Smart Board Lesson Review: Multiplication

 As in introduction to SMARTBoard lessons, I downloaded a pre-made lesson introducing students to the concept of multiplication.  I thought the lesson was very good. 

The first page gives the basics of the lesson- subject, topic, grade level, learning outcomes, etc.  Page two shows students what they will be doing.  There is a multiplication sentence at the top of the page:  3 x 5 =15.  Below are three circles, each containing five ants.  The directions below the circles instruct students to move the ants to illustrate the number sentence.  The third page is similar to the previous, except that students are expected to illustrate the number sentence “4 x 5 = 20” independently.  The next two pages have multiple number sentences in which students must write the quotient to on the line.  Next to the number sentence is a box.  Once students solve the problem, they can move the box to see the answer.  Slide six contains a dice game.  Students “roll” the two dice to determine the numerals to multiply and then solve the problem. 

I think the lesson overall is a great introduction to the topic.  The one thing I wish was included was an actual lesson plan.  I’d love to see how the teacher is actually introducing the topic and the questions that go along with it.  One problem I see with this activity is that for an introductory lesson, some of the multiplication problems included are difficult- 8 x 8 and 8 x 9 are very difficult for third graders to solve on a first try.  Another thing I would change is the two pages in which students must move images to the circles.  The way the activity is now, students have exactly the right number of images to move.  To me, this seems better suited for an introduction to division.  What would work better is to have student put dots or X’s in the circles and then count them, or to have more than the necessary amount so that students are checking that they are putting the correct number into the circles.  I really like the set-up of the problems on pages 4 and 5 (the box hiding the answer next to the problem).  I think this is a great way for students to attempt problems and self-check.  There is also ample room for students to draw a helpful picture next to the problems.  I love the dice game!  I've played similar games with students on the SMARTBoard during subbing and they love it. What's good about the dice is that the students won't be multiplying anything larger than 6 x 6.

Find the lesson here:  http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=x3afc9efc3c4248abb31a4b86a34d8079

OpenSource and OpenOffice

Oh OpenSource, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways:

1. You're free.
2. You're free.
3. You're free.

A couple years ago, after graduating undergrad, I liked to download lots and lots of files.  As anyone who's done this knows, this can lead to viruses and oops, computers crashing.  Yes, this happened to me.  And after one time, I was sad to find that I had used all my MS Office installations allowed with the student/teacher purchase package from undergrad.  I didn't know what to do:  I had no money and using WordPad...how can one even consider it after using MS Word.  

I turned to my brother, a bigger computer geek than I, and he suggested OpenOffice.  He explained to me that it was practically the same thing as MS Office, except free.  FREE?!?!  How can that be possible?  It was my first venture into OpenSource programs.  I installed it and used it for quite a while.  Actually, I used it until I found out that I could install MS Office for free as a Pace student.  I ultimately went back to MS Office for ease of use (and it seemed to open faster on my Windows XP computer).  But I keep OpenOffice installed, just in case.  

Probably my favorite feature of OpenOffice is that it can be integrated with anyone else.  It is so easy to open MS Office files, and also save your OpenOffice as MS Office files.  For instance...  My co-officer from the BFA Guild emails everyone our calendar of events for the upcoming 2011 year.  She asks that everyone look it over and make suggestions or editting.  Of course she sends it as an MS Word file.  But, poor substitute teacher that I am, I do not have MS Office on my computer.  No problem!  I can still download the file and open it in OpenOffice's Writer.  I make my edits, save the file in a MS Word-compatible format, and resend to everyone to share.  The will all be able to open it on their computers, often without knowing that I didn't even use Word.  The same goes for spreadsheets, presentations and databases.  

Being that functionality is equivalent to that of MS Word, this product would work just the same in schools as the MS programs.  The only concern I would have is that students would become so familiar with the format of OpenOffice, they may encounter difficulty when later in life they are required to work using MS Office, especially since the 2010 version of Office has been integrated into many systems and appears so differently from previous versions.  But, it is just one more thing that students would need to be taught.  And judging by how intelligent today's students in the computer technology field are, I don't think it would be hard for them to pick up.  

