Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

The first lesson I would like to use can be found at:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/14/g68/trythisoil.html

It is a density activity. This will help students in my 7th grade classes axplore the physical property of density by DOING something instead of just listening to or watching me. It should be fun!

The next lesson I'm hoping to try is at:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/15/g68/hazard.html

This activity will challenge my 8th grade students to find out what natural hazards exist in different cities around the country. I like this activity becasue students can choose whatever cities they want which could provide some motivation. Also, most of the hazards they find will be things we have studied or will study in 8th grade Science. I hope to use this activity during the Weather unit.

Thing 5

OK. I was wrong about RSS. In activity 5, I learned how to do better searches. I think I might actually use this a bit in my personal life. The best tool I found to search for blogs to subscribe to was the one embedded in google reader. I could just type in my interests, such as "urban chickens," "vegetarian recipes," or "red tailed boa," and was able to find interesting blogs that might actually be useful to me.

I could see using something like this in the classroom to encourage students to discover current events in Science. Can I share my google reader page with students? Or maybe just certain feeds? It might also be helpful to link to other schools blogs to keep up with what is going on in other schools.

The other search tools were not as easy for me to use and understand. The google reader itself was quite user friendly, but that may be because I am fairly comfortable with google products in general.

Thing 4

Ok, so here's the thing. I don't really like RSS. It's kind of overwhelming, and I can't see many terribly useful applications in the Science realm. Maybe someone can help me with this. I was really reaching to find five things I even cared about subscribing to. There are a limited number of sites for which this type of technology is even useful. Many of those seem to provide SO much new information that having it all in one place is not the only obstacle to accessing it. There is simply TOO much information in the few, broad categories that provided me with RSS feeds. Perhaps if I spent more time looking for these types of sites I would find something more useful. I do not feel that I will implement the use of RSS in my personal use of technology or in my classroom. Perhaps someone has more understanding of this or has actually used it in a classroom setting. Please! Enlighten me. I want it to be useful, I just don't really feel that it is.

Thing 3

I think that the easiest of the 71/2 habits of lifelong learners is using technology to my advantage. I have always been intrigued by technology and always want the latest and greatest. When I encounter something new, it usually isn't long before I am imagining a myriad of ways to make the new technology beneficial to the learning of my students. Even when the technology is for my own personal use, my cell phone for example, I find a way to incorporate it to engage my students and create resources in my classroom. One example of using my phone in the classroom involves magazines. While teaching students about independent variables, dependent variables, and graphs, I had them all look for graphs of any type in magazines. When a student found an interesting graph, I would take a photo with my phone, email the picture to myself, and open it on my computer. From there I was able to project the graph on my screen so the whole class could see it. Together, we were able to identify the dependent and independent variables, the type of graph, and even make some guesses at the question this research was answering. It was a VERY effective lesson and the students were highly engaged.

The hardest of the 7 1/2 habits for me is probably viewing problems as challenges. I do this well in my own personal learning, but not as well in my classroom. I think that I can work on adjusting my mindset to view problems in my classroom as challenges. This would be an excellent thing to model for my students as well, since middle schoolers tend to be daunted by failure. Sharing my problem solving processes with students in the right situations could be beneficial to me and to them!

Thing 2

1. What makes a good blog?

A good blog has good content. It isn't just a journal or list of facts and activities; it is full of useful and interesting information. Even a personal blog can fulfill these requirements.

2. How could a blog enhance your existing school web site?

A blog may allow students and parents to have more up-to-the-minute information about class work, homework, specific assignments, and events going on in various classes. It can also allow a forum for student response in the form of comments. For example, I could post the directions for an at home project, and a student may comment to ask a clarifying question.

3. Are blogs an easier way for people to self-publish?

Absolutely. As soon as your blog is posted, you are published to whatever circle of people you desire, limited or unlimited! As long as your audience is familiar with web 2.0 technology, the only work you need to do to become a published author is to click the "publish" button!

My initial thoughts on blogging and web 2.0 in general are mixed. I feel that, at this moment, web 2.0 is vital and useful to students in our classes. However, the rate of technological change in our society is astronomical. I feel that learning to use new technology in general, rather than specifically (program by program) will be a more valuable skill for today's educators. We should strive to use this set of activities to enhance our ability to learn about all new technologies, and be open to the possibility that even this (blog) technology will soon be outdated and we will need to learn something new.

23 Things - The First Thing

I am hoping that the activities related to this professional development will make me a more skilled user of web 2.0 technologies. I feel that students relate well to content that is presented using this technology and are more motivated to do classwork when blogs, wikis, and social networks are the media. Hopefully a more thorough understanding of these technologies will allow me to make my students think more!