Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Digital Story Telling Analysis
My digital story project is based on Indian Education for All that is required in all schools in Montana. The primary focus of the Digital Story is to tell a Oral History Story from the Crow Nation. This lesson could be used for both IEFA and Social Studies in the classroom environment.
The lesson would satisfy several Common Core Standards in the Social Studies curriculum. Content Standard # 1 states that students access, synthesize, and evaluate information to communicate and apply social studies knowledge to real world situations. Oral histories are a very important part of history and being able to relate these to situations still affecting the Crow nation is crucial to understanding about their culture. Content Standard 3—Students apply geographic knowledge and skills (e.g., location,place, human/environment interactions, movement, and regions). The oral histories also will help children to understand the importance of Native Peoples environmental interactions as well as their understanding of geographic knowledge. Content Standard 4—Students demonstrate an understanding of the effects of time,continuity, and change on historical and future perspectives and relationships. Oral histories provide us with perspective and relationships that Indians have with time and historical past. Content Standard 6—Students demonstrate an understanding of the impact of human interaction and cultural diversity on societies. The digital story should help them understand the impact that the cultural difference that the many different Native Nations have on Montana.
Learning Objective: The class should be able to recognize, discuss and discover the importance of Oral History for Native peoples. They should be able to explain and interpret how oral history has shaped history, especially Native Indian History in Montana.
I would be able to incorporate my Digital Story Telling project into the classroom during my Indian Education For All activities. I find Oral Histories fascinating because many societies base their culture on these stories. Their economies, family lives and community are driven by the lessons in these stories. The use of a digital story will allow me to compose a visual relation to the story being told, rather than relying on the students forming their own vision of the story in their imagination. The use of music and photo's to reiterate important characters, places and events in the story will help to paint a picture that is memorable for the students. It will also allow me to reach all learner types, rather than just auditory learners. I think the use of media in conjunction with the spoken word provides more in depth conceptualization of the lessons being taught.
The lesson would satisfy several Common Core Standards in the Social Studies curriculum. Content Standard # 1 states that students access, synthesize, and evaluate information to communicate and apply social studies knowledge to real world situations. Oral histories are a very important part of history and being able to relate these to situations still affecting the Crow nation is crucial to understanding about their culture. Content Standard 3—Students apply geographic knowledge and skills (e.g., location,place, human/environment interactions, movement, and regions). The oral histories also will help children to understand the importance of Native Peoples environmental interactions as well as their understanding of geographic knowledge. Content Standard 4—Students demonstrate an understanding of the effects of time,continuity, and change on historical and future perspectives and relationships. Oral histories provide us with perspective and relationships that Indians have with time and historical past. Content Standard 6—Students demonstrate an understanding of the impact of human interaction and cultural diversity on societies. The digital story should help them understand the impact that the cultural difference that the many different Native Nations have on Montana.
Learning Objective: The class should be able to recognize, discuss and discover the importance of Oral History for Native peoples. They should be able to explain and interpret how oral history has shaped history, especially Native Indian History in Montana.
I would be able to incorporate my Digital Story Telling project into the classroom during my Indian Education For All activities. I find Oral Histories fascinating because many societies base their culture on these stories. Their economies, family lives and community are driven by the lessons in these stories. The use of a digital story will allow me to compose a visual relation to the story being told, rather than relying on the students forming their own vision of the story in their imagination. The use of music and photo's to reiterate important characters, places and events in the story will help to paint a picture that is memorable for the students. It will also allow me to reach all learner types, rather than just auditory learners. I think the use of media in conjunction with the spoken word provides more in depth conceptualization of the lessons being taught.
ASP Tech CLub Week # 5
After last weeks successful lesson, I once again found myself stumped with finding another creative activity that would keep the kids interested in the days lesson. Trying to link each lesson to the last has been a major challenge for the tech club. It has been very challenging to make the Tech Club a series of concurrent lessons, rather than having a completely different subject matter for each lesson. I was excited to make a complete lesson plan when we started the Tech Club, but looking back I think it would have been better to use different subjects each week.
