Ms. Gubler’s Class (Sing Along—Activity Rocks and Minerals)

THREE HARD ROCKS
( to the tune of "Three Blind Mice" )

Three hard rocks.
Three hard rocks.
See how they form.
See how they form.
They all have minerals deep inside
So far in the earth where they like to hide,
A geologist can identify
three hard rocks______________________________

Igneous rocks.
Igneous rocks.
See how they form.
See how they form.
Granite cools slowly, obsidian fast.
They both are tools to study our past.
Igneous rocks.
Igneous rocks._________________________________

Sedimentary rocks.
Sedimentary rocks.
See how they layer.
See how they layer.
There's mud and sand and gravel, too.
They're carried by rivers and oceans blue
Where they stick together and bind like glue.
Sedimentary rock.
Sedimentary rock._______________________________

One last rock.
Metamorphic rock.
See how it forms.
See how it forms.
It's formed by joining the other two.
Adding some heat and some pressure, too.
Can you believe it, we're almost through
Three hard rocks.
Three hard rocks.

Mrs. Carson's & Ms. Gubler's Classroom

At the beginning of the semester I introduced myself through a PowerPoint presentation as a firefighter, a runner, and a student. I think that this was a great way for me to start out the school year and to introduce the students to another teacher figure that will be in the classroom on a regular basis.

As the semester has progressed forward, I have noticed that my being there has made me much more confident in what I know. I have also been asked to lead a few mini-lessons on a particular worksheet or handout that the students have been assigned and this has really challenged me to use what I have learned in the classes that I have taken here at Northwest. I have also noticed that at the Elementary level I am looked at as being cool and students know that I am young and think that I more of their friend than a teacher. This has been something that I have been working on. I don't think that it has become an issue in the classroom, but outside of class, at recess, lunch, etc, students think that I am not there and they can do as they please.

I guess that all students do this, and it's just a matter of if they get caught or not, but I am really enjoying being in the classroom and I have learned so much from my cooperating teacher. My cooperating teacher and I also have a lot in common, both being from small, country towns in eastern Washington. Her teaching techniques are great, and I hope that I absorb as much as possible from her as I can.

More Reflection-- Using SMART Board & Teaching

The more familiar I become with the SMART board and what I can do with my teaching in conjunction with the program, I find myself becoming more excited to teach. Now, this may also be because I am working in a classroom and I am seeing how students learn and relate to the teacher in the classroom and I imagine what how they would relate if material was presented to them in a different way.
As this relates to me teaching, I find myself trying to combine a whole bunch of ideas that I come up with all at once, which I know won't help my students retain/understand information and, for heaven's sake, won't help me when I am trying to make the technology do what I want it to do, so that it looks and works the way that I want it to. I need to narrow my ideas more in this area and create works that are interesting and engaging but not too "busy" without a purpose.

So, I am continuing to enjoy learning and working with the technology that we have been working with in the classroom.

Panel Questions : Before and After

General Questions
- Where do you teach/ administer/...work?
- What age level/ grade do you work with?
- How long have you been teaching?
- Where else have you worked? What were your reasons for transferring?

Technology Related Questions
- Do you think that the use of technology is necessary in the classroom?
- What are some of the technological programs/ systems that you use in your classroom?
- Are there any additional technology-related programs that you would like to try out in your classroom/ work place?
- Do you feel that your students are familiar/comfortable with the technology that is being introduced to the generation today?
_________________________________________________
Questions that came up throughout the panel discussion...
Laurie Sween
- Is Hope Heart a Christian program/foundation?
- What is Quisdom technology? Interactive response mechanism

Casey Ward
* Advice-- Use Web Grader; Parents can see it being updated daily (grades and assignments); Reduces unnecessary communication with parents because everything is posted online.

Jeremy Kowalski
- United Streaming: Great place to find video clips and pictures for educational use.

SMART Board & Teaching Continued

Hey everyone. I have found a way to use the SMART board features with my presentation for tomorrow night! I am very excited about that!

See you then!

SMART Board Presentation

My presentation will be Part 2 of a unit lesson on amphibians and reptiles. It will be a PowerPoint file and throughout the presentation I will ask students to partake interactively, using a few of the SMART board features. I have created this presentation myself and hope that as I become more familiar with the SMART board features I can create slides that will be more interactive with the features that are offered by the software.

Here are the specific standards that this activity will fulfill:

EALR’s/GLE’s
Science 1.1.6 Living Systems
- Describe characteristics of organisms
- Describe and sort organisms using multiple characteristics (e.g., anatomy such as fins for swimming or leaves for gathering light, behavior patterns, how plants and animals get food differently)
Reading 2.2.2
- Understand and apply features of printed text and electronic sources to locate and understand information.
- Identify and use icons, pull-down menus, and toolbars.
Writing 1.5.1
- Publishes own writing.
- Illustrates work (e.g., drawings, computer graphics, collages)
Communications 3.2.1
- Understands how to use available relevant media and resources in oral presentations.
- Uses presentation technology with teacher guidance (e.g., white boards, overhead projectors)

Activity Plan: Description of Activity

Objective: Using direct instruction, teacher will give information and instruction to learn the key characteristics of and reptiles. As a class, understand scientific vocabulary and make references to a variety of amphibians.

