Assignment #4

Description

For my technology project, I created a lesson on the SMART Board. The lesson is about rhyming with words that are spelled differently and goes along with the book Jesse Bear, What will you wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom. The first page is my anticipatory set. Students have to put different articles of clothing into groups. This is to convey that we wear different things for different purposes - just like Jesse Bear does in the story. At this point, I would read the book to the students. The next page in the presentation is practice with rhyming. The students click on an object, listen to its pronunciation, then match it with words that rhyme. After that, the students get more practice with rhyming by looking at two words that are spelled differently and deciding if they rhyme. Next, the students play rhyming memory. There are eight different pairs of rhyming words. Students will try to find and match all eight pairs. On the next page, the class will create their own poem following the pattern in Jesse Bear. Then next two pages are electronic versions of the final draft of the poem that the students will create individually.

List of Features

Along with all of the basic features, such as changing font style, size, and color; changing backgrounds; inserting clipart; using the pens; grouping and ungrouping objects; and ordering objects (sending to front and back), I used several additional features:

editing an interactive SMART activity - memory
screen shade
magic pen - spotlight
link - objects linked to other pages in project
podcasts - sound clips linked to multiple objects in project
reveal feature with eraser

I had so much fun creating this project! I learned a lot by using the SMART software and creating the lesson/presentation. I definitely learned more that I would have if I had simply read about how to use the SMART Board. I love using all of the features on the SMART Board. I feel much more confident using it and its features now that I have made this lesson. It was fairly time consuming creating this lesson because of all of the different features I used. But the advantage is now that I have it created, it is always there and I can use it again. I also learned a lot in creating it and will be able to do it faster in the future. I think it is a great way to involve kids in the lesson. They are more interested because of the technology and that makes them more interested in the lesson as a whole. It is also a great way to indirectly teach students how to appropriately use technology because they are being exposed the SMART Board.

This project means a lot to me. I put a lot of time and work into it and I am very happy with how it turned out. I will be able to use it for my Reading Methods class on Thursday and hopefully with a class of real students someday! Hopefully the students will have as much fun participating in the lesson as I had creating it!

NETS
This project covers many NET Standards for both teachers and students.
NETS-T:
1.a. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
This project models creativity in the way it is created because of all the different features it has. It also promotes students to be creative because of what students are required to do. This is not a lesson where students sit and listen, but a lesson that requires students to use creative and innovative thinking and participate in the lesson.
2.a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
This project is a relevant learning experience that mainly uses a specific digital tool - the SMART Board. It is relevant because it ties into a book the students would be doing in reading. I think it is also relevant because it incorporates relevant technology that the students would be interested in and have fun with. This lesson promotes student learning because it requires their active participation in the lesson. For most of the lesson, students would be at the SMART Board manipulating objects themselves.
3.a. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.
This is the NETS-T that I have been working on this semester and it applies to this project also. I have definitely become more fluent at the SMART Board by creating this lesson. I learned a lot about the software and the different features that it has. I also feel a lot more competent about using the SMART Board in the future. I think that my knowledge will also transfer to using the ActivBoard because I understand a lot better about how interactive whiteboards work in general. This will be very helpful because the classroom where I am student teaching has an ActivBoard in the classroom.

NETS-S:
2.a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers employing a variety of digital environments and media.
This lesson, based on the SMART Board, requires students to interact and collaborate with each other throughout the lesson. For different parts of the lesson, they have to work with each other to figure out the answers to certain questions in the lesson. At the end of the lesson, they will be publishing their own version of what was on the board.
6.a. Understand and use technology systems.
This lesson promotes student understanding and gives students the opportunity to use the SMART Board. The lesson requires extensive student participation and interaction with the board. This gives them a chance to use the technology which leads to greater understanding.