As previously pointed out, by making use of the free software available, schools/districts would free up so much budget money to invest elsewhere.  Recently I did some observations in a very wealthy community on Long Island.  I'd never even heard of some of the tools this elementary school had for students to use- I didn't know they made iPod's with microphones!  Because this school has an abundance of money to invest in their students, they have everything- these iPods and Flip cameras.  Though I was excited to see the tech teacher utilizing Google Earth and Glogster!

The only functionality that OpenOffice does not have versus MS Office is Publisher- a way to make brochures, pamphlets, and the like.  Does anyone really use this anymore?  I honestly don't think my previous student/teacher version of Office included this program.  Realistically students can perform the same functions in Word/Writer - creating columns, setting picture layouts to be movable rather than in line with text, etc.  My biggest complaint about Publisher was I never knew where on a brouchure I was.  I really didn't like that program and found it to be used rarely during my school career.  If a school really felt that this product was necessary, it could be purchased as a stand-alone (rather than in a suite of programs) or an alternative, such as Adobe's InDesign.  The schools would still be spending less money that can be applied elsewhere.

PLEs

As I commented on Mohamed Amine Chatti's post "LMS vs. PLE", I have been very disappointed in the online learning community at Pace.  Before entering as a grad student, I had never used Blackboard before.  At first, I was excited at this online community.  But over the past couple semesters, I become more and more disappointed (and annoyed) with the site.

A PLE (personal learning environment) is supposed to offer students the opportunity to extend their learning, make it personal, and have an input on the method of learning.  At first glance, Blackboard seemed to be just that for me.  But after my first semester, I was sad to see that I no longer had access to the documents available to my classes.  There was no printed record of my class contributions.  No more lists of grades for me to keep on hand.  With a new semester, Blackboard is essentially wiped clean of my previous coursework.

One issue Mohamed brings up in relation to PLEs is the ability to extend the coursework or study of the topic even after the class has finished.  Blackboard obviously provides no opportunity for that as it is right now.  But should Pace decide to utilize a different learning community, that would have my experiences thus far more positive.  I would have liked to stay in touch or communicate or discuss with some former classmates.  If I didn't get their emails before the semester ended (or in my current case, we're no longer meeting in person for the rest of this semester for one class and I missed the last in-person class due to being sick), then I'm out of luck.  I may not have had the time during the semester to peruse all the resources and documents my professors had made available, and now there's no way for me to have access to them at all.  Blackboard leaves much to be desired and makes me wonder how my experiences at Pace would have been different had a system closer to a PLE been utilized instead of Blackboard.

Chrome for a Cause

For everyone out there who uses Google Chrome (and if you don't, shame on you!)

Sign up so that for every new tab you open between now and Dec 19th, you'll help raise money for a cause!

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/p/cause/#tnc

Seriously, just sit there and keep opening new tabs.

As of this posting, I have opened 70 new tabs, and that's only in a few hours.  (OK so really I'm doing homework and have to do a lot of work online that requires a lot of internet activity...)

Want to increase your number of tab openings?  Instead of clicking on a link, right click and then choose to open in a  new tab or new window!

Blogging with Students

Though this posting on Notes from McTeach is from September, I just came across it today and I am in love with it!  The title is "Learning to Blog Using Paper" and I think it is just utterly amazing.  Karen McMillan (the author) taught 7th graders the essentials of blogging without the computer.  Before allowing them to create public blogs, they practiced in the classroom using ::gasp:: paper and pencil!  Karen got the idea from a conference introducing teachers to blogging, but decided to adapt the activity for her students.  Here are (simplified versions of) the steps she followed:

Step One
Discuss blogging in general as a class.  Go over rules together.

Step Two
Students write about something they are passionate about- a rough draft on, yes, paper.

Step Three
Students use cardstock to create their post- the written portion, the sidebars, the background, everything.  Again, on paper (cardstock)

Step Four
The class discusses commenting.  Students use Post-Its to write comments and "attach" them to the blogs

Obviously, you should head over to her post to get the full steps, plus some amazing photos of the completed paper blogs and resources available online.