The problem we have faced with a comprehensive program has been two fold. First is the time of day that the club takes place. The kids have already sat through a full day of school and their motivation and commitment to studying a comprehensive lesson is completely non existent; I completely sympathize with them on this issue. The second factor is the limited access to technology that could help motivate the students, they love working with the computers.
This week I hoped we could find a program that they could enjoy using. Since we had talked about all the states in the country, my partner and I decided to concentrate on the state we all call home. The school has access to the Montana Place names website so we had the kids look up a place they had never heard of in Montana. The kids could pull down a list of places in Montana and by clicking on the place name, the program placed a marker on a satellite map of the state. This showed the location of the place, and then they could click on the marker to get historical information on the place name they choose. We attached one of the lap tops to the projector and then each student came up and read about their choosen place name.
We added additional facts about the places and discussed how many towns were established based on the railroad and trade routes. There were many questions and comments from the kids, which I found encouraging. Hopefully some of the kids will go home and ask their parents if they can visit some of the places we talked about.
I felt good about the lesson based on it's objectives and the participation we got from the class as a whole. I think their commitment to the days activity came from experiencing a new computer program as well as the interesting things we learned about small towns such as Zurich, Belt, Swan Lake and many other places throughout the state of Montana.
The problem we have faced with a comprehensive program has been two fold. First is the time of day that the club takes place. The kids have already sat through a full day of school and their motivation and commitment to studying a comprehensive lesson is completely non existent; I completely sympathize with them on this issue. The second factor is the limited access to technology that could help motivate the students, they love working with the computers.
This week I hoped we could find a program that they could enjoy using. Since we had talked about all the states in the country, my partner and I decided to concentrate on the state we all call home. The school has access to the Montana Place names website so we had the kids look up a place they had never heard of in Montana. The kids could pull down a list of places in Montana and by clicking on the place name, the program placed a marker on a satellite map of the state. This showed the location of the place, and then they could click on the marker to get historical information on the place name they choose. We attached one of the lap tops to the projector and then each student came up and read about their choosen place name.
We added additional facts about the places and discussed how many towns were established based on the railroad and trade routes. There were many questions and comments from the kids, which I found encouraging. Hopefully some of the kids will go home and ask their parents if they can visit some of the places we talked about.
I felt good about the lesson based on it's objectives and the participation we got from the class as a whole. I think their commitment to the days activity came from experiencing a new computer program as well as the interesting things we learned about small towns such as Zurich, Belt, Swan Lake and many other places throughout the state of Montana.
ASP Tech Club Visit # 4
I was excited to work with the kids at the after school program during my initial visit, but as the weeks have passed it is becoming more difficult to find an activity that they show any interest in. The limited access to the web has been the biggest challenge in finding activities that are relevant, and exciting. I started off the project with big ideas, reaching to achieve a valuable lesson that the kids would be able to work on week after week. The limits of access have turned the lesson into a boring activity, especially since the kids are tired from a long day of school.
Motivation of the kids has been a major challenge with the program, and at this point I am loosing my motivation too. A major source of my discouragement is based on the limits to accessing technology in the school. I also have book club the day prior to tech club and fortunately I was aware that the computer cart was having issues recharging the computers, so I planned on not having access to the laptops for this weeks lesson.
We have been working how countries are established, rules for government and learning about individual states in our country. I personally own a board game that has trivia about all 50 states and for this weeks lesson we planned on playing the board game. With 20 kids in the after school program, it was impossible to play the game as the rules stated. I adopted our own rules, which divided the kids into small groups that allowed them to play as a team. I placed the playing board under the ELMO so that the kids could see the hints that are listed on the playing board. Then we had each group spin the spinner for the different variety of cards and they had a chance to answer the question. If they missed the answer we then allowed other teams to steal the point. I also added bonus questions as I saw opportunities to add additional information to the question.
The kids had a great time playing the game, and I feel that their learning was enhanced by the game and the questions about the states. Even though technology once again presented a major obstacle, I felt like our learning objectives exceeded our planning.
Motivation of the kids has been a major challenge with the program, and at this point I am loosing my motivation too. A major source of my discouragement is based on the limits to accessing technology in the school. I also have book club the day prior to tech club and fortunately I was aware that the computer cart was having issues recharging the computers, so I planned on not having access to the laptops for this weeks lesson.
