Final Week

I have completed steps 2-4. Thanks for everything!

Internet Safety

1. I read "Rated A" by Marvin J. Ashton
2. I watched a bunch of different videos on the effects of the internet. Some of these included the child predator fear, cyberbullying, and Katie's story. I feel that they were all on how internet can be a scary tool for children to use, even though it can also be very helpful.
3. I feel that I learned a lot by reading the articles and watching videos on the internet. I really liked the Church articles because it reinforced in me how influential media is in our lives. Satan uses this powerful tool against all of us. I think the huge take-away message from all of these articles and videos is that the internet and media can be very detrimental and have negative effects, but if used properly it is very helpful and beneficial. I need to do a good job of educating my students and future children on how to be safe using the internet.
4. I called my mom to find out what she already knew about cyberbullying and predators online. She told me that she didn't know much about cyberbullying and hadn't heard of it, but she was very aware of predators online. I told her all about the videos that I watched, and she was shocked and really scared. I think after having shared these videos and people's experiences with my mom that she will be even more aware of this happening on the internet and try to keep a lookout if there are children around.

TPACK Report

3 Lesson Plans

Social Studies Lesson Plan
Language Arts Lesson Plan
Science Lesson Plan

Week 10

The videos that I watched for this week’s assignment were very informative. I think that the absolute most important thing that I realized through watching these videos was that you can use technology with any grade. In the first video I learned that kindergarteners were very capable of using technology. There were able to use computers in order to communicate with other classes. I believe that if even students as young as kindergarteners are able to use technology, this can definitely enhance student’s learning and each lesson in any grade. It is crazy to me that so many different subjects can all be incorporated into one unit, and technology can also be used to enhance each and every subject. It is also really neat to see all of the standards that are involved in a lesson plan for a unit. I am really glad that they gave examples for resources, and I will try to save them somewhere for future use.

Classroom Technology

I am doing my practicum at Foothill Elementary School in the Alpine School District with the 3rd grade. I feel that there is a good amount of technology available to the teachers that work there. There are 2 computer labs available every day to sign up for that are full of mac computers. The teacher I am working with also has a computer projector in her classroom, which is very helpful. The only thing that I find kind of weird is that there are no computers in the actual classroom. In order for the teacher to use the computer projector, she hooks up her laptop. I completed parts 2 & 3 from the assignment.

Science VoiceThread

Here is my voicethread science project that was explained previously. Sorry but on the first page of the project my voice recording is on there twice!! Enjoy!

Science Challenge

For my science lesson plan, I decided to focus on science in the 6th grade. I chose:

Standard 1: Students will understand that the appearance of the moon changes in a predictable cycle as it orbits Earth and as Earth rotates on its axis.
Objective 1: Explain patterns of changes in the appearance of the moon as it orbits Earth.
A: Describe changes in the appearance of the moon during a month.

I chose to use the program "Stellarium" for this lesson. This program can show the night sky from anywhere on earth at any time. Therefore, I figured it would be a good idea to let the students explore the moon phases by looking at the same location on earth, but at different days throughout an entire month. After they are done exploring, I will have them draw and describe the phases of the moon and how they change throughout the cycle.

Content: The content I will be focusing on is the standard I previously stated. I will want the students to learn what phases of the moon look like and how they change throughout the month.
Pedagogy: Students will explore, illustrate, and describe the phases of the moon.
Technology: The students will use the program "Stellarium" on the computer in order to explore what the moon looks like during every phase of its cycle.

Virtual Tour Reviews

I looked at the following people's tours:

Malorie Walton: I thought the activities were a really good idea. The idea of doing New Zealand was also really original!
Alyssa Young: I really liked the idea of doing ancient civilizations. I think this makes something so hard to visualize much more real!
Ashley Daley: This was such a great tour, she did a really good job! I liked how she covered such different places.

