November+2010

Monthly Activity Reflection
November 2010 Standards II-B, II-C, II-D, II-E, III-E I began working with the sixth grade Social Studies teacher to brainstorm some ideas on how to have the students in her classes use technology to create a product. We looked at different websites that had examples and discussed which technology was available in our district. I explained to her that the students could create photo stories, make podcasts, PowerPoint presentations, and movies. I showed her some of the online free websites available for creating presentations. We met several times and I gave her some ideas to think about and more places online to get ideas. We met again and she informed me which types of lessons she wanted her students to do so I worked with her on which types of technology she felt comfortable with. She wanted to use the technology that would produce the best results for those lessons. We sat down and started writing the lessons. It took several meetings to work out the lessons. We decided to have the students do research on the Internet during scheduled lab days, create drawings for the information and scan them, or take staged photos and import them. These will be used to create a photo story depicting the subject area she chose. We also decided to use Photo Story 3 for Windows because it is freeware and is user-friendly. I took the time to look online and research new freeware programs to see if there was anything that would work better. I decided that for a first time of requiring the students to use technology for more than just research, Photo Story would be the best fit. While searching for new software I learned how to quickly evaluate the programs to see if they served the purpose we were looking for. Off for Thanksgiving break and some turkey.