Year One - 7th Grade, First Semester
First Project:
-Students will comment on blogs I have created
for each class period on the general topic of blogging.
Reflection:
-Who would have thought that so simple an idea
would be so difficult to execute!
Major problem #1 –
Technology Rant (kept as mild as possible):
-
I was
promised 10 computers for my classroom to start the school year, I have not
received them. I requested the computer
lab weekly (a poor substitute for computers in your classroom) with the
understanding that I would rearrange my lesson plans if another teacher needed
it, but was made to feel like I was hogging the lab and preventing other
teachers from using it. When I finally
got into the lab, the computer programs were woefully out of date so the
students had more problems than successes using them. Frustration is unattractive in both students
and teacher. While it has been a
learning process for all of us, it was not the lesson I wanted to teach. It has certainly made my students see me in a
more human light as I stomped around the lab, switching students from one
computer to another, and muttering hopefully unintelligible things under my
breath.
Finally, we get
the lab cleaned up enough that we can attempt our first, simple project. Who knew that today’s child, who texts like a
demon, plays computer games until the wee hours of the morning, and spends more
time on FaceBook than a socially starved Alaskan snowed in for the winter would
have absolutely no knowledge of how to email or how to troubleshoot. Hmmm, note to self, email has destroyed the
snail mail system and in turn has been destroyed by texting and social media
sites…
My lesson plan
changes. My first project becomes a
tutorial of getting them started with their email and Google. I teach them how to access their email, how
to email, and how to get started creating Google Docs. Google Docs is a wonderful tool once we got
all the security certificates installed and realized Google, LAUSD, and our
computers do not like Mozilla, but rather prefer Internet Explorer and occasionally
Chrome. They learn to share documents
with me, and how to place comments on other students’ work. They create a document for their Narrative
Unit story.
I watched my
students helping each other out, showing each other how to do things and smiled
because it was such a wonderful collaborative effort. Then I realized that it was the same children
needing help each week, and the students doing the helping were not doing the
assignments. My first and foremost rule
for working on the computer became NO TALKING!
My students are horrified either that they have to do the work
themselves or they cannot help someone else, but, guess what? They are learning their way around the
programs and troubleshooting the idiosyncrasies of their computer!
First and a Half Project:
-Students will create their own blog and make their first post about blogging.
Reflections:
Things worked! All my students were capable of creating a blog and making a first post. I had them work with a generic template at first. As soon as they made their first post, they could go into the program more and gussy-up their blogs. It is totally fascinating what a 7th grader will find attractive! Some are already into black-is-my-life mode, some are into Hello Kitty, some like pink, some music, I have over 60 students and each blog is different!
Stations:
Somewhere, sometime during my opening salvo into integrating computers into my classroom, I became aware that it simply was not going to happen with weekly trips to the Computer Lab. Over the summer I had decided that stations were the only way to go, months of having to schedule the lab and taking one whole period to work on a big project was not what I envisioned the grant to be.
When I got my 10 laptops, I divided the class into three groups. One group would do independent reading and writing work, one group would work with me, and one group would work on the computer. It is fabulous! The computer station is still the slowest, and probably the most frustrating station for my students because I am not over there troubleshooting for them, but I love working with a small group instead of teaching a whole class lesson. It is so much easier to get new material across in a small group, it is so much more personal, I feel I can connect with each child instead of just the outgoing, higher achievers!
Second Project/Research Project:
-Using a Google Doc, students will choose a research topic and write 3 questions that they are interested in learning about.
-After their topic is approved by the teacher through a comment on the Google Doc, students will post their topic and questions on their blogs.
-Students will visit other students' blogs and research the posted questions. They will also use a Citation Maker and cite the internet resource for their answer.
-Finally, students will create a Google Presentation (power point) utilizing the information posted on their blog. They will present their presentation to the class.