Virtual Tour

The following is my virtual tour of landforms caused by earthquakes and volcanoes. To start the tour, click on the placemarker that is of a sun. This will include the instructions and what layers to use for the entire tour. Enjoy:)

Also, apparently the videos that I embedded work on my Google Earth work on my computer but will not upload onto my blog virtual tour. So here they are:
Grand Canyon Video
Appalachian Mountains Video

One last thing, here is the link to my google site so you can see the real version:
Virtual Tour

Virtual Tour Planning

Content:
Objective 2
Explain how volcanoes, earthquakes, and uplift affect Earth’s surface.
b. Give examples of different landforms that are formed by volcanoes, earthquakes, and uplift (e.g., mountains, valleys, new lakes, canyons). I choose to do a virtual tour for showing different features of the Earth's surface because I figured this would be the best way to really show a 3D view of these places.
Pedagogy: The students will learn through using an interactive map. This map will help them to discover things about the earth's surface by making discoveries of their own. I will be using different features of the earth (such as lakes, mountains, craters, and canyons) in order to show them all the different effects of volcanoes and earthquakes. This interactive map will help them to each discover all of the different places on the earth on their own and work at their own pace.
Technology: The technology I'll be using is Google Earth and its various tools. Using hands-on technology will help the children to become more excited about what they are learning.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Hebgen Lake, Montana (formed by earthquake)	Research how Hebgen Lake was formed and the effect of the earthquake. Measure with ruler how long it is from one end to the other. Use placemarks to show where to measure from.	Ruler, placemark
2.Grand Canyon, Utah (along earthquake boundaries)	Look up pictures of Grand Canyon and ask children how they think an earthquake could form a canyon like this. Show video on Grand Canyon from You Tube.	You tube, Placemark, layers, image overlay
3. Appalachian Mountains, Maryland (along earthquake boundaries)	Look up pictures and formulate own opinion of how these may have been formed. Compare these mountains to canyons from the Grand Canyon. Use layers to show how different in size these mountains are from the Grand Canyon.	Layers, image overlay
4. Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii (volcano crater)	I will placemark two different sides of the crater in Hawaii and have the children use a ruler to measure the distance between the two ends.	Placemarks, ruler, layers

Other People's Digital Stories

I really enjoyed watching everyones stories. They were all so different and unique.

I watched:

Ashley Daley: This was a video trailer for the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I thought that the idea of a movie trailer was so original, and she did such a great job with the voice and pictures in it.

Rachel Hamilton: This was a movie to the song "Baby of Mine". The pictures were all really cute and I'm sure children would love to watch it.

Kristen Wagner: Such a cute love story of her parents. I think this is a GREAT idea to show students where you came from. I would love to show my own students something like this of my own before hearing about their own families.

Stephanie Anderson: She did a video on the health food pyramid. Her music corresponded exactly to the pictures and text. It was a really great idea.

Camila Monteiro: This was such a cute video of B-I-N-G-O. I know younger children would love it and would love to sing along.

Carmen Heap: Her video was based on the poem "Smart" by Shel Silverstein. It was neat to see the poem as a video with pictures that went along with it.

Digital ABC Storybook

This is my digital ABC storybook. It uses standards from the 1st grade Language Arts Core:
Standard 1 Objective 2: Develop language through viewing media and presenting.
Standard 2 Objective 1: Demonstrate an understanding that print carries “the” message.

ABC Storybook Storyboard

In order to look at the order of this storyboard, start from the bottom and go up.

Week 2- Web 2.0

My wiki's address is: http://brittanycrowder.pbworks.com/

I thought this weeks lesson was very interesting and also very beneficial. I really loved creating my own wiki because it is so simple. I never thought I would be able to create a webpage because I don't know all of the programming language, but PBworks makes it SO easy! I think goodreads could be a great resource for when I actually have a classroom because the students will be able to write their own comments about books and have a book list of their own. I learned more today from the internet than I ever thought possible! Something difficult that I did was find enough information to put together somewhat of a lesson on my wiki. However, there were many great resources available and I was able to find enough information. The most useful was definitely the wiki page. I will for sure use this every year when I am a teacher for a class website.

Diigo screenshot:












Goodreads screenshot:












Google reader screenshot:












Skype screenshot:

Why I Love Education

This is very cliche, but I LOVE kids! I love the idea of working with them all day long and hopefully influencing their lives for the better. I believe that, as teachers, we are able to make the world a better place by teaching children when they are young.