Why am I so crazy about this blog post?
Well, that's an easy one.  I love blogs.  I wish I had more time to read them.  I wish I had more time to keep up with my personal one (no posts since September! gah).  I think they are an amazing free tool for students to make use of too.  I cannot say enough good things about blogs.  It gives a student the opportunity to have an online presence.  They may not be able to code HTML website, or afford one for that matter, but a blog is an easy way for them to interact with the greater world.  With a blog, students can have more annonymity than social networking sites offer (not so easy for strangers/predators to track them down) while still having many freedoms.  Students can work on them from practically anywhere- as long as they can get internet.  I know so many places with free wifi- Starbucks, many Barnes and Noble locations, most public libraries.  We still have the drawback that many schools block blogging websites.  There is a lot of inappropriate materials on blogs, but I think schools need to reevaluate their usefulness.

Then there is the concern that many students face- they don't have computers or internet access, no iPad or netbook, no way to work on these projects outside of school.  It is an issue that many teachers face when trying to incorporate technology into their classrooms of students with limited resources.  The paper blogs could be an alternative entirely to these classes.  Students are still learning the idea behind it, and can make use of those ideas later in life when they encounter them.

Back to the point of Karen's posting- introducing students to blogging.  Many teachers would assume students at the 7th grade level have already encountered or have knowledge of blogs.  It's a fair assumption with how technological children are these days.  But they may not always understand the process and still have to be introduced to many aspects of blogs.  I think this was a great way to introduce blogging and how it works to students.  And oftentimes, teachers want students to do some sort of rough draft or map before they create computer projects- Word documents, PowerPoints, and now blogs.

Using Wikis with the Youngest Elementary Students

From what I have read, wikis seemed to have found their place in today’s modern classroom.  I can see so many advantages for older student using them, though I understand the disadvantages that have been discussed.  While I see them being used often in the upper grades, it seems to be more difficult to implement at the lower levels.  Students in elementary school, especially the youngest ones, have the least amount of experience with computers and the internet.  Often, most of their exposure has been playing games under the supervision of parents or teachers. 

But I stumbled upon Patrick Ledesma’s blog post about using wikis to help students strengthen their vocabulary skills in content-specific classes.  While the article does not name the specific age level Patrick is writing about, usually students have content-specific classes starting in upper middle school.  But this technique can still apply to elementary school classes. 

A major focus of elementary curriculum is developing language and vocabulary skills.  Students can do exactly what Patrick describes:

1. Restate the definition.
2. Create a non-linguistic representation.
3. Cite examples and non-examples.
4. Edit or add to other entries.
5. Use the pages in regular activities, or for studying.

This is a great way for students to have instant access to exactly what they have been learning about in school.  It can combine the traditional vocabulary study (lists of 10-20 “new” words focused on weekly) with the content-specific words (Math and Science terms, story elements, historical events and people, etc). 

Once students have an understanding of how the wiki functions, they can begin to expand beyond just vocabulary.  Rather than doing the traditional book report, students can create a wiki page or series of pages about books they’ve read.  And then if another student reads the same book, he/she can add to what the previous student wrote about it.  When students study a new Math concept, they can create wiki pages to help their classmates who are having difficulty understanding the concept.

Another help to elementary students is that they can see previous class’ wikis.  Personally, I would create a new wiki for each class year, but I would be sure to save the previous ones.  This would enable previous students to continue adding to or editing their work as well as having it available for them to show new teachers, friends, and relatives what they’ve accomplished together at a young age.  Perhaps this year my class is going to study the life cycle of ladybugs instead of butterflies.  They can still have access to last year’s class’ wiki pages on butterfly life cycles anyway.  This would add to their knowledge of life cycles in general while expanding beyond what we are focusing on in class. 

