Tech Lesson Slideshare

Here is the slideshow presentation of my technology lesson. Enjoy!

Fact Families Slideshow

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What I learned from watching others' presentations:
I really enjoyed looking at other powerpoints about technology integration. The biggest thing for me was just to see how different people integrated technology to give me more ideas of what I could do in my classroom. It was also interesting to see, based on what technology was available, what was integrated. From this experience I have learned that when it comes to technology integration, if there's a will there's a way!

aaah technology

My technology-enhanced lesson was on fact families. Prior to preparing for this lesson, I didn't know what they were, so I'm going to assume most people don't and explain. There are 3 numbers in a fact family that all relate to each other. For example, 2,3,5. With these three numbers, you can make two addition sentences and two subtraction sentences.
2+3=5
3+2=5
5-3=2
5-2=3
At my school there is not much technology at all, especially in the younger grades. They don't have any official computer instruction, especially keyboarding, until third grade. I am teaching first. My options for technology in any lesson there are limited to an overhead projector, using the teacher microphone, projecting something from the computer onto a very small tv screen, or going to the computer lab. I chose the last option.
First I instructed the children in class. I modeled the idea using interactive and kinesthetic learning. We practiced in class before going to the computer lab. The ideal technology integration would use the computers for modeling as well, but given the experience my students have with computers and what is available at that school I didn't think that was a wise choice.
After practicing the idea enough in class that I felt the students would be successful using a computer game I found online, we went to the computer lab.
Getting the students to the website took some work, as none of them, unless at home, have ever had any keyboard experience, and many struggle with reading and writing in general. I modeled how to get to the website and wrote the address on the markerboard. The students did a pretty good job at getting to the website, but it took a while.
Once there they loved the game! The game I used put a fact family and the =, +, and - symbols at the top of the screen. At the bottom of the screen were boxes, and the students were to click on the appropriate symbols to fill in the fact family sentences. When they finished all four, they would either get a smiley or frowny face if they got it right or wrong. A voice stated what they were clicking on so they were even receiving multi-sensory stimulation. Such fun! Here's a screenshot of the game:

Ideas anyone?

As my school does not have much technology available, especially in the lower grades, I think the best type of integration will be through computer games for practice of lesson concepts.
Today for math I taught about fact families. I found a game on the internet that I thought the children might really enjoy, that would enable them to get lots of practice and familiarity with the concept. When we go to computer time this week, I will have the children play this game. It can be found at this website: http://www.ezschool.com/Games/FactFamily1.html

The First Week of the Practicum: technology observations

It was interesting to see what technology Sage Creek had available to students and teachers. I was surprised how little technology Sage Creek actually had. I have taught in title 1 schools in the past that had more technology available than this school. My classroom in Sage Creek has two computers. One is the teacher's computer, hooked up to the internet (but no wireless is available), and the other is a student computer that is used for reading and math tutoring programs. The computer screen can be displayed on the tv screen, but it's small and I don't think would really lend itself to this first grade classroom learning environment.
My teacher wears a microphone, sometimes, that projects her voice into speakers so all the students can hear. She said she wrote the grant to get the microphones and speakers a few years back. Now all of the new classrooms come equipped with that technology.
On Friday we visited the computer lab. The teacher takes her students to the computer lab on her own. There is not a computer technician or specialist that I know about. Our students were learning about telling time. There was a link to a game called "beat the clock" on the school website. The game timed how fast students matched the time up to the clock and their job was to get the best time, or beat the clock. There were also several links to other fun games on the school website, categorized by grade level.
Keyboard instruction starts in grade 3 at this school, and the younger grades don't do as much with technology.

Virtual Tour: Music History

I have spent way longer than it probably should have taken me on this assignment. Copy and paste the link below into your address window to download and take my music history tour in Google Earth! Or, you can find the link under my class links on the right. It is the .kmz file - the only file downloaded on that website. Have fun and I hope you learn something new!

http://sites.google.com/site/myiptwebsite/google-earth-files