Introduce the spotlight feature, writing on the white board using another program, and the sliding screen.

I will be using the spotlight feature on the first slide to focus on the lizard that is in the bottom right-hand corner. I will show the class how to use this feature and to exit from it as well.

Throughout the presentation on Reptiles, there will be questions that the class will be asked to answer together, and I will be showing the students that they can use the pens to write their answers on the board.

There is one slide in particular that I will be utilizing the sliding screen feature. This slide is the slide that introduces to the class some of the characteristics of all reptiles. Near the top of this slide there is the term "cold-blooded." Underneath the term there is the definition, however, I want to be able to ask the class if they can remember from the amphibian lesson, what cold-blooded means, so I will use the screen to make sure that the definition is not revealed until I have the opportunity to ask a student and then I can continue with the rest of the characteristics of reptiles.

Introduction/Anticipatory Set:
° Show and tell the turtle that I caught
- Class turtle (When presenting this to a class; I would introduce a turtle to be our class pet)
° Share experience and photos. (Teacher)

Teaching Steps (Class Participation and Learning Assessment)
° What are the key characteristics of reptiles? (Teacher) [Rhetorical] (Focusing on turtles…class pet)
° Share list w/students (Model)
° What were some of the characteristics of amphibians that we learned about? (Teacher)
° Ask students? (Check Understanding)
° How can we tell the difference between reptiles and amphibians; what are some characteristics that set them apart? (Teacher)
° Share list w/students (Model)

Closure:
° Ask students for some of characteristics of reptiles that we learned about today. (Teacher) (Check Understanding)
° Write answers on board.

I will end my presentation by asking the class to write on the board 2-3 things that they learned about reptiles.

I have really enjoyed working with the interactive board in our class. At first I felt that using an interactive board in conjunction with lessons/activities that I have created myself by means of another program like PowerPoint, etc., was very frustrating. There are certain steps that you have to take to assure that everything transfers over to the program correctly and that the features work properly once you have them in a different program than what they were originally made.

Now that I have successfully transferred a PowerPoint presentation to the SMART board and was able to use the fun, interactive features I feel that in many cases students would benefit from using an interactive program to learn new things. The technology that the youth has grown up with today is more advanced,but students are comfortable with it and are very familiar with the technological features.

This is very useful is working with the diverse needs of the students in my class. Some will really enjoy having a way to learn visually while others will be able to write on the board and that will be more useful to those individuals. Because there are ways to insert text into the programs that work together with the SMART board, I can also reach the students in my class that like to read and absorb information that way. I think that using this technology can reach a number of learning techniques and a variety of levels.

Here is a link to my presentation: Reptiles

SMART Board & Teaching

My first thought for this blog was to just type the word annoying and frustrating in big, bold, red letters and post that as my blog!

I found this great interactive lesson plan that was a link from the Read Write Think organization, and would be a very fun lesson to present to the class, however in my practice presentation today, I wasn't able to use the SMART board features with my lesson, so I felt that my lesson was somewhat boring. There are many more opportunities for students to come up with their own ideas, and as a class create a project that is very informative and fun using this program in conjunction with the SMART board features.

After talking with Professor Sorenson about the lesson plan and the inability to use the features of the SMART board, she said that she would call the SMART board experts and see if there was a way to use the features in my program, and I was later informed that there is a way to incorporate the SMART board into my lesson plan.

.... We shall see how it works later this evening!

Stay Tuned!

Students & Productivity Software

How will you help your students learn/use productivity software?...

I think that it will be very important to have a very engaging and interactive way to introduce new software that I plan on having my students use in the classroom. The reason for this is that if the software seems inferior to the software and programs that they already use at home, away from school, then students will not be interested in using the software that I have for them to use.

The activities that I create for my students to do using the software, need to have some areas in which the students can use their own creativity and imagination to personalize their work/creations. I think that it is also important to have a handout for my students that walks them through the various features that they can access through the software. I would also post this handout on line and link it to the class blog, or have it somewhere on the school website/class website where they can refer to it outside of class if they need to.

Internet Issues for MY Students

There are so many "bad" things that can be accessed through the Internet today and i think that these will be the main concern for issues with my students using the Internet. Sometimes the security programs installed on your computers in the classroom simply do not catch everything.

Another issue that may occur in the classroom with my students using the Internet, is conflicts with software. I may have the students using an older version of a particular program , because I am familiar with its features while my students do not know how to use it. Old technology and new technology are so different, being that our technology today is so advanced and has combined a lot of the tedious steps to working a program, that now everything is very simple to understand and the computer does a lot of the work for you.

Another issue may be that because there is so many other programs and neat "things" that students/children use on the web daily; I may have a difficult time getting my students focused on the program that I am asking them to use. Students may take advantage of the use of Internet in the classroom and be on another site, completely off task with the goal of the assignment.