipes also which is going to help me next year because I will be teaching nutrition and foods. For part of this class I will be teaching the students how to prepare healthy meals so even though I don't see the usefulness as of yet, it will come into use next year.
ScienceDaily has been a great resource for bellwork discussions in my science class. It provides me with updated information relevant to the students lives. Things such as New Stars being discovered, hurricanes and why there seems to be a rise in the severity, earthquakes and how they shape our planet, etc.
I have three different NSTA (National Science Teacher Association) feeds that i am following. One is about inquiry science teaching and this is something I would like to work towards in my classroom so I have been reading the updates but I know that it is going to take time to teach the students how to inquire....
The main way I have incorporated my RSS page into my classroom is to start discussions at the beginning of class between students regarding current events regarding science. I plan on creating an RSS page for each of my classes and allowing the students to pick SCIENCE feeds that they would like to follow. I'm not sure how well it will work, but I want to give the students an opportunity to have a say in the material we talk about.
The next series of posts will be screen shots of my RSS page.
Classroom 2.0 hasn't been updated as much as MACUL, but one article I found interesting was a post about "Why your Schools Social Media Strategy is Falling Behind". It talked about how we as schools are far behind as a whole with regards to technology in the classroom. People replied unanimously that they agreed.
My feed linked to Smart technology updates has barely been updated and it seems as though it is not what I had hoped it would be (tips and tricks using Smart Technology). It is more updated press releases and upgrades happening with the company. I am still searching for a feed that will give me "free" training on Smart tech stuff! My classroom is outfitted with Smart and I want to use it to its full potential.
The health blog that I have been following has provided me with interesting topics to start my health class on numerous occasions. One in particular was a post about this lady who had an elective larynx transplant so she could speak again. The down side; she has to be on immunosupresent drugs the rest of her life. my reply is posted below
Greg Laden's Blog on Science as a culture is an interesting blog to follow. One post in particular I found interesting was his post on vaccinations vs disease, which is worse?, the post is below with my reply at the bottom.
I also have been following a healthy eating blog which has not played out to what I thought it might be, but has still been interesting to follow. A few posts have been regarding Weight Watchers and how they say that diets don't work; a change in your lifestyle is the only thing that will help you lose weight. This site has also given some good/different recipes also which is going to help me next year because I will be teaching nutrition and foods. For part of this class I will be teaching the students how to prepare healthy meals so even though I don't see the usefulness as of yet, it will come into use next year.
ScienceDaily has been a great resource for bellwork discussions in my science class. It provides me with updated information relevant to the students lives. Things such as New Stars being discovered, hurricanes and why there seems to be a rise in the severity, earthquakes and how they shape our planet, etc.
I have three different NSTA (National Science Teacher Association) feeds that i am following. One is about inquiry science teaching and this is something I would like to work towards in my classroom so I have been reading the updates but I know that it is going to take time to teach the students how to inquire....
The main way I have incorporated my RSS page into my classroom is to start discussions at the beginning of class between students regarding current events regarding science. I plan on creating an RSS page for each of my classes and allowing the students to pick SCIENCE feeds that they would like to follow. I'm not sure how well it will work, but I want to give the students an opportunity to have a say in the material we talk about.
The next series of posts will be screen shots of my RSS page.
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