Sunday, May 8, 2016

A Time to Reflect: Multimedia Lesson Plan

  This was my first time creating a lesson plan. The task was quite difficult but I hope it gets easier once I get familiar and comfortable with the planning process. One way of creating a similar lesson plan is having the groups make a group project. In their project, they are to present their results on a presentation board. They can create graphs of their results, draw the 5 Food Group Pyramid, or give additional informational facts about cereal. What I would still do is use the grading rubric because it is an effective teaching method to evaluate students.
Based on what I have created in this lesson, the following lesson plan would may be exercising. I would teach the importance of daily exercising activities because exercising is as important as eating. In the future, I could use these lesson plans when teaching Health. I will evaluate students performance by attaining the learning objectives from the lesson. “The process of setting data-informed student goals and monitoring progress against those goals is considered to be a best practice for teachers” (Baltimore City Public Schools, 2015). Further, effort and participation would also be praised and taken in consideration of.
My student evaluations help me see what needs improvement on. Every lesson plan would be evaluated by how much my students have learned. If 85 - 90% of my students evaluated well, I may move on to my next lesson plan. If more than half of my students still do not understand the fundamental skills, then I will modify my lesson plan. “The extent to which each teacher is willing to accept the personal responsibility to improve, to constantly strive to learn, apply and create appropriate teaching-learning procedures, is precisely the extent to which they are becoming more professional, more responsible, and more effective; and is the extent to which they can assure that they “Leave No Child Behind,” (Page, 2008).  I do not want to keep moving on new and different lessons if more than half of my students are not comprehending fully. It shows me I am failing as a teacher, not my students. I would like to see my lesson objectives reached and attained by my students.  
I don't see how the lesson plan is connected to the real world is not included in the ASSURE lesson plan format. It is something I would include because, as teachers, we are preparing students what they learn inside the classroom for outside the classroom. For example, understanding which is a healthier cereal to eat would help students become aware of how much salt and sugar intake is in foods they consume. Therefore, their awareness of healthy eating habits would help them make smart eating choices throughout their life.
Additional information such as the dangerous effects of not eating healthy would be instructed. I can demonstrate some examples and ideas of what would happen if they constantly consume so much salt and sugar in their meals. Knowing the causes and effects of demonstrating poor eating habits would be further instructed. Resources such as educational games can be played on the school computer or books on healthy food can be provided to help further enhance the lesson.
To create a lesson plan challenging for my students, I would incorporate more cereal choices and make a tally of all the sugar, fat, and salt intake. They would make tally marks and create different type of graphs out of their tally marks. Then, they would find the statistics of their results from the graph such as the minimum, maximum, median, average, and range of each cereal. This would show how health and math is being incorporated into one lesson plan.

References

Baltimore City Public School. (2016). City schools inside: Informing and engaging Baltimore city public schools employees. Student Learning Objectives. Retrieved from http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/26885.

Page, B. (2008). When is student failure the teachers fault?. Teachers.Net Gazette. 5(7). Retrieved from http://www.teachers.net/gazette/JUL08/page/

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Technology Assessment #2

8 Technology Assessment Tools

Love It, Like It, Or Click it to the Curb?


When I had a PC laptop, I hardly used Google Chrome. I would mostly use the basic Internet Browser search engine instead. I am a MAC user now so Safari is what I currently use on my personal laptop. I have tried venturing onto other web sites but Google is still my favorite online web search engine and my go-to. It may probably be their highly appealing colors that fascinate me so much. The only con about using Google that I can think of, is its internet popularity. Many times, my peers and I would have the same articles or facts when searching for online sources. Overall, I don't use it much often as I have no need to use it.
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I love Google Apps and would highly recommend everyone to utilize them. On my smartphone, it is synchronized with my Gmail account, so its easily accessible for me to check up on any new notifications I receive throughout the day. One Google App that I enjoy using fondly was Blogger. I love that users can personalize their blog/post. Plus, it is FREE MEMBERSHIP to sign up and join. As a college student, Blogger is an easier way to turn in all of my homework, class assignments, and group projects online with just a click away. I love how I can just stay on one website and not open all of my tabs which is very inconvenient and such a waste of time.  
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3. Moodle

Last year, I first used Moodle when I was taking an online course during Summer Break. When I was fully equipped and logging on, I was frantically worried because I did not know how to use Moodle. I would suggest an online how-to tutorial on how to use Moodle for beginning students who are still relatively new. An online how-to tutorial would have been really helpful when I first started. I wouldn't have felt the need to worry so much. Eventually, I got the hang of Moodle so I saw how it was becoming an easier technology tool to use since I practically force myself to learn how to use Moodle instead. Since they are used for class courses, a nice audio chat for socializing with the rest of my classmates rather than a message forum, making Moodle more an efficient website. I do a lot of required work on Moodle but has never encountered any major problems with it. However, I do think there are efficient technology tools out there. 
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4. WIX

Wix was actually one of the first website creators my team ALPHA, used. We created a Wix website to present about our educational mathematics game and everything turned out wonderful. Taking this technology course this Spring has opened my eyes as to how technology is greatly integrated with education a lot. It is a different presentation tool to than what I normally see in classrooms. A few months ago, I never knew about website designing. Now, I have been introduced in about 50 websites to create and customize unique presentations and different project designs. In Wix, I can choose to select a different theme. The possibilities are endless!

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Twiddla was the web conferencing tool Group Alpha was assigned to discuss and present to in class. Instantly, the first thing I noticed about Twiddla! was its silly, yet unique name. Twiddla is recommended for people to meet up for attending business meetings and conference calls online. It may be used for brainstorming ideas, swapping/uploading pictures and website images. When I was using Twiddla!, the design layout was really simple and plain. Its main features that makes Twiddla stand out from its opposers is the white screen board. Also, Twiddla can accommodate many online users at one time, as long as they have access to an internet connection. There is no audio recording tool for hearing other members join in. Twiddla is a hassle free, no frills, web conferencing tool.


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6. emaze
Emaze is another presentation tool that was fun and easy to use for Team Alpha. I was really excited about Emaze because it caught my interest right away. The website looks like a lot of fun to use. As with other presentation tools, there were  pre-made themes to select which made it easier to get. Emaze is beneficial because emaze can be automatically shared with everyone. For viewing pleasure, Emaza be seen automatically on the smartphone, in a laptop, on a computer, or on a tablet.
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LiveBinders is an educational website for future educators to organize all their work by going paperless. I like how it thought of that idea because it is a great way to recycle paper! Also, LiveBinders helps me further demonstrate my organization skills. What is so unique about it, is filling up my personal binder with endless work combined into one binder!! When I am done, I can see the layout of my binders into separate tabs. The visuals of all the websites add a colorful touch to my binder. Teachers may show parents their LiveBinders so parents may be on track with what their child will be learning about at school or a teacher can assign different binders to each individual student and showcase the students progress inside the classroom.  
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8. Weebly
I have always been curious about Weebly because I have seen some of my Professors websites are by Weebly and UOG students websites are made by Weebly, too. When I used Weebly for my Multimedia Lesson Plan, I found out it was was easier than I thought. For my Wix Website, I used it as an accessible tool for teacher to interact with the parent.
I would definitely would like to use Weebly sometime again in the near future someday. I highly recommend this website.  
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Ratings:
WARNING!!CLICK IT TO THE CURB.
DISLIKE
AVERAGE
LIKE
LOVE, Highly Recommend!!