1. PowerPoint 1 About Miss A: Teachers should make the effort to incorporate technology into instruction whenever possible. One tool, PowerPoint, can be used to make lesson instruction more exciting and engaging for the students. The previous link is an example of a presentation that would be given the first day of school. This is a great way to introduce yourself to the students. This is a relatively short presentation but should include information about yourself, such as what you do for fun or your favorite things. It would also be a good opportunity to discuss your classroom rules and expectations for the future.
PowerPoint 2 Science Lesson: In addition to using PowerPoint to introduce yourself to the students, it can also be used to deliver instruction. The second presentation is a science lesson on the classification of animals. When creating the presentation it is important to provide opportunities for interaction so the students are not passively watching. Post questions for discussion on the slides to help the students become more active. Anyone who has used PowerPoint knows there are endless possibilities to make presentations so teachers should be creative!
2. The following documents are links to a unit on the human body which was created for use with a third grade class.
The Incredible Human Body
Unit Objectives:
1. The main objective of this unit is for students to explore, experiment, and discover the structure, systems, and functions of the human body.
2. Students will be able to sequence the body's components into systems, organs, tissues, and cells and be able to explain the functions of the nervous, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems.
3. Students will learn how muscles work to help us move and compare voluntary and involuntary muscles.
4. In addition, students will demonstrate an understanding of the components of the body systems including the heart and veins, brain and nerves, lungs and breathing, and the stomach and intestines.
Unit Rationale:
This unit is designed not only to teach children about the wonders of their own bodies but to spark their curiosity about the world of science. In addition to the previously listed objectives, the students will participate in discovery learning by completing various activities. Some of these activities include a balancing experiment, a heart rate experiment, and the construction of a mini-skeleton model. The unit will culminate with a project in which the students will work in cooperative learning groups to create a life-sized model of the body's systems. Included in this unit are two instructional videos and a SmartBoard presentation. Additionally, the students will be challenged by questions that require critical thinking skills and a high level of comprehension. Student progress will be evaluated by various means at the end of each lesson and at the end of the unit with an exam. (Click on the links below to view the lessons in this unit.)
Lesson 1 Introduction to the human body.
Lesson 2 Body systems, organs, and tissues.
Lesson 3 Tissues and cells.
Lesson 4 The skeletal system! See real x-rays and make your own skeleton.
Lesson 5 The muscular system and activity.
Lesson 6 Video: The Skeletal and Muscular System.
Lesson 7 The circulatory system, brain, stomach, and intestines and Super Systems activity.
Lesson 8 Identifying the organs in a system and a review of the skeletal system.
Lesson 9 Create a life-sized model of the human body systems!
Lesson 10 Review for test: collaborative working groups.
Review: Questions and Answers
Answers to Unit Graphic Organizer
3. Here is a sample mail merge
of a thank you letter for a St. Patrick's Day classroom party. This feature is useful for the classroom as it can be used to send out letters to parents, make certificates or awards, or write personalized assignments. The mail merge saves time because a single document can be typed but formed into personalized copies.
4. The following link is a newsletter that was created entirely in Microsoft Word. The features of Word that were used include text boxes, inserting pictures from a file, inserting lines, using the border feature, and utilizing section and column breaks to format various sections with different formats. This task forced the use of Word's features to make a creative and interesting document. The possibilities are endless for classroom usage.
5. Assistive technology offers many opportunities to address the needs of students with disabilities. Take, for example, the visually impaired student. Currently, there are 94,000 children under the age of 21 who are blind or visually impaired (American Foundation for the Blind, 2006). Much is being done in terms of assisitve technology to help these students make the most out of their education. Teaching these children can prove challenging, as alternate means are needed to instruct them in reading, writing, and math.
One assistive device that is available to help the secondary student who is visually impaired is the Accessible Graphing Calculator (AGC) from ViewPlus Software, priced at $75. It is a self-voicing scientific graphing calculator software program. Traditional graphing calculators display results on a small screen, but the AGC displays results not only through numbers and graphs but through speech and sounds as well. The AGC is created to function like a traditional graphing calculator with added features. So, these calculators an be used by the whole class, not necessarily only the visually impaired student. This device would be beneficial for a student with low vision, who could easily see the onscreen graphics by using the enlargement feature. In addition, graphs can be listened to by using the sophisticated audio wave feature. Having a graphing calculator that can display results through sound, as well as visually, is great for students who struggle with thier vision. This way, they can still take part in the activities that use a graphing calculator with less frustration and anxiety.
Another feature of this assistive device is that the teacher is able to make print copies with any standard printer using different fonts, including Braille. Print copies with Braille fonts can be copied onto swell paper and run through a tactile imaging machine that makes the Braille usable for the student. The one disadvantage to using the AGC is the time it takes to train the student to use it. However, the AGC is user friendly so the teacher should be able to teach the student with relative ease. This would be a great addition to any secondary math classroom because it offers the visually impaired student the opportunity to participate in regular classroom activities with graphing calculators independently. For more information on this product visit: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/winter02/math.htm
http://www.ViewPlusSoft.com
6. A crucial aspect of teaching that sometimes gets overlooked is the process of self-evaluation. As teachers, we are constantly assessing the students. However, it is important that teachers take time to evaluate themselves. One way to do this is to reflect at the end of a lesson or unit, identifying areas that went well and areas that could be improved upon. A teacher can use the students' reactions, the students' questions, and student performance to obtain feedback on lesson plans. I have done a self-evaluation after most of the lesson plans I have conducted and I have found it advantageous to examine how the lesson went from my point of view as well as the students'. One lesson I formally evaluated was a lesson on estimation, presented to a second grade class.
Click to read a sample of a lesson Reflection
