Final Project!

Today my students and I have uploaded our final project. I have learned a lot during this process. And for one it needs to be completely laid out in the order and exact words you want to be said. If you have all of this done it will go easier and faster. My students (brothers) worked very well with me and we all cooperated in seeking information. Our grandfather was able to help out with the information he knew. He grew up raising horses as well. In south texas you see cattle and horses everywhere. I thought it would be important to be able to find out a bit of information. This video was a fun thing to do. In a future class I will incorporate this and have a classmade video as well. My students parents consent form is below.

I hope you enjoy their video :) they really tried hard and tried hard not to fight with each other. Please view it on my students blog. Final Video The music we chose was for cultural reasons. We listen to spanish music everyday. I figured it would fit in well with the video. 

Preview: NOT REAL THING!

If you want to view my Student's Blog you can  preview our intro to the project. This is just an example. The lighting and sound is not good but I just wanted to try it out. DO NOT THINK this is our final product. We will have that up soon :)

Session 7&8 make up.

 

This is the video that goes over my unit plan. In the classroom we were talking about different types of transportation. I thought it would be cool to create a simple video over it :)

Research with students

For the research part of the session we looked on the web for information regarding to horses. This was a good subject to work on because the students are raising and racing their own horses at their home. We looked up any information they wanted to know on the KWL chart. One of the students (younger brother) was not there for our first session but he will be included in the movie we are making. We have already tried out video recording and they seemed to like it. This is very new to them including the computer part. They are not ever really on the computers, but they are always on the ipad so I explained that it is very similar (considering I have an apple computer). I am very excited to get the final product done because this will also inform my classmates about basic information on horses.

Our essential question is
What is a life of an animal like?
What are basics of a horses life cycle?
Unit Q:
How long does a horse live?
What is a horses life like?

Student blog

I am going to be working with two students who live in my hometown. They have horses at their house so we will be looking more into detail about horses. They have developed questions to learn about throughout our sessions. This is their first time ever doing a blog so I will be helping them throughout the way. I have good ideas for a movie and can't wait to get it going.

Students blog

Copyright

Copyright is a very important and huge factor now a days. As educators we need to be aware and sure that we properly use materials using copyright.

• Fair Use checklist
• Purpose (of the work)
• Nature (of the work)
• Amount (of the use)
• Effect (on market)

Always cite your sources.
Always give credit to the places or people you find information.

Copyright Notes

Spreadsheet

I am still messing with the excel format and trying to become familiar with it again. I have not used it since I was a freshman in High School. This can become very fun once you get the hang of it. But can also be a little challenging once you are put to work. Wedding Planner

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is the use of a computer or another type of technology to create digital stories. You combine videos, pictures, audio and much more to create this story on the computer. Every story has to start off with a specific topic. We are almost always trying to get our point across. Digital Storytelling allows us to do so on the computer. The topics that we use in the classroom range from anything the teacher or students choose. We try to keep our stories not to long, between 2-10 minutes. It is also available for any teacher and can be used at any grade level.

I think digital storytelling can be a fun and very educational technique to use in my classroom. Every student learns different so this will enable the students who have to hear and see something explained all in one. Its much more than this. The students can take leadership roles when making videos. Of course a student will never be videotaped or photographed for educational purposes unless the parent allows me to do so. I think this is a fun way to get my students engaged in the classroom.

I have more information in my Notes.

Also view myActivity Plan and Story board

Ariella

Movie night!

Internet Resources

                                     
WOW! What great progress the internet has made for school teachers and students. The internet has so many tools for teachers to use for free or for a slight fee. There are so many things we can do on the internet. In the book that we currently read in class you can find very useful information about what educational tools the internet has to offer. I have some information, Internet Resources   on a few chapters that I found most useful to take on to my classroom.

I think it is important for teachers to use computers and technology because it can become very fun for the students and it gets them engaged. Its just a matter of time on teaching them how to access certain information and how to use the computers or iPads. Whether the students are reading on the computer or iPad or doing math problems they will still enjoy it. Students tend to like anything that gets away from paper and pencil. In my classroom we will not sit and lecture the whole day. It is my responsibility to get my student active and at the end of the day still learn something and go home ready to come to school the next day. Some teachers can make school very overwhelming for students. I think if we can create class blogs we can probably eliminate homework. It will be like homework because they will have to blog a post but since it is on the computer they won't seem to have a problem with it. They won't even notice that blogging will be considered Homework even though it is done at home.

Students should be able to express themselves and give their opinions about a topic. Blogging will allow this because there can never be a wrong answer. It is always what you think and if a student thinks blogging is not his thing then we will accommodate something else that he likes. It is all about the students interests. We need to teach to their abilities.

Technology Day's

I think it is important to get my students familiar with using a blog because our generation is basically run off of technology. Students need to know how to post things and publish them so that their classmates can see and work off of their ideas.  As a teacher I will help students to build a blog but only for school purposes. It is very important to make sure and be able to track their progress because we don't want to be opening them up to inappropriate things on the Internet.  My students will learn how to look up information on the Web and publish it on their blog. I think blogs can also keep the students from becoming nervous because they won't have to get in front of the class and read their papers. I know this can make students shy and embarrassed about their work. In my class we will be able to post anything about a topic and feel confident because for one it is on a blog, and for two their peers will be learning off of each other. This will be a no judgment zone and students will comment on how well a student covered a certain area. 

My student's parents will also have access to all of the students blog entries. I will always include the parents. I will also have parents consent to make sure it is okay to have my students create a blog. My students and I will learn off of each other. We will go forward all the time and if anyone is every stuck we will all work from their. For more information check out David Warlick blog. He has very interesting things.

Inquiry and Project Based Learning to Solve Problems

This week the students in my class will have a Unit Plan that is over problem solving and discovering how to solve problems in science, social studies, and mathematics. These three subjects can come together and form one essential question which was, How do you solve a problem? It is important for students at the kindergarden grade level to become familiar with solving problems since we do this just about everyday. 

• For science my unit question is How can we eliminate littering at the beach? This question allows students to use critical thinking skills to come up with a solution on ways to eliminate littering at the beach. We can even go deeper into the question and subject and ask students, What is littering?
• For Social Studies I will ask the students in groups What is the most effective way to design a volcano? The students will be able to come up with a problem and experience different ways to solve and make a decision. 
• For Mathematics the students will be asked How can we construct a table of favorite pets? The students will have to make a table by given information on a survey on favorite pets. They will come up with a way to put all the information on a table and determine what the favorite pet of the classroom is. 

The students will be using inquiry and project based learning throughout the problem solving process. They will need to use some background knowledge for all three subjects in order to come up with a solution. They will also need to do some research to look further into a subject and by doing so I will have them look online and in non-fiction books. We will be working as a class for the most part and we will come up with the best solution for each question.

Unit Plan