Draft 1 of Project Description

The school I am currently teaching in has four third grade classrooms. The teachers really work as a team to make sure that each students get as close to the same experience as possible so that when they move on to fourth grade they have been exposed to the same material and experiences. We meet as a grade level almost weekly to discuss things that are working and things we need to address. The last few meetings out topic has been reading comprehension, specifically on standardized tests.
While no teacher wants to teach to a test, they are a fact of life and are important to student success. We agreed that while we do not want to make test taking strategies a huge part of our curriculum, the students could benefit from being “armed” when they have to take these tests. We decided to try to build mini-lessons into our reading and writing workshops to give the students confidence when faced with the real thing.
Our school uses a program called Accelerated Reader. Students read books and then take AR quizzes, which are usually 10 questions. They get rewards based on how many quizzes they have taken. I agree that the AR program encourages students to read. The students in my class love to get the chance to take a quiz. The questions, however, are very basic. They skim the surface of the material and leave it at that.
I would like to find resources that allow students to answer more detailed questions about the material. I would like them to answer questions that go deeper than the names of the characters. I would like to find resources that encourage students to answer questions about the main topic, the problem, the solution, etc.
We also found as we looked at the scores from the last standardized test that students had trouble with questions that were worded “which of the following is NOT…” or “all are true EXCEPT.” I am hoping to find ways that students can practice answering these types of questions and learn strategies to figure out the best answer.
I currently use worksheets which students read and answer comprehension questions. We discuss as a class what the best answer is and how to find it. I can’t help but feel, however, that there is a better way out there.

Final Thoughts

When I began taking classes in technology I thought that I would learn about how I could use technology to be a more effective teacher. What I hadn’t considered is how much I would learn that I could use with my students. Or to take it a step further, I have learned ways to facilitate my student’s exploration of technology and take a “guide on the side” role. I have also learned about the abundance of resources available. I learned that if there is a technology that I want to explore or try out there are TONS of teachers who have done so already and they are very generous. They share the lessons that worked and warn you against things that didn’t.
As I learn more about technology I am better able to be selective with the resources I use. Having created my own projects I am sensitive to what I am looking for and what worked for me. I can also recall what I had difficulty with and search for specific areas in which I feel weak.
My biggest goal for myself in this class and all of the technology classes I have taken and will take is to feel more comfortable incorporating technology in my classroom. With the completion of every assignment I felt more comfortable exploring technology with my students.
It’s funny to consider my new goals because so much of what my technology classes have taught me has been brand new. Before this class I had never heard the words StAIR or WebQuest. I suppose my new goal is to be open to the new technologies that I will learn about in my future classes. I am excited to expand my technology vocabulary!

Teaching and learning in an Internet-based environment

There was so much more to the guidelines document than I expected. I had forgotten about things like educational games and test preparation. Many of them will be more appropriate when students are in middle and high schools. As an elementary school teacher I would concentrate on only a few.
I would love to further explore and incorporate online field trips into my classroom. I could see using online field trips complimenting both my science and social studies curriculums. Time and distance sometimes prohibit field trips, but with a computer lab students could explore virtually what they are not able to explore literally. Reading about other parts of the world or other periods in history in a textbook gets the job done in most cases. Allowing students to dig deeper, however, will make it more meaningful. There are always a few students who really connect with a unit of study. Online field trips would let students explore the aspects of the material that they really connect with.
I also plan to continue to explore WebQuests. I especially want to check out the ones created in this class. I just started a force and motion unit and would love to tie in the WebQuest created by one of my group members.
I’m not sure podcasts would be difficult to use with students as young as mine (third grade). The first reason is that I don’t believe that they have the skills necessary to do a podcast. It would require a lot of preparation to get them to a place where they could manage it. Secondly I do not have the necessary equipment to make use of this particular technology.