I thought I had posted this and realized I hadn't.
Today we worked with only 6 students. Mainly because Mr. Jamie was kind to us and new the kids had had a long day and were a little wound up. I wanted to revisit the lesson from the week before because we had had such a great success with response from the kids. They were engaged and wanting to continue the lesson even when it was time to clean up. So with this lesson, instead of giving them a storyline they had to illustrate, we let them decide amongst their tables and pick a story they wanted to tell. One table chose "The Unlucky Leprechaun" and the other chose "The Hyena Astronauts that went to the moon". As before we asked that each person create one slide or picture to depict their part of the story. They were to decide who was going to have the first, second, and third part of the story. The kids took great pride in their work and wanted their images to really be successful. They helped each other out if they couldn't figure what to draw or what would better represent their part of the story.
They sped through this part of the exercise and with in a short amount of time wanted to create their presentation on Animoto. Because of our guidelines that we had set out for them, many of the students completed the tasks quickly. The decided on a back ground, as before and put a description with the picture to help better explain the storyline. They also picked out music to go along with the slide show. They did all of this on their own, John and I were watching in the background. They were able to formulate a storyline, compose a system for telling it and create a presentation. Many of these students were not the same ones that we had had the week before. This system wasn't flawless, the kids retraced many of their steps but they were able to figure out, on their iPads, how to make their story work. I know the kids reactions were parallel to mine, I was pretty excited about what they had accomplished.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
11.21.13 Thankfully for iPads
So today we did something new and it was awesome. Well I thought it was awesome, I think the kids did as well. We worked on the iPads that our librarian let us barrow. I wanted to get the kids off of the computer because it seemed that it was getting stagnant. We split the kids up as equally as we could and had them sit together at large tables. I brought in construction paper that I had lying around and asked them to create a three to four slide narrative. Funny enough when they paired themselves up, the girls sat at one table and the boys sat at the other so when they were working on the story line, you could diffidently see how each group worked out. The girls were very into it and wanted their story line to flow and the boys all had their own ideas and wanted to do what ever they wanted. A little boy named Dillion, had his own agenda entirely...... he was a little harder to get to focus. After picking out their story line they wanted to cover, we asked them to draw a part of it and also write a description.
From there, we took pictures using the iPads but we let the kids (very carefully) handle them and take their own pictures. Many of them could use it better than they used the computers which was kind of surprising to me. Most of them were in first grade and had been going over lessons about the pilgrims and Plymouth and so they, because of Thanksgiving coming up, picked to do a story about the Mayflower and the first thanksgiving. After taking pictures of the images they had drawn we put together a short presentation on Animoto. I was thinking we would use iMovie as we had been taught to make movies in class but because we were working with kindergartners and first graders, we thought this might be a little easier. They were able to do most of it themselves and it turned out to be a very good little presentation about "The First Thanksgiving".
They did all the work: took pictures, cropped them, picked out a the theme of the slide show (girls fire, boys falling leaves....not kidding) and gave each picture a description. Each student thought of what they wanted to add and typed it in. I thought this was really interesting because they would help each other but never did it for the other person. The slide show even had music that they could attach to it which they picked through very thoroughly. The boys, like I said before, pick out a falling leaves background with an acoustic guitar to accompany, which made the presentation entertaining because the first slide was about the Mayflower in which Henry labeled it " And everybody Died".....yeah. But the fact that they picked this all out together was what got me: it gave them the power and the ambition to want to finish the project. Had I given them strict instruction on what to do, I'm not sure they would have followed.
The girls also did a great job. They had a flaming background but no music and their images they had created were a little more detailed. I believe the students learned a lot and so did I. It was interesting to see the react to each other when they had to work together. They have had to work together before but this showed a different side of their team work skills. The only thing I might have changed for next time would be to have them come up with their own story line entirely and not suggest something. All in all, it was probably my favorite day so far.
