Experiencing Group

The group research project was interesting.  Working in a group is not something that I have done very often in the past, or something that I have particularly liked.  Freshman year, I had to write a group research paper for my English class, and it was a disaster to say the least. So, when told we would be writing a group research paper, I was nervous. 
When introduced to Google Docs, I felt a little better about the project.  It was a way we could all collaborate and be involved in the projects from the comfort of our homes, at our own time.  However, I wrote my part of the paper in a Microsoft Word Document, and could not figure out how to copy and paste it to Google, or how to save and upload it to Google, so this was a struggle for me. 
Each member of our group decided on a separate topic to discuss involving 21st century learning.  This way, everyone could see a few of the many different components of 21st century learning. Although I felt the paper was a little scattered, and maybe in a way four separate small papers combined into one, I felt the final project was insightful and showed each one of our own personal tastes and beliefs about the education system. 
There were many different applications discussed in our project.  I know for a fact when I have my own classroom we will be using computers, most likely mac books, and smart boards; therefore, it is important for us as future educators to research and be knowledgeable on the different applications that we will use, and possibly the students may be teaching us how to use. There are many different forms of technology that can be used in education, as all of the groups discussed.  I used the example of Google Earth to incorporate a geography lesson, or using an I-pad for special education learners. Another group brought up many different forms of communication via the internet for keeping in touch with students and families, such as twitter groups, facebook groups, etc.  
The final outcome for my group I though was okay.  I feel that we could have collaborated a little better with the components of the paper.  I also feel that we could have done a better job at the presentation, such as getting together and making a Prezi.  We only made a poster, and I felt that we could have done more for the visual.  At the end, we all did work well together and each member did their part, which is hard when working in groups.  
This is a LEARNING experience, and I feel that I absolutely did learn important parts of presentations, working in groups, and writing collaborative research papers. 

 

 

PowerPoint Terrific

As a requirement for our technology for teaching class, we had to create and design a PowerPoint.  We had to pick a Pennsylvania State Standard, create an objective, a narrative, and a lesson plan. I chose to do a third grade writing lesson, and chose these standards to work with.  After choosing the standards, I was ready to create my lesson.  I reviewed proper grammar, capital letters, periods, question marks, and periods by playing a game.  After reviewing this, I had the students work on this worksheet, based on a story we read.

 The PowerPoint had to be visually appealing, free of errors, contain links, animations, and effects.  Although I am some-what familiar with PowerPoint, this was still a challenge for me.  First of all, I never have created a lesson plan before, or an objective.  Also, I have never added internal and external hyperlinks to a PowerPoint, or transitions and animations.  To learn and work with these different options was wonderful, and when done in a way other than direct instruction, PowerPoint is a great way to construct a lesson. Presenting to a small group of peers was wonderful, and in my opinion more beneficial than presenting to the whole class.  By presenting to a small group of peers, we were able to go into more detail about our projects, explain them, and actually give meaningful feedback.  All of the Power Points that I saw were excellent, had wonderful content, and were very appealing.

Although it was challenging, this project was very much worth the effort and time.  I learned a lot, and in turn feel more comfortable with PowerPoint, and creating a lesson plan.

This is the story that I had said my class had read prior to the lesson:

Here are some more pictures that my PowerPoint included to make the lesson more interesting: