Spreadsheets

The project that I looked at as an example on how to teach students to use spreadsheets and read graphs was for a second grade classroom. The students first had to predict the weight of the pumpkin and also predict how many seeds might be in there. Then, they put their predictions onto a spreadsheet and drew conclusions from their information.  The students then weight their pumpkins and cut them open and used their hands to feel the pulp, and separate and count the seeds. They put the information gathered onto the same spreadsheet where they had predicted the weight and number of seeds and compared them. The students presented their findings to the class.

I would love to work as a Kindergarten, or even preschool teacher, so my students will be very young. I would modify this experiment a little bit so that my young students can enjoy this, too. I would make sure to use little pumpkins and in a Kindergarten class, use it as a way to learn how to count as the students counted the seeds. Instead of predicting the weight, we would just weight them to see how different sized pumpkins weigh different weights. I think it would be a lot of fun to use this in a young classroom in the fall as everyone is getting excited for the fall season.

Playing Games!

For this assignment, we got to play three game consoles! We played the Wii, Xbox360 Kinect and iPod games. Games are a great way to teach students different things, especially now because almost everyone plays games these days. We have all the systems at home, and it’s so much fun to play them. We spend a lot of time on the weekend doing so. =)

I plan on teaching young students, in Kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd grade, and I think it would be a lot of fun to have a Wii or Kinect in the room. The way some things are going, Physical Education may be obsolete in 15 years, and Kinect, or something like it would be a great way to keep the students active. Or even if you still have physical education at your school, you can still use games to help your young students get the wiggles out.

Smart or Dumb?

For this assignment, we were asked to read chapter four in Haskell's book, "Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse or Your First Year of Teaching" (Chapter four is conveniently placed at the beginning, because, as Haskell says, "Because you never read it at the end.") In this chapter, he discusses how it's hard to really tell you who is smartest in the room and who is the dumbest. You can't just assume someone's intelligence by looking at them. (Drummers can be smart! =) )You really have to take the time to get to know your students and understand them. I've never been good at math, but one of my favorite teachers from high school was one of my math teachers, and that's because he made it fun and took an interest in us. My English teacher my junior year was great because she was like a friend to some of us, but just because we got along so well didn't mean she gave me good grades. I had to work for them. When I have the opportunity to be a teacher, I hope to be able to connect with my students, so I can know them personally, and really figure out where they might need help, and how smart they really are!

Realm of Creativity Quest

For this quest, we read a chapter out of the book "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse or Your First Year of Teaching" This book was written by Chris Haskell, who is a professor of this class, Education Technology 202. It's a great chapter that discusses setting your goals as a teacher. Haskell is very entertaining to read and keeps you interested. This reading really gets you to think about what kind of teacher you want to be. What goals to set, a vision for your classroom, how you want to layout your classroom, and much more. I think after reading this, I have a great idea on how I want my classroom to look!

The Jigsaw Method

This quest in my class was about the Jigsaw Method. The Jigsaw method was created to help students learn to work well with students they might not work with if they got to choose. The way it works is you split your class into small groups and assign each group member a topic. Say you are having your students do a report on ocean life. You would split your students up into small groups of five, and give each individual student a certain topic such as plant life, ocean predators, small fish, deep sea creatures, and animals that live both in the ocean and out of the ocean. Those students would get with other students with their same topics and research them together. They would then come back to their original group, reporting what they have learned. The original group would then put their report together having a lot of information from many different people. Kind of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together!  

How could you use the jigsaw method in your classroom if you only had 5 computers? 

You could use the Jigsaw method by assigning your students into five different groups and have them all share a computer.

What could be an advantage of this method?

An advantage of this method would be that the students could quickly and efficiently get the work done.

What could be a disadvantage?

A disadvantage could be that sometimes students don't like sharing or working in groups. Some younger students might not yet have the social or computer skills to work in a group.

Netiquette

The assignment I just finished was titled "Netiquette." I never knew this was a word, but it must be a real word because spell check doesn't mark it as a wrong word! I made a Google presentation about how to explain netiquette guidelines to Kindergarteners. You can find it here.

An Open Letter to Students

Dear Students,

Welcome to first grade! I am very excited to have you join me this year. We are going to have so much fun as I am going to make learning hands on for everyone. I am hoping to make learning fun and memorable for everyone. Some examples of what I plan to accomplish while you are in first grade are

• Language Arts
• Knowing the names and sounds of all the consonants and vowels
• Understanding phonics concepts such as consonant combinations
• Following along, reading, and summarizing simple stories with pictures
• Developing an understanding of composition
• Math
• Counting to 100 by 1’s and skip counting
• Knowing the addition math facts
• Adding and subtracting small numbers
• Understanding the value of money
• Knowing the units for measurement, time, and weight

And a lot more! I can't wait to enjoy this school year with you.

Sincerly,

Mrs. Kilgore

**This letter is part of an assignment to write a letter to my students. We watched this very interesting video by Dan Brown. He has a lot of good points and I'm excited to see what else he has to say in his videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2PGGeTOA4