E-Portfolio

This is my E- Portfolio link. It covers the American Revlutionary War. Look and enjoy!!!

www.student.gsu.edu/~acallaway3/Introduction_page_for_porfolio.html

Blog Reflection

I have really enjoyed blogging this semester. I have never even heard of blogging until this class. It is really easy. I think that it is a fun way for students to get involved in creative writing. It is something that their parents can be involved in also. I would love to use blogging with my future students.

Final Reflection

Final Reflection Amanda Callaway

Through my experience of taking the IT 3210 course I feel that I am very prepared to enter the classroom and use technology in a lesson. In the IT 3210 course I have learned about so many different computer programs and how easy it is to integrate them into a lesson. For example, we learned how to use the computer program Access. I learned how easy it was to use the program and then I was able to establish a complete lesson on the American Revolutionary
War using Access. One thing that I think might help me put what I have learned in this class to use in the classroom is that I need to remember that there is always some way I can integrate technology into any of my lessons and make them fun and educational for the students. A good place to look for ideas is the Internet. The Internet has an endless number of ideas on how to integrate technology into any lesson plans. I have found a really good website (www.lessonplanspage.com) that has so many different lessons with technology already integrated into it. The level of technology resources in my future school of employment will have an enormous impact level on my teaching. Like I have said plenty of times before, technology are unavoidable. In this day in time there is not a day that goes by that students do not use some form of technology and in order for me to be the best educator that I can be, I am going to have to make sure that my students are exposed to as much technology as possible. In my opinion, I strongly believe that technology can help teaching and learning. Students today are exposed to technology at such a very young age. It is possible that they may know more about technology than their older teachers do. Why not give them lessons and assignments where technology is used. It makes it more fun for them. Technology can turn a simple research project into something exciting and very productive. As I move through my teaching career I plan to stay up to date on the current technology. I will use the Internet allot . There are so many teaching resources on the Internet that can help me with exactly what I need. I will look to my fellow peers for updates. There may be other teachers that are using update technology that I do not know about. I will not hesitate to ask for help and if I can use their ideas in my teaching. There are so many resources out there for me to use and I will figure out how to find them and use them. I will continue to technology in my teaching because it the future for all students.

Teacher Resources and Educational Software

I look at the website www.teacher.net/index.html for the teacher resource. I thought that this was a very good website. It almost like a one stop shop website. It had anything from the latest news in the educational world to being able to find to job. I really recommend this website. I look at a social studies educaitonal software. It look like it could be a lot of help for students learning about history. Second Semester was reasonably price also. I would like to try it out for my own interests.

Low Income Families Supporting Their Children's Educational Needs

It is not uncommon for low-income families not to be involved in thier children's education. The reason being is that they may have to work two jobs to bring in extra money or they do not have high enough literacy skills to help their children do their homework assignments. At CFY they are currently working on how to improve this problem. They want low income students to do well in school, so they place computers into these students homes and operates programs in their school to get more parental involvement. I think that is wonderful. Our goals as educators should be help educate everyone, rich or poor, into becoming well rounded individuals. It is great that there are organizations that are willing to help with this problem. This will cut out most excuses for low income parents not being involved in their children's education. CFY also allows computer training sessions and Internet connection. Through the wonderful things that CFY is doing it will help bridge the gap between education and low income parents. I hope that they will continue to help these families.

Revolutionary People

Amanda Callaway

Project Name: People of Revolutionary Times

Description of learning Goals and Standards: This assignment is geared towards fifth graders. Through this lesson the students will be able to learn something about the important people during the American Revolutionary War times. The Qcc's for this lesson are Qcc 20, Topic: A Nation Is Born, Standard: Describes the contributions of key individuals in the American Revolution including Colonial and British men, women, and minorities (e.g., George Washington, King George III, Lord North, Cornwallis, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Molly Pitcher, Crispus Attucks, LaFayette, Nancy Hart, and Benedict Arnold) and Qcc# 7 , Topic: Productivity, Standard: Manages information with databases and spreadsheets.

Rationale for Technology: Through the use of technology the students are able research interesting facts about some of the important people during the Revolutionary War and input it into a database and have all of their facts all in one area. intergrating technology helps achieve my goal of broadening the lesson of the American Revolutionary War. The advantage of intergrating technology into this lesson is that it gives the students the opportunity to create a fun database on these people instead of writing it down on paper. The disadvantage of intergrating technology is that it will take time to teach the students how to use the computer program Access and for them to complete their assignment.