This also has another benefit to students.  By continuing to allow students access to their work and the work of previous students, new students will see value in the work they are adding to the wikis.  I believe that this would teach students several valuable lessons:

1. The work they do in my class is valuable.  It is so valuable to me that I save it to show my following classes.
2. What they put out on the internet is permanent!  It is out there for good, whether it displays good work or not so good work.  My hope is that this would help mold their ideas about the internet in general, especially when it comes to social media.  They might not participate in social media sites in the younger grades (though my 2nd grade cousin has a Facebook page so you never know), but it would be an idea that stays with them to that age and beyond.
3. It's ok to make mistakes.  If you make a mistake on your wiki entries, someone else will come along and edit it for you.  My one wish is that there was a way to let those students see the corrected mistakes so they know what they did wrong (spelling/grammar error, wrong formatting, etc.) and learn from it.

Before reading Patrick’s post, I was definitely skeptical about using wikis with young children.  I wasn’t sure exactly how they would best be implemented with these kids.  Would they do just a single project on it?  Would it be me entering information for them?  How much time would we devote to developing a wiki?  All these questions ran through my mind while thinking about it.  But I honestly think this is the best way to use them with young students.  It’s an ongoing project that would need to be taught and reinforced at the beginning of the school year, but students would eventually be capable of doing it on their own.  It allows students to use computers without needing direct instruction or supervision from the teacher.  It allows them to work together, though not necessarily at the same time, on creating a final product.  It gives them the opportunity to take ownership of a big project without assistance from teachers (at least after they really learn to use it) or parents.  After teaching preschool for two years, I was amazed that one of my 3-year-olds knew how to get on his parents’ laptop, open an internet browser, and go straight to YouTube to watch pre-searched Thomas the Train videos.  At 3!  His parents actually assumed I taught him this, but our classroom didn’t have internet access.  Don’t underestimate what your students are capable of doing!  I always have high expectations of my students (even when they’re 3), but even then sometimes they will surprise you with how fast they learn.

You can find Patrick's article here.  I definitely recommend you go read it!

Expanding the Assembly

I recently read a post by Kathy Schrock on her blog Kaffeeklatsch about President Obama's back to school speech and her middle school.  "Today the entire middle school went to the auditorium to watch the live, streamed back-to-school speech given by President Obama. An interesting phenomenon occurred."  The speech was projected onto a large screen that made everyone feel as if they were in the Philadelphia school the President was standing before.  The students interacted as if they were there.  Kathy was impressed at both the students and the set-up of creating this feeling.

I thought this post was interesting for many reasons.  Firstly, in my own school experiences from elementary through high school, only once did we watch a live broadcast of anything (the morning of 9/11, and against our teacher's wishes one period).  But this was not as a whole school, all together.  It was out of an immediate need to know what was happening less than 100 miles from our school while teachers tried to continue teaching, out of ignorance of the events or in attempt to stay on schedule.

My school years saw many elections and world events and though we had televisions in the schools, no other major events were ever viewed live.  Comparing my experiences to what Kathy's students had that days shows the amazing leaps technology and its incorporation into our schools has made in such a short time.  Growing up, we were told it was important to learn about history, but none of us really could ever explain why.  The students in Kathy's schools that day were living and experiencing history in the making.  They were making a connection between their own lives and the rest of our nation.  They were being exposed to the current concerns of the education world they are growing up in.  They were a part of history.

I think Kathy's school did an excellent job of showing students that world/national events affect them and that they are molding our country's future while writing it's history.  Students can see the connection between the White House and their own school.  The projection of the live-streamed speech made it real to students.  It wasn't a poorly acted re-enactment or a voiced over video like so many are used to in the classroom.

They also saw technology integrated into their personal lives as well as their education.  Students today have such a great wealth of knowledge on technology, but far too often it is not involved into their school careers.  They have the latest video games, cell phones, and electronic gadgets, but rarely get to use computers of any sort in schools. This often makes me feel saddened that these tools of everyone's future are not being used by our students, but then examples like this one from Kathy prove that there are schools out there making that effort, even if not every student has a laptop for school or even computers in their classrooms.



Kathy's original post can be found at:  Interesting Virtual Experience