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Assignment #7-Blog

 

Fifth Grade Blog-Mrs. Otis 

 

 I believe Blogs can be a very effective communication tool where teachers can post messages and updates instantly.  Students and parents can access the blog at their convenience.   Important dates and notes can be displayed.  The reasons, "I did't know it was due" or "I lost my paper with the due date" cannot be used if the dates are posted on the teachers' blogs.  So blogs may eliminate some of the excuses kids and parents may try to use when it comes to students work. 

 Blogs are motivating to students.  Kids like the idea of publishing their work on the computer for others to view.  I think studetns may put forth more effort because other people can respond to the work shown on the blog.  On the other hand it could be an intimidating factor for some students.  Some students shy away from the idea of their work being seen by others.

 Right now I personally am not a fan of blogs.  I worked for hours on my blog.  I had a hard time figuring out how and what to put on my page.  I know with more practice it would become easier and more user friendly.  If I master setting up a blog and learn how my kids can effectively use it I probably would implement it into my classroom.   Some kids may not have access to a computer at home which would be a negative aspect of blogs.  Another negative is that not only the teacher needs to take time to learn how to effectively use blogs, but the students also will need some training.  There is a time issue when using blogs.  All in all blogs can be an effctive communication tool for a classroom teacher, students, and parents. 

 

 

 

Assignment #6-Chat Room

 

Activity: Discussing Literature Through Chat Rooms

 

My fifth graders are involved in literature circles.  I break the students into novel groups.  Each group of 4 to 5 students read the same novel.  They are assigned a certain number of pages per week.  During the week each student is assigned a specific job to complete.  They are all responsible for writing in their Reading Response Log.  A weekly team meeting is schedules to discuss their completed jobs and to read their entries in their Reading Response Log.  Discussing their chapters in a chat room setting would be a supplemental activity my students could be involved in.  As a monitor I would post a question to discuss.  I feel it is important to get fifth graders focused on a specific topic that they all can respond to, such as, " How are you like or not like the main character in your novel?"   While stating how they are like the main character in their novel,  students can respond to each others opinions.  This would motivate students to read the other novels being read in the classroom.   I realize that many of my students do not have access to the internet at home, so I would implement this activity at school during a 45 minute reading class.  I would act as a monitor/facilitator.  I would involve myself in the chat room discussion to keep the discussion going.   I probably would try to get a print out of the discussion to be sure everyone participated in the discussion. 

 

It would be really neat to collaborate with a distant school.  The students from different schools would read the same novel and discuss their chapters in  a chat room. 

 

One of the biggest benefits of using a chat room would be the motivational factor.  Students will want to be involved.  Another benefit is that  students are able to see and use another commuication resource that is available to them.

 

One of the cons is of course is the limited internet access that students have.  Implementing this during the school day would probably need to be done.  Some students may feel a little intimidated to have everyone see what he/she writes.  Some students may write inappropriate things before the teacher can check.

 

 

 

Assignment #5-Kidspiration

 

The Kidspiration activity I developed for my fifth graders will supplement my unit on plant and animal cells.  After discussing and identifying parts of animal and plant cells I would assess my students understanding of plant and animal cells by having them draw both cells using kidspiration.  My students would be required to include the parts of the cells that we discussed in class and make a key to identify the parts.  Something else I may  have students do is write the function of each cell part using the notebook feature.  (I did not include an example of that part in the kidspriation example.)  I could use this as an easy wasy to assess students knowledge of the parts of animal and plant cells.  It would be a motivating and fun way for the kids to be assessed instead of a paper and pencil test.  I would plan at least two 30 minute class periods to complete this activity.

 

 

Animal Cell-Kidspiration.kid 

 

 

Allys Animal and Plant Cell.kid   

cells-Madison.kid

Animal Cell and Plant Cell-Pam.kid

Cells.kid

Dylans Plant and Animal Cells.kid

plant and animal cell.kid

Kaitlyns plant and animalcell.kid

plant and animal cell-Kyle F..kid

plant and animal cells.kid

Youre on the Hotseat.kid

AWESOME IDIOMS!!.kid

Its Raining Cats and Dogs!!.kid

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment #4- Wequest

 

 

French explorer webquest.doc 

 

Webquest Information sheet.doc  This document provides students with the worksheets and other information needed to complete the tasks successfully for the French explorer webquest.