Description of Lesson implementation: This lesson may take two days. On day one have a finished example of assignment. Explain to the students that this lesson is an extension of their American Revolutionary War lesson. On this day the lesson on the computer program Access will need to be given (it may be helpful to have a step by step worksheet available for the students on the program). Once that is done explain to the students that they are each going to have to pick ten people that had something to do with the Revolutionary War and they are going to have to research when they were born, where they were born and when they died. The students can use the internet, they can use encyclopedias etc.. for getting their information.
On day two the students will need to create their databases and print one out in forms and one out in reports. Both of these will need to be turned into the teacher.

Assessment: A rubric will need to be established so that the students are graded primarily on the content of their assignment (proper information of the people) and secondarily on their database production (was it set up properly).

Other Places to Use this Solution: Since there is a need for many computers with the computer program Access you may want to reserve the computer lab for a couple days. Also, some students may have the computer program at home so that may be another place for them to do this assignment.

What I learned and what I would improve next time: Through this lesson I learned that it is very easy and fun to turn an ordinary assignment into something fun and rememberable for the students. Since I have not used this lesson in a classroom setting I do not know what I would change.

References/Resources: http://library.thinkques.org./TQ0312848/people.htm

Excelling in Graphing

Amanda Callaway

Project Name: Counting Your Lucky Stars

Description of learning goals and standards: This assignment is geared towards fifth graders. Through this assignment students will be able to better their skills in counting, sorting, graphing, interpreting a graph, computation, and predicting. They will also better their skills in computer technology. The Qcc's for this assignment are: #38 Topic: computation, Standard: developing fluency in adding and subtracting, and #7 Topic: Productivity, Standard: manages information with database and spreadsheets.

Rationale for Technology: Through the use of technology in this activity the students will be able to use their skills of counting, sorting, graphing, interpreting a graph, computation, and predicting. Technology helps me achieve my goal of helping the students better these particular skills. The disadvantage of using technology on this assignment is that it may be time consuming.

Description of lesson implementation: One the first day the teacher needs to have a completed example ready to show to the students of how the Excel document should look like. The teacher needs to place the students into groups of three or four. On this day a lesson will need to be given to the students on how to use the computer program Excel. The teacher can go through the lesson as the groups are preparing their documentation. Once each group is finished the teacher needs to approve each group documentation. Have students save their finished documentation in Excel on a floppy disk. One the second day the teacher needs to distribute a individual bags of Lucky Charms cereal to each group. Have each group individual count and tally their individual marshmallows on their Excel documentation (on the computer). Using their tally sheet the group will complete their graph and answer questions 1-3 on their own. On a pre-made graph the teachers will asks each group for the total of each marshmallow and color in the graph ( ask each group one marshmallow at time). Once the graph is completed for the entire class the groups need to fill in their Excel documentation for the other groups answers and compute the totals and average. Then each group can answer questions 4-7 (the teacher can help guide the groups in this discussion). As a class discuss each groups predictions. At the end each group needs to print out their Excel documentation and turn into the teacher.

assessment: Each group will be graded as a whole. A rubric needs to be established so that each group is graded on first, the completion of the correct Excel document. Second, the completion of correctly filling in their chart and graph. Third, the completion of correctly answering the questions.

Other places to use this solution: Since there will be many groups it is necessary to have enough computers for each group. This assignment might need to be done in the computer lab if the classroom does not have enough computers.

What I learned and what I would improve next time: Through this assignment I learned that it is very easy to create a fun learning Excel assignment for students. I believe that students will have fun creating their own Excel assignment too. I have not used this activity with students so I do not know what I would change for next time. I could see the students having problems with creating their own correct document so that might need to be changed for next time.

References/Resources Used: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/MathStPatricksDayGraphingLuckyCharms35.htm

Keeping Bloom in Mind

Knowledge: List the main causes of the Revolutionary War.

Comprehension: Discuss what life would be like fighting for your independence during the Revolutionary War.

Application: Interpet why George Washington was considered a honest man using the cherry tree analogy.

Analysis: Analyze what America would be like if it was still under the british control.

Synthesis: Desgin a picture of what you picture of what you picture when you think of the Revolutionary War.

Evaluation: Recommed a solution that might help prevent a Revolutionary War from happening again.