TIE III

Affordance/Pedigogical Implications and Blooms My project is with Mrs. Prezas 1st grade class at Ella Barns. I will be implementing a social studies lesson with the VT to promote higher level thinking skills. The 1st grade students will be required to solve a problem with their own invention that will make the world a better place. Once they have decided what their invention is going to be they will draw a picture of it. They will be studying different inventors and are required to tell which is their favorite one and what he/she has done for the world to make it a better place. They will be given a prompt with blanks for them to fill in the answers to these questions for themselves, like my invention is... it does........it will make the world better because....Then they will also tell us who there favorite inventor is and why. This is designed to get them excited about what they can do as well as exercise their right to answer higher end questions where they are to practice solving what they conceive to be a problem. Plus, after they have drawn, written and recorded their findings they are sure to remember at least their favorite inventor. I liked using the Voicethread in the lesson. I like the interactive features like the doodle and the fact that it can be used on a teachers blog for parents to see what their kids are doing. If I were to do this again, I would probably break the lesson into small groups and do it in small increments over a few days. My view is that it will be easier with the common shortage of computers. My only question about using Voicethread would have to be whether the program can be used on a regular basis without spending too much time managing some of the bugs found by our PSTs. Here are a few links to my peer responses of some really good Voicethreads Amanda Durham, Jena Mooney, and Bonnie Hall

Technology Integration Experience (TIE I) Thoughts

Voicethread can really be an interesting way to include parents into many areas of students progress. I particularly like the idea of having the class do some group work in class and then highlighting what their best work on the thread. There are several previous examples that would be great incorporated into my classroom. Beginning with the Community Unit  voicethread shown in the  K-2 samples used for a social studies lesson in Ms. Lees first grade class. This type of thread can really be expanded on from anything that has to do with how the community works, possibly including parents roll in the community, even tolerance.  Another thread called Shared Stories, by Rene Perales are personalized by the pictures drawn and colored by the students. I  like the way she uses the stories further by circling the words that rhyme, as well as asking the students to describe what they had seen in the drawings. I can also imagine there could be added interest in many of these assignments once they have viewed what they can do by contributing in this way. * * * * CT Communication Letter

TIE II Lifes Coping Skills

Life's coping skills, a neccesary component to any pre-service teaching program. As you can see we have some pretty inventive ways to cope.