 

Assignment #3- Virtual Tour

 

  I teach a unit on immigration.  Ellis Island was an immigration center where the ships carrying American hopefuls first stopped.  Students learn about the rigors that immigrants had to go through when they arrived at Ellis Island.   The virtual tour that I found gives an excellent overview of the process immigrants had to go through in order to be admitted in the United States.  I like it because you can hear immigrants talking and giving their account of the experience.   There is a video, pictures,and also a map of where of the immigrants had to go as they endured the process of getting into the U.S.  I would use this virtual tour to enhance my lessons on immigation/Ellis Island.  After viewing the Virtual tour the students will complete an outline of the process at Ellis Island.  Click on this link, Immigration- Ellis Island, to view the immigration process at ELllis Island.

 

 

 

Assignment #2- Powerpoint

 

 

Spanish Explorers ppt and quiz.ppt 

 

Powerpoint Lesson Plan:  A unit I teach to my fifth graders is on the Spanish Explorers.  The powerpoint  I created is on six of the Spanish explorers.  For each explorer there are three slides.  The first one is an introduction slide with the explorer's name, picture of him, year of birth and year he died, and his major accomplishemnt.  The second slide is the explorer's hi-lights.   The third slide  is a map of the explorer's route.   Towards the end of the powerpoint gives information about New Spain that was created due to these explorers.  Finally a quiz has been created reviewing the major accomplishment the explorers.  I am planning on using this powerpoint after introducing the explorers to the students.  My students will be able to have access to the powerpoint to reinforce the explorers and their major accomplishments.

 

 

Assignment #1-Microsoft Excel Assignment.

 

 

Sweet Timeline.xls 

 

Excel Lesson Plan:  A unit I teach to my fifth graders is a Timeline unit.  In my social Studies curriculum the kids learn about explorers from 1000AD to the explorers of the 1600s.  It is very important that the kids understand the concept of time and when the explorers and events happened in our history.  I begin the year making sure the kids understand how to read and set up timelines.  To get the students interested I have them research candy and when it was introduced.  After the students have a list of 10 or more kinds of candy and the dates they were introduced they make a timeline, concentrating on an appropriate scale to use, spacing of years, title, and  inserting the candy at the appropriate place on their timeline.  Students could use excel to dispay their candy timeline.

 

Other ideas of using excel: 1.  Explorer timeline   2. Biographical timeline of each student.  3.  When teaching about weather students could keep track of the daily temperature, humidity,  air pressure, and precipitation.  Each day they could record their findings.  

 

This is a link to my school web page.

 

Assignment #7-Podcasting 

 

1.  Fifth Grade Podcast: "Age of Discovery" - 9 minutes

 

  This audio podcast was about the early European Explorers.  The explorers presented in this podcast are the explorers that I teach in my Social Studies curriculum.  The podcast was presented by the fifth grade students of Mrs. Cantillon's class.  They talked as if they were the explorers themselves.  Listening to this podcast encourages me to have my students present podcasts about things they have learned.  Podcasting would be a great culminating activity at the same time motivating for the students to create.

   This teacher also had her students created podcasts on the following topics: Immigration, Presidents, Rosa Parks, The Great Depression, and Sea of Chantey's on Star of India.

 

2.  Fifth Grade Fever: "Ferdinand Magellan"- 4 minutes

 

   This audio podcast was about the explorer Ferdinand Magellan.   The student researched and presented facts aboutthe life of Magellan.  Magellan is one of the explorers my students learn about.  Another mode of learning some explorers would be to give the students in my class a list of questions.  Listen to the podcast and answer the questions that go along with the podcast.  Students would be learning about the expolorer as well as practicing listening skills and comprehension skills.

