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In my practicum, my teacher has used a similar app to Overdrive, called Tumblebooks. She uses this app right after the students come in for recess during relaxation time. I found this app to be very similar. It has a variety of eBooks, audio books, and videos. I really like this app and I think it would be a great app to use in the classroom. You could use it in the same way my teacher does, by having the students listen to and look at a book. For older students, you could have them use this app to find books they may enjoy to read. There is a wide variety for students to choose from. Also, for younger students if they aren't able to read yet the audio books would be perfect for them to follow along with. I will definitely keep this app in mind when I become a teacher.
After playing around with this app for five minutes, I don't really understand the point of it. It didn't give me very good directions for how to play it, so I was stuck not knowing what to do. I have heard of the app when it first came out and everyone was playing it. I don't really like Pokemon so I was never really all that interested. I would see people playing it all the time in the mall when they were shopping. I even saw one mom playing it while on an escalator with her three year old son. It is just another game that is causing people to constantly be on their phones. I wouldn't be surprised if it were to cause accidents while driving because of the feature where you can play in a "real life" setting through your camera. This app just isn't for me.
What aspects of working as a group to develop the ideas for your maker project worked for you? What aspects did not work?
For this project, I think it has helped tremendously to work with a group. We all have came up our own ideas and shared them with one another. I think it is very helpful to hear others opinions about what could be helpful to use in the classroom. Even if we don't use some of them, it still gives you ideas about what fun things you could do in the classroom. Also using this as group work allows us to expand each others ideas further. Some of the things I didn't think about when coming up with an idea, someone else in my group did and vise verse. When coming up with new projects from scratch, it is very helpful when working with a group. One aspect that didn't work out as well was narrowing out which one we liked the best. We all had great ideas, we just need to look at which one would be like nothing else anyone has already. Other than that, we haven't really had any conflicts while working in groups. If this were an individual assignment, what "wonderful idea" would you pursue? If this were an individual assignment, I don't think I would have created something nearly as good as we are now. We all came up with the ideas for our maker project based on what we thought needed to improve in our classrooms. Without hearing the opinions from the others in my group, I don't think I would have been able to brainstorm the way I did. Talking with other members in the group really helped to get my brain thinking. Last Thursday I taught my first math lesson in my Kindergarten classroom. Whew, was I glad to get that first one over with. The first time teaching in a new classroom is always nerve racking. You never know how the students are going to act, if they are going to listen, or if they are going to understand what you are teaching them. Many things can go wrong or many things can go just how you planned. Luckily, my lesson went fairly well. I was extremely nervous at first, but once I started interacting with the children my nerves withered away. The students were very excited and ready to learn math! They were very good listeners, sometimes got too loud, but then fixed it when I asked them to. I had so much fun teaching the lesson. Seeing my class comprehend what I was teaching to them made me feel so good inside. There are many things I need to improve for the next time and I will only continue to work on those things from here on out. For example, one of my students recommended to my CT that I should call by groups when we transition because he got pushed when putting math trays away. My CT and I just laughed about it because a student even gave me suggestions for my lesson. I was very happy with how my lesson turned out and I can't wait to do the next one.
Here is a funny video I found about a Kindergarten teacher, enjoy! http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=funny+video+about+teaching+kindergarten&&view=detail&mid=D6559D054F272AB75CA5D6559D054F272AB75CA5&FORM=VRDGAR Topic/Grade Level: The Water Cycle/ 2nd grade
Materials/Technology: Paper, crayons, Youtube, IPad, projector Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to understand the concepts of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection). Procedure: First, I will ask the students “What is the water cycle?” If the students do not know what it is I will give them a brief definition. If the students are aware of what it is I will share with them a video covering more about the water cycle. This video will introduce the four steps of the water cycle and explain a little about each one of them. After the video, I will have the students discuss with their partners about what they learned from the video. I will then bring the group back together and have some student’s share what they learned. Once I explain the concepts again to refresh their memory, I will have the students go back to their desk. The students will then draw a picture of what they think the water cycle looks like, using all of the new terms they just learned. When the students are finished, I will use the IPad and project students’ drawings on the screen so each student can share with the class what they drew. Resources:The Water Cycle video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bS-SBAgJI I decided to use only the technology with the IPad because students at this age aren’t going to have the resources available to them to each have their own IPad/computer. I also feel students at this age aren’t going to be able to efficiently figure out the technology on their own without assistance. Students love showing their classmates their work, so using the projector so everyone can see their work is a great tool. I absolutely love Pinterest! It is something I use almost everyday. On Pinterest you can make all different types of boards including recipes, home decor, clothes, or fun crafts to do. Pinterest is very easy to use as well. If you see something you like you simply pin it to one of your boards and you can always come back to it later. Pinterest isn't only a good app for pinning recipes and home decor, it can also be used in the classroom. You can use it to find decoration ideas/themes for your classroom, worksheets and activities, and even to recommend books for students to read. If I were to use this in my classroom, I would use it for older students because they would be able to maneuver around the website better. I could use this app with younger students, but I would just use it to show the class projects to everyone in the class instead of actually letting the student's explore the website.
I think Popplet is a great app if you were presenting something for the class. It would also be a good app to use for connecting things together because of the web like design. There are a lot of other cool things you can do like add pictures or draw on the popple you make. I like all of the cool features it provides, but I thought it was kind of hard to work with. I found out on my IPad it was more difficult than on my computer. This would be something I may tell my students about for a project in the near future.
One of the biggest struggles that students face in college is having no money. College is so expensive, and I'm not just talking about the ridiculous credit hour and parking pass prices. Paying for rent and food is just another expense we have to add onto this list. I come from a small town where the closest fast food restaurant is 30 minutes away. So it is very convenient being surrounded by hundreds of fast food restaurants. I mean what's better than ordering Domino's pizza when you don't feel like cooking or going to Hurt's Donuts late at night for a study break? Although it is very nice living close to all these things, I spend way too much money.
Another struggle students deal with is learning how to do things without parents. All throughout elementary and high school, my parents have been there for me through everything whether it was supporting me at sporting events or simply doing my laundry. However, when I'm sick or need something my parents are still the first ones I call to make me feel better, for advice, or if I just need someone to talk to. Moving to a different town and living on my own has been a different experience. I'm so thankful my parents taught me how to do my laundry, clean, and cook. |
Author: Morgan Caspersen
I am a Junior at the University of Nebraska Lincoln currently double majoring in Elementary and Special Education. I'm from a very small town in Nebraska with a population of only 200. Outside of school I enjoy being active outside, hanging out with friends, and doing crafty things. |