Reflection:
It's good when things work! I am still battling the usual 7th grader ennui, but the time they spent researching was quality time. Getting them to cite was a challenge, but the individual they posted to would not approve their comment (they got graded on the number of comments they made) if they did not include a citation! Most of the information was very good. Due to computer problems, the presentations themselves are just being finished but my students are enjoying adding pictures and playing with the creative end of the presentation.
One-Take Video Project:
-Working in groups of four, students will create a video explaining the difference between simile and metaphor. They will come up with the idea, write a script, create a story board, and video tape using a Bloggie.
Reflection:
I watched a presentation at the CUE Conference where a short video was made with a cell phone with little post production editing. This seemed like a great mini-project to fill in some of the gaps between lessons. It also would be a training ground for using a small video camera. They loved it! What started as a small project became a major one. We had some mis-starts, but on the whole things have been good. I was amazed at the number of actors I have in each class. They really enjoyed their debut in front of the camera!
Further Reflection - a year later:
I am very please to see that the majority of my students get the difference between the two. They did remarkably better on the Figurative Language portion of our 8th grade Narrative Periodic Assessment. When I asked them about it, they said they did better because of the videos. I'm a happy teacher!
First and a Half Project:
-Students will create their own blog and make their first post about blogging.
Reflections:
Things worked! All my students were capable of creating a blog and making a first post. I had them work with a generic template at first. As soon as they made their first post, they could go into the program more and gussy-up their blogs. It is totally fascinating what a 7th grader will find attractive! Some are already into black-is-my-life mode, some are into Hello Kitty, some like pink, some music, I have over 60 students and each blog is different!
Stations:
Somewhere, sometime during my opening salvo into integrating computers into my classroom, I became aware that it simply was not going to happen with weekly trips to the Computer Lab. Over the summer I had decided that stations were the only way to go, months of having to schedule the lab and taking one whole period to work on a big project was not what I envisioned the grant to be.
When I got my 10 laptops, I divided the class into three groups. One group would do independent reading and writing work, one group would work with me, and one group would work on the computer. It is fabulous! The computer station is still the slowest, and probably the most frustrating station for my students because I am not over there troubleshooting for them, but I love working with a small group instead of teaching a whole class lesson. It is so much easier to get new material across in a small group, it is so much more personal, I feel I can connect with each child instead of just the outgoing, higher achievers!
Second Project/Research Project:
-Using a Google Doc, students will choose a research topic and write 3 questions that they are interested in learning about.
-After their topic is approved by the teacher through a comment on the Google Doc, students will post their topic and questions on their blogs.
-Students will visit other students' blogs and research the posted questions. They will also use a Citation Maker and cite the internet resource for their answer.
-Finally, students will create a Google Presentation (power point) utilizing the information posted on their blog. They will present their presentation to the class.
Reflection:
It's good when things work! I am still battling the usual 7th grader ennui, but the time they spent researching was quality time. Getting them to cite was a challenge, but the individual they posted to would not approve their comment (they got graded on the number of comments they made) if they did not include a citation! Most of the information was very good. Due to computer problems, the presentations themselves are just being finished but my students are enjoying adding pictures and playing with the creative end of the presentation.
One-Take Video Project:
-Working in groups of four, students will create a video explaining the difference between simile and metaphor. They will come up with the idea, write a script, create a story board, and video tape using a Bloggie.
Reflection:
I watched a presentation at the CUE Conference where a short video was made with a cell phone with little post production editing. This seemed like a great mini-project to fill in some of the gaps between lessons. It also would be a training ground for using a small video camera. They loved it! What started as a small project became a major one. We had some mis-starts, but on the whole things have been good. I was amazed at the number of actors I have in each class. They really enjoyed their debut in front of the camera!
Further Reflection - a year later:
I am very please to see that the majority of my students get the difference between the two. They did remarkably better on the Figurative Language portion of our 8th grade Narrative Periodic Assessment. When I asked them about it, they said they did better because of the videos. I'm a happy teacher!