   There were other podcasts about historical figures  posted on this site given by other fifth graders that would be useful to me and go along with my curriculum.

 

3. Mod Pods of Fifth Grade: "Edible Cells" 50 seconds  "Edible Vertebrates"-25 seconds   "Save Fred"- 45 seconds

 

   These were video podcasts that I came across.  I was hoping to find a video podcast related to units I teach in fifth grade.  The "Edible Cells" showed students in a classroom with the edible cells that they created.  With each video there was a caption to read.  I didn't like these as well because there was no talking just music playing along with the video. 

  The "Edible Vertebrate" is an idea I may try with my students.  They created snake like vertebrate using a candy.  In the end it simulted how the backbone is flexible.  I believed the students used a twizzler and gummi life savers for the backbone.  It was a cool idea.  However, there was no one talking.  There were captions to read with the video.   Music played in the background.

   The "Save Fred" podcast was a problem solving activity where the students worked cooperatively to problem solve.    

 

 

 

 

Assignment #6-Blogs

 

 

Blogging In Fifth Grade -Steve Spangler's blog is a great place to find fun fun and inovative ways to teach science.   He provides hands-on science experiments for the children to do to help them better understand things like, "Newton's Laws of motion.  It was very intersesting to read the comments posted.  They were very positive and uplifting.  Teaching kids in a fun way!

 

 

 Fifth Grade Language Arts-The focus of this blog was to discuss reading and writing in fifth grade.  I agree with the comment that as students enter fifith grade it is crucial we engage them into reading for pleasure and instill in them to be life long readers.   Prvoiding thematiic units seems to really activiely engage students into reading, especially when the teacher really looks to see what the interests are in fifth grade.  I agree with the somment that "survival" stories are always a big hit at that age.  Students need to be writng each day. Whether it be a in a journal, reading response log, or a written assignment.   This blogger gives a list of books to check out.  There are movies to "Netflix."   (Does that mean to watch the movies on the internet?)  There were links for kids to go to also which was nice.

 

Fifth Grade Web Writers - What a cool site!  This site inspires me to want to get my students writing on the web.  The teacher who created this blog has links to her students' blogs.  It was really intersting to see what the students wrote.  They have stories posted where they pretend to be Harriet Tubman.  From Harriet Tubman's point of view they write letters telling about their life in the Undergroud Railroad.  Students alo list other assignments which have given me ideas to do withmy own students, such as an activity to do after reading Time for Kids.

 

 

 Math Differentiation - Mark Pullen is an elemetary school teacher who created this blog.  The focus of this blog is on Differentiation in the classroom, specifically in the math classroom.  This blog hit home because out principal Wyalusing Elementary Schools was really big on Differentiation in the classroom.  I went to a conference in NYC on this topic.  Differentiation is what should be happening inthe classrooms because our learners are at different levels of ability and should be given lessons/work that is on their level and also engaging to them.  In practice Differentiation is challenging to the classroom teacher.  It is overwhelming trying to differentiate 30 students and teach all the different academic subjects.  I keep differentiation in the back of my mind and implement it when I can.  It should be happening every day in all classrooms.  (Differentiation could lead to teacher burnout quickly.)

 

 

 

Assignment #5- WebQuests

 

   The following WebQuests allign with the upcoming units I teach in Social Studies.  They would make great supplemental activities for my units on Natvie Americans, The Vikings, Marco Polo, and Explorers.

 

1.  Native Americans WebQuest

 

    This Webquest would be a great culminating activity after my unit on Indians.  For this webquest students are put in small cooperative learning groups.  Each group will choose an Indian Tribe from one of the five Indian Cultures.  The groups will then conduct research on the Tribe.  The Webquest has forms and checklists for each step of the activity.  In the end the group will choose how they would like to display their Indian Tribe for the school's Native American Museum.

 

2. Vikings WebQuest

 

    This Webquest would be a great initiating activity for the Vikings.  I feel it would get the kids motivated to learn more about the Vikings.  The nice aspect of this webquest is that it has goals set for each day the students work.  It provides teacher notes that are in parenthesis to help make sure the teacher has prepared the students for the days webquest of the Vikings.  At the end of the webQuest there are early finisher links provided. 