We have been working how countries are established, rules for government and learning about individual states in our country. I personally own a board game that has trivia about all 50 states and for this weeks lesson we planned on playing the board game. With 20 kids in the after school program, it was impossible to play the game as the rules stated. I adopted our own rules, which divided the kids into small groups that allowed them to play as a team. I placed the playing board under the ELMO so that the kids could see the hints that are listed on the playing board. Then we had each group spin the spinner for the different variety of cards and they had a chance to answer the question. If they missed the answer we then allowed other teams to steal the point. I also added bonus questions as I saw opportunities to add additional information to the question.
The kids had a great time playing the game, and I feel that their learning was enhanced by the game and the questions about the states. Even though technology once again presented a major obstacle, I felt like our learning objectives exceeded our planning.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
ASP Tech Club Visit # 3
Towards the end of day 2 at Tech Club the kids had used Google maps to explore some towns that they were familiar with. The kids were very excited about using the satellite maps, and most of them were familiar with how to navigate the program. Our plan for day 3 was to further explore our world using Google Earth; with an emphasis of using the National Geographic layer to explore interesting facts and stories about the states. This lesson was going to fit into our over all goal of creating an after-school blog that could be continued throughout the course of the school year. I was excited to create the blog, which would motivate the kids to work hard on providing content they could take pride in.
Fortunately I had taken some time to use the computers at the school one day prior to our scheduled lesson. I quickly found out that even though technology exist which can motivate and benefit children's learning, often times there are barriers that prevent it's implementation in the schools. My first road block occurred when I tried to access blogger on the schools computers. The school has a block on any programs that have a blog extension. I also tried to setup a word press blog but was quickly redirected to a notice about the blog extension. Strike one was a mildly devastating, but I hoped that there would be another possible route using either Google docs or Google sites. Fortunately it appears that we may be able to build a class site using Google sites, which will require doing a bit of research on how to use the program. I am sure that with some time on the Google sites application I will be able to build a site that will be workable for the program, however it appears to be a bit more complicated to use than either blogger or WordPress
The second road block was that Google earth is not a program that the school has uploaded to their computers. I contacted the library staff to find out about the use of Google earth and they directed me to Mrs. O'Shea, who is the technology liaison for the school. When I arrived at the club today, the librarian informed me that there had already been a request for the program, but there was concern on the amount of space that was required to run the program on the schools computers. There is an outside possibility that Google Earth will become a platform on the new I-Pads the school purchased, but they are still in the process of seeing how much room will be left on the I-Pads after they load the programs they already have planned for the new technology.
With this in mind we were limited on where to go with this lesson. We decided to continue researching the states using the Library of Congress website, rather than the World Book Program we used the week before. The Library of Congress site provided more in depth articles, with some stories about important figures or stories that are unique to each state. We instructed the kids that we would provide them with a platform to put their work on our new site, that parents will eventually be able to view.
The lessons learned this week is that even though there is some amazing technology available, there are many obstacles to implementing it's use. I have learned that implementing technology in the classroom environment requires very advanced planning and lots of patience!
Fortunately I had taken some time to use the computers at the school one day prior to our scheduled lesson. I quickly found out that even though technology exist which can motivate and benefit children's learning, often times there are barriers that prevent it's implementation in the schools. My first road block occurred when I tried to access blogger on the schools computers. The school has a block on any programs that have a blog extension. I also tried to setup a word press blog but was quickly redirected to a notice about the blog extension. Strike one was a mildly devastating, but I hoped that there would be another possible route using either Google docs or Google sites. Fortunately it appears that we may be able to build a class site using Google sites, which will require doing a bit of research on how to use the program. I am sure that with some time on the Google sites application I will be able to build a site that will be workable for the program, however it appears to be a bit more complicated to use than either blogger or WordPress
The second road block was that Google earth is not a program that the school has uploaded to their computers. I contacted the library staff to find out about the use of Google earth and they directed me to Mrs. O'Shea, who is the technology liaison for the school. When I arrived at the club today, the librarian informed me that there had already been a request for the program, but there was concern on the amount of space that was required to run the program on the schools computers. There is an outside possibility that Google Earth will become a platform on the new I-Pads the school purchased, but they are still in the process of seeing how much room will be left on the I-Pads after they load the programs they already have planned for the new technology.
