Friday, February 20, 2009
excel
Part of the first grade math standards is collecting and interpreting data. I think that the google doc surveys would be a fun way for students to collect data from their peers. It would then be neat to be able to put the information together on an excel chart to view their information. I thought that the google surveys were really easy to use and I like how it formats it for you. Because of this I think it would be user friendly for the younger grades. The excel program was a little more difficult to use and I think that the students would need a little extra help. With the extra help, I think the charts that you can make on excel would be a good way to represent the data and give the students a visual. Excel would be a great way to provide visuals for math lessons, I just wish it was a little more user friendly. I might use the google excel program instead because it was a little easier to use.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Collaborative Stories
WORD
It was Friday the 13th and when Bob woke up he knew something was wrong. His cat was sitting restlessly in the windowsill rather than curled up at his feet, tail erect and fur on end. He was staring out the window at something outside. Out of his throat he emitted the most eery sound. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” my cat said. I screamed in horror. I hated Valentines Day. It reminded me of love long lost, and people who hated me; that was why I had a cat, to avoid people. I hate people. But more importantly than my disgust for people, why and how is my cat talking? Something has got to be wrong. It must have been my stepping on my old mirror my grandmother gave me at the strike of midnight, the night before. I had no idea what was going to happen; however, I was not excited to find out. Forgetting my fear, I got dressed and ready for the day, luckily with no tragic accident. As I walked slowly to the bus on the way to school I realized that as bad as the day might be I must move on. I was just going to have to force myself to make the best of the day.
GOOGLE DOC
Friday the 13th, is supposed to be very scary. I tend to be a very superstitious person, usually to the point of sleeping the whole day of the 13th. Sometimes, I wonder what I'm thinking and feel like I'm just being stupid. But today I was unexpectedly awoken by a screeching sound on my window! This screeching sound scared the tar out of me. I hid my head under the covers, shaking in my polka dotted pajamas. I tried to ignore it, but it continued. So I threw on my big snow boots and trudged out my door. "What is that?" I wondered, everything was a blur so I ran back in to grab glasses. This glass had disappearing tendencies so I could walk around and hit people and they wouldn't know it was me. It may not be the same thing, but my superstitiousness got the best of me, and as my glasses fell to the stone cold ground, they shattered. I cursed under my breath in a whisper and blindly began moving my hands over the ground; screaming as the glass shards cut into my flesh and I began to bleed. As frustrated as I now was, I had to find out what had been making screeching sounds on my window, partially blind and bleeding. I decided that I would go around my house with my huge machete just in case anyone or anything came after me. As I was creepily crawling around my house, I stumbled across something, leaving a giant goose egg in the middle of my forehead. Again, I cursed, this time out loud, mumbling even more as I felt the blood from my hands smear across my forehead. Maybe this unknown creature was too much for me to handle alone. I am going to phone a friend, maybe Joshua will be able to protect me. He is big and intimidating. The only problem I faced now, was finding my phone, which was inside somewhere, nearly impossible to find during my bloody, blinding mess. I blindly half-crawled toward my door, leaving a bloody handprint on the white paint and began my fruitless search for said phone. I jumped awake and turned on the lamp next to my bed. As blood dripped off my fingers I realized I had a bloody nose, and apparently had had a horrible dream.
It was Friday the 13th and when Bob woke up he knew something was wrong. His cat was sitting restlessly in the windowsill rather than curled up at his feet, tail erect and fur on end. He was staring out the window at something outside. Out of his throat he emitted the most eery sound. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” my cat said. I screamed in horror. I hated Valentines Day. It reminded me of love long lost, and people who hated me; that was why I had a cat, to avoid people. I hate people. But more importantly than my disgust for people, why and how is my cat talking? Something has got to be wrong. It must have been my stepping on my old mirror my grandmother gave me at the strike of midnight, the night before. I had no idea what was going to happen; however, I was not excited to find out. Forgetting my fear, I got dressed and ready for the day, luckily with no tragic accident. As I walked slowly to the bus on the way to school I realized that as bad as the day might be I must move on. I was just going to have to force myself to make the best of the day.