From there, we took pictures using the iPads but we let the kids (very carefully) handle them and take their own pictures. Many of them could use it better than they used the computers which was kind of surprising to me. Most of them were in first grade and had been going over lessons about the pilgrims and Plymouth and so they, because of Thanksgiving coming up, picked to do a story about the Mayflower and the first thanksgiving. After taking pictures of the images they had drawn we put together a short presentation on Animoto. I was thinking we would use iMovie as we had been taught to make movies in class but because we were working with kindergartners and first graders, we thought this might be a little easier. They were able to do most of it themselves and it turned out to be a very good little presentation about "The First Thanksgiving".
They did all the work: took pictures, cropped them, picked out a the theme of the slide show (girls fire, boys falling leaves....not kidding) and gave each picture a description. Each student thought of what they wanted to add and typed it in. I thought this was really interesting because they would help each other but never did it for the other person. The slide show even had music that they could attach to it which they picked through very thoroughly. The boys, like I said before, pick out a falling leaves background with an acoustic guitar to accompany, which made the presentation entertaining because the first slide was about the Mayflower in which Henry labeled it " And everybody Died".....yeah. But the fact that they picked this all out together was what got me: it gave them the power and the ambition to want to finish the project. Had I given them strict instruction on what to do, I'm not sure they would have followed.
The girls also did a great job. They had a flaming background but no music and their images they had created were a little more detailed. I believe the students learned a lot and so did I. It was interesting to see the react to each other when they had to work together. They have had to work together before but this showed a different side of their team work skills. The only thing I might have changed for next time would be to have them come up with their own story line entirely and not suggest something. All in all, it was probably my favorite day so far.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
11.14.13 Dino Day
So today was a pretty entertaining day. We only had a group of 6 kids because the book fair was going on and the facilities that the other kids were able to use were being accessed for the book fair area. This was a blessing. These are great kids, they are just really high strung and I don't think my Tech Club partner John has ever had to watch little kids before. He sometimes tends to freeze up just a little bit when they become too roudy. But he did a great job for the project that he found for the kids to do. We worked from a website that we had the kids find, we helped them type it in but they navigated it most of the way, on Scholastic Kids that had them learning about Dinosaurs.
There was a small quiz at the beginning that they went throw and most of them understood the questions pretty well. It asked them which types of dinosaurs looked like what and if there are any dinosaurs were still living today.... most of them yelled, "Chickens!!!" That was pretty funny. (I think I have a good sense of humor and there are times during instructions when it is really hard not to giggle at an answer they produce.) From the test we went onto the a "Construct a Dino" activity. I think that giving them the test before we started was a good but easy way for them to remember what they had learned about dinosaurs and it helped them to create dinos that would be able to get around. Through the website, the kids were able to pick which type of dino they wanted, Herbivore or Omnivore, and from there the site gave them a list of heads, bodies, tails, and legs to create a dino that they think would survive a "journey". They were able to make each part bigger or smaller by a control used at the bottom of the screen controlled by the key board. I found this helpful because it gets them acquainted with using the key board and having them memorize which keys are where.
As for constructing a dino, many thought that it would be a good idea to have a larger headed dino paired with a smaller bodied one. They quickly found out that their dinos wouldn't last the journey and they would have to start all over again. They began to take the challenge more seriously and with help from each other created a dino that could finish the journey as well as fend off predators or "grab a bite to eat".
They all seemed to be really into the creating a dino that would work and therefore began to remember which keys to press and what they were supposed to be looking for to create a successful dino.
There was a small quiz at the beginning that they went throw and most of them understood the questions pretty well. It asked them which types of dinosaurs looked like what and if there are any dinosaurs were still living today.... most of them yelled, "Chickens!!!" That was pretty funny. (I think I have a good sense of humor and there are times during instructions when it is really hard not to giggle at an answer they produce.) From the test we went onto the a "Construct a Dino" activity. I think that giving them the test before we started was a good but easy way for them to remember what they had learned about dinosaurs and it helped them to create dinos that would be able to get around. Through the website, the kids were able to pick which type of dino they wanted, Herbivore or Omnivore, and from there the site gave them a list of heads, bodies, tails, and legs to create a dino that they think would survive a "journey". They were able to make each part bigger or smaller by a control used at the bottom of the screen controlled by the key board. I found this helpful because it gets them acquainted with using the key board and having them memorize which keys are where.