With this in mind we were limited on where to go with this lesson. We decided to continue researching the states using the Library of Congress website, rather than the World Book Program we used the week before. The Library of Congress site provided more in depth articles, with some stories about important figures or stories that are unique to each state. We instructed the kids that we would provide them with a platform to put their work on our new site, that parents will eventually be able to view.
The lessons learned this week is that even though there is some amazing technology available, there are many obstacles to implementing it's use. I have learned that implementing technology in the classroom environment requires very advanced planning and lots of patience!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
ASP Tech Club Visit #2
I eagerly awaited the first official day of Tech Club, but I was a bit apprehensive of using the computers because of the failure I had with the schools technology during a presentation last year. Last year I volunteered to do a 4 week lesson with the kids that focused on Riparian Habitats. I prepared a very nice presentation that included power point slides with food webs, water webs, insects, plants, animals and other influences of a Riparian Ecosystem. I also had a very nice Video explaining Riparian habitats, the video was produced by an MSU professor for a kids science show. I choose the video because it was about the Smith River in Montana, which the kids could relate to since it was a river near Bozeman. I was excited about the video, but later found out that the schools technology prevented me from playing it for the kids. This failure of technology was a great learning experience and prepared me to have a back up plan, just in case I had problems with the technology.
I arrived early to make sure I had a handle on getting the technology for the day ready, prior to the class. The library staff was very helpful when it came time to setup the projector that was connected to the laptop. I used the projector to help the kids navigate to the website we would be using for the day. I also got the instructions on how to best distribute the lap tops to the students, along with any special instructions for their use.
The lesson that we had planned for the day was focused on looking up information about one of the 50 United States. In my conversations with Mrs. Hatfield, the schools librarian, she had mentioned that in the schools tech club she was introducing the children to the use of a subscription service called World Book. She gave me the schools password and I formed a lesson using a website that the kids were just starting to use during their regular school day. I found it very beneficial that the kids had some familiarity with the website, prior to us using it in of After School Tech Club. We had the kid navigate to pages that provided detailed information about each state in the union. We then gave each child a note card along with a fact sheet for the state they would be researching. The World Book Program had a very nice detailed sheet about each state and the children had a great time finding out the facts that we provided on the worksheet for them.
Most of the kids worked diligently on the sheets and once they were finished they were instructed to stay on the world book site to either play one of the related games or find more facts about their state than we wanted on the worksheet. One of the kids figured out how to use the google maps satellite view to find his house. The other kids thought it was very cool and so most of them shifted their focus to trying to find their own house. We worked to help the kids with the mapping program, but the child who initially found his home had mastered the program and eventually worked with his peers to help them find their homes. It was very rewarding because he is not as out going as most of the other children and he really opened up while helping his peers.
The lesson went very well and I learned that the use of the computers really inspires the kids to work hard, even after they have spent an entire day at school. I look forward to using the computers more during the tech club. So far the most helpful aspect of the class has been communicating with the Library staff. They have eased my apprehension of using the schools technology and have been a very useful resource for the tech club.
I arrived early to make sure I had a handle on getting the technology for the day ready, prior to the class. The library staff was very helpful when it came time to setup the projector that was connected to the laptop. I used the projector to help the kids navigate to the website we would be using for the day. I also got the instructions on how to best distribute the lap tops to the students, along with any special instructions for their use.
The lesson that we had planned for the day was focused on looking up information about one of the 50 United States. In my conversations with Mrs. Hatfield, the schools librarian, she had mentioned that in the schools tech club she was introducing the children to the use of a subscription service called World Book. She gave me the schools password and I formed a lesson using a website that the kids were just starting to use during their regular school day. I found it very beneficial that the kids had some familiarity with the website, prior to us using it in of After School Tech Club. We had the kid navigate to pages that provided detailed information about each state in the union. We then gave each child a note card along with a fact sheet for the state they would be researching. The World Book Program had a very nice detailed sheet about each state and the children had a great time finding out the facts that we provided on the worksheet for them.