GOOGLE DOC
Friday the 13th, is supposed to be very scary. I tend to be a very superstitious person, usually to the point of sleeping the whole day of the 13th. Sometimes, I wonder what I'm thinking and feel like I'm just being stupid. But today I was unexpectedly awoken by a screeching sound on my window! This screeching sound scared the tar out of me. I hid my head under the covers, shaking in my polka dotted pajamas. I tried to ignore it, but it continued. So I threw on my big snow boots and trudged out my door. "What is that?" I wondered, everything was a blur so I ran back in to grab glasses. This glass had disappearing tendencies so I could walk around and hit people and they wouldn't know it was me. It may not be the same thing, but my superstitiousness got the best of me, and as my glasses fell to the stone cold ground, they shattered. I cursed under my breath in a whisper and blindly began moving my hands over the ground; screaming as the glass shards cut into my flesh and I began to bleed. As frustrated as I now was, I had to find out what had been making screeching sounds on my window, partially blind and bleeding. I decided that I would go around my house with my huge machete just in case anyone or anything came after me. As I was creepily crawling around my house, I stumbled across something, leaving a giant goose egg in the middle of my forehead. Again, I cursed, this time out loud, mumbling even more as I felt the blood from my hands smear across my forehead. Maybe this unknown creature was too much for me to handle alone. I am going to phone a friend, maybe Joshua will be able to protect me. He is big and intimidating. The only problem I faced now, was finding my phone, which was inside somewhere, nearly impossible to find during my bloody, blinding mess. I blindly half-crawled toward my door, leaving a bloody handprint on the white paint and began my fruitless search for said phone. I jumped awake and turned on the lamp next to my bed. As blood dripped off my fingers I realized I had a bloody nose, and apparently had had a horrible dream.
word and google doc
Today as we experimented with the word documents we each added sentences to creates stories. This was really fun and it was entertaining to read after we were done. I think that this would be a fun activity for a classroom. Sometimes it's hard to be creative, but when working with others and collaborating, it's easier to be creative. I think that collaborative writing is a great way to get children excited about writing. I also liked using the google doc. It was a little confusing at first but I like that you can continually edit and change the document. Google docs is an easy way to work on assignments without continually saving different drafts and then emailing the people you are working with.
I think that in the younger grades a way you could use word documents would be to have the children write stories first and then have the chance to type up their story. The classes that I have been in the children don't know how to type yet so typing a whole story would be very difficult, but they could type one or two sentences, and then maybe print it off and draw a picture to go with it. I would still want to use word in the younger grades because when it is typed I think it would be more meaningful to them.
The one downside to using this collaborative writing is that I plan on teaching younger children who would not be able to do this without a lot of help. It is hard for them to write their own stories and I don't think they would understand how to write a sentence that has to do with the sentence that was written before. For the older grades, I would find this activity very useful and fun.
I think that in the younger grades a way you could use word documents would be to have the children write stories first and then have the chance to type up their story. The classes that I have been in the children don't know how to type yet so typing a whole story would be very difficult, but they could type one or two sentences, and then maybe print it off and draw a picture to go with it. I would still want to use word in the younger grades because when it is typed I think it would be more meaningful to them.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Lesson Plan 1
I did my first lesson plan using the UEN website for a 3rd grade class. It is a science lesson on gravity using the state Standard 4, Objective 2, Indicator a: compare how the motion of an object rolling up or down a hill changes with the incline of the hill.
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=22774
For this lesson I used the PHUN program. I went and explored on this program and I feel that it is a fun, yet educational way to explore physics topics, such as gravity.
I liked writing this lesson plan and I like how UEN has the format for the lesson ready but I didn't like how it wouldn't let me format each individual part of the lesson such as putting in bullets or paragraphs.
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=22774
For this lesson I used the PHUN program. I went and explored on this program and I feel that it is a fun, yet educational way to explore physics topics, such as gravity.
I liked writing this lesson plan and I like how UEN has the format for the lesson ready but I didn't like how it wouldn't let me format each individual part of the lesson such as putting in bullets or paragraphs.
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