 

 

3. Marco Polo WebQuest

 

     This webquest provided by Scholastic is one tf the simpler ones I have come across.  Basically the students are directed to a MArco Polo History site.  After viewing the site and resding about Marco Polo, students are brought back to the first screen where theya re to answer some multiple choice questions about Marco Polo. I would use this as an initiating activity to begin my unit on Marco Polo.

 

4. Exploring Uncharted Waters- WebQuest

 

    For this WebQuest students research 4 different explorers whiling filling out a given recording sheet.  This part of the assignment is for students to learn what life was like for the explorers.  Students are then required to be sure they know continents and oceans.  They must also plot an island on a map using latitude and longitude measurements.  I like this part beccause I previoulsy taught map skills and geography so it is a great review.  For the final project students become a sailor and tell about their exploit.  Students have specific guide lines to follow while they are pretending to be an explorer exploring uncharted waters.

 

5. Be a Reporter about an Explorer- WebQuest

 

    This is my favorite webQuest I came across.  Students are newspaper repoters who write a newspaper article about a famous explorer.  Students choose an explorer froma given list.  They research the explorer's life.  Web sites are give for this task. Students locate a map of the explorers discoveries.  At the end students create a poster of the explorer.

 

 

 

Assignment #4

 

 

 

 

Assignment #3 Del.icio.us 

 

Assignment #2 

 

 

    1.  What is the text entered into the search box?

 

       The text entered was "students using personification."

 

    2. For the basic search, how many results are returned?

 

       Google- 983,000             Yahoo- 335,000            Ask- 36,500

 

    3. Using the first 10 results, how many appear to be useful?

 

      Yahoo and Google provided me with more useful sites than Ask.  Looking througth the first 10 sites I found that Yahoo gave me

     about 7 useful sites, Google gave me 5 useful sites, and Ask gave me 1 that I would use.

 

    4. Make links to three sites that appear to be useful.

 

     Personification Link 1               Personification Link 2              Personification Link 3

 

     5. Refine your search by using the advanced search features.  What did you do to refine your search?

 

      To refine my search, I used the exact phrase

 

 

    6. Are the results returned significantly different in number or content?

 

         When I used the same text  "students using personification" for my advanced searches in Google, Yahoo, and Ask received no sites.  

       I then typed the phrase "using personification"  and received results.  The results were:  Google 584,   Yahoo 826, and  Ask 1,230.

       I tended to like the results from Ask during this search with a different text and advanced search.  Ask kicked back a few sites that I did not

      see with my previous search.  They looked to be very useful in teaching personification and providing activities.  I bookmarked a few of

      them.

 

  7. Compare and contrast the homepages for each of the search engines.  What features do you like/dislike about them?

 

       I lean google and ask homepages because of their simplicity.  Yahoo has a lot on its homepage which I feel is distracting.  I like how

     google and Ask have the icons above the search box.  I like the image option. 

 

    8. Compare and contrast the results pages for each of the search engines.  What features do you like/dislike about them?

 

           I like the features on the left hand side of Ask page where you can "narrow your topic,"  give you "related topics," and even "Authors." 

       Ask gave me an author's name who uses personification.  Google and Yahoo results pages are similar in the way they kick back the reults

       of your search.   As I compare what sites the search engines kicked back, Yahoo and Google kicked back more of the same sites.  All three,

      Google, Ask, and Yahoo gives you an idea of what the site contains on the reults page.  They give you a brief statement about the sites.

      A very useful feature.

 

    9. Which of the three do you find best?  Why?

 

     I tend to like google the best.  It seems to give me what I want.  Google has given me more useful sites.  I used to use Ask a lot but once I started using google, it has been my choice of search engines. It was interesting using the advanced feature.  That is something that I have not used before.  I especially like the advance search feature using Ask, however I did change my wording to get some results.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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