As for constructing a dino, many thought that it would be a good idea to have a larger headed dino paired with a smaller bodied one. They quickly found out that their dinos wouldn't last the journey and they would have to start all over again. They began to take the challenge more seriously and with help from each other created a dino that could finish the journey as well as fend off predators or "grab a bite to eat".
They all seemed to be really into the creating a dino that would work and therefore began to remember which keys to press and what they were supposed to be looking for to create a successful dino.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
redo for 10.31.13 Halloween
This was originally done last week but for some reason it failed to post and I had to redo it.
Today we worked on Spiders. John and I figured the kids were going to be wired on candy and so we focused the lesson on multiple areas so that the kids wouldn't get too out of control. Surprisingly they were well behaved and so the lesson went pretty well. As before we had them watch an 8 min clip from the Bill Nye Spiders episode. It was a good way for the kids to get focused on what we were going to work on today. The 1st and 2nd graders have been studding insects all year and we thought this would be a great intro to another bug lesson. They did really well with watching the video and because it was something they were already learning in school they were able to connect to it more. They found it really interesting that a Daddy Long Leg is not actually a spider. The Kindergartners were fascinated by learning about the body parts of the spider.....it may have been the candy too......hmm.
After the video we asked them to go to Google Images and find their favorite spider. Many of them, do to knowledge or fear, picked the black widow spider. Many of these kids know the danger of a black widow but one little girl picked it because she liked the color. Through this entire time they were strangely quite.... all just really into what they were doing. After finding two spiders they liked, we asked that they draw them out on TuxPaint. As I said before, many had picked Black Widows so they were able to get done rather quickly, so we had them get on the National Geographic site and find a spider from another country. Many were finding spiders from the rain forest and said they wanted to use them in a class project. I felt this was a great connection to what they were doing in their class room studies. Although it is a very basic tool to just Google an image, many of these kids don't even know how to type yet because they are still learning their alphabet. This is a good way for them to use their phonics and to learn how to use the desk tops.
I think next time, we might try to
Today we worked on Spiders. John and I figured the kids were going to be wired on candy and so we focused the lesson on multiple areas so that the kids wouldn't get too out of control. Surprisingly they were well behaved and so the lesson went pretty well. As before we had them watch an 8 min clip from the Bill Nye Spiders episode. It was a good way for the kids to get focused on what we were going to work on today. The 1st and 2nd graders have been studding insects all year and we thought this would be a great intro to another bug lesson. They did really well with watching the video and because it was something they were already learning in school they were able to connect to it more. They found it really interesting that a Daddy Long Leg is not actually a spider. The Kindergartners were fascinated by learning about the body parts of the spider.....it may have been the candy too......hmm.
After the video we asked them to go to Google Images and find their favorite spider. Many of them, do to knowledge or fear, picked the black widow spider. Many of these kids know the danger of a black widow but one little girl picked it because she liked the color. Through this entire time they were strangely quite.... all just really into what they were doing. After finding two spiders they liked, we asked that they draw them out on TuxPaint. As I said before, many had picked Black Widows so they were able to get done rather quickly, so we had them get on the National Geographic site and find a spider from another country. Many were finding spiders from the rain forest and said they wanted to use them in a class project. I felt this was a great connection to what they were doing in their class room studies. Although it is a very basic tool to just Google an image, many of these kids don't even know how to type yet because they are still learning their alphabet. This is a good way for them to use their phonics and to learn how to use the desk tops.
I think next time, we might try to
11.7.13 Insects
Today we worked with the insect theme again. We started off with having the kids get onto Discovery Kids. com. This is a great site because many of the games are based on learning technology and other areas they are already working on in school. There math games that deal with the rain forest and social study activities that deal with the rivers in the U.S as well as the populations around them. We had the kids take two quizzes on insects to begin with and then had them work on another project. They were a little unruly today for some reason and the class clown, Ryan who's in Kindergarten, was dancing to the librarian computer music. She was watching a tutorial on iPads.....it was pretty funny, but I couldn't laugh because we were trying to get them to calm down. It's a weird thing trying to be authoritative and not being able to joke with them when they are like that because I'm used to joking with the kids I babysit.