Most of the kids worked diligently on the sheets and once they were finished they were instructed to stay on the world book site to either play one of the related games or find more facts about their state than we wanted on the worksheet. One of the kids figured out how to use the google maps satellite view to find his house. The other kids thought it was very cool and so most of them shifted their focus to trying to find their own house. We worked to help the kids with the mapping program, but the child who initially found his home had mastered the program and eventually worked with his peers to help them find their homes. It was very rewarding because he is not as out going as most of the other children and he really opened up while helping his peers.
The lesson went very well and I learned that the use of the computers really inspires the kids to work hard, even after they have spent an entire day at school. I look forward to using the computers more during the tech club. So far the most helpful aspect of the class has been communicating with the Library staff. They have eased my apprehension of using the schools technology and have been a very useful resource for the tech club.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
ASP Tech Club Visit # 1
ASP Program Reflection
Describe the setting: I was assigned to Hyalite Elementary School. This is Bozeman's newest elementary school, it opened it's doors for the first time 4 years ago. The program host between 60-80 kids each day. The program director is Beth Kennedy, who has been with the program prior to the opening of Hyalite Elementary. The children descend on the school stage after the final bell rings. The afternoon starts off with some play time outside followed with a snack. Once the snack is finished the kids break up into respective age groups. The younger children usually have story time followed with an activity or art project. The older kids move to the library to work on homework, reading or math activities. The main study and activity time for the children is between 4:05 and 5:00 pm. Typically things start to wrap up around 5pm and if there is extra time the children that still have not been picked up get a chance to go outside again.
The staff at the after school program are very organized and have many different hooks that they employ to organize the children between activities. Knowing these hooks is very helpful when teaching lessons, because the children know to stop talking and give you their undivided attention. The library is where most of the lesson's will be taking place, because of the access to technology in the school. I learned very quickly that establishing a relationship with the library staff will be essential to a successful tech club. Getting to know the staff of the After School Program will also be very advantageous, because they will be able to help with the disciplinary issues as well as the lesson.
What Challenged You? I am very familiar with the program from my previous volunteer work. The biggest challenge is getting comfortable effectively using the technology that is provided by the school.
What Surprised You? There were not to many surprises because of my familiarity of working with the director and the children during previous visits to the school.
What Interest You? I am interested in becoming more familiar with methods that will help keep the children engaged in the lesson.
What Scared You? The one thing that scares me is that the children have already spent a full day at school. More instruction is the last thing that they are interested in and coming up with projects that teach as well as entertain is my biggest concern.
Describe the setting: I was assigned to Hyalite Elementary School. This is Bozeman's newest elementary school, it opened it's doors for the first time 4 years ago. The program host between 60-80 kids each day. The program director is Beth Kennedy, who has been with the program prior to the opening of Hyalite Elementary. The children descend on the school stage after the final bell rings. The afternoon starts off with some play time outside followed with a snack. Once the snack is finished the kids break up into respective age groups. The younger children usually have story time followed with an activity or art project. The older kids move to the library to work on homework, reading or math activities. The main study and activity time for the children is between 4:05 and 5:00 pm. Typically things start to wrap up around 5pm and if there is extra time the children that still have not been picked up get a chance to go outside again.
The staff at the after school program are very organized and have many different hooks that they employ to organize the children between activities. Knowing these hooks is very helpful when teaching lessons, because the children know to stop talking and give you their undivided attention. The library is where most of the lesson's will be taking place, because of the access to technology in the school. I learned very quickly that establishing a relationship with the library staff will be essential to a successful tech club. Getting to know the staff of the After School Program will also be very advantageous, because they will be able to help with the disciplinary issues as well as the lesson.
What Challenged You? I am very familiar with the program from my previous volunteer work. The biggest challenge is getting comfortable effectively using the technology that is provided by the school.
What Surprised You? There were not to many surprises because of my familiarity of working with the director and the children during previous visits to the school.
What Interest You? I am interested in becoming more familiar with methods that will help keep the children engaged in the lesson.
What Scared You? The one thing that scares me is that the children have already spent a full day at school. More instruction is the last thing that they are interested in and coming up with projects that teach as well as entertain is my biggest concern.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)