Anyway, we had them take two quizzes on insects. This might seem harsh but if they passed both quizzes they were able to go onto the funner activity on Discovery Kids. If they only passed one they were able to go the lesser fun of the two activities. Most of them did very well and ended up on the second activity which was a game called Puterbugs. The less exciting of the two activities was to go onto Insects.org and find their favorite bug. Because many of the computers weren't connected to the internet, they were grouped into pairs or threes and did well figuring out the quizzes and deciding on which game they wanted to play. Puterbugs, misleading because of the name, actually showed the kids how to used certain technologies such as webcams, i pads, and geo maps. It used bugs to direct them but wasn't actually about insects. Although it didn't follow our lesson it turned out to be a really great activity for them to work on. The kids that were on the first activity had an interesting time figuring out their favorite bug. I think there may have been too many choices for them but they were able to single out what ones they thought were cool. They drew them out as best they could and typed one thing about their insect.
Overall I think it was a successful day, even if it was a "happy accident" kind of lesson. It worked well because the kids were able to work together on a computer and figure out the problem. We still need to be more put together but next week is Dinosaurs and I think it will go better than today did.
Anyway, we had them take two quizzes on insects. This might seem harsh but if they passed both quizzes they were able to go onto the funner activity on Discovery Kids. If they only passed one they were able to go the lesser fun of the two activities. Most of them did very well and ended up on the second activity which was a game called Puterbugs. The less exciting of the two activities was to go onto Insects.org and find their favorite bug. Because many of the computers weren't connected to the internet, they were grouped into pairs or threes and did well figuring out the quizzes and deciding on which game they wanted to play. Puterbugs, misleading because of the name, actually showed the kids how to used certain technologies such as webcams, i pads, and geo maps. It used bugs to direct them but wasn't actually about insects. Although it didn't follow our lesson it turned out to be a really great activity for them to work on. The kids that were on the first activity had an interesting time figuring out their favorite bug. I think there may have been too many choices for them but they were able to single out what ones they thought were cool. They drew them out as best they could and typed one thing about their insect.
Overall I think it was a successful day, even if it was a "happy accident" kind of lesson. It worked well because the kids were able to work together on a computer and figure out the problem. We still need to be more put together but next week is Dinosaurs and I think it will go better than today did.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
10.24.13 Hands Up! The wave demo
So for our first time teaching at Tech Club at Morning Star Elementary, we got together with Trevor and Christina , the others from cohort 1, and we decided that the were going to do a lesson about the forest and we would do a lesson about the ocean and waves. John and I found a great lesson on National Geographic's page for kids. It taught how waves are formed and then what type of waves there are. It was a great site that had a lot of info and that is were we got our questions from that we asked the kids. It may have been a little too advanced for the kids that we were paired with however.
Many of the kids that we had in our groups were kindergarten through second grade. Because of this we had to rearrange our lesson for the day. Trevor and Christina do a nice job of showing them information, usually by a YouTube video and then having them do an activity right after, so we followed their lead. I think our lesson that we had originally thought out, to have the kids work on this the National Geographic site and then do a little quiz, would have worked better for the third grades and up. The groups of students we had were younger and their attention spans were out the door, due mostly to the fact it was nice outside and it was after school.
We decided, quickly, to have them watch a Bill Nye video on waves. We only had them watch the first 8 mins and then had them get onto Tux Paint. I wanted to see what they remember from the video so I had them draw a high pitch wave and a low pitch wave. There was a little girl named Anna who was a first grader but she was so, so smart. She recited much of what she had learned from either the video or what she new prior to us being there. A little boy named Ryan, who is a little bit scatter brained, needed a little more coxing to doing his work but we finally got everyone to draw the waves. Then John asked them make two additional types of waves they remembered from the video. Many had radio waves or waves on a pond. It was funny though because many of them drew waves that both John and I knew to be real ones, but they had drawn them only because it was all they could think of. To have them a little more involved, I also asked them to show me with their hands certain types of waves. By doing this, we were able have the kids be interactive and also work on their computers.
Overall I think we did pretty well. We had a couple occasions were I had to ask the kids to put their hands up or in their pockets so that they would listen to instruction and not play with their computers. It was pretty cool.
Many of the kids that we had in our groups were kindergarten through second grade. Because of this we had to rearrange our lesson for the day. Trevor and Christina do a nice job of showing them information, usually by a YouTube video and then having them do an activity right after, so we followed their lead. I think our lesson that we had originally thought out, to have the kids work on this the National Geographic site and then do a little quiz, would have worked better for the third grades and up. The groups of students we had were younger and their attention spans were out the door, due mostly to the fact it was nice outside and it was after school.
We decided, quickly, to have them watch a Bill Nye video on waves. We only had them watch the first 8 mins and then had them get onto Tux Paint. I wanted to see what they remember from the video so I had them draw a high pitch wave and a low pitch wave. There was a little girl named Anna who was a first grader but she was so, so smart. She recited much of what she had learned from either the video or what she new prior to us being there. A little boy named Ryan, who is a little bit scatter brained, needed a little more coxing to doing his work but we finally got everyone to draw the waves. Then John asked them make two additional types of waves they remembered from the video. Many had radio waves or waves on a pond. It was funny though because many of them drew waves that both John and I knew to be real ones, but they had drawn them only because it was all they could think of. To have them a little more involved, I also asked them to show me with their hands certain types of waves. By doing this, we were able have the kids be interactive and also work on their computers.
Overall I think we did pretty well. We had a couple occasions were I had to ask the kids to put their hands up or in their pockets so that they would listen to instruction and not play with their computers. It was pretty cool.
Friday, October 11, 2013
First Tech Club meeting 10.10.13
I know this is really late, but it is the first time I have had to get to my blog since yesterday.
Tech Club at Morning Star was great. I think it is going to be a really great experience. Trevor and Christina from cohort 1 did a great job with their lessons that they taught.
Trevor was in charge of teaching about the universe and Christina was teaching about volcanoes. I learned a lot not only from how the kids reacted to the lesson but also from the lesson it's self. It's amazing what you forget after third grade. The kids were a bit of a challenge because they were from ages k-3rd and some of the kinder gardeners didn't even know how to read. I know that we weren't supposed to interact but I ended up helping Trevor with his second group of kids with their questionaire that they were asked to do. I directed all big questions back to Trevor and had the kids address him for anything they needed but I sat with two little boys that were having trouble trying to figure out how to read the questions. It was interesting to see how long their attention span was and what it was that kept them focused.
Trevor had a great lesson in mind, but I think because of the range of age levels, it was a little harder to have everyone concentrate on what they were supposed to be doing. Christina had a little better outcome because her volcanoes activity had the kids watch a Bill Nye video and then draw out the layers to a volcano. I thought this covered all ages well and the students were able to expand on their drawings or keep to the basics.
My partner , John Cox, and I had alot of great insight from being able to observe Trevor and Christina. Our first time teaching will be on Halloween......... all I can say is, I'm bringing candy.
Tech Club at Morning Star was great. I think it is going to be a really great experience. Trevor and Christina from cohort 1 did a great job with their lessons that they taught.
Trevor was in charge of teaching about the universe and Christina was teaching about volcanoes. I learned a lot not only from how the kids reacted to the lesson but also from the lesson it's self. It's amazing what you forget after third grade. The kids were a bit of a challenge because they were from ages k-3rd and some of the kinder gardeners didn't even know how to read. I know that we weren't supposed to interact but I ended up helping Trevor with his second group of kids with their questionaire that they were asked to do. I directed all big questions back to Trevor and had the kids address him for anything they needed but I sat with two little boys that were having trouble trying to figure out how to read the questions. It was interesting to see how long their attention span was and what it was that kept them focused.
Trevor had a great lesson in mind, but I think because of the range of age levels, it was a little harder to have everyone concentrate on what they were supposed to be doing. Christina had a little better outcome because her volcanoes activity had the kids watch a Bill Nye video and then draw out the layers to a volcano. I thought this covered all ages well and the students were able to expand on their drawings or keep to the basics.
My partner , John Cox, and I had alot of great insight from being able to observe Trevor and Christina. Our first time teaching will be on Halloween......... all I can say is, I'm bringing candy.
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